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Well in the interest of having this wonderful thread not die I will ask some questions. What kind of contraceptives did people use historically besides pulling out? How much did they know about fertility and menstrual cycles? What do you think about Bernard Cornwall? How common were flails and things like that (ball+chain style weapons) in the era of plate armor? They seem ridiculous and unwieldy and inconvenient in about a dozen ways. Was fighting with a main gauche or parrying dagger strictly a dueling thing? Did anybody ever actually dual wield? Some of these questions are silly and I understand if you don't answer them.
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Feb 19, 2013 09:21
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Railtus posted:Until surgical abortions, terminating a pregnancy often led to the dead foetus remaining inside the body.  quote:Some herbal remedies are suggested here - http://faculty.bsc.edu/shagen/STUDENT/Joy&Chris/contraset.html - This is also the kind of thing that in England “cunning folk” might do. Again, it lists the sources, but elsewhere it mentions chastity belts, which you should never take at face-value in reference to the medieval period. The evidence for their existence in medieval times was circumstantial at best (Bellifortis sketch 1405, which seems to be a joke) and like many ‘medieval’ torture devices they seem to be mostly Victorian inventions. So chastity belts were just the Victorians being extremely kinky? I know this is a little outside of the scope of this thread, but what was up with the Victorian era and all the sexual piccadillos that persisted as a result of whatever cultural trauma seems to have affected the time period? What was different about the sexual repression of earlier periods compared to the Victorian era? In a similar vein, is there historical documentation that shows the effect cultural traumas like The Inquisition had on society, like how Japan is still affected by the bombing or Germany is still affected by WW2 or the southern United States is still affected by Reconstruction? quote:I also absolutely loved Azincourt – Sir John Cornewaille is spectacularly entertaining and I love Hook’s religious experiences. My main criticisms of his writing are that he gets carried away with the subjects of corruption within Christianity (which did happen, but far less than one would think from reading his work) and the mistreatment of women. Excellent, I'm glad I can responsibly enjoy a little  and learn something at the same time. Cornwell had some bizarre experiences as a child growing up with the Peculiar People sect/cult who "banned frivolity of all kinds and even medicine" so I cut him some slack with all his rapist/con men priests, I think he does a great job of making a case for the good the church did as well as the bad. Especially in the Saxon Series he explains the power of Christianity from the viewpoint of pagan warriors, which gave me a whole new perspective on the rapid rise of the early Church due to the practical value of the Christian religion. There's a little aside where Uhdred ponders Wodin, and how there's no sense he could ever give a drat about you personally. The gods were mercurial and did their own thing, arbitrary just like natural forces. Jesus, though. Jesus loved you and could be proud or disappointed, would punish and reward based on relatively clearly defined rules. Anyway I just think this stuff is neat and if you feel like just expounding on a topic that's interesting to you that you don't think many people are aware of, I would enjoy it.
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Feb 20, 2013 01:09
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Nektu posted:Find books about the black death, how it changed the face of europe and the culture of the (few) survivors people if you want to read about traumas. Can you recommend any particular titles?
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Feb 21, 2013 20:21
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How about that Rob Roy swordfight, eh? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEtPluUi0_U How much of this is Hollywood Flynnisms and how much is "realistic"? How about The Duellists? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhwIrONyEzg
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Apr 27, 2013 10:35
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 That was an amazing read. If you start a website where you review movie swordfights I'll click your ads and donate money. Rob Roy is a lot of fun, not sure how historically accurate it is. It's definitely got problems but overall it's a really engaging and compelling movie with really, really good characters. And all the sword fights are like that: physically brutal and kind of terrifying. Archie posted:“Love is but a dung heap, Betty, and I am but a cock that climbs upon it to crow.” Anyway if any of you haven't seen The Duellists and you like to watch people hack at each other with swords in a way that conveys verisimilitude i.e. the pain and horror and plain physical exertion involved in trying to kill a man with a large edged weapon in a fair fight, do check it out. It's loving brutal. One of Ridley Scott's early films, back when he had good scripts and had stuff to say. The cinematography is amazing. The saber duel is... hard to watch. It's a dark, almost blackly comic tale of two men who inexplicably hate each other and force each other to fight many duels over a span of decades. Set during the end of the Napoleonic wars. Rockopolis posted:All this talk of dueling is making me wonder, not so much "Why is it always swords" (although I do wonder about duels with other weapons), but were there any duels fought unarmed? To the death, even? Because it's awesome.   Also because a cannon only has limited utility as a weapon, early cannons especially taking 4 hours or more to load. Cannons are great for knocking down walls, but against soft targets a volley of gunfire is much more effective.Fighting with swords is a test of skill and mettle. In a hand to hand fight the larger and stronger opponent almost always has the advantage. Strength is certainly a factor in swordfighting, but skill is vastly more important. The parties would have to agree on the weapons used before hand. There probably were duels fought with bare hands. I like the balloon duel: (article has spoilers for the end of The Duellists, don't read #1 if you plan on watching it.) http://listverse.com/2007/11/08/top-8-remarkable-duels/
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Apr 30, 2013 02:53
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