When we think of Alans and Normans nowadays, our thoughts turn to lawn bowls, cardigans and comb-overs. But in centuries past, these were the names of powerful tribes, who played lawn bowls with the skulls of their enemies*, and wove cardigans from their hair**.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alans
"The written sources suggest that from the second half of the 1st to 4th century the Alans had supremacy over the tribal union and created a powerful confederation of Sarmatian tribes."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans
"The legendary religious zeal of the Normans was exercised in religious wars long before the First Crusade carved out a Norman principality in Antioch. They were major foreign participants in the Reconquista in Spain. In 1018, Roger de Tony travelled to Spain to carve out a state for himself from Moorish lands, but failed."
* I made this up.
** Not substantiated. (I made this up).
2 comments:
I happen to be wearing a very confortable pair of front buttoning slacks by Roger de Tony.
I'll say one thing for anonymous, he has great taste in slacks. And then I'll say he doesn't proofread his comments. So that's two things.
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