An Under Handed Duel

The Duel of Sir Guy of Steenvoorde and Sir Herman the Iron

Since I stirred up a hornet's nest, I feel that I should clean my pallet with something more humorous. A trial of combat between Sir Guy of Steenvoorde and Sir Herman the Iron. The following is not suitable for bardic piece at a school demo and probably should not be re-enacted as a Ice Dragon bardic performance.

In the 2nd quarter of the 12th century a Flemish knight by the name of Guy Steenvoorde was accused of being involved in the plot that killed Charles, the the Count of Flanders. The main point of the accusation was that Guy was married to the niece of another conspirator, who had just been killed by being beaten and then strangled with the bowels of a dog. While he, Guy, denied being involved, another knight, who was loyal to the late Count, named Sir Iron Herman, hotly accused Guy of being a murderer. I was unable to discover if Iron was his actual name, but all of accounts describe him as "a strong knight". 

Galbert of Bruges.wrote the following account on that April day in 1127:

"For this reason Iron Herman, a strong knight, had challenged Guy to single combat in the presence of the illegitimate Count of Ypres and immediately after [Provost] Charles had been killed because he had evilly betrayed his lord [Count Charles]. But Guy leapt forward, declaring himself ready to defend himself at any time against the alleged betrayal. And the next day that was assigned to them was the same on which the aforementioned provost suffered the torments of his death.
...
"Guy knocked his adversary from his horse and kept him down easily with his lance as he was struggling to get up. Then his opponent, running nearer, ran Guy’s horse through with his sword, disemboweling it. Sliding from the horse, his sword drawn, Guy attacked his adversary. A continuous and bitter encounter followed with exchanges of sword blows, until, worn out by the weight and burden of their arms, they threw away their shields and hastened to win the fight with their strength in wrestling. Iron Herman fell prostrate to the ground, and Guy threw himself on top of him, pounding the knight’s mouth and eyes with his iron gauntlets. But just as one reads of Antheus, [1] the prostrate man gathered strength bit by bit from the coolness of the ground and slyly made Guy think he was certain of victory while he rested. Meanwhile, having raised his hand very smoothly to the lower edges of the mail coat, where Guy was unprotected, and grabbed him by the testicles, he collected his strength for a single effort and threw him from him, breaking open all the lower parts of his body by this grabbing throw so that the prostrate Guy grew weak and cried out that he was defeated and was going to die.
"Then the Count, who wanted above all to enhance his reputation through this combat, ordered Guy to be hung on the same gallows next to the already dead provost so that they would die partners in torment just as they had been partners in betraying."

The only other account of the duel is recorded by Walter of Théroanne:

"When the judicial duel to determine the case between Guy and his accuser Herman, nicknamed the Iron, began, Guy had the better of the first and second exchanges of blows and fell on Herman and crushed him the the ground under the immense weight of his body and their arms (for Guy, like Herman, was armed with a heavy hauberk and a helmet). Then Herman, strengthened by God’s virtue, got up as if he no longer felt anything weighing on him and, throwing down in turn him who, as was mentioned above, had previously had the upper hand, began to press him to confer the crime he had committed. What more can I say? He was ultimately vanquished by divine judgement and convicted of the crime of which he was accused and thus sentenced to die."

Jeff Rider, a professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Medieval Studies at Wesleyan University, explains that Galbert of Bruges was not in Ypres to see this duel and was relying on the reports of others to recreate his account.

[1] Antheus was a giant, the son of Poseidon and Gaia. He loved to wrestle and was invincible as long as he remained in contact with the earth (Mom). He was killed by Hercules who held him above his head until Antheus grew weak enough to have the life squeezed out of him.

"Duels History and Purpose " Patrick Luo Final Project Blog 5.- Legio I Lynx Fulminata, 2 Dec. 2018, legioilynx.com/2018/12/02/duels-history-and-purpose-patrick-luo-final-project-blog-5/.

Galbert of Bruges. The Murder, Betrayal, and Slaughter of the Glorious Charles, Count of Flanders. Translated by Jeff Rider. Yale University Press, Nov 26, 2013

Recovering from COVID lockdown

Howdy, my friends.

