Slavete Omnes,
From British Museum, under Creative Commons licence, comes this XVI century print by the German printmaker Jost Amman, who frequently drew and printed images of the Ottoman warriors and soldiers.
It comes from this print, lavishly published by Jost Amman, and the British institution has only this etching. The etching shows some episode from the Ottoman wars in Hungarian Kingdom of the 1520-30s. .
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| translation from German - via Google translate |
Salvete Omnes,
a quick entry - Pommel plate from a saddle MET DP273591.
The MET describes this pommel plate as Mongolian (Central or Western Asian) or Tibetan (13th-15th ceentury/ XIII-XV century).
a close up clearly shows two mounted warrior, archer executing a Parthian shot and a lancer handling his lance in the two-handed manner, with a tiger or panther in between.
Valete
Salvete Omnes,
this month I have revisited the American legend of Zorro, so perhaps a quick gallop to the British Isles and the tale of Robin Hood or Robin of Locksley, the famous outlaw of Sherwood Forest, Lady Marian and his Merry Band.
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| Robin or Robertus (Robert?) |
the image above, from Wiki Commons, a XV century print showing allegedly Robin Hood on horseback - sweet to have survived.
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| Robin and Marian |
The Outlaws of Medieval England - a pdf from University of Hawaii. And a net article on the real outlaws of medieval England. More about the outlaws in medieval England and Iceland, legends and lore.
About the sorry life of the outlaws - a short description from this ballad ( English XV century poetry) and a painting by Joseph Edward Southall .
'The snow, the frost, the rain,
The Cold, the heat, for dry or wete,
We must Lodge on the plain,
And, us above, no other roof,
But a brake bush or twain (The Nut Brown Maid, 172-176)
Another ballad here - Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.
There are many videos on Robin (apart from fiction films) available on Yt - eg Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries or Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest & stories from an English bowman (more from the reeanctor point of view). Or English writer Dan Davis' documentary on William of Cassingam.
We can also turn to trusty Academia - eg the whole book titled Robin Hood in Greenwood Stood - Alterity and Context in the English Outlaw Tradition, a collection of articles where there is one on the social context of late Medieval Archery. From Univeristy Federal do Rio de Janeiro comes article - The Adventures of Robin Hood: Legend, Cinema and History. And many, many more on Academia.
In this link there is the list of movies and television productions about Robin Hood (I like many of them and enjoyed this tv series, because of the music by Clannad), and some illustrations from American etc books on the famous outlaw
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| Robin and Little John |
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| from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by American Howard Pyle |
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| Friar Tuck and Robin |
Valete
Salvete Omnes,
long time ago I made a post about the relief from the British Musuem showing nomads, most likely the Kimmerians , being pursued by the Assyrians under king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859BC) , shooting backwards from the horseback - Parthian shot - and finally making signs of submission towards the pursuing Assyrian chariot.
Today I would like share this image from the said museum - it is a drawing of the said relief (from Kalhu palace) created in situ by Austen Henry Layard in 1840s .
note that the reign of this Neo-Assyrian king was the period when soldiers mounted on horses became a part of the Assyrian army. But these horsemen rode in pairs, where one rider held the reins of the archer's horse who fired the arrows while mounted. A bit more than awkward one could observe .
In contrast our nomads in the relief above do not need that assistance, being completely independent one from another.
Meantime, you can download the drawing from the museum's site or this one above.
Valete
Salvete Omnes,
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| Chinggis Khan as the first emperor of Yuan Dynasty |
a shot entry - of course it is the dog day for sure - :)
a new book on the Mongols and their meteoric rise to power and empire is coming this year - be it August or perhaps later . The publisher is the Cambridge University Press - The Mongol Empire, Two Volume Set. - Hiram & Kim editors et al.
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| Chinggis Khan on horseback according to a Yuan Dynasty artist |
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| Yuan Dynasty in China |
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| Kublai Khan on a hunting expedition, by Chinese court artist Liu Guandao, c. 1280 |
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| Temur Khan hunting geese - detail |
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| the empire was won on and from horseback - and many of these mounts might have succumbed to the hardships of campaigning |
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| while other mounts thrived on |
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| horse archery, martial and hunting skills were the most desired attributes for a Mongol horseman |
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| detail from a Yuan Dynasty painting |
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| a detail from Yuan Dynasty scroll - lots of jingles on this horse harness |
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| pure beauty of this painting from 1271-1368 period |
