Hopefully, this post will become a pattern for those folks joined on the same team (cultural groups) that competed upon the football fields of life against my Celtic, to become Welsh, and ultimately to become my Jones surname ancestors. So here we go.
Norman-French has been the name applied to their franchise but, it was neither Norman or French. It was Scandinavian! Can you believe it? My "Y-Chromosome Phylogenetic Tree" calls these players "haplogroup I". Their earliest training days, involving a peninsula of 1/3 water and, 1/3 mountains, would certainly be called "winter ball", since winter months were 1/2 the player's year! You would probably want to huddle around a warm fire most of the time awaiting the next quarterback's call!
From here on, the comment section will focus a topic of discussion about this team. On and on it might go as the topics expand along this hallway of time and, the relationship to my Jones surname ancestors. Buckel 'up, and by the way huddle 'up.
Fundamental concepts were the basic structures that held together the various teams playing one another on these fields of time. For the Norman-French two of these factors were "feudalism" and the "demesne".
ReplyDeleteMy trusty, dusty, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (p.421) defines "feudalism", 'the system of political organization prevailing in Europe from the 9th to about the15th centuries, having as its basis the relation of lord to vassal with all land held in fee and as chief characteristics homage, the service of tenants under arms and in court, wardship, and forfeiture'. Wow! Can you believe it? Enough already. Lot's more to come here.
My Websters also defines "demesne" (p. 299), 'legal possession of land as one's own' and 'manorial land actually possessed by the lord and not held by tenants'.
Now, take a while and chew around these concepts. Just the beginning!
A room for storing equipment and, changing cloths in lockers, is one way to think about a locker room. For long periods of time, it was used by team participants for individual storage. For the Norman - French this was the motte and bailey! Of earth and timber construction, it was a mound of dirt some 20-30ft high surrounded by an oval or right-handed plot of land where the usual players hung out. An office building some 10-12ft high stood at the top and, the owner could look out across all the playing fields of the game. What a view it was!
ReplyDeleteFor a discussion of this locker room please see post of August 20, 2023, titled "A Contemporary View". It shows a map and, my Celtic, to become Welsh, yet to become Jones position in relationship to all these locker rooms by a small red circle at top of the map! Play ball!