Soucres for medieval Eastern Europe

[Perun]

The cynocephali were dog-headed men well documented in Roman encyclopedias. There was considerable debate about whether they had souls but it was generally settled that they did by the early medieval period because they wore clothes (and therefore must be descended from Adam).

They're called psoglavci (singular psoglavac) in Croatian (and,. likely, Serbian), from pas (dog) and glava (head). Literal translation

And according to the said poem, they like to eat children.

Saint Christopher was the most famous cynocephalus; he lived to be 250 years old and was over nine feet tall. He never learned to speak before being martyred by the Emperor Decius.

Is that the patron saint of travellers? I never put many ranks in Knowledge (saints), I'm afraid

I'll send along my campaign material soon.

Got them. Thanks again. I'm going to take a look now

Regards!

 

[johnsemlak]

Is that the patron saint of travellers? I never put many ranks in Knowledge (saints), I'm afraid

Yes.

From a Catholic reference site here:

Patronage:
against lightning; against pestilence; archers; automobile drivers; automobilists; bachelors; Baden, Germany; boatmen; bookbinders; Brunswick, Germany; bus drivers; cab drivers; epilepsy; epileptics; floods; fruit dealers; fullers; gardeners; hailstorms; holy death; lightning; lorry drivers; mariners; market carriers; Mecklenburg, Germany; motorists; pestilence; porters; Rab Croatia; sailors; Saint Christopher's Island; Saint Kitts; storms; sudden death; taxi drivers; toothache; Toses, Girona, Catalonia, Spain; transportation; transportation workers; travellers; truck drivers; truckers; watermen

Btw, Perun, is your username derived from the Slavic god of Lightning?

 

[TerraDave]

I am writing this as someone who has traveled a little in the balkans/south east europe and run a Transylvania campaign in my home brew alternate earth. Hence the long post, which I will focus for now on language, history and religion.

First, to confirm Bulgarian is Slavic (and very close to Macedonian as well as Old Church Slavonic), Hungarian is related to Finn and Turkish, and Romanian is romance language like French or Italian (French is a common second language in Romania today). Also, as has been mentioned Romania has traditionally been divided into three principalities: Transylvania, Walachia and Moldavia. The latter is now divided between the Romanian region of Moldavia and the former Soviet Republic of Moldova (Moldovan is for all intents and purposes Romanian).

Translvania was ruled by the Hungarians (Magyars) for a long time, first when Hungary was a separate Kingdom, then latter as part of the Hapsburg empire (with the Hungarians in turn being dominated by the Austrians in that period). In between the Ottoman Turks were in charge.

There are three ethnic groups, Magyars, the Romanians (called Vlachs, which I think is derogatory), and a third group, the “Saxons”, German speaking colonists brought in by the Hungarians (sometimes there is reference to another group of Hungarians, but here we are really getting into the details). The Saxons built the cities (which traditionally have both German and Romanian (and Hungarian??))names. The “vlachs” where not allowed in them.

BEGIN EDIT There is of course also Gypsies!! END EDIT

The various ethnic divisions (4 main ones, plus outside intervention by Turks and Austrians) are one big source of conflict. This is compounded by religion, the Romanians are Orthodox, the Magyars Catholic. A Unite church was created to combine rights, but I don’t know much about this.

Transylvania in its hay-day was not poor, thanks to minerals in the mountains. But it has a bloody history. Speaking of which Vlad Tepes (Dracula) was I think Walachian, though he got around to the other principalities as well as other parts of the Ottoman Empire. I am sure you can easily research him—and the country in the process.

A good game oriented source is the Transylvania supplement produced for Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death.

 

[tarchon]

There are three ethnic groups, Magyars, the Romanians (called Vlachs, which I think is derogatory), and a third group, the “Saxons”, German speaking colonists brought in by the Hungarians (sometimes there is reference to another group of Hungarians, but here we are really getting into the details). The Saxons built the cities (which traditionally have both German and Romanian (and Hungarian??))names. The “vlachs” where not allowed in them.

