The Golden Portifor

[Joe]

I had to send a note to Mike in order to find out what a 'portifor' even was.  I couldn't find it in my OED.  But now I know.

This is another in a series of great stories about Rothenia and I've enjoyed them all.  This is a particularly fun example of these stories.  There's battles and magic and kids being rescued and knowing horses.  What more could a reasonable man ask for.  Plus there are all sorts of quiet little echoes that demonstrate that the author has done his research and knows his history.  It's a particular delight to encounter Generalfeldmarschall  Prinz Eugen (AKA Prince Eugene of Savoy, Eugenio di Savoia) one of the great commanders of history little known in English as he served the Habsburgs and, except for assistance to Marlborough, most of his campaigns were against the Ottomans.  Interestingly, he never married and there was some 'scandal' in his youth.  Not much doubt about who shared his bed on campaign or in his palace.

I will now practice brevity.  Great story, you won't be disappointed! 

[Talo Segura]

Would you be able to enlighten me? 

18 hours ago, Joe said:

I had to send a note to Mike in order to find out what a 'portifor' even was.

I only found this when searching:

Potiphar or Potifar is a person in the Book of Genesis's account of Joseph. Potiphar is said to be the captain of the palace guard and is referred to without name in the Quran. Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, is taken to Egypt where he is sold to Potipharas a household slave.

 

[Joe]

 According to Mike, a portifor is the 17th century usage for portiforium which is a portable breviary.  Spell check doesn't much like either.  I'm current with this story and the word has not yet appeared there, either.  But Mike is fairish awesome so we'll just have to wait,

[Talo Segura]

9 hours ago, Joe said:

portable breviary

From this and a little further research I take it to be the set of prayers,  psalms and hymns, etc. to be chanted every hour throughout the day in Christianity, the canonical hours. The best reference to explain this being here:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_of_the_Hours 

But in brief - it's a book with everything in it, condensed if it's to be carried around.

[TomC]

Actually, the Golden Portifor was explained in Chapter 10, but that is the only time it has been mentioned so far.  I have no idea what the relevance is to the story, but it is a great story anyway, so I will keep on reading!  Eventually all will become clear (I hope).  I am pretty sure our elven friend showed up in an earlier story (much later chronologically).

[Joe]

But I wanted to know as I was reading Chapter 1.

[TomC]

Oh good, most of the loose ends all tied up nice and neat.  This is another fine addition to the series.  Of course, now I feel as if I should go back and re-read all the others again.

[Nigel Gordon]

I hate this story, it's got me stuck back in Rothenia and now I need to go and read all the other stories in the series once more. This always happens when Michael posts one of his stories. I should know better and leave them well alone. Unfortunately, I am addicted to Rothenia and all its goings on, so I can't resist reading anything Michael posts. That nearly always leads me to re-reading all his other connected works.

[Merkin]

I know the feeling, Nigel.  At my age I have a memory like a sieve, and as I worked my way through The Golden Portifer I found myself thinking, ‘Wait, wait, did that just explain the reason for what happens in that story about Henry…’ but then of course I couldn’t remember which story.  I kept tripping up on events that occurred in Portifer that appear to lay the groundwork for much of what occurred later on in “modern day” Rothenia, but as you say, it looks as though I’ll have to go back and reread the series right from the start.  Sigh.  Thankfully each time I do it is wonderful all over again.