Friday, January 31, 2014

Chivalry: the Combat of the 30 and an odd story from the Arabian tradition



Today in my chivalry seminar we discussed the three most important accounts the Combat of 30 as found in my book of the same name. I started out by asking a general question about whether this was a chivalric deed of arms. One of my students launched into an enthusiastic affirmation. And you know what? He was taken by exactly the features of the deed that I think people of the mid-14th century most appreciated, in other words that it was a fair fight and no one ran away.

Just goes to show you.

A few days back another chivalric story swam into my ken, thanks to Phil Paine.

It is the Romance of Antar, derived from the poet Antar of the time of the Prophet, whose original poems were among the hanged poems in the Kaaba at Mecca. Students in my Islamic civilization course know Antar. Here's what Phil has to say about the later Romance of Antar and its significance.
Early Ara­bic lit­er­a­ture is not well-known in the English-speaking world, and some ele­ments of it might sur­prise some­one who is only famil­iar with the stuff from later peri­ods. Among the ear­li­est works in Clas­si­cal Ara­bic are a num­ber of tales that can only be called “chival­ric romances”, which strongly resem­ble the sort of thing you would expect in Mal­ory or Chré­tien de Troyes. What would most sur­prise a mod­ern reader is the treat­ment of female characters.
 And what is that treatment, Mr. Bones?

Here are some remark­able passages:
Zahir con­tin­ued his jour­ney, until he reached the Saad tribe, when he dis­mounted from his horse. He was cor­dially received and was pressed to take up his abode with them. His wife was at that time soon to become a mother, and he said to her: “If a son is given to us, he will be right wel­come ; but if it be a daugh­ter, con­ceal her sex and let peo­ple think we have a male child, so that my brother may have no rea­son to crow over us.” When her time came Zahir’s wife brought into the world a daugh­ter. They agreed that her name should be actu­ally Djaida, but that pub­licly she should be known as Djon­der, that peo­ple might take her for a boy. In order to pro­mote this belief, they kept up feast­ing and enter­tain­ment early and late for many days. 
 About the same time Moharib, the other brother, had a son born to him, whom he named Khaled (The Eter­nal). He chose this name in grat­i­tude to God, because, since his brother’s depar­ture, his affairs had pros­pered well.
 The two chil­dren even­tu­ally reached full age, and their renown was wide­spread among the Arabs. Zahir had taught his daugh­ter to ride on horse­back, and had trained her in all the accom­plish­ments fit­ting to a war­rior bold and dar­ing. He accus­tomed her to the sever­est toils, and the most per­ilous enter­prises. When he went to war, he put her among the other Arabs of the tribe, and in the midst of these horse­men she soon took her rank as one of the most valiant of them. Thus it came to pass that she eclipsed all her com­rades, and would even attack the lions in their dens. At last her name became an object of ter­ror; when she had over­come a cham­pion she never failed to cry out : “I am Djon­der, son of Zahir, horse­man of the tribes.”
 There is much more and Phil gives an extensive summary.

Thursday, January 09, 2014

"Oh, Sherlock, neither of us was the first."


I am astonished by the achievement that is the recent remake of the Sherlock Holmes stories set in 21st century London.

Arthur Conan Doyle's stories always were more than a simple recounting of the accomplishments of the scientific detective who is also, because of his great gifts, a complete social misfit. I am pretty sure that Doyle did not invent that figure. The stories gave almost equal prominence to John Watson, the normal and cheerful friend – normal and cheerful, that is, if you ignore his rather odd devotion to his apparently indifferent friend (?).

The current re-envisioning gives much more prominence to the theme of intimacy and the difficulties of achieving it – not just between Holmes and Watson, but between others as well. 21st century London is ostensibly much freer or at least more freewheeling than Victorian London. But despite social and sexual liberation, the characters in the series struggle to reach out to each other without exposing themselves too much. They are terrified of rejection, and this keeps them just as much on edge as we imagine their 19th century counterparts were.

There must be Holmes fans out there who are raging at this series and its betrayal of some aspect of the canon. But though I'm not entirely satisfied with the stories as told, my basic attitude is one of astonishment at the chances taken by the creators and their rather amazing degree of success. In the last quarter hour of the Sign of Three episode, I sat with my mouth hanging open and my breath bated waiting to see what would come next. And it was the emotional and social struggles of the characters that surprised and yes, ensorcelled me.

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Previewing "Wargames: from Gladiators to Gigabytes"


I have been asked to review this book for a major journal. It will take some months for my review to appear (especially since I just got the book today and have read just a few pages) but it is worth saying right now that dipping into the book has convinced me that it's going to be a very interesting read. The author, Martin van Creveld, is a very well known and prolific writer on military history and strategy, and this book is based on his extensive reading and the thoughts he has had on wargames as a result of that reading.

I am reluctant to say this is a good or a bad book based on a half an hour's reading, but if you're seriously interested in the varieties of wargaming through the ages you probably want to have a look at this book.


Image: yes, a realistic view of female wargamers comes with the price of admission.

Battle of Nations – a BBC documentary

Thanks to the person who alerted me to this documentary on four British newcomers taking part in the Battle of Nations competition of 2013.

Given that at the same age I was taking part pretty actively in something similar – SCA combat based on the use of safer weapons but with no limit on the force used – I have say this looked pretty loony to me nonetheless.

Two moments from my first viewing: the documentary says that the British combatants were "cultural ambassadors" representing their country in international competition. I have to say that I choked on my coffee when I heard that.

Second, back when I was helping to invent the SCA, attracting girls was definitely a major motivation for us young male fighters. It is sad to report that these young Brits seem to be total failures at this aspect. Drinking yes, girls no. What's with that?

Monday, January 06, 2014

Favorite blog posts of 2013

I talked last year about my selection being haphazard; haphazard the  selection is again. I note that the blog tended to suffer because I have  been so busy otherwise.