Julich1610

Thank you, Thorsen - I am keeping busy!  Reading a lot about Cathars, the Albigensian crusade in the Languedoc, the Manicheans, the Zoroastrians...my thoughts for the cults of Koln.  Meanwhile, my wife was briefly in the hospital but is much recovered now and we are preparing for a short vacation in the Poconos with the family dog.

There were supposedly Cathars in the Rhineland, do you know much about them?

So, I am still working on sections within the precincts of Koln.  Just finished the Alchemist's Guildhouse (what would that look like in German, I wonder) and then I have a Cathedral, a tavern and a dungeon crawl among the Roman ruins to consider.

Which is to say, innuendo with regard to our own dear Johann Wilhelm is in no great rush.  I tend to add the rumors toward the end.  May ask a bit about brauhaus culture - what makes a stube a stube?

I will let you know when Peter starts banging on the door for me to be done!

Danke,

Jeff

I hope any bad luck falls squarely on me, Thorsten!  I have had rather a run of it lately, so a little more, if it doesn't kill me, will make me stronger.  Sorry!  

I very much appreciate your fianceé's contribution to the project - please thank her on my behalf.  I really like her rendition of the Antichrist as a young man!  He looks much more innocent and charming and the combination of period attire and woodcut effect is exactly what the "wanted poster" needed.  Perfect! 

If there is no problem with the other artists on the project, I will ask her name to be added to the list of credits, if she would like, and if she is a player - my own wife is not, but she tolerates my eccentricities with a sublime restraint - I will ask Peter to arrange a voucher for your fianceé also.  That is to me part of the great fun of this project - working with the artists.   

Please let me know the happy date when set, so that I may wait to congratulate both and so also use her correct name, if and when it it changes, in the published version.  

Thank you so much and a happy birthday in advance, Thorsten!  

Really appreciate your willingness to look over the (even to you!) cryptic account of the exorcism!  H.C. Erik Midelfort had written footnoted these strange rituals - "they painted his terrifying picture (in figura maximi horribili)  on a paper that they whipped and then burned."  They also stoned and burned papers with the names of 50 devils written on them.  I guess I would like to know more about these droll proceedings - there is a somewhat sarcastic perspective to the eyewitness, I gather.  

There is a Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times".  That would definitely apply to the early 17th century!

Of course, whenever you get to looking it over, next week or whenever - you have already done so much to help!

Regards,

Jeff 

Excellent, Thorsten!  Niederzier seems to be quite close to Jülich (for which I found - and liked - the odd spelling Guelich), the Fortress of which is the ultimate destination of the adventure.

Found the for the symbol for the  ö-Umlaut in Bertholdr Mainzer Fraktur and amended höret auf den Namen "Lucius".  Thanks again.

http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10014500_00217.html for the Bouterwek article.  Page 209 therein, I believe, describes some odd rituals in the attempt to exorcise Johann Wilhelm.  I am thinking some of this rather shocking, no doubt to 17th century perception, ritual, would make excellent rumor in the streets of  Köln.  Anything lurid you might happen upon in your perusal, the kind of weird detail that could be mentioned in a local brauhaus, provoking guffaws or religious awe.                                                                    

I think I found the rounded S in the Bertholdr Mainzer Fraktur font is actually shift_4 on my keyboard.  See if this doesn't look a bit better....Also, H.C. Erik Midelfort wrote, in Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany, that an exorcism of Duke Johann Wilhelm by 9 priests was attempted at the Castle of Hambach in August of 1605.  There was a Castle of Hambach in the Eastern Palatine forest that I saw online, but I think the Castle of Hambach for this exorcism must be closer to Dusseldorf.  Any ideas?  Also, there seems to be accounts of this exorcisms written by K. W. Bouterwek and also Emil Pauls, in German of course. 

I think the problem is with the Bertholdr Mainzer Fraktur font I am using; it does not seem able to produce anything other than the lange s.  Perhaps another font that looks 17th century and allows the rounded s?

By the way, it wasn't the map of Ortelius, it was Merian's Topographia Palatinatus Rheni that was the source of the now-famous Heydelberg alternate spelling.  As collaborator, I want to provide you with accurate information at all times!  Thanks for everything!

