#George Trevelyan

[geopolicraticus]

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

George Trevelyan and Historical Objectivity

Friday 16 February 2024 is the 148th anniversary of the birth of George Macaulay Trevelyan (16 February 1876 – 21 July 1962), who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on this date in 1876.

Trevelyan wrote during the heyday of empire but lived long enough to see the end of empire, and he began as an academic who eventually left academia to become a full time writer of history—very successfully, as it turns out, as Trevelyan became one of the most widely read historians of his time. In this episode I discuss Trevelyan’s 1947 essay, “Bias in History,” which can serve as an introduction to the problem of objectivity in history.

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:              https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:      http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Podcast:           https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/George-Trevelyan-and-Historical-Objectivity-e2fs15g

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

lol 😆 well said 👏🏼

教育……造就了大批能夠閱讀但無法辨別哪些內容值得閱讀的人。

G·M·特里维廉 (1876-1962) 英國歷史學家和學者。 He was a British historian and academic.

Education...has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.

George Macaulay Trevelyan

[miwhotep]

JAMES BOND REFERENCES IN MORIARTY THE PATRIOT

I am a big fan of James Bond since my early teenage years. I watched every movies and read all books, so when the Moriarty the Patriot manga first started using James Bond references, I basically screamed. And my voice got 100x louder when the iconic My name is Bond. James Bond. scene happened.

I always wanted to write an analysis of YuuMori's James Bond connections, so now here we are.

First, let's talk a bit about the actual James Bond universe. The character of James Bond - the MI6 agent numbered 007 with a license to kill - got created by Ian Fleming in 1953. He first appeared in the novel called Casino Royale. Fleming wrote 12 novels and two short story collections with the character. The novels soon got movie adaptations, too, the first James Bond movie was Dr. No in 1962, where Sean Connery played Bond. Currently there are 25 Bond movies.

The James Bond movies can be classified into eras by the actor who played Bond. In order, these follow:

Sean Connery

(George Lazenby - but everyone tends to pretend this movie never happened)

Roger Moore

Timothy Dalton

Pierce Brosnan

Daniel Craig

The movies didn't come out in chronological order when it comes to James Bond's life-happenings. Most movies can be watched as stand-alones - but the Daniel Craig era tried to built up a storyline, where the movies are tied to each other. The James Bond movies always have an iconic intro, sing by a popular singer of the current era (the last movie's intro song was by Billie Eilish.)

The James Bond movie universe started to fuse with the Sherlock Holmes universe thanks to the Alan Moore comic book series, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (1999). Professor Moriarty appeared here as M - the title what later ended up with Mycroft. The Elementary series (and somewhat BBC Sherlock) continued this tendency, featuring Mycroft as someone who has ties to the MI5/MI6.

Professor Moriarty in TLoEG

The Moriarty the Patriot series features most characters who are important in James Bond movies. They are..

M - the leader of the MI6, which role was fullfilled by Albert and Louis.

Q - the inventor who keeps coming up with weapons and cars for James Bond. In YuuMori, Q is Von Herder, the blind mechanic mentioned in the Empty House Conan Doyle story.

Ms. Moneypenny - a secretary working personally for M. In the Daniel Craig era, she started as a field agent, but later moved to do office work. James Bond always gives her flowers and little souvenirs.

When it comes to James Bond, his personality in Moriarty the Patriot is similar to the canon one: loving good cars and guns, flirting with woman (especially Moneypenny) and while it's not vodka martini he orders in the pub when he met with Patterson, he asks for the drink shaken, not stirren. (On the other hand, the Macallan scotch he asks for is a reference to what James Bond drank in the Skyfall movie.)

The location of the MI6 in YuuMori is also similar to the James Bond movies: underground and underwater in the Thames.

The headquarter in Skyfall

The Q-sector

The Man with the Golden Army arc features other references for the James Bond universe. The arc's title refers to the movie/book The Man with the Golden Gun (Roger Moore-era) - the two stories only similarity is that both deal with special guns. In that arc, Sebastian Moran takes on the identity of the 006, Alec Trevelyan. The character originally appeared in the Goldeneye James Bond movie (Pierce Brosnan-era) played by Sean Bean. He had the number 006 and he was the mentor of James Bond (like Moran later on). He seemingly got killed off at the start of the movie (but later returned as a villain).

Alec Trevelyan in Goldeneye

Maybe not an intentional reference, but still interesting: the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies features an evil media mogul, Elliot Carver as a villain who likes orchestrating catastrophic incidents so his newspaper can be the first to write about them, manipulating people that way and gaining control in the media - kind of similar to Milverton (yes, the media mogul Milverton thing is from Sherlock, but still), who was the mastermind behind the Jack the Ripper murders then manipulated the public through the news he created. (I can actually see him orchestrating incidents in order to gain more power and become the King of Media, too.)

Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies

We've yet to see the main villain of James Bond: Ernst Stavro Blofeld, (first appearing in the Thunderball book) the head of the crime organization called Spectre. I wander when he will appear in YuuMori, if they appear at all, but I really wish!

I hope in the next stories YuuMori's James Bond world keeps expanding - that's such an interesting aspect of the series, I love to see more references!

[hpowellsmith]

Happy Fathers' Day to the various fictional dads I've created over the years: Mateo and Alejandro del Quiros, Walter Trevelyan, King Georges (RIP), Lord Beaumont (RIP), Rys's redacted dads, Caspar and Ferdinand Kraemer, Roland Frasada, Mr Marechal...

And Raimund and Tristan Garnett (begrudgingly)

And not at all to Lorenz de Luca, Mr Delacroix, Mr Hartmann, or Mr CremePC because they do not deserve it

But most of all to the male variety of Fiore Roldan, who's the dad I've written about the most and whom I've become very fond of indeed since coming up with the idea of Honor Bound fifteen months ago, and who doesn't deserve all the absolute misery I'm currently putting him through.

[sweetjulieapples]

9 People You Want To Know Better Tag

Tagged by @snowpetrichor (Thank you for thinking of me!)

Tagging @liroutrozenberg , @silhalei , @rhaella-rhavelli and @dymme - I've been admiring you all from afar in the non creepiest way possible

if these tag thingys aren't your thing just pretend this never happened.

Three ships I enjoy:

At the moment I'm obsessed with Cullen x Trevelyan but I have been shipping Link and Zelda since I was 9 (especially BOTW/TOTK they are too adorable, plz). I'll always love Audrey x Nathan from Haven, one of my favourite shows.

First ship: Probably Mario and Peach.

Last song: Lo Air - Dead Poet Society

Last movie: Zombies 3, not by choice

Currently reading: A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin

Currently watching: House of The Dragon but I'm a few episodes behind and I've seen all the spoilers against my will.

Currently eating: A juicy mandarin

Currently craving: 48 hours of non interrupted sleep

[lenbryant]

Back in 2014 I saw this quote in the news and thought enough of it to write it down in my journal. Here's a fuller version of the quote.

“The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today... The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow" -- "Autobiography of an Historian", An Autobiography and Other Essays (1949).”

[dalekofchaos]

Bond Villain fancast

Fun fancast where I fancast iconic Bond villains for the modern day or if they were apart of the Craig era/next Bond's era

BD Wong as Dr Julius No

Michelle Gomez as Rosa Klebb

Alexander Skarsgard as Red Grant

Brendan Gleeson as Auric Goldfinger

Benedict Wong as Oddjob

Kyle MacLachlan as Emilio Largo

Christoph Waltz, Pedro Pascal and Mark Gatiss as Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Jason Schwartzman as Mr. Wint

Jesse Plemons as Mr. Kidd

Daniel Kaluuya as Dr Kananga/Mr Big

Rory McCann as Jaws

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Francisco Scaramanga

Stellan Skarsgard as Karl Stromberg

Peter Dinklage as Hugo Drax

Mark Strong as Aris Kristatos

Oded Fehr as Kamal Khan

John Malkovich as General Orlov

Jade Cargill as May Day

Benicio del Toro as Franz Sanchez

Timothy Granaderos as Dario

Jean Dujardin as Georgi Koskov

Georges St-Pierre as Necros

Dean Norris as Brad Whittaker

Ewan McGregor as Alec Trevelyan

Jodie Comer as Xenia Onatopp

Jeremy Irons as Elliot Carver

Daniel Radcliffe as Renard

Daisy Ridley as Elektra King

James Norton as Gustav Graves

Andrew Koji as Zao

Florence Pugh as Miranda Frost

[justabrowncoatedwench]

And now for my own fun tracking of my OCs ages in 9:52! xD (Added bonus of their LIs too.)

Hero of Ferelden

Solona Amell - 42 - Warden Alistair

Milena Cousland - 40 - King Alistair

Kalliana Tabris - 39 - Zevran

Marek Mahariel - 43 - Morrigan

Arien Aeducan - RIP - Ultimate Sacrifice

Inga Brosca - 42 - Leliana

Alanna (of Trebond) Surana - 40 - Zevran (aka George Cooper)

Champion of Kirkwall

Daylen Amell-Hawke - Left in the Fade - exes w Anders

Arienne Hawke - 46 - Anders

Yvanna Hawke-Vael - 46 - Sebastian Vael (rivalmance)

Daine (Sarrasri) Hawke - 46 - Anders (aka Numair)

