Elizabethan Cinnamon Cane (no, really!)

[sbuchler]

I was browsing though the Fashioning the Early Modern website (fascinating stuff, btw) and ran into the 1540-1560 Cinnamon Cane:

http://www.fashioningtheearlymodern.ac.uk/object-in-focus/the-swedish-kings-cinnamon-cane/

And it occurred to me that scents (i.e. olfactory smells) are something that fantasy authors always leave out of their descriptions

Comments

[unclrashid]

I had just been noticing recently that L E Modessit seems to include a lot food and eating in his fantasy novels. Not exactly olfactory, but it is the other "chemical" sense.

Off on a slight tangent, I am reading SM Stirling's post-apocalyptic yet pseudo-medieval "Tears of the Sun", and while one expects clothing to be inaccurate in these things, some of the clothing he describes is just physically impossible. I read one description five times before I just gave up on trying to make sense of it. He talks a lot about lady's "cotehardies", but it's like he heard a description of them from a blind man who is not quite fluent in English or lady's clothing.

[virginiadear]

People get odd ideas. Frequently, they'll insist on turning imagination into fact---or at least trying to do so.

[sbuchler]

I know what you mean about clothes in fantasy novels! I forget which novel it was where they had medieval-ish clothes but victorian undergarments. It made my head hurt. :-S

I haven't noticed food in L.E. Modessit, I'll have to pay attention next time -- I was reading Scholar recently and the differing economic values of the same coins in the same city was driving me up the wall... it was so bad that I put it down and haven't gotten around to finishing it yet...

[reasie]

Someone in my writing workshop once went off on "Food Critic Writing" and how some authors seem to drop restaurant reviews into their novels. :P

I /love/ olfactory clues. I think there one of the most telling details you can add to a story. You've certainly tickled my fancy. Wow do I want a cinnamon cane!