A few days late due to some very close balloting that needed to be counted, but here they are, the most enjoyed posts of October!
For October, the "Flairs' Choice" this month fell on the shoulders of /u/KiwiHellenist with their answer to "Over 1000 manuscripts of Iliad exists which is more than of any other ancient works. How close are these manuscripts to each other, are there significant differences? Which are considered "canon"?"
Meanwhile, the "Users' Choice" for October was /u/jelvinjs7 and their look at "In the past hundred years, fantasy conlangs like Sindarin and Klingon have been created to enhance their respective worlds. Do we know of any civilization or person pre-1900 that invented or used conlangs to enhance their storytelling?"
For the 'Dark Horse' Award, recognizing the top-voted non-flair, the combined vote pointed to aptly named /u/jewishsudan ansd their response for "Where do the Ethiopian and Sudanese Jews come from? Are they descended from Israel? When did they convert to Judaism?"
This month's 'Greatest Question', voted upon by the mods, showed the team being intrigued by "What Was Aztec Courtship Like?", asked by /u/Zeuvembie, and also answered by /u/Polokotsin.
Finally, the Excellence in Flairdom Award for October goes to /u/indyobserver! Given their flair in "US Political History," you can probably imagine the weight that they have been pulling around the sub the past month. They've taken the chance to write multiple excellent answers with thorough follow-ups, and have also been active behind the scenes. Thanks, /u/indyobserver!
As always, congrats to our very worthy winners, and thank you to everyone else who has contributed here, whether with thought-provoking questions or fascinating answers. And if this month you want to flag some stand-out posts that you read here for potential nomination, don't forget to post them in our Sunday Digest!
For a list of past winners, check them out here!
That answer was a lot of fun to write. Really glad people also enjoyed it - thanks for your votes!
As a bonus, I figure I'll share a quote that I wanted to include in that answer but couldn't justify (since it basically said nothing that wasn't already said). In a February 1958 letter to his son, Tolkien wrote:
Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real. But it is true. An enquirer (among many) asked what the [Lord of the Rings] was all about, and whether it was an 'allegory'. And I said it was an effort to create a situation in which a common greeting would be elen síla lúmenn' omentieimo, and that the phase long antedated the book.
This passage cracks me up.
Thanks for the recognition! There were a lot of good answers posted this month, making me feel less guilty about not having the time to address some of the ones I couldn't get to over the last 6 weeks or so.
I may be revisiting some of those, so stay tuned!
this is a great honour -- thanks to all flaired colleagues, and all respect to the competition. It's lovely to think that people can still find interest in things like textual transmission and spelling reforms.
I feel that business of 'every Greek literary text that passed through 5th century Athens got its spelling thoroughly altered' is a problem that classicists tend to ignore as 'too hard'. One day someone's going to have to write a book on that, or produce an edtion of Sophocles with restored spelling or something. Not me though (thumb on forehead).
Huge congratz to our glorious winners! Well deserved wins for /u/KiwiHellenist,/u/jelvinjs7, /u/jewishsudan
Thank you so much for the recognition! I'm by no means a historian but I enjoy sharing about what I know.
This is so exciting and unexpected! I love this sub and it's been fantastic to be able to contribute. Thank you!