Inquisitor

Tanith Trevelyan - 39 - Cullen

Kadan Adaar - 43 - Iron Bull

Atishavir Lavellan - 41 - Solas

Revassan Lavellan - 37 - Dorian

Alyssana Lavellan - 36 - Josephine (& OC Joslen Campana)

Isana Cadash - 34 - Sera

Keladry (of Mindelan) Adaar - 31

Rook

Tanith -> Alvaro Trevelyan [warrior, Lord of Fortune] - 38

Kadan -> Saaraban Adaar [mage, Veil Jumper] - 40

Atishavir -> Alyssana [rogue, Antivan Crow] - 36 - (in an open poly marriage)

Revassan -> TBD [Tal-Vashoth Reaper warrior, TBD]

Alyssana -> Revassan [rogue, Veil Jumper] - 37 - (single ready to mingle)

Isana -> dwarf [warrior, Grey Warden]

Keladry -> Alianne (of Pirate's Swoop) [rogue, Shadow Dragon] - 18

Bonus Round - My AU Fanfic Continuity:

HoF: Milena Cousland/Marek Mahariel

Champion: Arienne Hawke

Inquisitor: AU Solona Amell - LI: Cullen

Rook: Evanthe Amell, Mourn Watch mage OR Kieran Mahariel, Shadow Dragon mage

Dragon Age NPC Ages in DA: The Veilguard

This assumes that the 9 10 years between Dragon Age Inquisition and Dragon Age: The Veilguard refer to the Trespasser DLC (as in the last time Varric would have seen Solas; confirmed in Dev Q&A on 6/14/24). This places DAV in 9:54. Characters who showed up in a previous game will not be repeated in the lists for later games they also appeared in (i.e., Leliana is under DAO, not DAI).

Read more for length & spoiler reasons. The ages listed are assuming they have not had their birthday in 9:54 yet.

ETA1: I used the ages & evidence summarized by @dalishious in this post, superseding those ages with newer evidence where available or my own interpretation of textual evidence (when given a range I personally favor smack in the middle more often than not).

ETA2: Changed year/ages to reflect the Q&A information that Veilguard is 10 years post-Trespasser, not 9 as originally stated.

Dragon Age: Origins - 9:30 - 24 years prior

Alistair Theirin - 43

Morrigan - 49

Leliana - 50

Zevran Arainai - 48

Oghren Kondrat - 66

Wynne - RIP (would've been 71)

Shale - Eternal

Sten (now Arishok) - 67

Loghain Mac Tir - 75

Anora Mac Tir - 50

Dragon Age: Awakening - 9:31 - 23 years prior

Nathaniel Howe - 53

Anders - 54

Sigrun - 48

Velanna - 48

Dragon Age 2 - 9:30-9:37 - 24-17 years prior

Hawke - 48

Carver/Bethany Hawke - 43

Fenris - ~54

Isabela - 54

Merrill - ~47

Sebastian Vael - 46

Aveline Vallen - ~59

Varric Tethras - 53

Dragon Age Inquisition - 9:41-9:44 - 13-10 years prior

Josephine Montilyet - 41

Cullen Rutherford - 42

Cassandra Pentaghast - 50

Solas - ~2000 (appears mid-40s)

Sera - 32

Vivienne de Fer - 57

Blackwall/Thom Rainier - 58

the Iron Bull - 50

Dorian Pavus - 42

Cole - Ageless (appears 20, or he may have aged into his 30s if he were made more human in DAI)

Kieran - 22

[wankerwatch]

Commons Vote

On: The Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (Amendment) Rules 2024

Ayes: 135 (100.0% Con) Noes: 10 (100.0% SNP) Absent: ~505

Individual Votes:

Ayes

Conservative (133 votes)

