"My heart is filled with gladness when I see
Strong castles besieged, stockades broken and overwhelmed,
Many vassals struck down,
Horses of the dead and wounded roving at random.
And when battle is joined, let all men of good lineage
Think of naught but the breaking of heads and arms,
For it is better to die than be vanquished and live. . . .
I tell you I have no such joy as when I hear the shout
'On! On!' from both sides and the neighing of riderless steeds,
And groans of 'Help me! Help me!'
And when I see both great and small
Fall in the ditches and on the grass
And see the dead transfixed by spear shafts!
Lords, mortgage your domains, castles, cities,
But never give up war!"
--Bertrand de Born, French aristocrat and troubadour
Friday, May 1, 2009
A Distant Mirror
I'm sure most of my august and erudite readers have come across this bit of medieval verse at some point, but for those of you who haven't I thought I'd post it here. I myself was recently reminded of it when reading Barbara Tuchman's excellent A Distant Mirror. For those of you looking to emphasize the alien, exotic nature of medieval thinking, there is little else that sums things up as succinctly.
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Very cool, thanks. Definitely something to think about. I read Tuchman's book many years ago but had forgotten this bit. At some point I should look at it again; I'm sure I'll find it's full of great story ideas and slice-of-life details.
ReplyDeleteI literally just got A Distant Mirror today, but it may hearten you to know that this same passage appears in the Dragon Warriors rulebook.
ReplyDeletejoe g: Another good one from the book is the story of how, during a period of severe famine, starving peasants would lurk near gallows, waiting to cut down the hanging body and carve it up for consumption.
ReplyDeleteblizack: Ha, no wonder it's been on my mind! :)
"...this same passage appears in the Dragon Warriors rulebook"
ReplyDeleteIt's also quoted in the "Pendragon" sourcebook as an illustration that the past did things differently.
You know what? I was thinking of Pendragon when I posted earlier. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteYou are a F*cking moron, can't you stupid LARPing RPG people get anything right!!! Why the f*ck can't you even spell a persons name right! IT IS BETRAN NOT BETRAND you stupid moron!!!! You couldn't even check google, effing wikipedia is better than you!
ReplyDeleteRight, because we all know how rigorous Medieval spelling conventions were...
ReplyDeleteI'll take the way it's spelled in a book written by a respected Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar over Wikipedia any day, Mr. Anonymous.