Titles in The Pendragon and The Beast of Caer Baddan (Page 2 of 9)

Yes, the "High King" of Albion is the Pendragon!

No one but Vitalinus has dared claim the title. Vitalinus is thus Drech's only real challenger for supreme power over Albion. Everyone else who is against Drech just doesn't want to have to submit to authority.

For Great King, I had people call them "king", like "King Gurgust" or "King Moilmut".

For Middle King, I had people call them "lord", like "Lord Tedig" or "Lord Peredur".

And for Lesser/Low King, I had people call them "chieftain", like "Chieftain Sæfugul".

I made the distinction all the time, because I thought it was easier for readers to understand the hierarchy of Late Ancient Britain. If I change them all to "King", I fear a lack of consistent distinction will further confuse readers who will be wondering why King Tedig can't just be happy ruling his own spot of land and has to encroach on King Gurgst's territory. Or why King Peredur has the say in Pengwern that would keep Drech from being allowed to rule it. If I changed all of the "lord"s and "chieftain"s to "king"s, I would thus feel compelled to put "Middle-King" and "Lesser-King" (or "Low-King" as you suggested) all the time in the narration so that the reader does not get confused.

* copied the reply in the romance group to here - and I finally understand the issue (I think) *

Rebecca, how's your gaelic?

Ri benn - king of a single tribe (lesser king)
Ri buiden - king of many tribes (middle king)
Ri ruirech - king of kings (great king)

Personally, I like rhi, brenin etc., but I like great/middle/lesser king more as it keeps new and strange words to the minimum and to be honest, it's still a story that's being told, not a history lesson.  AND you'd anyways have to explain that Brenin is a great king and Rhi a middle king etc. whereas great-middle-lower is pretty much self explanatory.  AND you'd stick to English!

It's not the king, lord or chieftain that is the problem, but that all their wives are referred to as queens and you don't normally expect to refer to the wife of a chieftain or a lord as a queen.  I've looked, but I can't find any terms that differentiated the wives.  I'm not surprised, they'd be differentiated by association to their husbands and not on their own.  To be honest, their wives are not mentioned at all.  Welcome to the 8th century!  LOL

Unless you or someone else can come up with a brilliant fix like come up with plausible equivalent titles for their wives as not to create confusion, I don't see how you can work your way around it but to go the Great King, Middle King or Lesser King route to avoid the confusion why all their wives are queens. 

To work around the cumbersomeness of always referring to them as great, middle or lesser, as I've mentioned before, you could only refer to the additional tags when you introduce them in each scene and then call them simply King from then on - their social status could also be worked in/the use of tags avoided by showing their actions in relation to other kings when there are more than one king present and in dialogue.  Not all, but some readers will also quickly be able to associate each king with his "level" with or without the tags.

Personally, if this were me, I'd go the great-middle-lower route even though it's going to be massively painful (then again, changing to Brenin, Rhi and something else is not an easy fix either).  It's bloody unique - as much as I understand and don't mind king, lord and chieftain, when you mentioned great-middle-lower kings, I was impressed - I have never seen it before and I had no idea until now that lords and chieftains were also kings albeit lesser kings (although this probably says more about me and my reviewing skills and it's not good!  LOL). 

As I've said before, this could also avoid confusion in that lord is normally a form of address and not a title as such.  And it would be technically correct, so even readers that's up to date with their history knowledge would not be able to find fault.

Thumbs and big-toes crossed that you can come up with a simpler solution.  I'll still keep this in the back of my mind - giving up is not an option! 

JR

My story doesn't fit in either group. I just joined these groups because the people who were reading my work and (most) of the people whose work I am reading are in these two groups.

I did actually have an acquaintance who, when he heard that my novel was called "The Pendragon", insisted that I was writing about "the acult" and that I was too embarrassed to admit it...

This is the funniest thing I've read in a long time!    LOL

ps - ok, I'll start a historical novel group

Well, if this particular Pendragon had Merlin, then your friend might be right.

So ... Great King, King, Low King?

You could also use King, Low King, Tribe's King.

In the US Navy, one of the flag (Admiral) ranks has an Upper Half and a Lower Half, to provide five peacetime grades matching the Army's five peacetime grades.

Janet

You are too funny!

I like this idea.  I hope Sol comes around and find a way to do this.  But from what I've seen, he's pretty adamant to keep the forums as is.

"I have the habit of putting in quotations thoughts that are actually Drech recalled someone else's words. Orson had originally said "Inferior weaponry" and thus Drech thinking of these words, I put them in quotes. Not sure if this makes sense or if I should change it... Let me know."

Might work better if you mention/reference Orson or whoever instead of the quotes.  But if I'm the only one that gets confused, keep it as is!

K, is that model for your Kimberly cover? I saw your existing cover on GoodReads and thought it was awesome.

Note that there aren't foam tips on those spears. Catch one in the face and you'll know it.