A Strange Pole Arm at the Battle of Caen

A few months ago, Wikipedia featured an article on the Battle of Caen, a conflict in which the English attacked the French town of Caen in 1346.  The article was illustrated by a super-awesome painting from Froissart’s Chronicles. 

As I examined that painting in detail, I noticed something very odd about one of the pole weapons (as Wikipedia calls them) or pole arms (as we knew them back in Dungeons & Dragons days) being used by a soldier.  I present the relevant portion of the image below:

 

The man on the right is holding what looks like an ornate glaive.  (I included a glaive in a Halloween illustration on the blog many years ago.)  But what caught my attention was the object that the man on the left wields, something that I, speaking as a casual fan of Medieval weaponry, cannot identify.  The wooden shaft is topped by a pointed spear head, and there are what appear to be two metal disks mounted on opposing sides of the spear head, with a spike protruding from the center of each disk.     

This particular weapon is not some unique aberration; there are two at least additional weapons of the same type in another section of the image (posted below), as well as other possible (though unclear) examples elsewhere in the picture.

In my research, I did find other pole weapons that were similar in that they had a pair of spikes or blades on the opposing sides of a spear head, such as the ranseur and the Bohemian earspoon. (And doesn’t everybody need a Bohemian earspoon?)  But there was nothing with anything close to those metal disks at the base of the spikes. 

From a Dungeons & Dragons perspective, it seems that we are looking at something that didn’t occur even in E. Gary Gygax’s wildest dreams.

I will also note that weapon in question does not appear on the phylogenic diagram of pole arms shown below.  (Was the phylogeny derived using cladistic analysis?)

Halloween Thoughts 2021

The darkness of winter is approaching, and encroaching, and other such words; the pumpkins and plastic skeletons and fake spider webs have gone out in front yards; Halloween is almost here.  In the summer of 2020, I thought that the pandemic might be mostly over by Halloween of that year, and, Halloween being on a Saturday, people would use the occasion to release the tension of the previous months with some wild partying . . . but then the pandemic flared up again, and Halloween pretty much didn’t happen.  This year though, despite the continuing pandemic, we are, maybe, possibly, having Halloween.  And Halloween will be on a Sunday, which, while not quite as good as a Saturday, is better than a Monday.  

On Sunday (October 24) I went into the Old Town section of Alexandria.  I was surprised to see a number of people, and an even bigger number of dogs, wearing Halloween costumes. 

Is the fact that there were people walking around in costumes one week early evidence that Halloween will be super-crazy this year?

Or is it just part of the phenomenon of Halloween taking over the entire month of October?

Or, since I saw many more dogs than people in costumes, is one week before Halloween now Dogoween? 

* * * * * * * *

My Sunday visit also made me think more deeply about the twin topics of Halloween and Old Town.  

Halloween awakens my longstanding ambition to write fiction (which, like all my ambitions, remains unfulfilled), and, in this specific case, fantasy-horror fiction.  And Old Town, a genuine Colonial setting with narrow alleyways, walled gardens, and half-concealed cellar doors, seems like the perfect environment to fill my mind with visions of the unnatural and terrifying things about which I would want to write. 

Yet that never happens.

Maybe it is because I just don’t have the capacity to be inspired toward storytelling.  Or maybe it is because Old Town is a thoroughly modernized, well-maintained, touristy city, and not the sort of dilapidated, half-abandoned urban area where there could conceivably be evil fish-men lurking in the shadows. 

Of course, if you have seen any evil fish-men lurking in the shadows of Old Town, please let me know in the comment section.