1.
Longhouse
A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building built by peoples in various parts of the world including Asia and North America. Many were built from timber and often represent the earliest form of permanent structure in many cultures, the Neolithic long house type was introduced with the first farmers of central and western Europe around 5000 BCE—7000 years ago. These were farming settlements built in groups of six to twelve and were home to large extended families. The longhouse is a way of shelter. Located along a slope, a single passage gives access to human and animal shelter under a single roof. The old Frisian Langhuis that developed into the Frisian farmhouse which probably influenced the development of the Gulf house, with these house types the wooden posts originally rammed into the ground were replaced by posts supported on a base. The large and well-supported attic enabled large quantities of hay or grain to be stored in dry conditions and this development may have been driven because the weather became wetter over time.
Good examples of houses have been preserved, some dating back to the 16th century. The longhouse was 50 to 60 feet long, the longhouse had a 3 metres -wide central aisle and 2 metres -wide compartments, about 6 to 7 metres long, down each side. The end compartments were used for storage. Hearths were spaced about 6 to 7 metres apart down the aisle and it is possible to infer the population of an Iroquois town from the size and number of longhouses it contained. In South America, the Tucano people of Colombia and northwest Brazil traditionally combine a household in a long house. The Xingu peoples of central Brazil build a series of longhouses in circular formations forming round villages, the ancient Tupi people of Brazilian Coast used to do this as well. The Yanomami people of Brazil and Venezuela build a hut with a thatched roof that has a hole in the middle, called shabono. In Daepyeong, a site of the Mumun pottery period in Korea. Their layout seems to be similar to those of the Iroquois, in these, several fireplaces were arranged along the longitudinal axis of the building.
Later, the ancient Koreans started raising their buildings on stilts, so that the inner partitions, the size of the buildings and their placement within the settlements may point to buildings for the nobles of their society or some sort of community or religious buildings. In Igeum-dong, a site in South Korea, the large longhouses,29 and 26 meters long, are situated between the megalithic cemetery and the rest of the settlement
2.
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkiens 1937 novel The Hobbit, as well as a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings. Here, after the dragon was killed and the Mountain was reclaimed, near Gollums lair, Bilbo accidentally found a magic ring of invisibility, which he used to escape from Gollum. By the end of the journey, Bilbo had become wiser and more confident, Bilbos journey has been compared to a pilgrimage of grace. The Hobbit can be characterized as a Christian bildungsroman which equates progress to wisdom gained in the form of a rite of passage and he rescued the dwarves from giant spiders with the magic ring and a short Elven-sword he acquired. He used the ring to sneak around in dangerous places, as well as his wits to smuggle the dwarves out of the elves prisons. When tensions arose over ownership of the treasure, he tried unsuccessfully to bring the opposing sides to compromise, using the Arkenstone. This strained his relationship with Thorin, but the two were reconciled at Thorins deathbed.
At the end of the story, Bilbo returned to his home in the Shire only to find several of his relatives, believing him to be dead, were trying to claim his home. In addition to becoming wealthy from his share of the treasure, he found that he, like Adam, had traded respectability for experience. At the end, Gandalf proclaims Bilbo is no longer the Hobbit he was and this is certainly true as Bilbo has fully matured. Continuing the pilgrimage theme, a true pilgrimage does not end at the destination, but rather when the wanderer is absolved and ready to return home. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, the main character of the novel is Frodo Baggins, Bilbos cousin, who celebrates his 33rd birthday and legally comes of age on the same day. In T. A.2989, Bilbo, a bachelor, adopted Frodo, the orphaned son of his first cousin Primula Brandybuck and his second cousin Drogo Baggins. Though Frodo was actually his first and second cousin once removed either way, all this time Bilbo had kept his magic ring, with no idea of its significance, using it mostly to hide from his obnoxious cousins, the Sackville-Bagginses, when they came to visit.
