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<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----<BR><B>Fra:</B> Peter Michaelsen
<BR><B>Sendt:</B> 14-05-2007 23:40<BR><B>Til:</B> 'Jon at Gothic Green
Oak'<BR><B>Emne:</B> SV: hist-games: Long Lawrence<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>It is
very nice that so many people are interested in the Long Lawrence
die.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I
wrote about it in my article "On some unusual types of stick dice", BOARD GAMES
STUDIES 6, 2003 (pp.9-24).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>This
was partially based upon my article "Ponni, niks, alle-halve", ORD OG SAG 22,
Institut for Jysk Sprog- og Kulturforskning, Aarhus University 2002
(pp.47-61).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Wnen I
wrote these articles I did not know Willughby's description, published in
2003.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I made
a photocopy of the pages in Willughby, but can't find them right now. As far as
I remember, a note is telling that the Lang Lawrence was mentioned already in a
poem from 1607. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Prismatic dice sticks and also more or less cubic dice were probably used
in the Middle Ages. Leo van der Heijdt suggested - in his FACE TO FACE WITH
DICE. 5000 years of dice and dicing (Groningen 2002) ,p.103, that the Long
Lawrence was used in the Middle Ages. We have no exact proof, but it probably
was.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>The
put-and-take game is probably referred to by the Scottish poet William Dunbar in
a poem from c.1500-1520: "He playis with totum, and I with nichell". In the
early 18th c. 'totum' is described as "a whirlbone, a kind of die that is turned
about". At that time a new name became usual: 'T totum' (the letter T, inscribed
on one of the sides of the die, was placed before the word); later in the 18th
c. the form was changed into 'tetotum' and around 1800 into 'teetotum', the
current form in English. The original 'totum' was preserved in English dialects.
(See OED, 2nd. ed. vol.XVII and XVIII (teetotum, totum). Se also The Scottish
National Dictionary Vol. IX, (Edinburgh 1974),p.370, and the The English Dialect
Dictionary Vol VI (Oxford 1905), p.203.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>The
word 'totum' is testified in French from 1611. In the mid 17th c. the form
'toton' appears for the first time, corresponding to the French pronounciation
of the Latin word, and c.100 years later the old way of spelling it
disappears.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>An
earlier French name for the same object was 'pirouette', first known evidence is
from 1451. A related word with the same meaning: 'pirouelle' appears in a poem
by Guillaume de Machaut from 1364 (see Trésor de la Langue Francaise vol.13
(Paris 1988), p.419: "pirouette".</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Rabelais refers to the same put-and-take game 'pille, nade, jocque, fore'
in his Gargantua II, 11, and I, 22 from 1534.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I
think that it is difficult to say, if the medieval Jews borrowed the game from
their non-Jewish neighbours in Europe, or the other way round. The Hebrew
consonants on the four sides of the 'dreidel': nun, gimel, he,
shin suggests, however, that Jiddisch-speaking Jews adopted a German
variant with the letters N (nichts), G (ganz), H (halb), S (stell ein, Jiddisch:
'shtell').</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>According to a popular etymology this was interpreted as the first
letters in the Hebrew message 'nes gadol hajah sham' (= a great miracle happened
here).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>When I
browsed the internet for information about this subject, I did also find a
reference which told that this dice top was known by Jews in France in the
Middle Ages under various Hebrew names. Unfortunately I was not able to get
access to the source referred to in Gilad J. Gevaryahu: <A
href="http://www.shamash.org/listarchives/mail-jewish/volume22/v22n46">www.shamash.org/listarchives/mail-jewish/volume22/v22n46</A>
On that home page there was a reference to an article by Rabbi Dr. Meir Grunwald
in SEFER HA'MOADIM V (1961) p.225-226.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>In my
BGS article I make an attempt to compare the special signs or markings on the
sides of the Lang Lawrence with the markings on dice sticks used in some quite
different outdoor games. Prismatic dice sticks with four letters on the sides
seem to have been rather common in Denmark and Northern Germany, but unknown
elsewhere. Perhaps some of you might want to discuss some of my ideas which I
put forward in my article?</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I may
tell more about them in my next mail.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Peter
Michaelsen.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=030071121-14052007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----<BR><B>Fra:</B>
hist-games-bounces@www.pbm.com [mailto:hist-games-bounces@www.pbm.com]<B>Pĺ
vegne af </B>Jon at Gothic Green Oak<BR><B>Sendt:</B> 14-05-2007
18:14<BR><B>Til:</B> hist-games@www.pbm.com<BR><B>Emne:</B> hist-games: Long
Lawrence<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>According to Parlett the Long Lawrence was used
for playing Put and Take, which is an earlier game played with a
teetotum - though how much earlier the teetotum is than the Long
Lawrence I do not know (apart from the well known Bruegel reference of
1560). There is also the Jewish game played at Hanukkah with a
dreidel (=teetotum) though again I am unsure of the antiquity of
this. Could Put and Take and the teetotum have originated in the Jewish
communities of medieval Europe and then passed to a broader gaming public? or
is this just wishful thinking....</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>jon</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>