Before I wave the BS flag, I just wanted to be sure there was no truth to this whatsoever. There is a website of a guy out there who books himself as a "knight" doing talks and things in some nice armor made by Christian Fletcher. He has a section of the page talking about the different pieces as well as his weapons. I'm not going to give his name out yet just in case he is on the forum.

In this section, he has a picture of the pommel[ Linked Image ] of his wallhanger he carries around and it says this:

Quote:

This is the pommel of the sword. It is hollow. The nut on the end is removed when the knight receives his sword and into it he places a lock of his lady's hair and a small scroll on which he has written the verse from Ephesians 6 about the armor of God.

Is there any truth to this or is he blowing smoke up people's butts? I don't know of any swords that had nuts on them. What's the deal???

Of course he has a picture of the dragon on his quillon [ Linked Image ] and has this quote:

Quote:

This dragon is engraved on the handle of my sword. The dragon was a symbol of Satan. The knight's sword was a symbol of the Word of God which is called the Sword of the Spirit in Ephesians 6. Also knights, I believe, did kill dragons back in the early middle ages. These were dragons left over from the era of the dinosaur.

Is this guy actually serious??? He goes around educating cub scout groups, schools and churches???

Mike

The BS flag may wave, but only as far as it flies under the banner of good intentions.

Looking at his website, I have to say his heart is in the right place trying to teach kids about the ideals of chivalry. Although it appears he teaches a fairly Victorian ideal of chivalry with all its biases, some of the particulars are wrong. The pommel thing is one of them. While there were pommels that had hollwed out faces (like the Albion Sovereign, only a bit deeper) in which a relic or small favor could be affixed and covered with a piece of quartz or glass, the pommels from the medieval period were peened in place.

As far as the dragons being dinosaurs, some YEC proponents believe that the dinosaurs lived in a time that overlapped mankind's time on Earth. The smaller ones are explained away as reptiles and such, while the big ones gave rise to the myths of dragons and wyverns and other beasties before being hunted or starved out of existence. This is due to the Paluxy River find, which shows a man's footprint next to a dinosaur footprint in fossilized mud.

I understand his good intentions, and I applaud him for that. It is a very impressive story. But as good as his intentions are, his stories probably are riddled with Victorian myths and I hope he does not pass these on to unknowing individuals.

The pommel throwing is quite funny. I never noticed that before. But as this guy mentions "unscrewing the nut and putting the stuff inside the hollow pommel, now I don't know where he got this from, but it seems quite silly to me.

Mike

can you post his site, i want to see this for myself

Try Googling Knightforhire.com. I just had a quick look over the site its very 'Victorian' as others have noted. As for educating; Might be ok for younger children but much of what it says on the site is clearly, factually wrong. As to the pommel being hollow i think it pretty much defeats the purpose of having one, ie to provide a balance to the blade?

I like the unscrewing your pommel and throwing it at your opponent business :lol:. Reminds me of a scene in Saving Private Ryan where Tom Sizemore throws his empty 45 at a German, who does the same thing with his Walther!

He is a story teller, not a historian. To keep a layman audience he has to entertain them, that he is bothering to try get them to think a bit here and there about anything, and I think he does, is extra.

There are better windmills to tilt with than a story teller whole makes his tales tall to entertain. In all honesty I find more than a few things to admire about the guy. He sounds eccentric, but he sure seems to be intent on trying to make the world a better place in his own way.

It's good to not be the only geologist around :cool: . And creationists are really funny sometimes :D , though not when vandalising outcrops etc.

Back slightly more-on-topic:

Some of my favourite fechtbuch illustrations are in Lecküchner - Kunst des Messerfechtens - BSB Cgm 582 - (dated 1482).
http://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/bsb0000...ml?seite=1

Pages 186 and 187 show somebody playing a game, while holding his opponent in a vice, and 3 guys shoving a fourth headfirst into a sack. Then the ms continues normally again.

Illustrations like this really make me wonder what the author/illustrator was thinking at the time he made the pages...

If you think that was funny...

http://jfgilles.club.fr/escrime/bibliotheque/...es/098.jpg

:lol:

Folks,
Let's not let this thread digress into snickering about period images that could be looked at sexually. We're not in middle school any more.

Sorry Chad. My appoligies.

Mike

Earlier swords were not actually very well balanced at all. These swords were designed as hacking/slashing weapons....made to splinter wooden shields and crush through the advanced maille armors of the time. Even into the "Viking Age", swords were still "end heavy". It wasn't until the introduction of more advanced, stronger, and more impenetrable armors like coats-of-plates and full plate harnasses, that swords developed into more balanced weapons. They had to be, as getting around, or through, the armor now required more thrusting and point work. This resulted in smiths designing a more balanced...i.e.controllable....weapon.

Chad, you are absolutely right; my apologies as well.