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Not a flock of birds

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I'm struggling to find a name for a group of birds as kept by a noble.

Baron Knox has a kennel of dogs and a stable of horses, what's the name for his hunting falcons? And is there a title for his keeper of the hawks? Birdmaster just sounds silly.

Bonus points: what's the title of the keeper of the dogs? Of the horses?
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Terms that tend to crop up are stable-master and kennel-master, and I’m sure there are non-english terms that pretty much mean those things. For falconry and hawking? If you followed the naming convention, hawks/falcons would be housed in “mews” so one could be a mews-master. It’s been a long time since I studied up on falconry, but I really don’t recall a specific term for such a thing outside of falconer/hawker, but of course, hawker has other implications. Some could depend on the specific role of the person: if training, raising, etc., they could be the falconer, the king’s falconer, while someone who tends the day to day feeding, cleaning, and care of the birds and facilities could easily be called mews-master.

Horses, the Marshal would be the important head of the stables, I believe.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Mews helps. Amewsingly.

My MC has his falconer along for much of the story, so I'm looking for something a little more compact than Royal Falconer. I'll keep this open, but I may ask over on mediev-l. Those people know *everything*!
 
Yeah "mews" is the term. And "falconer" seems to be the name of the trainer/keeper.

Interesting little page, not sure how accurate, here: Medieval Hawking

It seems that types of bird might have been restricted according to social status? Not sure of the exact when/where this applied, but considering similar restrictions for clothing and weaponry, etc., I wouldn't be surprised.

Edit: Ah, just found the term Master of the Mews here: Ancient & Medieval Falconry: Origins & Functions in Medieval England | Richard III Society - American Branch

"Falconry remained popular among royalty until the reign of George III. The Stuarts were particularly fond of the sport, and Henry VIII was perhaps the most important falcon advocate since Federick II. By ancient tradition, the king of England is presented with a falcon at the time of his coronation by the Duke of Athol and Lord Derby, and the office of royal falconer, called Master of the Mews, still exists today."
[Trying not to read that as "Master of the Muse" but, hah, failing....]
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Ha! An actual reference to a Master of the Mews, I was closer than I thought in my mewsing.

Too much fun can be had with some words.
 
It's a good term.

But how about these three terms:

Of Ostrengers, Speruiters, and Falconers.

"Because that now I haue spoken of Ostrengers, you shall vnderstand, that they be called Ostrengers which are the keepers of Goshawkes or Tercelles, and those which keepe Sparrow hawkes or muskets are called Speruiters, and those which keepe any o∣ther kinde of hawke being longwinged are termed Falconers."
This is from ....

The gentlemans academie. Or, The booke of S. Albans containing three most exact and excellent bookes: the first of hawking, the second of all the proper termes of hunting, and the last of armorie: all compiled by Iuliana Barnes, in the yere from the incarnation of Christ 1486. And now reduced into a better method, by G.M.

...which can be found here: Link.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Yeah, lots of terms for falconry... falcon actually meant the female bird, tercelles was the male, if I recall correctly. Goshawks were prized. But I’ve forgotten more than I know on the subject these days, LOL. I once considered falconry before realizing all the hoops to jump through to get a license.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
OK, assembled wise ones, anyone know terms for the same in German? Italian? I'll take French, but the first two languages are preferred.

A look at Translate yields some interesting results. It wants to make mews a synonym for stables. Makes sense, but I doubt it's correct.
Hawk Master becomes Falkonmeister auf Deutsch. Can always rely on German for the long word.
Translate thinks Ostrenger might be Slovenian, but Speruiter as Latin. <giggle>
I'm guessing there's an entirely different derivation for German or Italian.

And that's all the mews that's fit to print.
 
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