Gandalfs investigations revealed it to be the One Ring forged by the Dark Lord Sauron, the Ring had prolonged Bilbos life beyond the normal hobbit span, and at 111 he still looked 50. On the night of his and Frodos birthday, Bilbo threw himself a party and he signed his home, Bag End, and estate over to Frodo. He gave an address to his neighbors, at the end of which he put on the Ring. As Bilbo prepared finally to leave the house, he reacted with panic, Bilbo refused to give up the Ring, referring to it as his precious – just as Gollum had
3.
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating.
Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet.
Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
4.
Norse mythology
The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central cosmological tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings, various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök, there the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world. Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century, by way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology. In the modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, the myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland and this occurred primarily in the 13th century.
The Prose Edda was composed as a manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse, the Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, in comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned. Numerous further texts, such as the sagas, provide further information, the saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila the Hun. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology may lend insight, wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths.
Of the mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, the god Odin is frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed and raven-flanked, and spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds, Odin has a strong association with death, Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Valhalla, where valkyries carry half of those slain in battle. Odins wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his death, his death is engineered by Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel. Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess and she is beautiful, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain, and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr, Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr, and seeks after him in far away lands
5.
Iron Age
The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC.
Tins low melting point of 231, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II.
Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
6.
Freyja
In Norse mythology, Freyja is a goddess associated with love, beauty, gold, seiðr, and death. Along with her brother Freyr, her father Njörðr, and her mother, stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya and Freja. Freyja rules over her heavenly afterlife field Fólkvangr and there receives half of those that die in battle, whereas the other half go to the god Odins hall, within Fólkvangr is her hall, Sessrúmnir. Freyjas husband, the god Óðr, is frequently absent and she cries tears of red gold for him, and searches for him under assumed names. Freyja has numerous names, including Gefn, Hörn, Mardöll, Sýr, Freyjas name appears in numerous place names in Scandinavia, with a high concentration in southern Sweden. Various plants in Scandinavia once bore her name, but it was replaced with the name of the Virgin Mary during the process of Christianization, rural Scandinavians continued to acknowledge Freyja as a supernatural figure into the 19th century, and Freyja has inspired various works of art.
The name Freyja is transparently lady and ultimately derives from Proto-Germanic *frawōn, Freyja is cognate with, for example, Old Saxon frūa lady and Old High German frouwa. The theonym Freyja is thus considered to have been an epithet in origin, in the Poetic Edda, Freyja is mentioned or appears in the poems Völuspá, Grímnismál, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Oddrúnargrátr, and Hyndluljóð. Völuspá contains a stanza that mentions Freyja, referring to her as Óðs girl, Freyja being the wife of her husband, the stanza recounts that Freyja was once promised to an unnamed builder, revealed to be a jötunn and subsequently killed by Thor. In the poem Grímnismál, Odin tells the young Agnar that every day Freyja allots seats to half of those that are slain in her hall Fólkvangr, while Odin owns the other half. In the poem Lokasenna, where Loki accuses nearly every female in attendance of promiscuity and/or unfaithfulness, the introduction to the poem notes that among other gods and goddesses, Freyja attends a celebration held by Ægir.
Loki tells her to be silent, and says that he knows all about her—that Freyja is not lacking in blame, for each of the gods and elves in the hall have been her lover. She says that Loki is lying, that he is just looking to blather about misdeeds, and since the gods and goddesses are furious at him, he can expect to go home defeated. Loki tells Freyja to be silent, calls her a malicious witch, Njörðr interjects—he says that a woman having a lover other than her husband is harmless, and he points out that Loki has borne children, and calls Loki a pervert. The poem Þrymskviða features Loki borrowing Freyjas cloak of feathers and Thor dressing up as Freyja to fool the lusty jötunn Þrymr, in the poem, Thor wakes up to find that his powerful hammer, Mjöllnir, is missing. Thor tells Loki of his hammer, and the two go to the beautiful court of Freyja. Thor asks Freyja if she will lend him her cloak of feathers, Freyja agrees, Loki flies away in the whirring feather cloak, arriving in the land of Jötunheimr.