Thorsten, thank you so much for all the great insight you are providing.  It is our adventure, not just mine now, and we are collaborating with each other rather than interfering (remember you get a credit!).  Look below to see the final result.  Isn't it cool!  And a lot of fun!

This is very interesting and useful information, Thorsten!  But you must allow me a bit of poetic license.  The picture, I am thinking, is actually a woodcut created by a Formschnieder working from a design provided by an artist in the court of the boy's father, no less than the Count of Nassau-Siegen, cousin to the Stadtholder of Orange.  

The woodcut would have been created as a gift for the boy's doting mother, Duchess Margaret of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, who has no idea she is not the boy's real mother.  She always carries the woodcut with her entourage and so when the boy went missing, it was quickly inked and used to create the Anschlag at a local printing press.

I really wish to entice the Emissaries from Prague to visit Dry Pieter's, a Brauhaus named for the Fountain of St. Peter in front of the Kölner Domkirche (how would I say this in German, "Dry Pieter's Fountain?").  The story I heard in Köln was that both the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor visited the Cathedral at the same time, but that someone had forgotten to connect the plumbing for the fountain so that no water came forth and hence it is called "Dry Pieter's Fountain".  That seemed to me an admirable name for a brauhaus and, of course, I had visited Pieter's Brauhaus of much more recent vintage.  Again, a bit of poetic license that allows me to tell a legend from Köln.

Now, of course, the Emissaries, with a successful Regional Lore test, would know that it is quite unusual for an Anschlag for a missing person to provide a woodcut.  This suggests that whoever produced the placard is, in fact, quite wealthy and really wants to find this child, as most such placards would only offer a written description.  So, perhaps the Anschlag could read something like:

Missing Boy.  Age 5.  Answers to the name of "Lucius".  If you see him, please contact Hermann Weinsberg at the Brauhaus of Dry Pieter's Fountain in the Altermarkt.  A reward of 10 gulden is offered for information, 20 gulden for his safe return. 

Not to say too much, but the woodcut is not a woodcut at all, it is my rendition of the photo of a statue in the public domain from Poland and that the sweet, innocent boy Lucius grew up to set living people on fire as "tiki torches" in his garden.  Not a very nice fellow at all!

You see I reduced the reward.  I am reading in the English translation of Straße ins Feuer – Vom Leben und Sterben in der Zeit des Hexenwahns by Michael Kunze that half a gulden in 1600 would buy one a nice meal with a few glasses of wine to go with it.  So anyone who is hungry and thirsty enough will definitely be looking for this boy!

The Duchess wants to hide her identity to prevent blackmail, which is why she is working through a local lawyer.

Hope the poetic license isn't too much - I think your insights are perfect to provide a clue to the Emissaries that something is going on here.  Exactly the effect I was looking for!

Best,

Jeff

Really need to get an Einlegeauge, if only to make my dog bark at me!

Great stuff, Thorsten!  I am including the info on the Gaffeln in The Köln Machinations to give the Emissaries from Prague a good sense of how Köln is governed at the Rathaus and also provide the seeds of adventure for the GM to devise side plots, if so desired (for example, the murder of an Amtsmeister by parties unknown).

Ok, so here's something else.  In the Altermarkt, plastered to a plague monument, the Emissaries will find a printed handbill.  In the colonies, we often see the pictures of missing children on containers of milk with this legend, "Have you seen me?".  Is there something equivalent in Germany?  How could I rewrite the handbill to make it look more authentic, providing a translation below?  It should offer 100 Rhine guelders as the reward for information and direct those interested to make inquiries at Dry Pieter's Brauhaus, where the agents of the anxious parents have headquartered their investigation.

Beste Grüße,

Jeff

Sehr gut!  Thank you so much, Thorsten, both informative and entertaining.  If I were in your class, I would be the most attentive of students, in the front row!

I looked up the  Bürgermeister of Koln for the year 1610 (whence the events described reportedly took place) in Wikipedia and got:

Johann ter Lahn von Lennep und Peter Oeckhoven.  There is even a picture of  Bürgermeister Peter in his mayoral finery, below.  Since it is in the public domain, I will probably include it in the book!  He has kind of strange left eye, maybe glass?

I do have some questions about the gaffeln.  The word comes from a two-pronged fork in German, I believe, not sure of the etymology there.  It seems the word referred to an association of guilds.  In the case of Köln, I have the following list in the forthcoming adventure and would appreciate your opinion/correction when you have the chance.

