heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee . . .
You know, i've got an expansion for my "Age of Empires" game, and last evening i played a game in "the Black Forest." I used the Goths for my civilization. I kicked Frank and Japanese ass . . . oops, better watch my language here . . .
Actually, c.i., when i play this game, i usually prefer to select Japanese as the civilization i will employ: their food production is at a higher rate (needed to produce and sustain an army) and especially their fishing boats and fish traps. Their foot and horse archers are as good as or better than any other civilization in the game, and their specialty warrior (each civilization has one), the samurai, are fast and very aggressive. Since the object of the game is conquest, or to successfully resist conquest, you want to build a strong domestic economy, sustainable, with happy peasants, so as to be able to support an effective military. My preference is to lure the enemy (computer controlled, and generally very aggressive and ruthless) so as to destroy their armies and eat up their resources without jeopardizing my own more than results from the constant attacks. Unfortunately, the Japanese aren't as good at sea (no civilization matches the Viking Longboats in that area), but i use their war galleys to protect those areas in which the enemy would have to land to pose a threat. Generall speaking, the Germanic civilizations (Viking, Goths, Franks, Teutons) are best inland, and mounted (although, of course, the Vikings can rule the seas if properly handled), especially in broken and heavily wooded terrain.
Set, As an aside, I'd like to mention a museum in Oslo that shows a Viking ship that's over 1000 years old. It looks modern today. When I visited the boat museum next to the pyramids in Cairo last year, they have the same sleek look, and we're talking over three thousand years ago. Some engineers did a study of that boat, and found there was very little drag in the water. Just amazing. c.i.
Viking is a verb, c.i., and when young men "went a-viking," they loaded up those boats with timber and hides, and would stop along the Baltic and North Sea coasts--if a place looked like a hard nut to crack, they'd trade. If it looked like easy pickin's, they'd raid. Any blue water sailor who's been there will tell you that a man and his boat both have to be damned good to swim the North Sea.
Sure about this, boss?
"Their burning, plundering, and killing earned them the name vikingr, meaning "pirate" in the early Scandinavian languages! (encyclopædia britannica) [Old Norsk it actually is, and "sea-rover" is another translation.]
Been to Wexford in Ireland, and York in England. They're both settlemens of the Vikings. c.i.
Been to Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, Hamburg, Fribourg, Mainz - all destroyed at least once by the Vikings. :wink:
Yes Walter, that verb was meant to encompass by them the activity, recommended to young men for the experience, the trade/raid option, to go "a-viking" was how it war rendered (more or less, the vowel shift no having taken place yet) in Anglo-Saxon. It is not at all unreasonable to translate viking as "committing piracy."
Thanks for that info, Setanta!
Set, I'm sure what you say about "viking" being a v., but I trust my American Heritage Dictionary a bit more. It says' "vi-king n. Also Viking." c.i.
Shouldn't be a problem there, c.i. -- some examples:
herd, herding . . .
timber, timbering . . .
farm, farming . . .
"Herd = n., timber = n., and farm = n. None of these three are v. All the others ending in "ing" are v.
c.i.
hi, all! as far as understanding history is concerned, i believe that a good highschool-teacher can be a major influence. attending highschool in germany from 1943 to 1948, we had one "classroom" teacher who (from 1943 to 1948) taught most of the major subjects, such as: german, history, geography, math, music and phys. ed. he was a major positive influence in my life and that of my classmates. while he passed away a long time ago, we still speak fondly of him at our annual class-reunion(it'll be the 55th next month and i hope i'll make it to hamburg to attend). even during the war-years he was able to give us an anderstanding of the whole world and its history. while he had to be somewhat careful in his teachings, he made us understand that other peoples and races lived in this world besides germans, and that they were all human beings and deserved respect. he was one of those rare people that influence their students even though they themselves have long gone......VIKING (WIKING a.t. the german DUDEN) WARRIOR(KRIEGER), SAILOR(SEEFAHRER), NORMAN(NORMANNE). hbg
cicerone imposter wrote:"Herd = n., timber = n., and farm = n. None of these three are v. All the others ending in "ing" are v.
c.i.
So, what's your objection? Viking, a verb is turned into a noun, these others are nouns turned into verbs. I really don't see any linguistic objection here.
No objection. Just showing that "viking" in my dictionary doesn't show it as a verb. I also do not find a noun called "vik." c.i.
Bookmarking, having just spotted this, and need to fly now!
Until tomorrow...tschuss!
What about "foundling", that's a noun. And "halfling", though I doubt you'd find it in an American dictionary.
Hey how many knew that the Normans who invaded in 1066 were descended from Vikings? Not French at all. As if the French could beat us at anything. :wink:
Apart from Walter, that is. He's been lurking (verb) behind the Bayeux Tapestry.
Steve- it was your recent post today which led me to this thread- ta.
McT
Well, McTag, and originating from the Norman's King's Court (which met in private), you (not actually you personally, I'm afraid) still have "The Privy Council".