He spies Þrymr sitting on top of a mound, Þrymr reveals that he has hidden Thors hammer deep within the earth and that no one will ever know where the hammer is unless Freyja is brought to him as his wife
7.
Shrek the Third
Shrek the Third is a 2007 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film, and the third installment in the Shrek franchise. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and is the first in the series to be distributed by Paramount Pictures1 which acquired DreamWorks Pictures in 2006. Chris Miller and Raman Hui directed and co-directed the film, with the former co-writing the screenplay with Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman, Harry Gregson-Williams composed the original music for the film. The story takes place eight months after the marriage of Shrek, reluctantly reigning over the kingdom of Far, Far Away, Shrek sets out to find the next heir to the throne—Fionas cousin Artie, while Prince Charming is plotting to overthrow Shrek and become king. The film premiered on May 6,2007, at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles and it was nominated for Best Animated Movie at the 2008 Kids Choice Awards, but lost to Ratatouille. It was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film at the 61st British Academy Film Awards and it was the final film in the Shrek franchise to be produced by Pacific Data Images before its closure in 2015.
The film grossed $799 million on a $160 million budget, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2007, a sequel, titled Shrek Forever After, was released in 2010. Prince Charming vows that he will become King of Far, Far Away and avenge the death of his mother, King Harold is dying and his ogre son-in-law Shrek and daughter Princess Fiona are to succeed him. Before dying, Harold tells Shrek of another heir, his nephew, Prince Charming goes to the Poison Apple tavern and persuades fairy tale villains to fight for their happily ever after by appealing to the defeats given in their stories. Shrek and Puss in Boots set out to retrieve Arthur, as they are sailing away, the trio journey to Worcestershire Academy, an elite magical boarding school, where they discover Arthur or Artie is a scrawny 16-year-old underachiever picked on by everyone. At the school pep rally, Shrek tells Artie he is going to be king of Far Far Away, Artie is excited until Donkey and Puss inadvertently frighten him by discussing the responsibilities of being king.
Artie tries taking control of the ship and crashes it on a remote island, one of the Pigs accidentally blurts out that Shrek has gone to retrieve Arthur, and Prince Charming sends Captain Hook and his pirates to track down Shrek. The ladies are put in a tower when Rapunzel betrays them because she loves Charming, Captain Hook and his pirates track Shrek and his friends to Merlins island, where they attempt to capture Shrek alive and defeat the others. Shrek and Artie defeat the villains, and Hook mentions Charming, concerned for his wife and future child, Shrek urges Artie to return to Worcestershire. Instead, Artie cons Merlin into using his magic to them to Far Far Away. The spell works, but causes Puss and Donkey to accidentally switch bodies and they find Pinocchio and learn that Charming plans to kill Shrek as part of a play. Charmings men arrive, but Artie tricks the knights into not taking them into custody, caught in Charmings dressing room, the four are taken captive. Charming prepares to kill Artie, believing he is the next king, to save Arties life, Shrek tells Charming that Artie was a pawn to take his place as King of Far Far Away
8.
Scandinavia
Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries, in Nordic languages, only Denmark and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area, the name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region Scania. Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse, Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the north of Scandinavia.
The Danish and Swedish languages form a continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent, Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia, the southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountains have a tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of the last glacial period, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden.
Before this time, the term Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through Pliny the Elders writings, and was used vaguely for Scania, as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for Pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism, the term is often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own use. More precisely, and subject to no dispute, is that Finland is included in the broader term Nordic countries, various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, Norways government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America, Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries
9.