Aaron Bell Alberto Costa Alex Burghart Alex Chalk Alicia Kearns Alok Sharma Amanda Solloway Andrew Griffith Andrew Jones Andrew Lewer Andrew Murrison Andrew Percy Andrew Selous Andy Carter Angela Richardson Anne Marie Morris Anne-Marie Trevelyan Anthony Browne Ben Everitt Ben Spencer Ben Wallace Bernard Jenkin Bob Blackman Bob Stewart Brandon Lewis Caroline Nokes Charles Walker Chloe Smith Chris Grayling Chris Philp Craig Tracey Damian Collins Damian Hinds Daniel Kawczynski David Davis David Duguid David Jones David Morris David Rutley David Simmonds Dean Russell Dehenna Davison Desmond Swayne Duncan Baker Elliot Colburn Felicity Buchan Fiona Bruce Gagan Mohindra Gareth Bacon George Eustice Graham Brady Graham Stuart Greg Clark Heather Wheeler Helen Whately Holly Mumby-Croft Iain Duncan Smith Iain Stewart Jacob Young James Cartlidge James Davies James Duddridge Jane Hunt Jerome Mayhew Jo Churchill John Baron John Hayes John Howell Joy Morrissey Julian Lewis Julian Smith Karen Bradley Katherine Fletcher Kit Malthouse Lee Rowley Lia Nici Louie French Lucy Allan Lucy Frazer Marcus Jones Martin Vickers Matt Hancock Matt Warman Matthew Offord Michael Ellis Michael Fabricant Michael Tomlinson Michelle Donelan Mike Wood Mims Davies Neil Hudson Nickie Aiken Nigel Huddleston Paul Holmes Peter Aldous Philip Dunne Philip Hollobone Ranil Jayawardena Rebecca Harris Rebecca Pow Richard Bacon Rob Butler Robert Courts Robert Halfon Robert Largan Robert Neill Robin Walker Royston Smith Sally-Ann Hart Saqib Bhatti Scott Mann Shailesh Vara Sheryll Murray Simon Baynes Simon Clarke Simon Fell Simon Hoare Stephen Hammond Stephen McPartland Stephen Metcalfe Steve Brine Steve Tuckwell Suzanne Webb Theo Clarke Theresa Villiers Tim Loughton Tom Hunt Tom Pursglove Tracey Crouch Victoria Atkins Victoria Prentis Will Quince William Cash

Noes

Scottish National Party (9 votes)

Allan Dorans Amy Callaghan Angela Crawley Anne McLaughlin Ian Blackford John Nicolson Marion Fellows Philippa Whitford Richard Thomson

[elegaeica]

rapunzel, inspiration taken from persinette, grimm fairytale, and petrosinella. primary. isabel may. arya stark, book & headcanon based. by request. fc tba. audrey fulquard, little shop of horrors, off - broadway revival & headcanon based. by request. joy woods. julia trojan, bandstand. by request. fc tba. amy march, little women, book & 2017 miniseries inspired. primary. kathryn newton. sybil crawley, downton abbey, canon divergent. by request. jessica brown findlay. cora hale, teen wolf, heavily canon divergent & headcanon based. primary. diana silvers. euphemia "effie" elmstone, dead boy detectives original character. secondary. ellie bamber. cat / courier six, fallout: new vegas. primary. dewanda wise. josie / the lone wanderer, fallout 3, canon divergent. primary. cailee spaeny. mary / sole survivor, fallout 4. secondary. lucy boynton. commander laura shepard, mass effect, canon divergent. primary. christina chong. sura tabris, dragon age, headcanon based. primary. sophia brown. amaya surana, dragon age, headcanon based. primary. anna sawai. aliena brosca, dragon age, headcanon based. secondary. sophie skelton. aurelia aeducan, dragon age, headcanon based. primary. jessie mei li. naya amell, dragon age, headcanon based. secondary. zoe robins aravas mahariel, dragon age, headcanon based. primary. amita suman. mina hawke, dragon age, headcanon based. secondary. sophie cookson. victorine trevelyan, dragon age, headcanon based. primary. arsema thomas. nicolette trevelyan, dragon age, headcanon based. primary. alicia von rittberg. maella lavellan, dragon age, headcanon based. primary. ambika mod. josephine montilyet, dragon age, canon compliant. secondary. freida pinto. the artificer, doctor who, original time lord character. primary. phydra, baldur's gate 3, seldarine drow of eilistraee. secondary. no fc. daefina roxana reaegis, dungeons & dragons, astral elf aberrant mind sorceress. secondary. holliday grainger. diana casta, dungeons & dragons, aasimar glamour bard & savior of elturel. secondary. riley hemson. sophie hatter, land of ingary trilogy / howl's moving castle. by request. nicola coughlan. george fayne, nancy drew, video games based. by request. ruby cruz.

[leiabomsenso]

A educação produziu uma vasta população capaz de ler, mas incapaz de distinguir o que vale a pena ler.

George M. Trevelyan

[khuantru]

After a day’s walk everything has twice its usual value. – George Macauley Trevelyan 👟💛

[hpowellsmith]

if they haven't been done already, 🌪️ and ☁️ for royal affairs? i remember early on, you'd mentioned trev was supposed to be much more hippity hoppity chippity choppity but i'd love to hear about the other characters!

🌪️ TORNADO - what is the biggest change you've ever made to them? how have they changed from their original version?

Dominique: early on I started off some bits about them having romantic/sexy misadventures with Gallatin students, but it felt like a rehash of Florin's stuff and there also wasn't really space for it. Also there was a thing where Dominique was a smoker that got mentioned... maybe once in Chapter 2 or 3...? and I only remembered when I was doing the beta. It would have been OK but I had completely forgotten about it for the rest of the game, so I cut that little scene.

