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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2000-02 > 0951016972


From: "Brynjulf Langballe" <>
Subject: Re: ancient scandinavian kings
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2000 04:22:52 +0100


John Clare <> wrote in message
news:88navi$mhg$1@lure.pipex.net...
> I have had the same problem. According to the "oracles" my name can be
> related to a variety of people.
> John Clare
> "k1w1k" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > Regarding the 2/19 post (below) of "Brynjulf Langballe, Oslo, Norway:"
> tho' it probably goes, for most readers, without saying, it might be well
to
> point out, for the record, that the personages mentioned, their
> relationships, and the historical events in which they participated, are
> mythological -- that is, fictional. The people didn't exist, the events
> didn't happen. (Tho' there WERE prominent Romans named Pompeius.) I
> mention this primarily because, in my capacity as a genealogist, I
> occasionally run into enthusiastic hobbyists who, having encountered such
> figures in certain books or on the web, have trustingly entered them into
> their databases as ancestors; and I have the devil of a time convincing
them
> that, despite the fact that they found 'em in print or on line, they ain't
> so.

Well, I think we have very different focuses on genealogy. My interests
are covering the time frame before year 1000. Some people find dog breed
genealogy interesting, some go for horse breed and some focus on their
personal anchester lines. The focus and interests actually differs.

In my opinion it is polite to answer a request even if it is covering a
period
far down in mythological times. When you do that, you have to meet the
requester on his own play ground.

Why should not people be given the opportunity to have mythological lines
in their databases if they feel for that, and why should they not connect if
they find a proper gateway? Why are you spending the devil of a time
stoping them from doing it?

You are indirectly refering to me as a hobbyist. Are you considering
yourself as a professional? Are you covering the timeframe before year
500 as a professional? It would be interesting if you could pinpoint where
facts stop and fiction starts in the huge amount of old sources that exists.

Not one singel web site has been used for my research. Actually it is
based on "certain books", like Islandic and Norwegian sagas, Ura Linda
Chronik, Chronica Hungarorum, Saxo Grammaticus, other European
medieval sources, Greek, Roman and Byzantine sources etc, and a lot
of modern sources. The sources has not only been used as is, but has
been analyzed and compared. Misunderstandings and wrong
interpretations has been discovered and corrected in medieval works
like Saxo Grammaticus and Snorri Sturlasson.

There is an ocean of unplowed fields out there needing research.
In my opinion this is far more interesting than digging up church records
and censuses.

Brynjulf Langballe, Oslo, Norway

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