Erik Schmidt
Senior Member
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posted 02-24-2002 05:33 PM
  
Hey Rich,
I can only presume you are responding to my reply to Papatoad's questions in the forum.
I'll clarify. In 'modern' times the French word "Donjon" has been reused in the English as the word 'dungeon', which means some sort of prison, torture chamber or cellar within a castle. The word has little to do with castles in reality. If you use the search on these forums you will find other discussions which go into this further.
The original French word "donjon" means exactly the same as the English word "keep". They have nothing to with cellars or prisons as such, as they pertain to a building within the castle which is used as a last refuge and is often made stronger than the rest of the castle. The keeps come in many shapes and sizes, from small roundtowers to large rectangular buildings, such as the ones the Normans built in many English castles.
The words 'keep' and 'donjon describe the whole building, and some of these did indeed have a small drawbridge in front of the door, and in most cases this was the only entrance to the keep.Erik [This message has been edited by Erik Schmidt (edited 02-24-2002).] |
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