Trevelyan - yeah, they were originally more anti-monarchy and the suffrage was a side-issue to that, but I shuffled it the other way round so that there would be more that the PC could influence (it would be outside the PC's ability to abolish royalty as an institution!)

☁️ CLOUD - a soft headcanon

This is a funny one because I guess a headcanon for me can be a... canon if I want it to be? haha. But here are some things that were in my head but didn't get stated onscreen

Asher: they spend a LOT of time doing perimeter checks at Archambault and therefore end up bumping into Degen/Karson a bunch; they get on with them pretty well

Beaumont: their extended family is pretty concerned about them, in general, and their cousins offered for Beaumont to come and live with them, but Beaumont said no

Trevelyan: I can't remember if this was specified in the game but they have a brother who's quite a bit older than them, and his name is George, after the deceased King Georges.

Ask list here!

[timeforabathblog]

8. The Blacksmith

Last year I was invited by the poet Grace Linden to take part in a creative research project about a traditional English folk song called 'The Blacksmith.' With Grace and four others (Rey Conquer, George Meadows, Edwina Attlee and Lilí Ní Dhomhnaill) I've since been delving into the cultural history of blacksmiths and coming up with creative responses to the song, with a view to producing an event and a book.

The song was first noted down by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909, from Mrs Ellen Powell of Westhope near Weobley, Herefordshire. There are several versions of 'The Blacksmith', and it's been recorded many times by different singers / bands, including Shirley Collins and (in a favourite rendition of the group) Planxty.

For my contribution to the project, I started out by reading up on Wayland's Smithy, a Neolithic long barrow near the Uffington White Horse and the Ridgeway, associated from Anglo-Saxon period onwards with the Norse smith god Wayland. Wayland will, according to tradition, re-shoe a horse left up there over night.

Here's the Smithy photographed by Henry Taunt, around the same time that Vaughan Williams collected 'The Blacksmith'. Picnic at Hanging Rock eat your heart out.

This image is courtesy of Historic England Print Archives, from whom the photograph can be ordered as a 400 piece jigsaw puzzle.

I also fed the verses of the song into a generative AI that was being used a lot at the time (I think it was Dall-E Mini – hard to keep track of them)...

Other avenues included visiting a scale model of a blacksmith's studio at the Science Museum...

'Until about 1900,' says the Museum website,

a blacksmith's shop could be found in almost every community in Britain. George Bissell, a blacksmith with a shop in Myrdle Street, Stepney, made these exquisite tools of the blacksmith's trade between 1870 and 1886.

And I felt the project was a good excuse to re-watch Philip Trevelyan's beautiful 1971 documentary The Moon and Sledgehammer.

Another line of research was into picture postcards relating to Blacksmiths (mostly found on eBay). Photographic picture postcards of this kind were first popularised around the turn of the 20th century.

Typically they depict romantic, picturesque or humorous scenes.

Several refer to a poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, called ‘The Village Blacksmith’ (1840) – which is supposedly inspired by Longfellow’s visit to the village of Figheldean on Salisbury Plain.

In 'The Village Blacksmith,' the blacksmith is a pillar of the community, physically and morally sturdy, hard-working and patient, doing the same thing in the same place every day – apart from Sundays when he goes to church and is more emotionally expressive.

The moral of the poem is that the simple honesty of the blacksmith's artisanal life is something to aspire to for urban readers (and postcard senders/receivers) living in a time of rapid technological and social change.

Under a spreading chestnut-tree     ⁠   The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he,       With large and sinewy hands, And the muscles of his brawny arms       Are strong as iron bands...

The printing process for these cards seems to have involved dividing up colour layers and printing them separately. Sometimes this was used to mimic realistic colour images. Sometimes it was pushed a little further to create other visual effects. A few of the cards resemble risograph prints in this way.

The wider blacksmith trade was marginalised by mass production of metal objects during the “first” industrial revolution (1760-1840), and farriers were then generally sidelined by the rise of the motorcar from 1900 onwards. Thus there was probably an element of nostalgia to the idea of the blacksmith in the UK around the time these first picture postcards were being made, and when 'The Blacksmith' was first written down.

Some of the postcards nonetheless give an insight into the trade and working environment farriers that has the feel of social realism to it.

A recurring motif is the presence of a horseshoe on the door of the forge / smithy – a familiar “good luck” symbol (the ‘u’ like shape of the shoe being said to act like a bowl or vessel for luck). There are many theories about the origins of this symbol: it's an "apotropaic" symbol to ward off the evil eye at the threshold of a building; it's a fertility symbol; and so on. In this instance, it's possibly just an emblem for what the building is / the occupant’s trade.

Another thing that came up looking at blacksmith-related cards was these French cards dedicated to St Eloi, patron saint of metal workers, horses and other craftsmen and technicians. I found these funny and also thought they fitted strangely well with the lyrics of 'The Blacksmith'.