·        There are 22 guild associations in the Gaffeln who appoint the members of the ruling town council.  The list includes:

o   Eysenmarkt (iron merchants);                                     Wollenhaupt (wool merchants);

o    Schwarzhaus (dyers);                                                  Goldschmidt (goldsmiths);

o    Windeck (trading company);                                      Himmelreich (pharmacists and physicians) - made up!

o    Bindelmacher  (assorted furniture makers);           Buntworter (limners);

o    Aren (beltmakers);                                                        Fischamt (fishermen, boatmen);

o   Schmidt (smiths, locksmiths, knife makers);            Baecker (bakers);

o   Schilderer und Glaswörter (painters, glaziers);     Steinmetzer (stonemasons);

o   Fleischauer (butchers);                                                 Schröder (tailors);

o   Schuhmacher (shoemakers);                                       Sarwörter (armorers, weaponsmiths);

o   Kannengießer (cask makers, ropemakers);              Fassbinder(barrel makers);

o    Ziechenweber (Weavers);                                           Brauer (brewers);

No rush, whenever you have an odd moment.  Danke, Thorsten!

Hi, Thorsten -

Heard back from Peter.  His words, "let the tribe increase!"  Credit and voucher no obstacle.  We both are most grateful to you for your willingness to help make A Clockwork of Orange more authentic!

So, let's begin, shall we?

Made suggested changes to text for the Roter Skorpion...thanks!

Will definitely use Narrenhaus for the madhouse in Köln supported as a charitable institution by a local confraternity!  I like the word Narr , having seen it in Jost Ammon's Standebuch.

Interestingly, the Elenden-Herberge was never an asylum, actually.  It was a military hospital (der arm Spital) during the Köln war and got it's name "the wretched Inn" from the veteran's who survived it.  I had the Count buy it in the story to support the humane vampirism of bloodletting.

I came across the word Teutsch used to describe the German virtues of truth and honesty.  Is it / was it used that way now or is it just an archaic rendition of Deutsch? I have a rather unpleasant tax-collector using this word to justify his impoverishment of the townsfolk, so of course there is more than a little hypocrisy involved.  If a German politician today wanted to invoke traditional German virtues, what word would that politician use?

I am translating Reichskammergericht as Imperial Chamber Court per Google, but I wondered if there were any nuances to consider?

I am saying the name of that famous rock on the Rhine, the Lorelei, comes from the Old German Lureln and the Celtic word ley meaning rock, ergo "murmuring rock".  How would a German understand that name?

A man on his boat cries out “Was zum Teufel ist das?” , which I am translating "What in Hell is that?"  Is there a better phrase for encountering the clearly diabolical in the hold of your ship?

There were always two mayors in Köln that by tradition dating back to the Roman practice of having dual consuls to keep an eye on each other.  Would they be correctly termed der Bür­ger­meis­ters? 

Enough for now, Thorsten...thank you for all your help, my new friend!

Jeff

I very much appreciate your input - and your praise - Thorsten!  We will most definitely raise a glass together the next time I am over that way - Prost in advance!.

I wish I could find time to visit Dusseldorf, which is quite close to you, as it is the setting for the third installment, "The Crypt of the Mad Duke".  Not sure where Duke Johann Wilhelm (d. 1609) is buried, assuming Lambertus Cathedral. Do you know, perchance?  

Gratitude for your patience and willingness to help out with German which I do not speak.  I can't offer much beyond a credit in the finished work and a voucher or two - and, of course, avoiding the painful "German-isms" which the author would otherwise inflict on you and your countrymen!  Let me check with Peter first - to be quite honest, there is no money in this, to speak of - it is a labor rather of love.  

"Heydelberg" is actually from a map of Germania made by the Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius in 1588, which is currently hanging on my study wall for inspiration.  I did like the spelling, in English it somehow seems a bit more dream-like, fantastic.  I can't fix "Die Rote Skorpion" in "The Heydelberg Horror" now that it's out, but I will use the English The Red Scorpion in "the Koln Machinations" to avoid the gender question in German, out of due respect to native speakers.

Not sure where I went wrong with Elend Herberge.  Does Elenden-Herberge come closer to the mark? 

Thanks again, Thorsten - really appreciate your feedback!

Jeff