petermorwood: eleos-alias:andro-womeninarmor:Basira- Wisdom by Othon NikolaidisFound here [Image des
petermorwood: eleos-alias:andro-womeninarmor:Basira- Wisdom by Othon NikolaidisFound here [Image description: A woman in full plate armor standing in a library and holding a book in her right hand. In her left hand is a flail. She is dark skinned and her hair is in cornrows. She is standing by a bookcase filled with thick tomes whose covers are faded and worn. Also present is a large urn, about thigh height, filled with scrolls.] Imposing art of a librarian who has decided that fines just aren’t enough of a deterrent for late returns, while wearing armour with “there’s a woman in here” breast enhancement that’s actually practical since it’s properly shaped for deflection… I like it a lot - and am I the only one reminded of Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) from “Loki”?The flail, however, has a problem common to a lot of flails in art: its chains are far too long. Those striking-weights shouldn’t be able to reach the user’s own hand, for obvious give-yourself-a-serious-owie reasons. The purpose of a weapon is to damage the opponent, not the wielder…*****Indeed there’s a question-mark over whether short-handled flails ever existed outside movies and illustrations (this article sums it up, though I’ve seen the question raised elsewhere) and watching movies where they’re used will sometimes show the problem of over-long chains, a problem known even to medieval artists… Historical examples in museums may well be - and in the Met, IIRC - have been confirmed and re-labelled as replicas made in the 19th century for the sole purpose of hanging on a mansion wall. There’s an entire modern industry for that, though a lot of modern wallhanger weapons are often unrealistically flashy, spiky and fantastickal by comparison with their predecessors. NB my use of “replicas”; these only became “fakes” when they were passed off as real historical objects for profit.*****The fight at the end of “Ivanhoe” (1952) is a good example of why long chains and short handles didn’t work: Bois-Guilbert - “mace and chain bear I this day” - hits himself and his horse a goodly number of times, and finally comes a cropper when the oft-quoted bonus of chain weapons (”they can flex around behind a shield”) becomes their less-oft-quoted problem (”they can get wrapped around things and used against you”).BTW, the Witch-King’s ludicrous flail in the “Return of the King” movie is pure Peter Jackson - in the book, it’s a mace - and Witch-King or not, that thing still answers to momentum and inertia. A proper non-flexible mace would be far more controllable even with a huge compensating-for-something head. Also, look at him mounted, then on foot. Where on earth was he hiding that thing? (Suggestions on a postcard to anyone but me.)Two-handed flails, however, were definitely real. Like many polearms - bills, hooks, scythes - their most basic version is an obvious adaptation of an agricultural implement used for threshing grain.But enhanced with a few studs, spikes or iron bracing by the local blacksmith, they became an impressive weapon, one used with great enthusiasm by the Hussites (there’s one on the left in the first picture, above the crossbow, and a whole bunch on the right in the second)… …and were popular during many peasant revolts. (There’s also a scythe and a pitchfork in this picture.)Because of this, they appear in period fight manuals……though not IMO to teach gentlemen how to use them as much as how to counter them if confronted by an armed peasant who’s had it up to here. Or maybe a librarian who’s decided it’s time that book was returned…*****The manuals also include scythes…and even sickles……for the same reason: instructing the gentry in how to respond to farm tools as weapons. -- source link
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