Many of these postcards seem to relate specifically to blacksmith/farrier work, but there are others that include cars and trains in the background, and I even spotted one with a woman as the main figure – she’s maybe clocking in or out..?

St Eloi (aka St Eligius) is the subject of a popular children’s song in France, as well as being the focus of a legend, where St Eloi cuts off the foreleg of a horse that doesn’t want to be re-shoed, before re-shoeing the severed leg, and then miraculously reversing the amputation.

Numerous areas of France have their own Fêtes de la Saint Eloi where processions featuring decorated horses move through the streets and people dress in traditional rustic clothing. Possibly these cards were made to celebrate those days (a St Valentine’s day for workers..?)

There’s also another possible association with these St Eloi cards, which also links us back to the folk song.

In France, farriers (and other craftspeople) who have completed their apprenticeship become compagnons for a certain amount of time, travelling the country and working for several masters, before finally becoming a master themselves. When they’ve finished the journey, they produce a chef d’oeuvre (a masterpiece) in the form of a bouquet de saint Eloi, which they usually then hang above or close to the entrance of their own atelier.

The same rite occurred in and between other European countries. In Germany, it was prominent in the middle ages until the Second World War and then revived in the 1980s. There the journey is called the Wanderjahre. For people like Albrecht Dürer and the Christian mystic and shoemaker Jacob Böhme, the wanderjahre was an important phase of creative and personal development. More broadly, it was a way for techniques and ideas to spread across the continent, and for intergenerational and intercultural connections to be made and maintained. In English the compagnons were called “journeymen” and this phase of travel “journeyman years”. The term remains in use in relation to boxing.

These young, single men travelling around and sowing their wild oats became a part of cultural imagination. One reading of the folk song, I suggest, is that the blacksmith is a journeyman. This would explain him staying for a limited time, going to another town, writing a letter, walking off through the fields… And more allusively it chimes with the association between the blacksmith and flowers, in the song, in the French cartes postales, in the bouquets de saint Eloi. Flowers, unlike a blacksmith's mature works, spring on an ephemeral basis. They act as fickle, fleeting love tokens.

In the case of these pictures and texts, you can imagine the blacksmith of the folk song becoming the blacksmith of Longfellow’s poem, becoming a pillar of the community – even while the subversive feminine perspective of the folk song lingers on.

I'll hopefully post about this project again in due course. The above is a tiny fragment of the things that have emerged / been created already and I'm really excited about what everyone is making. (My main contribution is going to be a series of picture postcards).

If you'd like to support the project, we are raising money through the sale of a poster, designed by Grace Linden, George Meadows and myself, and featuring a drawing by George M – buy here to help bring the Blacksmith to fruition! The poster was beautifully printed by Earthbound Press.

[xtruss]

Opinion | Slavery: My Family Owned 1,000 Slaves and Profited From the Trade: This is How I am Trying to Make Amends

I left the BBC to fight for restorative justice. The £100,000 we have so far donated to Grenada should be seen only as a first step

— Laura Trevelyan, Former BBC Journalist | Saturday 25 March, 2023

The bell of the Belmont Estate in Grenada, a former 17th-century slave plantation. Photograph: Georg Berg/Alamy

n 1833, when Britain finally abolished slavery, my ancestors were absentee owners of more than 1,000 enslaved people on the Caribbean island of Grenada. To the best of my knowledge, the Trevelyans never set foot on the island. They enjoyed the profits that came rolling in from sugar harvested by exploited and brutalised enslaved people thousands of miles away across the Atlantic Ocean.

Like much of Britain, my ancestors never had to confront the face of slavery – or its sordid legacy. Generations later, my extended family spent a year debating how we could respond to the horrors of the past. The deafening silence from the descendants of slave owners, from other families like ours, causes unimaginable pain, Sir Hilary Beckles of the Caribbean Community’s Reparations Commission told us. He convinced us of the power of an apology and encouraged us to lead by example.

So we wrote a letter of apology to the people of Grenada and decided to donate more than £100,000 to education projects on the island. After emancipation, most former enslaved people were illiterate. Helping Grenadian students build a brighter future through education seemed like the obvious way to try to repair the damage of the past.

In February, I travelled with six members of the Trevelyan family to Grenada to apologise in person. As we sat in the trade centre of Grenada’s picturesque capital, St George’s, preparing to deliver our apology, I grew anxious. Would we receive a hostile reception? What if this backfired horribly, and put back the very cause we were trying to advance? I could hear the drumming coming from a protest outside by a Rastafarian tribe, whose members felt the amount of money we were donating was wholly inadequate.

