Talk:Sister Fidelma mysteries

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Having read both The Name of the Rose and the Brother Cadfael series, I'm at a loss to envisage a tradition that encompasses both... unless you just mean "it's a historical mystery with monks in"? --Paul A 16:43, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Thx, you're right; perhaps i should change it to 'literary tradition'.
 * It may be that the problem lies in my humble english skills
 * Lectonar 08:41, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Couldn’t the “medieval whodunnit” be considered a group of literature? OTOH, I agree that the sentence is mostly superfluous and it interrupts flow of the paragraph.


 * Ceplm (talk) 20:47, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure that I made myself clear. I knew you meant 'literary tradition'; what I was trying to say was that I think that The Name of the Rose and the Cadfael novels are not actually part of the same literary tradition. They really have very little in common apart from the trivial coincidence that they're both about crime-solving medieval monks. --Paul A 09:00, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think there are more similarities that you think there are, even concerning the persons.

1. they are ummistakingly medieval whodunnits; i did not intend to implicate that they are identical in ways of literary achievement

2. in my opinion, both of the characters use (so to speak) use similar techniques to solve the crimes; both authors give a very nice account of medieval living conditions and background

3. as i'm quite sure that many people never heard about Sister Fidelma in the first place, i intented to give them a certain hint as to what the whole thing is about (very faint outline); i could have also included the books by doherty or others

but feel free to change what you think is not up to the point; as i mentioned on my user page and in the corresponding talk, it is my first try at 'wikipedia'

Lectonar 10:32, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Religieux, religieuse?
These are French words for "monk" and "nun", respectively. Why are they being used in English here?--91.148.159.4 (talk) 19:01, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

In the series, Tremayne refers to Fidelma as a "religieuse" and never, to the best of my recollection, as a "nun." The terms are used for the sake of consistency with the novels. Drfryer (talk) 00:02, 18 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Well in that case, the terms should be explained, not just adopted without comment. Otherwise, it's quite mystifying for the reader. I suppose one reason for this choice of words is that it was not impossible for those very early "monks/nuns" to marry, and that this seems incompatible with our current concepts of a monk and a nun. But any explanation would need to be sourced. The question should be researched by those, who, like you, are interested in the series and involved with the article. --91.148.159.4 (talk) 21:10, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * They weren't actually monks or nuns: those names come from a later time and a different concept of religious affiliations. "Religious brother" (or sister) would be a better term if an unwieldy one. --NellieBlyMobile (talk) 23:55, 20 September 2011 (UTC)


 * "Monk" and "nun" are universally used to refer to members of religious communities from the second century onward, and do not necessarily imply a particular "concept of religious affiliation". I have made changes accordingly.  Deipnosophista (talk) 15:11, 8 November 2014 (UTC)


 * In colloquial language, yes. However, technically a Cistercian sister is a nun, while a Mary-Ward-sister is not; and to make matters even more intricate, I think that the Poor Clares are nuns although Franciscans certainly are not monks (the term "friar" specifically includes the meaning "but not monk").--2001:A61:260C:C01:F57C:63C4:CE72:D657 (talk) 12:07, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Repurpose to focus on the series
Would any Wikipedians object to renaming this article Sister Fidelma mysteries and slightly refocusing the lead section on the series of books itself rather than this character in particular? I also think a great deal of the "Biography" section should be removed. Hoppingalong (talk) 03:16, 4 November 2012 (UTC)
 * It's strange that we have the two biographies and not an article on the series itself. I think a retooling to a page on the series is in order. Jarkeld (talk) 11:01, 4 November 2012 (UTC)
 * When I started this article more than 8 years ago, Wikipedia was a different place. Yes, go ahead, and make an article about the series, merging the pertaining articles. Lectonar (talk) 16:00, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I did my best to start the merge. I have moved Sister Fidelma and this talk page to Sister Fidelma mysteries and the corresponding talk page. I edited the lede to make it about the series, not just the character. Then I pasted the material that had been at Brother Eadulf‎ into its own section in the series article, editing it slightly to make sense as part of a larger aritcle. I think the regular editing process can take it from here so far as what is here now goes, but are there other articles out there that should be merged and redirected here? Hoppingalong (talk) 04:24, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

The Yellow Plague
In section 1.2 Brother Eadulf, I have amended the wikilink of "The Yellow Plague", which was piped to Yellow fever. It seems unlikely that Tremaine's reference to a 7th-century plague in England intended that disease: rather it surely refers to the "Yellow plague of Rhôs" aka the Plague of 664 (the chronology matches as nearly as I can tell). This was likely† a recurrence of the Plague of Justinian of 541–549 caused by Yersinia pestis (Bubonic plague) which in later outbreaks was called The Black Death.
 * († though Smallpox has also been considered a possibility.)

I have therefore re-piped the link to Plague of 664. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.135.95 (talk) 01:28, 9 May 2021 (UTC)