Remember the other day when I was opinig about the difficulty to find comparables for novels?
I want to share one the the comps I have for my novel, a 1999 Polish historical drama film directed by Jerzy Hoffman the visually stunning Ogniem i Mieczem. (trans. With Fire and Sword)
I don’t recall how I dug this up out of the internets– Hold on, I do remember. I was looking for the correct garment terms to distinguish between the fitted tunic below a heavier garment in typical upper classes male dress in 14-16th c. in the regions of Russia and Eastern Europe.
Ya know, like everyone does.
And while attempting to nail down exactly what the word ‘zhupa’ meant in Polish, Romanian, Czech and Russian (throw in some Old Church Slavonik, might as well), I stumbled across this gorgeous photo which was the embodiment of the dress I had been seeing in my head for years.
So, of course, I tracked it down.
I mean, it’s just, *sigh, gorgeous.
And although my novel is a fantasy, I am leaning heavily into my degrees in Russian and E.European History, and Russian Lit. I’m also drawing inspriation from the Ottoman Empire. Because, there’s this fascinating period of history between the three entities, especially the southern locations – there was an almost constant battle over this territory involving these three–’empires’ isn’t the right word. But, you get the idea.
Big breath. Ok. One comparable down. Now, back to the trenches.