The Elder Scrolls
The Elder Scrolls is a series of action role-playing open world fantasy video games primarily developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The series is known for its elaborate and richly detailed open worlds, Morrowind and Skyrim all won Game of the Year awards from multiple outlets. The series has more than 40 million copies worldwide. Prior to working on The Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda had worked predominantly with sports, Bethesdas course changed abruptly when it began its first action role-playing venture. Ted Peterson worked alongside Vijay Lakshman as one of the designers of what was simply Arena. Peterson and Lakshman were joined by Julian Lefay who, according to Peterson, Lakshman, and LeFay were longtime aficionados of pen-and-paper role-playing games, which greatly influenced the creation of the world of Tamriel. They were fans of Looking Glass Studios Ultima Underworld series, Arena was not to be a role-playing game at all. The player, and a team of his fighters, would travel about a world fighting other teams in their arenas until the player became grand champion in the worlds capital, along the way, side quests of a more role-playing nature could be completed.
As the process of development progressed, the tournaments became less important, RPG elements were added to the game, as it expanded to include cities outside the arenas, and dungeons beyond the cities. Eventually it was decided to drop the idea of tournaments altogether, although the team had dropped all arena combat from the game, all the material had already been printed up with the title, so the game went to market as The Elder Scrolls, Arena. Bethesda Founder Christopher Weaver came up with the name of The Elder Scrolls, and the words came to mean Tamriels mystical tomes of knowledge that told of its past, present. The games initial voice-over was changed in response, beginning, It has been foretold in the Elder Scrolls, Bethesda missed their Christmas 1993 deadline. The game was released in the first quarter of 1994, really serious for a small developer/publisher like Bethesda Softworks, the packaging included a scantily clad female warrior, which further contributed to distributor concern, leading to an initial distribution of only 20,000 units.
Having missed the Christmas sales season, the development team was concerned that We had screwed the company, sales continued to grow, month after month, as news of the game was passed by word-of-mouth. Despite some initial bugginess, and the demands the game made on players machines. Evaluations of the game varied from modest to wild, the game maintained traction with its audience. Game historian Matt Barton concluded that the set a new standard for this type of CRPG. Work on The Elder Scrolls II, Daggerfall began immediately after Arenas release in March 1994, Ted Peterson was assigned the role of Lead Game Designer
10.
Denmark
The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979.
In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government.
The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
11.
Affinity (medieval)
Bastard feudalism is a somewhat controversial term invented by modern historians to characterize the form feudalism took in the Late Middle Ages, primarily in England. Its distinctive feature is the rendering by middle-ranking figures of military, legal, or domestic service in return for money, office, or influence. The gentry began to think of themselves as the men of their lord rather than of the king, individually they are known as retainers, the historian Charles Plummer coined the term bastard feudalism in 1885. Plummer blamed bastard feudalism for the disorder and instability of the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century, bastard feudalism as a concept is primarily associated with Plummers contemporary William Stubbs. Thus, instead of vassals rendering military service required by the lord. In turn the lord would supplement the military service with hired retainers. McFarlane presented a challenge to the ideas of Stubbs. McFarlane stripped the term bastard feudalism of any negative connotation, to him, bastard feudalism centred not the financial aspect but on the concept of service in exchange for good favour.
In a society governed on a basis, service to a lord was the best way to obtain favour in the form of offices, grants. Lords would retain administrators and lawyers, as well as recruiting local gentry into their affinities, by offering money instead of land, lords could afford to retain more followers. In return for becoming retainers, the gentry would expect to rely on their lords influence in local and national politics and this practice was known as maintenance. The retainer might wear his lords livery badge or the form, a livery collar. Under a weak king, such as Henry VI, the rivalries of magnates might spill over from the courtroom to armed confrontations, since the crown and the nobility essentially had the same interests at heart, military commissioning of great magnates was not in itself disruptive to society. The civil wars of the 15th century were caused by personal factors, recent historical research has shown that payment for military service goes back much further than the reign of Edward I, further discrediting the ideas of Stubbs.
As of 2014 historians consider the concept of feudalism problematic, the term is therefore used only with caution, although it is not a dead concept. Most historians today would view it as a social system that was open to abuse. Provided that a king could control the lords, bastard feudalism could provide a way of organising local society. Lacking standing armies, kings relied on noble retinues for the forces they required to conduct wars or to crush internal rebellions