"Walachia" = Vlach-ia
Its derogatory degree depends on who you're talking to. The original sense is similar to the word that became "Welsh" in English and still exists in German as "Welsch." German (and, by borrowing, several Slavic languages) has typically used the term and its cognates to describe Romance-speaking southern Europeans, i.e. non-Germans or "foreigners." Different speakers in Germany seem to view it differently with regard to pejorativity. My sense is that in modern Romania (and elsewhere), it often has some connotation of "peasant" or "hick." It also is applied to Romany/Gypsies, and among Romany or at least Romany scholars "Vlach" is often used to describe one of the major Romany ethnic/linguistic divisions.
Romany are a fairly significant ethnic group in most of Eastern Europe. One might also consider that the terms Romany and Romanian are strikingly similar, even though the conventional wisdom is that they're etymologically unrelated.

 

[TerraDave]

I just edited my post to mention the Roma (Gypsies)

I am not sure were Roma comes from, given their mythical Egyptian and actual Indian origins.

The origins of Vlach is interesting--and relevant, if it is not too derogatory, it is the sort of thing you can use in play (of course, you could still use it, as an insult...)

 

[Perun]

Yes.

From a Catholic reference site here:

<snip>

Thanks!

Btw, Perun, is your username derived from the Slavic god of Lightning?

Yes. I always liked him, all with goats and everyhting

 

[Perun]

"Walachia" = Vlach-ia
Its derogatory degree depends on who you're talking to. The original sense is similar to the word that became "Welsh" in English and still exists in German as "Welsch." German (and, by borrowing, several Slavic languages) has typically used the term and its cognates to describe Romance-speaking southern Europeans, i.e. non-Germans or "foreigners." Different speakers in Germany seem to view it differently with regard to pejorativity. My sense is that in modern Romania (and elsewhere), it often has some connotation of "peasant" or "hick." It also is applied to Romany/Gypsies, and among Romany or at least Romany scholars "Vlach" is often used to describe one of the major Romany ethnic/linguistic divisions.
Romany are a fairly significant ethnic group in most of Eastern Europe. One might also consider that the terms Romany and Romanian are strikingly similar, even though the conventional wisdom is that they're etymologically unrelated.

In croatian we have 'vlah' (pl. 'vlasi'), a term which has several meanings:
1. a cattle-herder from the Balkan interior, in iddle ages;
2. a Romanian (Rumunj), which can be Cincar (a romanian from the region in between Greece, Albania, and Macedonia), Meglenorumunj (romanian from the southern Greece, south of Thessaloniki/Solun), Istrorumunj (a romanian vrom Istria), Dakorumunj (a romanian from Dacia, or Romania), or Caran (a romanian from the NE part of Serbia);
3. a pejorative term for orthodox christians (used by catholics and muslims);
4. in Istria it's used to denote one who has only recently moved to Istria (as opposed to those who live there for generations).

Also, in Dalmatia we use the term vlaj as a pejorative term for people from "beyond the mountains" (mountains divide Dalmatia into coastland and inland regions, and those who live inland are vlaji).

The official term for the Roma is Rom (pl. Romi), but most people aren't politically correct in everyday speech, and call them cigani (sg. cigan, from German (or Austrian German, not sure) zigeuner).

 

[tarchon]

I am not sure were Roma comes from, given their mythical Egyptian and actual Indian origins.

The origins of Vlach is interesting--and relevant, if it is not too derogatory, it is the sort of thing you can use in play (of course, you could still use it, as an insult...)

Supposedly, it comes from the Romany word "rom," meaning "man" or "person," which seems to have cognates in Indo-Iranian languages. I am however deeply skeptical of most things I read about Romany culture.
I did meet someone from Wallachia a few years ago, and I remarked "ah, so you're a Vlach" and she repiled, somewhat ruefully it seemed, "yes, I'm a Vlach."

 

[TerraDave]

Transylvania

Transylvania, which means "through the woods", is a natural place to set a campaign.

Hills, mountains, and of course forest abound. Werewolves, wereboars, other lycanthropes and of course vampires are highly appropriate. I don't think other undead are too out of place. And there is all that regional and ethnic conflict.

Transylvania was once part of Dacia, an ancient land conquered by the Romans, and that can be another source adventure material.

As I mentioned before, Dracula gives you a natural starting point for research. Mircea Eliade, the philosopher, was Romanian and has written some things about the "land of the wolf". Actually, the original Ravenloft module is an all-time great, worthy of its reputation. There is probably a conversion floating around. Finally, there may be some usefull things on
www.terra-viejo.net.

 

[tarchon]

Stoker is thought to have used a book called the Land Beyond the Forest (Emily Gerard, 1888) as one of his major ethnographic sources for Dracula.