Comparing the invalides and delft falchions, they're clearly very similar, but only a few seconds viewing will let you see the significant proportional differences between them, the tang shape, the false edge, the curvature to the tip, and the pommels are very different. Something about #2 and #3 in particular jar my eye, because they are too similar. Those three falchions are far too close in proportional simiarity for comfort to me. (Just to quickly explain, I used to work as a 3d artist, creating digital 3d modelling work, and its given me a particular focus in terms of observing proportion and dimension, and I spot details like that quite easily.) Regarding examples #1, and particularly # 2 and #3 of the photographic samples, I cant help but feel sceptical for one reason: Similarity of proportion.
I'm not certain what the status of the Hermann-Historica example was, I was told by Carl Koppeschaar that it failed to sell after the previous auction, but I'm uncertain of any developments since. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Killacky, PhD Candidate, Medieval Literature, Bangor University Run, tailors, run, or she’ll kill you all e’en now. She put out her horns like a little Kyloe cow The best man amongst them durst not touch her tail Today the pairing can still be enjoyed in the nursery rhyme, Four-and-Twenty Tailors Went To Kill a Snail:įour-and-twenty tailors went to kill a snail, They experienced a brief revival, however, in medieval manuscripts towards the end of the 15th century.Īnd they haven’t completely disappeared from the common imagination. Like many other subjects popularised in marginal illuminations of the 1300s, the snail and knight duo gradually disappeared as time wore on. Once a symbol of deceptive courage, the snail became a creature to be hunted down and destroyed in a display of strength and bravery.
Confrontation with a snail, therefore, could represent a test of personal strength as well as mental fortitude. Snails were recognised in medieval times for their unusual strength, given that they were able to carry their home on their back. Other similarly lighthearted imagery includes a cat stalking a snail with the head of a mouse, as well as dogs, monkeys, dragons and even rabbits in fierce opposition with the molluscs. There are also several representations of women pleading with knights not to attack the formidable beasts. Many of the doodles show a knight dropping their sword or kneeling submissively before their diminutive shelled foe, which accentuates its satirical implications. One theory is that these doodles added humour to texts which were otherwise quite dry and serious.Ī reader could rest their eyes by taking a moment to laugh at the scene of snail combat before continuing with their reading. Nobody knows exactly why battles between snails and knights were so popular throughout the middle ages. From here, they spread to other areas of medieval life.ĭecorative panels carved around 1310 on the main entrance of Lyon Cathedral in France, for example, showcase a knight confronting a snail and another man threatening a dog-headed giant snail with an axe.ĭespite travelling across the continent, the knights versus snails motif varied little from country to country, which suggests that it may have had a deeper meaning. However, there is one known instance of a woman opposing a snail wielding a spear and shield.Īs these snail combat doodles increased in popularity within manuscripts, they became an accepted element of medieval imagery. Snail assailants are almost always male knights. In the manuscripts of the French folktale, Le Roman de Renart, the weapons that the knights were depicted with varied between sticks, maces, flails, axes, swords and even forks. Often, the doodles depicted an armed knight confronting a snail whose horns were extended and pointing like arrows. Interestingly, in most cases these snail doodles appear to be unrelated to the adjoining illustrations of textual passages. A few years on – although slightly less consistently – these same images started appearing in Flemish and English manuscripts. Images of knights fighting snails first started to emerge in North French illuminated manuscripts (which are decorated with richly coloured illustrations) towards the end of the 13th century (around 1290).
And they reveal fascinating insights into what medieval people thought about the world around them. One such example is the frequently recurring – and extremely odd – image of knights warring against snails.įrom the late 13th century through to the 15th century, images of knights fighting snails pop up in all sorts of unlikely places within the medieval literary world. The doodles found in the margins of very old manuscripts are often just as interesting as the content of the manuscripts themselves.
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