Yeah, yeah, I know. Not the kind of book Arthegarn would post about. But
the fact is I have a curiosity and I wanted to ask my cultivated
english-speaking friends.
I bet most of you have read or at least heard about this book. It has been
praised as a brilliant re-creation of medieval England and, in fact, I
haven't come acrosss any blatant anachronisms, so usual when one reads
Chrichton or Neville.
Until now.
In chapter XI, when Aliena is about to get married, some of the people at
Kingsbridge line up and throw her corn seeds. At least that is what the
Spanish translation of the book says, I have not been able to put my hand
in an English version yet. The point is... CORN! In the name of all what is
holy! Corn came from the Americas and didn't reach England in such quantity
as to be thrown away until a good FOUR HUNDRED YEARS into the future of the
action. Any midwit schoolboy knows that. I just can't believe Follet would
make such a mistake. It is absurd. So I wanted to ask you if any of you has
ever heard about him giving an explanation to the miraculous appearance of
corn in Europe in the XII Century. Perhaps it's a bad translation, perhaps
they are throwing Acorns.
Well, here it goes. Now back to my reading, I'm in bed with a flu and
determined to finish this book today. That would be breaking my record
Monolycus
Fanatic
Posts: 580 Registered: 31/12/1969 Status: Offline
posted on 28/12/2002 at 12:28 PM
It's not an anachronism, Arthegarn. The word "corn" has its roots in Old
English and even the Anglo-Saxons referred to grains as "korns". There are
European translations of Greek descriptions of ancient Egyptian merchants
moving "such-and-such many vessels of corn" (probably wheat). A grain of an
oat, rye, or any ripe seed of any cereal grass has been known in Europe
since at least the early middle ages as a "corn". That is where the word
for the American crop (properly known as "maize") came from: the Europeans
did not have another word for it and simply called it by their colloquial
word for "grain".
~Monolycus.
Arthegarn
Member
Posts: 79 Registered: 31/12/1969 Status: Offline
posted on 29/12/2002 at 04:42 AM
Olé.
Just what I wanted. I knew I was posting in the right place.