History, Mythology, Art and RPGs

[Galloglaich]

Holiday Bump. Kaloyan of Bulgaria led an interesting life.

Ah yes... an interesting character indeed. This period of Bulgarian history is worth learning more about. I'll add him to my (offline) list.

G.

 

[Momeeche]

Ah yes... an interesting character indeed.

I'm living in Bulgaria these days, working for the Peace Corps, and the Second Kingdom is an interesting point in Bulgarian history.

 

[Galloglaich]

Sounds like a fascinating gig. Would you care to elaborate a bit about Bulgaria today or the history of the 2nd Kingdom? Have you been able to do any touristic exploration or is work taking up all of your time?

G.

 

[Momeeche]

Would you care to elaborate a bit about Bulgaria today or the history of the 2nd Kingdom?

I need to be careful. The Peace Corps wants us to be very careful about what we say and where we say it. I can say the Second Kingdom seems to be a time Bulgarians look upon with pride when they talk about their history, and Veliko Tarnovo and Plovdiv are very interesting cities.

 

[Matthew_]

Front gate to viking land (through the 20 mile long wall that separated Denmark from Christian Europe)

'Sensational' Discovery: Archeologists Find Gateway to the Viking Empire - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

An interesting find, to be sure, but the accompanying article seems a bit misleading to me. As far as I am aware, it is fairly well understood and accepted that frontier marking walls, such as those built by the Chinese and Romans, were primarily methods of controlling trade, rather than intended to keep the barbarians out (though, obviously, it would limit livestock theft and other forms of raiding to some degree). It would seem this Viking version had pretty much the exact same function, which is not too surprising.

 

[Galloglaich]

Our Swedish friends sword-cam video is going viral

180,000 hits now and growing
Spinning A Camera On Sword End » Viral Viral Videos
you cut me deep shrek you cut me real deep | MetaFilter
Quick, Now Run Somebody Through!: Video Camera Taped To The End Of A Sword - Geekologie

I know most of the idiots still thnk this is LARP, but hello world, this is HEMA.

G.

 

[Galloglaich]

An interesting find, to be sure, but the accompanying article seems a bit misleading to me. As far as I am aware, it is fairly well understood and accepted that frontier marking walls, such as those built by the Chinese and Romans, were primarily methods of controlling trade, rather than intended to keep the barbarians out (though, obviously, it would limit livestock theft and other forms of raiding to some degree). It would seem this Viking version had pretty much the exact same function, which is not too surprising.

Well, it seems to be a cultural / military barrier, in all three cases. I wasn't as aware of the trade angle until reading the speigel article, (can you elaborate on that?). But as much as we tend to think of them as the same today, the Scandinavians and Germans are quite different and were even going way back when the Danevirke was originally built (when that was precisely isn't sure, maybe during the Migration era, maybe earlier) and I think the Danes definitely wanted to keep the Germans out as they often continued to need to do for the next thousand years.

During the migration era obviously a big wall is a especially a plus. It won't keep roaming armies out but it will make it trickier and more dangerous for them to cross (especially trying to get back across it with loot).

I think the distinctions between Norse and German got much more marked after Charlemagne converted the Saxons ... the brutal nature of that conversion also apparently alarmed the (still pagan) Danes. As we know back then pagan Europeans and Latinized Christian Europeans were basically oil and water. Somewhat less so for the Irish for example who while Christian were not entirely latin in their culture until later in the Middle Ages, but there was clearly a kind of 'ethnic' hatred on both sides.

Similarly the Romanized Britons were "oil and water" with the Picts and other wild tribes of the far north, as were the Han Chinese from the various nomadic barbarians of Mongolia and Siberia. They couldnt' understand each other and couldn't come to some peaceful long term stable arrangement - the Monarchy / State and the tribal societies just don't mix. So there needed to be a wall.

Can you elaborate on what you mean about the roll of walls and trade a little bit? What they said in the article seemed to make sense though it's the press not an academic writer so precision or context is frequently off...

EDIT: I should add, I thought it was interesting that they had a brothel right next to the front gate. Truck drivers are truck drivers even 1000 years ago I guess....

G.

 

[Momeeche]

Can you please point me to some decent info on Greek weapons and technology during the time of Alexander?

 

[Galloglaich]

This is the best single popular history resource I know of, it covers all of Alexanders major battles in some detail and provides a lot of helpful illustrations, maps etc:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Warfare-Classical-World-Encyclopedia-Civilisations/dp/0806127945]Amazon.com: Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome (9780806127941): John Gibson Warry: Books[/ame]

For a more serious Academic analysis, Hans Delbrucks work Warfare in Antiquity: History of the Art of War, Volume I still stands tall among most of the analysis I've read:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Warfare-Antiquity-History-Art-War/dp/080329199X]Amazon.com: Warfare in Antiquity: History of the Art of War, Volume I (9780803291997): Hans Delbruck, Walter J. Renfroe Jr.: Books[/ame]

The Osprey books are also pretty good, and some of them are scanned on google books now.

This is also a very good forum for all kinds of Classical warfare, obviously mainly focused on the Romans but they cover really everything about that era including Alexander. Any question you can't find answered here can't be answered:

• Index page

And finally, there is a researcher / living history guy named Matthew Amt who is very well informed on Greek stuff (a bit pre-Alexander, but informative nonetheless), he built his own linothorax and aspis shield, he has some good info here:

Matthew Amt's Greek Hoplite Page

Hope that helps,




G.

 

[Galloglaich]

Irish stick-fighting, in Gaelic, with subtitles (from Irish TV)

TG4 - Irish language television channel - Teilifis Gaeilge - 1 Hour Documentaries - Na Chéad Fight Clubs (P1)