In message <6.0.0.22.0.20040428074521.027e8dc0_at_...> Graham Robinson writes:
>
>>In the case of standard distances, what use are they? and how do you
>>measure them?
>
>Standard measures are very useful. How much land is my stead traditionally
>allowed to farm? How far from the village do the wild woods begin, where no
>pigs may be kept to preserve the woods for hunting? How far must a Vingan
>be able to cast her javelin before being accepted as a weaponthane? How
>much grain must the chief give to the clan spirit-talker each season? I
>suspect the Orlanthi define the answers to all these questions in terms of
>standard measures.
>
>On the other hand, I'll accept that they are not standardised to the extent
>that we are used to. But an acre as "the amount of land a man may plough in
>one day" seems very orlanthi to me. So in an Orlanthi context, a "mile" is
>our approximate translation of their term that means "the distance that a
>man may run in the time it takes the fyrd to assemble" or "so many
>multiples of the length of the chief's thumb" or indeed "the distance a
>vingan may throw her javelin". And I think that most Orlanthi have at least
>as good an idea how far a mile is as we do.
This was my original point, there's no such thing as an Orlanthi mile.
Each clan will have their own definition which will be used as appropriate
and particularly the mile as a measure of distance is not even a socially
important one. The furlong (or furrow's length) is far more important
because it will be used to mark out crop fields. And that is going to
vary dependent on the soil.
After all English measures weren't standardised until Henry VIII, that's
a thousand years after the fall of Rome when local definitions were
considered adequate. The mile is an exception simply because there were
Roman milestones on the major roads but I doubt it was used as a measure
for any other purpose simply because there was no way of measuring it
accurately.
On that basis the standard mile will be introduced into Sartar by the
Lunars as they build roads. How far they get with that project isn't
too clear.
--
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/