My WIP is set in post-Roman dark age Britain and one of my characters is in a long term but non marital relationship with a warlord/tribal leader.
I am struggling to find the right term to use for this. 'Mistress' seems way too modern so I opted for 'concubine'. However, every time I reread what I have written, the word concubine stands out and just doesn't look right.
I realise the people of this time were a generation or two after the Romans had left so might have used a term like concubine. But the connotations of the word are a lot more formal than I want the position of my character to be. He is not a civilised Roman - he is a dark age warrior (although he would be reasonably well educated for the time and would speak Latin at least as a second language). She is his woman who travels about with him and has his children but crucially is not married to him.
Is there another word I could use? Is it just me that thinks the word concubine doesn't fit this situation...? Maybe it is just me and that word - I hate it and find it almost comical. I wish I could use mistress but that makes me think of 19th century and later.
Any advice would be gratefully received!
I am struggling to find the right term to use for this. 'Mistress' seems way too modern so I opted for 'concubine'. However, every time I reread what I have written, the word concubine stands out and just doesn't look right.
I realise the people of this time were a generation or two after the Romans had left so might have used a term like concubine. But the connotations of the word are a lot more formal than I want the position of my character to be. He is not a civilised Roman - he is a dark age warrior (although he would be reasonably well educated for the time and would speak Latin at least as a second language). She is his woman who travels about with him and has his children but crucially is not married to him.
Is there another word I could use? Is it just me that thinks the word concubine doesn't fit this situation...? Maybe it is just me and that word - I hate it and find it almost comical. I wish I could use mistress but that makes me think of 19th century and later.
Any advice would be gratefully received!