You could feel the raw emotion in the room. The Grenadian poet Nigel De Gale spoke before me of wanting to live like the slave master did, to see white people slave for him. I tried to keep my poker face intact, confronted with this powerful articulation of the anger so many must feel. It was against this backdrop that my cousin John Dower and I read out our apology to the people of Grenada. We hoped we could at least acknowledge the suffering our ancestors had inflicted on Grenadians, and perhaps encourage other families in similar positions to do the same. The country’s young prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, graciously thanked us, and said he forgave us. It was an incredible relief.

Enslaved people unloading a ship’s cargo of ice from Maine at Grenada. Photograph: Granger/Historical Picture Archive/Alamy

Afterwards, I found the reaction in Grenada to be mixed. Some people were understandably upset to be confronted with the face of slave ownership, and wanted to know why we were giving such a small amount of money compared with the wealth our ancestors had accumulated. Once slavery was abolished, compensation was paid by the British government to the slave owners to make up for their loss of “property”. In 1834, the Trevelyans received the equivalent of about £3m in today’s money. “I know it seems inadequate,” I said, “but it’s a first step.” At the same time, I was heartened to hear of the healing power of our apology. “A burden that I didn’t even know I was carrying has been lifted,” one woman told me. “Thank you for coming forward.”

Of course, it’s not just my family that has benefited from this system of wealth extraction. Britain’s Industrial Revolution was fuelled by money from the slave trade, making us a rich nation. After abolition, the Caribbean islands were left with an impoverished, mostly illiterate workforce – while Britain leapt forward into a golden age of prosperity.

When the UK needed a workforce after the second world war, the Windrush ship was sent to the economically distressed Caribbean colonies. Descendants of the enslaved came in their thousands to help build postwar Britain. Beckles has called this sordid legacy Britain’s black debt. Now is the time to repay that debt.

This reckoning did not start with my family. Powerful questions in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement are forcing governments, institutions and families to examine their history. As the past recedes, it also comes into focus more clearly. The Dutch government has apologised for the Netherlands’ role in the slave trade, and established a fund to help tackle the legacy of slavery. The Church Commissioners have apologised for their links to the slave trade and established a £100m fund to try to address past wrongs.

Now, Trinity College, Cambridge – of which my great-grandfather the historian George Macaulay Trevelyan was master – is examining if it benefited from slavery. GM Trevelyan glossed over the slave trade in his bestselling histories of England. But today a new momentum is building; one that accepts that the wealth of European countries was built from transatlantic slavery, and tries to make amends.

The Labour MP Clive Lewis, who is of Grenadian descent, recently asked parliament why the British government can’t apologise for slavery and pay reparations, as our family has done. Since my trip to Grenada, I have been inundated with messages from families in similar positions to ours who want to know how to make things right. Last week I left the BBC, after a 30-year career, which was a joy and a privilege, to campaign for reparative justice full-time and encourage Britain to face up to its colonial debt.The coronation of King Charles in May is an opportunity to talk about the royal family’s links to slavery. Commonwealth leaders from the formerly enslaved nations will be there in Westminster Abbey. As the king himself has said about the enduring impact of slavery: “This is a conversation whose time has come.”

— Laura Trevelyan is a former BBC journalist who campaigns for reparatory justice

[invinciblerodent]

for sweet baby ray:

⚠️ - If this oc came with a warning sign, what would it be?

🌊 - Does this oc have a secret or repressed desire?

for the weasel woman (affectionate):

💔 - Does forgiveness come easily or with difficulty to this oc? Can they forgive others? What about themselves?

👁️‍🗨️ - Eye contact: good or bad for this oc?

Ask game!

(I found some of my old favorite shots of him! This was him at 24 in Inquisition, in Veilguard he'll be roughly 36[?], in my BG3-verse he was 55. Poor guy just can't catch a break.) (something something Protagonist Georg, who goes on three apocalyptic adventures in one lifetime, is an outlier adn should not have been counted.)

⚠️ - If this oc came with a warning sign, what would it be?

Well, my first thought is "Caution: dangerous levels of earnestness and genuine good will within. May cause unhealthy degrees of emotional attachment and codependency; if symptoms last longer than ten years, please consult your local spirit healer or Chantry wedding officiant" but let's be real.....

it's gotta be "Contains nuts".

🌊 - Does this oc have a secret or repressed desire?

Okay, stay with me on this one, this might get long, but I think... that by the time Veilguard rolls around, he'll long so badly for the anonymity he enjoyed before his time as the Inquisitor.

It's kind of sad to think about, that before he would have had his Great Adventure, he desperately longed to be something worthy. As a kid, he was fascinated by hero-stories, and wanted to be a protector, a chosen one, someone glorious and worthy of respect (if not adoration), who is (most importantly) no longer has anything to prove to anyone.