I wish to bring up an idea that I had broached last week on one of the Hael's Zoom meetings. It will be a while before we will be able to hold safe events. I think that our first gatherings will be small, local, pot-lucks rather than full, garbed events. Many of us are talking, on Facebook, about how they can't wait to hug one another and get back to normal. I don't want to slam on the brakes here, but I wish to point out that our current situation is going to have an impact on many of us. Our extrovert friends are having trouble not being with people, certainly, but our introvert friends are not only having the same isolation issues, but there is a real possibility that suddenly being surrounded by other people might set off anxieties and panic attacks. Especially when a dozen of your friends bear down on you for a group hug.

The transition from being alone for weeks at a time to surrounded by touchy-feely friends might overwhelm some of us. Particularly those of us who live alone. We might not be able to have get togethers until June or July, and we might not be able to have actual events until August or September, but we should start thinking about this, now, and plan for the possibility that some of our friends might not want to be hugged, or even touched.

I've been seeing color coded dog leads and harnesses, while out on my walks: Green for "okay to pet"; red for "don't touch."; yellow for "ask first". We should adopt a similar system for when we are allowed to act like normal SCAdians. We could wear something: a piece of duct tape; a scrap of cloth; a ribbon tied on one arm; that would tell others how that person feels towards physical contact, at that moment.

Green = Bring on the hugs. (go ahead and ask)
Yellow = I don't know, ask me first. (I might say no, even to a close friend)
Red = Nope. (Don't even ask)

Of course, always ask first before hugging another person, but you will be able to tell if a given person might want you to hug them from someone who doesn't want to be touched. Or who might have health issues and want to stay 6 feet away from everyone until we have a vaccine. We might have to use this system, or something similar, for a while. Almost all of us colored duct tape. Most of us have fabric scraps and safety pins. A good deal of us have colored garters. It should be easy to whip up enough green, yellow and red tokens for everyone.

I can't wait until we can get back to normal, but I also don't want to see any of my friends have panic attacks because their lives went from zero physical human contact to all of the humans in one room at once. I will admit that when the Hael has it's first post-lockdown party, I will reach a point where there are too many huggers and I need to stop. I love my friends, but after the first 20 hugs, I think I'll be done for the day: I'll trade in my green token for a yellow or red depending on how many people are there.

We should have a universal plan in place for when that golden day arrives and we can all get together, again. We should have plan so that we don't set off panic attacks and we can show love to our friends who need to slowly ease back into human contact. Please share this far and wide.

Scroll - Axeman vs Centaur

Scroll - Axeman vs Centaur

Description:

Two scrolls depicting the same image of a inhabited initial ‘A’, depicting a centaur spearing a man holding an axe: opening psalm 77. Inspired by folio 101r of the 12th century Hunterian Psalter.[1] Also known as the York Psalter. Gouache and ink on Fluid 140 pound, hot-pressed, cotton paper and a miniature of the same image on vellum, also with gouache and ink.

The larger image was made as a scroll blank. The smaller was made for the Shelter-In-Place Scribal War.

Details of the original image:

Vellum, 11½ x 7½, ff. 202, originally ff. 204, beautifully written in one hand (except the last 33 folios, in XIV. Cent. hand), in single cols. of 21 lines (in Kalendar 35 lines), each 8½ x 4¼, ruled and margined with plummet, 13 full-page pictures, one full-page illumination, gilt, historiated or illuminated initials begin the first verse of each Psalm, small gilt initials (ornamented in Ps. xcvi.) begin the second and following verses, no signatures or catchwords, partial foliation, modern (in pencil), the Kalendar is written in black, red, blue and green, cropped, marginalia (first three folios only), fol. sec. Martis. Cents. XII. (and XIV.) Binding: Millboards, covered crimson morocco, richly gilt-tooled inside margins, edges and sides (lines), panelled back, title (gilt): PSALTERIUM | UETUS | IN MEMBRANIS. Late Cent. XVII. [For detailed collation see: John Young and P. Henderson Aitken, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of The Hunterian Museum in The University of Glasgow. (Glasgow, 1908), p. 170.]

Although much of the early life of the Psalter remains a mystery, its acquisition by Glasgow University is quite clear. It came as part of William Hunter’s magnificent library in 1807, along with the rest of his wonderful collections. Dr William Hunter (1718-83) was a famous anatomist and physician, and renowned collector of books, manuscripts, coins, medals, paintings, shells, minerals, and anatomical and natural history specimens. Under the terms of his will, his library and other collections remained in London for several years after his death - for the use of his nephew, Dr Matthew Baillie (1761-1823) - and arrived at the University in 1807.

