Beastiaries and heraldry (and more)

[Abbas-Al-Morim]

I'm looking for several types of books but I've had trouble finding them. If anyone could help me, that would be greatly appreciated.

Beastiaries:

Preferably not D&D or Pathfinder books but genuine bestiaries with information on folkloric monsters, beasts and plagues. It can also be a beastiary with made-up monsters (most likely based on folkloric monsters) but I'd prefer it to be based on something other than a tabletop game then. I'd prefer a book with beautiful art (preferably in color). Also, please no books marketed towards children, I can't use those. I need these books for some research that's why I'm posting this here.

Heraldry books:

Books with heraldry in it. Made-up heraldry or (preferably) historical heraldry. The idea is to get some inspiration for making my own heraldries (perhaps even borrowing or slightly modifying a few designs).

Battle reports:

Books about famous battles. The time period isn't important though my preferences go from the Dark Ages up to World War I. These books need to contain maps and images (to clarify the troop movements and logistics). Again, this is for research. For my novel, I'd like to know how to mount a military operation. My novel is set in the late medieval times so a book on the Hundred Years' war or on the Crusades would be perfect. I'm not really looking for a history book (the only history in it should be the causes of the war and a short history of the run-up to the battle). I'm just interested in the actual battles with preferably a minute-by-minute description of the movements. Preferably also some larger scope (the campaign, the logistics, the aftermath).

Can anyone help me?

 

[CupofJoe]

Battle Reports...
Up until the middle of the 19th century [Crimea and ACW I guess], I don't think there was much in the way of minute by minute understanding of a battle. The command and control just wasn't up to understanding what was happening.
I have a couple of books on early artillery and siege warfare that both deal with logistics in detail. "Siege Warfare" by Christopher Duffy and "Artillery through the ages" by HCB Rogers. Both books are 30-40 years old so there is almost certainly newer scholarship but I have found them very useful.
Less academic is "Masters of the Battlefield" by Julian Thompson. It is a coffee-table book so it is big, heavy and shiny. It covers 30 Generals and a battle for each from Alexander to Schwartzkopf, each entry has a map and "step-by-step commentary" as well as some history. I wouldn't call it detailed but it could be useful...
You may want to find access to specialist Libraries. In the UK I would look at IWM [Imperial War Museum], RUSI [Royal United Services Institute] and Sandhurst as well as the Royal Logistics Corp but there are dozens more if you know where to look [just about every regiment will have a museum and/or a library]. I know that writers and academics are given access but I don't know what hoops you might have to jump through.

The only printed Bestiary I have is the Tolkien Bestiary. I think it is wonderful but it is only Tolkien...
Good luck!

 

[A. E. Lowan]

On my shelves in the way of Beastiaries I have two that provide good general reference/jumping off points. The first is The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures Amazon.com: The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A-Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic eBook: John Matthews, Caitlin Matthews: Kindle Store Not sure where you are so I'm not sure how useful Amazon is for you. I got mine from a used book store, honestly. lol There are other titles in this series.
The second one is Giants, Monsters & Dragons by Carol Rose Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth: Carol Rose: 9780393322118: Amazon.com: Books
Neither of these are super-awesome for pretty pictures, though. For that, I recommend you go to E-Bay and find yourself a set of Time-Life Books The Enchanted World series. I LOVE this set. I've had mine since I was a kid, when it first came out, so it's pretty old, but you can still find sets floating around and some libraries have them, as well. They're great inspiration pieces and their bibliographies are priceless.

In the way of Heraldry I have Heraldry and the Heralds by Rodney Dennys Heraldry and the Heralds: Rodney Dennys: 9780224016438: Amazon.com: Books which actually does not seem to be available on Amazon (the book itself is British) though there are several other titles along similar lines that might serve your needs.

 

[skip.knox]

Have you done some research on this? There were scads of bestiaries produced in the Middle Ages. Just search on "medieval bestiary" and I'll check back with you in a couple months.

Same goes for heraldry. It's a *huge* topic with ample resources online and in your local library.

As for battle reports, you are not going to find minute-by-minute reports on anything medieval or early modern. Maybe 19thc, if you get lucky. The reason is simple: nobody was taking notes. What you can find are accounts written after the fact, sometimes many many years after the fact. If you're lucky enough to find different accounts, you'll find they differ in the details. Primary sources are best, but these can be the most difficult to read. I recommend starting with history books, despite your misgivings.

