Weights & Measures

[JC Lamont]

Hey -- is there a particular standard in fantasy for weights and measures?

I need to know if I should use feet, inches, miles, yards, pounds, and ounces -- all or none of them?

Most importantly, I don't want to confuse my readers -- saying something like "this weights 10 stones" and the reader has no idea how heavy that is. But I also don't want to say something is 200 pounds if "pound" is going to jar them out of an otherwise medieval/archaic flair novel.

Thanks.

[scintor]

Using English standard untis, especially some of the odd ones, is a good way to give your narrative an archaic feel without being too confusing. The ones that have fallen out of use are easy enough to look up and the ones that are still in use will be confortable to the reader.

Scincerely,

[e-mail]

[Spokane Flyboy]

Unless you want to put a conversion table in the front of your book, I'd steer away from them. I have seen books that kept things like that and glossaries in the appendix.

[Christian Soldier]

Plus you would want your characters to show how heavy or light something is. That makes it easier for your reader to understand without having to constantly go back to the appendix or weight table at the front. Using this technique actually gives you a little more control over you fantasy world and gives you some leeway to work with.

God bless -- CS

[kirstymca]

We still use stones for people's weight in the UK - so American things that give it in pounds totally confuse me

(well, officially we use metric for everything, but in real life...)

You could of course bring in really ancient things like furlongs.

Or perhaps measurements like "a day's march". Depending on the context obviously.

Cubits and handspans are another option - especially handspans as everyone knows what they are.

[Spokane Flyboy]

May 1, 2009 14:34:02 GMT -5 kirstymca said:

(well, officially we use metric for everything, but in real life...)

Reminds me of Northern Alberta in Canada. They still tell you distances in miles, mostly because the grid system their land and roads are laid out in were done in miles and the ranchers and farmers still buy and sell land in terms of sections (a section being one square mile). The majority of their rural roads are called Range and Township roads for that reason as well.

[kirstymca]

A couple more suggestions of archaic-sounding units of measurement:
Two fingers' width.
Seven paces.

And, of course, direct comparisons such as:
Larger than his fist.
As small as a pumpkin seed.

It's harder with weights, because you can't have comparisons easily. Except perhaps something like "so heavy it would take two strong men to lift it".

That would be no use for precise weights though. What kind of things would you be weighing? Gold and things could be weighed in lbs and ounces (tho' I think gold's actually measured in troy ounces, which are different) - stones would only be needed for big things that are more than 14lbs, such as people.

But I wonder if people in a 'historical' type context would think much about people's weights at all. They didn't have bathroom scales, or magazines urging them to lose a few pounds. Would anyone know their own weight? So maybe, instead of saying, "he was at least 20 stone," or whatever, they would be more likely to focus on physical size.

Anyway, just a few thoughts that may or may not be useful
K

[Nova]

I say use the parsec .

[Therin]

Hmmm...

"How far to the nearest crossing?"

"The Brandywine Bridge... 0.000000000001043 parsecs"

[knightofhyn]

There are also colloquialisms. I live in the south and there's no surprise to hear someone say something as colorful as "Well that thing ain't no heavier than a bird's egg".

To which I comment "Ostrich?"

[kirstymca]

;D Ha Ha

Another option is to use ancient measurements no-one can understand, and then give an understandable explanation. Not in an artificial way, of course, but something like:

"Here are the two bushels of wheat you ordered," said the storekeeper.
Brendan looked at the two huge sacks, each half his height. How was going to carry them home?

Only better, because you're a writer and I'm not.

[tris]

of course that might still be confusing....are we using hobbit height or elven height? or maybe giant height? (just kidding Kirsty's solution is the more elegant one.

Most readers are going to pick up from context whether the item is heavy or light, near or far. ( I read both American and British authors and haven't had a problem. But then I'm not really concerned with exactly how many pounds or stones a car might weigh -- I just need to know it's heavy)

[waldenwriter]

I suppose it depends on the feel you're going for. There are a lot of weights and measures that were used in ancient or medieval times that aren't used today but might have a place in fantasy.

[siremethmimetes]

You have the same problem anyways with currency. What some people do is simply use a made up word with a clearly defined context, and let the reader figure it out as they go. Currency is relative to its buying power anyways, so that is not too hard (especially if you can give context with other rates in other places (I like economics)). But weights and lengths are more objective and grounded in reality. I say base it off of the human frame and the contextual clues, making up your own system. You cannot really 'heave' something that weighs only as much as a pigeon's egg, and you cannot 'toss' a whole deer, so you have some contextual clues to go by generally.

[beckyminor]

I ran across a website that offers some historical definitions and examples of weights and measures from "times past."

www.hemyockcastle.co.uk/measure.htm#ancient

I do recall, also, when I was looking to see if I could use "pounds" in a fantasy story, that the measurement of the pound does date back to a medieval origin, so that shouldn't cause too many quibbles if you use it.

But I also agree that it's more colorful to describe the weight than to just name it by number.