And once he got that, I think he quickly found himself too small to fill his own boots.

The Inquisitor is -and always was- a larger than life figure. The Herald of Andraste, the thrice-blessed hero of the realms, the one whose blade felled countless monsters and clashed with those of would-be gods, and while he is technically something like that, he's really still just... Ray.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, how he was very young when it all happened, and how generally, heroes seldom live to see past the ending of their tales. But he did. And then ten years passed.

The people still recognize the Inquisitor, of course. He grew a beard and walked a country over (worked for Thom), and he's stopped introducing himself as "Trevelyan" for the most part, but he can't very well slough off his skin, and his very presence still carries more weight than maybe his shoulders can carry at this point. Not to mention that Solas is the ticking time bomb that has been in the back of his mind for the past ten years, an itch that he can.... maybe sometimes ignore for a while, if he tries hard enough, but it never really goes anywhere.

And Maker, he wants it so badly to be someone else's problem. He's spilled so much blood, both his own and not, he's sacrificed so much time and energy and effort, so much of his life, and he wants so badly to be able to just... hand this burden off completely, fuck off to buy a vineyard in Bumfuck, Antiva, and not bother with the world ending, and Magisterium corruption, and politics, and pain, and all of that goddamn suffering.

But he can't. Because it's his fault, it's him who didn't see the signs (it doesn't matter that nobody else did either), it's him who let Solas go when he could have just slid a blade between his ribs, and avoided everything that went down afterwards.

So I think that while he puts on a charming face, plays the Inquisitor when he has to, and is determined to see it all through, his most secret desire is probably to just.... plug his ears, and pretend that he's still no more than the unremarkable third child of a minor noble from Ostwick.

Serves him right for wanting to be taken seriously I suppose, lol. (This also leaves room for the Inquisitor to just fuck off in Veilguard I suppose, but I kinda had this thought since Trespasser, lol.)

(I love that you called her that anon, please, everyone point and laugh at the slippery-slimy weasel-woman)

💔 - Does forgiveness come easily or with difficulty to this oc? Can they forgive others? What about themselves?

This is actually a pretty difficult question, because... I think she's has a hard time forgiving when it comes to being wronged, but her threshold for what she would consider being wronged is maybe a tad higher than average.

And I think that's in part because of her own propensity for acting in self-interest. As in, she already lies, steals, and cheats, so if she's lied to, stolen from, or cheated... well, she can respect the hustle. Game recognize game. When deceived (without her having seen it coming), she can see the artistry in it, when stepped over she can see the necessity of it, and that can probably be seen as her having an easy time forgiving, but more often than not, she just... doesn't take that sort of thing personally. Like she's not always mad to have been lied to, but she is mad when she's lied to badly, if that makes sense.

(I'm thinking of primarily the Emperor here, but I think my best summary of her feelings is a line I had written for her months ago following the Gur camp conversation, that went something like... "I of all have no grounds to blame you, nor would I think you culpable for surviving.")

All else is context-dependent, I think.

As for herself, well... she forgives herself for having done what she had to to survive, but what I don't think she forgives herself for is staying in that rut as long as she did, and I don't think she forgives her father for trying to make it work instead of just letting her go either.

Back then, she was afraid to rock the boat too much, to uproot her life and sacrifice the long-valued stability the seeking of which was ingrained into her by her family (and never encouraged to explore after her mother's passing), but now... she can see how comparatively easy it would have been to live so much better. How much more fun it is to make a living as an adventurer, to thrive and revel in her magic, how she could actually find someone who seems to want her genuine self.... she could live two thousand years, and I don't think she'll ever stop kicking herself for the decades she had wasted on uneasy complacency.

Then again, had she left Herric decades ago (or never even married him), there's no guarantee that she would have ended up where she is now, and that is rather sad.

👁️‍🗨️ - Eye contact: good or bad for this oc?

Man, everything with this woman is "it depends", lol.

I think generally, she has no troubles holding and seeking eye contact- every good bullshit-artist knows what it's a core tenet of all manipulation to be able to meet someone's gaze, and radiate sincerity. That's one thing she is extraordinarily good at: keeping eyes on her, and reading people through it.

But that's kind of a double-edged sword, and when she's not taking the piss and there's actual personal stakes and emotional vulnerability involved, she's... well, still working on not feeling uncomfortable at the prospect of being perceived.

She's still working on a lot of this "actually feeling our genuine feelings and letting people know us" business. Give her some time, lol.

(I do kind of love the idea of the group falling in many ways into communicating with their eyes only. Like I think somewhere in the depths of my notes, I've written at least 3 instances when she and Astarion had completely silent conversations with their eyes only, and that kind of bullshit-synergy always makes me feel squirmy in a good way.)

Sorry about rambling for so long lol, I loved these! <3