The Setting
From Ars Magica
The name of the local town.
Shrewsbury, Shropshire and Salop – what’s the history?
The earliest documented names for Shrewsbury are civitas Scrobensis (901), Scropesbyrie (1006) and Scrobbesbyrig (in 1016). Some scholars believe that these names derive from the Old English worlds ‘scrubb’ meaning scrubland and ‘burh’ meaning fortified place. Scrobbesbyrig, therefore, means a fortified place in the scrubland. Others suggest that it is really ‘Scrobb’s burg’ – Scrob being a nickname for a gruff person. Over the years, Scrobbesbyrig became corrupted to Shrovesbury and later Shrousbury and Shrowsbury. The spelling Shrewesbury is found in documents of 1396. There is much debate now about which is the correct pronunciation - ‘Shrows-bury’ or ‘Shrewsbury’ but both heard locally. The town of Shrewsbury is sometimes referred to as Salop and locals often refer to themselves as Salopians. This dates from the Norman period. The French speakers found ‘Scrobbes’ difficult to pronounce and simplified it to Sarop (which later became Salop). Salop is found as the name of the town in 13th century documents. The County of Salop was used as the administrative title for the county between 1888 and 1974, while Shropshire referred to the geographical county. To simplify matters, in 1974, the County Council took the name Shropshire County Council.
This page has a selection of maps, as a basis for discussions about the location of the game. Some maps show castle locations (where there are castles, there are bothersome nobles), roads (nosy passersby), roman-latin nomenclature, etc.
