Welcome, 2012.Winter is coming. What better time to turn to the grand escape of high fantasy? I spent the waning days of the dead year ranging through the world of Skyrim on my new PS3.
While it's easy to mock RPGs for their nerdiness, I'm continually intrigued by the ways they integrate arcane and archaic language into their storylines. At the moment, my character -- a High Elf called Squiddaro, which seemed like a good name when I was high on coffee, Bailey's and adolescent video game nostalgia -- is traveling with a companion known as a Housecarl. The character is great for helping me take down trolls, but it's the word I love.
According to The Free Dictionary, a Housecarl is "A member of the bodyguard or household troops of a Danish or Anglo-Saxon king or noble." Wikipedia expands, telling us that the word comes from the Old Norse húskarl, meaning "free man." Housecarls from history appear to have performed a variety of administrative and martial tasks in both medieval Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England.
Alas, although Lydia has helped me fight giants, dragons and Skeevers, general consensus among the Skyrim fathful is that she is a less than ideal Housecarl, and that I should really be looking to enlist the services of Uthgerd the Unbroken -- "a female warrior with an insatiable lust for violence." A gentle place, Skyrim is not... but then, neither is Toronto in the slush-soaked depths of February.
No comments:
Post a Comment