Hunter’s collection of books contains some 10,000 printed books and 650 manuscripts; it forms one of the finest Eighteenth Century libraries to survive intact. Hunter acquired this volume at the sale of the library of Louis-Jean Gaignat in Paris on 10 April 1769, along with several other books. His French agent, Jean B. Dessain, bought it at the auction on Hunter’s behalf for fifty livres and one sou; it was described in the sale catalogue as a ‘codex pervetustus’ (‘an antiquated book’). Now regarded as the greatest treasure in his library, Hunter was paying three times as much for early printed books at the time. [2]

Technique:

The initial image was a scroll blank, made with no assignment in mind. I had already made this image twice before, so I had some experience with it. I used gouache and ink on paper rather than vellum and period pigments as I do not have experience with period pigments, nor do I own any, and I did not have any vellum or pergamenta; only cotton paper. Working from a high resolution image of the manuscript, [3] I removed the background colors and printed out the image. The design was transferred to the paper by tracing over a light box. I feel that there is no shame in using a light box, as I am better at tracing than I am at drawing free-hand.

The scroll was made on Fluid 100% cotton, 140# hot-press watercolor paper. This scroll is 9x12” in size. I used gouache: Reeves and Winsor & Newton for colors and Holbein for the gold. I went heavy on the gold to give it some texture. For the figures and background, I used a very watered down base coat all over, with three or four layers over each area; each layer thicker and thus, darker, than the previous one. Once the paint was dry, I added the white work. I have found that with the gouache, the added white really makes the paint pop, especially the dark paints. I applied the paint so that if the virtual light source came from the upper, left-hand corner of the page, the darkest shades would fall into the right most corners, producing shadows.

I used a very watered down light-blue wash on the metal bits: the axe and spear heads. I have found, over the years, that the silver paint just doesn’t look good and a light wash give the appearance of if not metal than some material that is different than fabric or flesh. Leaving the metal bits unpainted gives the impression that the scroll is unfinished and using darker paint doesn’t give the impression of metal. Beside, this is a technique used in many medieval manuscripts, the Hunterian Psalter for example.

The background of the letter was painted with ultramarine blue gouache and highlighted with white dots: no highlighting or shading was used. Several layers of gold paint were used to make the objects stand out. The goal was to produce an image that would stand out and be visible when it was displayed in court.

Once the all of the paint had dried, I outlined all of the sections with black ink to make the image further stand out, then added white ink and paint to the highlights, to give the figures a sense of depth.

The second piece, made for the Shelter-In-Place Scribal War, was done on a 2x3” piece of actual vellum and was my first experience with working with the material. I scaled down the source image and traced it onto the scrap of vellum. I used the same ink and paint technique as I used on the paper version, but I prepped the vellum with a piece of fine sandpaper, followed up with some pounce, to remove any oil from the surface. A procedure not required on the cotton paper.

I kept the colors the same, except for the legs of the axeman: on the larger image I had used green, but I used light blue on the vellum piece because I wasn’t paying attention: I had started to apply the blue before I realized that I wasn’t using the correct color. Not a major mistake, but a mistake none the less. Also, due to the size of the piece, I was forced to use reading glasses in order to see the fine details. Even so, I had mistakenly applied the background paint where the centaur’s shield was supposed to be. I didn’t want to scrape the paint off of the vellum, since I had no experience with the material and did not want to damage it. I inked around the blue, I had applied, and made the shield more narrow. I think that it isn’t very noticeable when viewed full size; it is when you look at the high-res image.

Unlike paper, the ink and paint didn’t soak into the vellum, but floated on top of it until it dried. [4] This required me to apply a thin layer of gouache to all areas and let each one dry completely before moving on. Subsequent layers then sat atop the dry foundation layer and were less likely to run.

[1] Glasgow, University Library, MS. Hunter 229
[2] From the University of Glasgow’s web site: http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/detail_c.cfm?ID=34725
[3] Provided by the Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department’s web site: Book of the Month, May 2007, http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/may2007.html
[4] This is the same when working with pergamenta.

References:

Caballero, Rosario; Díaz Vera, Javier E. Textual Healing: Studies in Medieval English Medical, Scientific and Technical Texts. Peter Lang, 2010

Gibson, Margaret T.; Heslop, T. A.; Pfaff, Richard William. The Eadwine Psalter: Text, Image, and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-century Canterbury. Penn State Press, Jan 1, 1992

Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department’s web site: Book of the Month, May 2007, http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/may2007.html

University of Glasgow’s web site: http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/detail_c.cfm?ID=34725