Medieval fighting snails

[Aldarion]

Medieval Fighting Snails

Medieval world was under siege by a swarm of giant snails, and the brave knights were the only thing standing in the monsters’ way. Or at least, that is what medieval manuscripts want you to …

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Medieval world was under siege by a swarm of giant snails, and the brave knights were the only thing standing in the monsters’ way.

Or at least, that is what medieval manuscripts want you to believe.

 

[Scearoth]

This is hilarious.

 

[skip.knox]

Nice work, and the citations are much appreciated.

I was struck by the years, and wondered if there might be here some indirect evidence of artistic fads. Thirty years (1295-1325) more or less covers the working lifetime of an illustrator. And the geographic spread is consonant with trade routes and other major lines of communication. A century or so later there's something analogous with the florescence of the Dance of Death trope. I'm picturing a young illustrator (usually monks, at least in the first case) seeing or hearing of the snail convention, thinking it's cool and trying his hand at it, probably just in sketches.

I've wondered in the past if there might have been any sort of editorial review of manuscript illustration. ("We've told you a hundred times, Brother Pietr, no armored snails. Now do that page again!")

 

[pmmg]

I have it on good authority that snails of the day were actually pretty tough. They are what the holy hand grenade was initially invented for.

 

[skip.knox]

This is, as is self-evident, the origin of the phrase "tough as snails"

 

[Gurkhal]

I have it on good authority that snails of the day were actually pretty tough. They are what the holy hand grenade was initially invented for.

Fascinating. Do you know how these holy hand grenades came into the possession of the warlike worms?*

*A cookie to anyone who knows what game series I am refering to.

 

[Dylan]

this is nice, can't lie