I can speak specifically to the Crusades. You're not going to find detailed descriptions, period. The Hundred Years War is a bit better, but even Froissart is long on color and short on specifics.

Does your novel involve guns? How large are the armies? Is it a siege or a battle in open field?

 

[Abbas-Al-Morim]

Have you done some research on this? There were scads of bestiaries produced in the Middle Ages. Just search on "medieval bestiary" and I'll check back with you in a couple months.

I'm not really interested in bestiaries made in the medieval (or later) times, I'm interested in bestiaries made by contemporary authors, using art (digital art or sketches) made in modern times. I've already perused several older bestiaries but they weren't really to my liking. They're good for research but I find the digital art inspires me more.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised there aren't any battle reports. The minute-by-minute part was more geared towards Napoleonic and later times. Contemporary military officers still study Napoleon's tactics and strategy, so I figured there had to be some books on that. And I was hoping perhaps there were some chroniclers who did describe battles. But then again, they were most likely biased and used second hand information. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try.

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll check out your links, A.E. Lowan.

 

[SeverinR]

SCA College of Arms - Education Articles
Not sure how indepth you want to get.
The SCA has attempted to recreate Heraldry in their organization. Even going as far as registering devices for individual and groups.
It explains the reason for heraldry and how it commonly worked.
It has alot of resources to look over.
It is usually more then anyone but the die hard Herald would ever want to know.

The American College of Heraldry - Symbolism

http://www.heraldicclipart.com/catalog/index1.html
I use this one for each individual device. My shield in my av used these clipart pieces.

 

[Malik]

Military tactics:

One of my favorite books on maneuver-level tactics is The Anatomy of Error, by Strauss and Ober, deconstructing several massive military failures that changed the world.

Check out Army Tactics, FM 3-90. Tactics, terrain considerations, movement and maneuver, principles of ambush and counter. It's for guns and tanks and what-have-you, but the principles hold all the way down to the level of throwing rocks.

The U.S. Army Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks has mook-simple instructions for surviving in combat, applying austere first-aid, scouting areas, assessing terrain for attack and defense, moving through hostile territory, making a camp that won't get overrun, and basic map reading; all stuff that any professional soldier, anywhere, in any world, would learn before they left the castle. Rudimentary stuff that nearly every writer seems to get wrong -- people don't seem to get that a soldier's life depended on being able to do all this. Soldiering was a skilled trade, like being a bricklayer or a baker or a blacksmith, and there is WAY more to the trade than fighting. Most of this is stuff they would know. Give this information to the badguy's minions; put your MC's in jeopardy for a change.

If you want details on how to kick ass and take any objective with anything, get The Ranger Handbook.

Vegitius's De Re Militari will change your life if you really want to know what armies could do nearly two thousand years ago. More modern but similiary mind-blowing are Military Maxims of Napoleon and Instructions of Frederick the Great to His Generals 1747. (EDIT: These are encapsulated in one volume called Roots of Strategy by Thomas R. Phillips, which was compiled during WWII but is in every military officer's library to this day.)

On War by von Clausewitz should go without saying.

Also really fun, for Evil Overlord armies, is the old Soviet Tactics FM 100-2-1 (out of print but available in .pdf online, I'm sure). It's from the 80's but it's really cool. For an added bonus, scan your local library for The Vorishilov Lectures: Lessons from the Soviet General Staff Academy. These are graduate-level courses in Large-Scale Mook Wrangling.

Guns, Germs, and Steel should be on every writer's bookshelf who works with historical or even fantastic combat, and if you can find it, pick up Che Guevara's book Guerilla Warfare. I wouldn't buy that last one with a credit card, though.

I have a bookcase full of this stuff in my office at home, another in my office at work, and several shelves of overflow in another room; I could go all day on this. However, this should be plenty to get you started.

None of this is going to tell you what kind of sword an orc uses, of course. You'll have to read this stuff, and absorb the concepts, and then cross-apply it into your own fictional world. But soldiering is soldiering. The ideas will hold up in any world.

Have fun.

 

[Lunaairis]

A modern bestiary part of the skin deep comic series.
Bestiary - Skin Deep Wiki