Talk:Theophanu

I have now just read basically the same entry several times. Exactly the same info about the Ottonians, with links to people who aren't necessarily important enough to have articles, except as "son of". These entries are the equivalent of historical Dictionary entries -- they really aren't useful, because they don't say anything about WHY the person is worthy of discussion. Even the entries on the Ottos have no mention of their careers, administration, society under their reign...How on earth can you write about Otto the Great (and wasn't there already an article on him?) without mentioning Lechfeld?

For this article specifically, I would like to know what is meant by "Other names are also known." and if Theophanu's father was Constantine Skleros, who was he? (Asking in a rhetorical, this should be in the entry, sense, not actually asking who he was...). Right now, this is just another article that really has no significance until somebody willing to do some actual research and work re-writes it. JHK

Actually, Theophanu is fairly important for art historians (yes, I mean me - and there's a nice single volume of essays available,a nd I should read it and expand this). The point is wedon't know WHO her father was - someone in the imperial family, we think, but she was not porphyrogenita ("born to the purple"). Oh, well. I agree, these recent ottonian additions are nothing but stubs with no history (nothing but genealogy, which is not very interesting in and of itself unless you're a descendent of the people listed). I don't think we'll need entries for anyone who wasn't an actual sovereign, except the occasional Theophano. Oh, that's another point - Theophano is the usual English-language spellig, but I don't think it's worth worrying about in this case.--MichaelTinkler

I think that every page is usefull. I, for instance, read this strange name and ended up here. Now i know who she was and that was regent of the holy roman empire. And that she is important for art historians. Maybe Michael should explain why... Muriel Gottrop