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Dear readers, welcome, as ever.
Although that title has been used formerly elsewhere,
this posting isn’t about a romcom, but, instead, comes from a comment by Tolkien in a letter to Rhona Beare:
“The Rohirrim were not ‘medieval’ in our sense. The styles of the Bayeux Tapestry (made in England) fit them well enough, if one remembers that the kind of tennis-nets [the] soldiers seem to have on are only a clumsy conventional sign for chain-mail of small rings.” (Letter to Rhona Beare, 14 October, 1958, Letters, 401.)
“Tennis-nets”?
Let’s start off with the Bayeux Tapestry.
In fact, it’s not a tapestry at all. Here’s a tapestry—
(3rd quarter 15th-century tapestry from “Pays-Bas meridionnaux”—“southern lowlands”—that is, the Netherlands, modern Belgium, and even northernmost France at the time this tapestry was made)
Tapestries are woven on looms.
The Bayeux Tapestry is actually a 230-foot long by 20 inch high (70.1m. by 50.8cm) embroidery, in which a piece of cloth has a design plotted on the cloth and the design then stitched on—like this—
Whether it was made in England, as Tolkien very confidently asserts, or in Normandy is a question over which scholars tussle, but the subject is definitely Norman, as it depicts the conquest of southern Anglo-Saxon England by the Normans in 1066, including a little propaganda suggesting that the Anglo-Saxon king, Harold Godwinson, had violated a sacred oath in not handing the throne over to William, the Duke of Normandy, but, instead, taking it for himself (Harold is the one on the right, with the droopy mustache, William on the left, on the throne).
Those “tennis-nets”, which do, in fact, look a little like tennis nets,
are, as JRRT says, chain mail, which, in this image, both Anglo-Saxons (on foot on the left) and Norman (mounted, on the right) are wearing. For a modern reconstruction—
(by Gerry Embleton, one of my favorite contemporary English military artists)
Seen up close, the mail can look like tiny fragments of chain, linked together—
Before there was plate armor of the kind you might see in a museum or in some films with medieval themes,
there were other methods to protect the body, including various kinds of lamellar (scale) armor—little overlapping plates sewn onto a backing—
and even overlapping metal strips strung together (the Roman lorica segmentata)—
the ancient Celts, who were wonderful metal-workers, had devised chain-mail
(Angus McBride)
which the Romans, ever on the lookout for better military technology, then adopted.
(Angus Mcbride again—and I really like the little sketch on the lower left-hand corner, giving you just a hint of how the artist worked).
Even when plate began to appear, mail was still used under certain sections of it, to allow for flexibility,
and foot soldiers might continue to wear it, as full plate was expensive.
(another Gerry Embleton)
What JRRT is imagining is that the Rohirrim would, basically, look like 11th-century Normans.
(one more Gerry Embleton)
And this is what we’re to visualize when it comes to that “mithril shirt” which, once upon a time, Thorin had given to Bilbo—
“ ‘Mr. Baggins!’ he cried. ‘Here is the first payment of your reward! Cast off your old coat and put on this!’
With that he put on Bilbo a small coat of mail, wrought for some young elf-prince long ago. It was of silver-steel, which the elves call mithril…” (The Hobbit, Chapter 13, “Not At Home”)
(Alan Lee)
And, when an orc attacks Frodo in the Chamber of Records in Moria,
(Angus McBride again)
It’s no wonder that Frodo, to his friends’ surprise says, “ ‘I am all right…I can walk. Put me down!”
since he is wearing that mithril coat passed on to him by Bilbo in Rivendell, although, when Gandalf mentions mithril and Bilbo’s coat in particular—
“ ‘I wonder what has become of it? Gathering dust still in Michel Delving Mathom-house, I suppose.’”
And Gimli adds,
“ ‘What?…A corselet of Moria-silver? That was a kingly gift!’ “
And Gandalf replies,
“ ‘Yes…I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the whole Shire and everything in it.’”
it’s Frodo who is surprised—
“…he felt staggered to think that he had been walking about with the price of the Shire under his jacket.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 4, “A Journey in the Dark”)
Should you want to own a chain mail shirt of your own,
you can find one on line, but it’s not mithril, of course, nor made for a young elf-prince, but, at $87.00 (US), you can acquire one for far less than the price of the Shire. Perhaps for Christmas?
Thanks, as ever, for reading.
Stay well,
Happy Thanksgiving, if you’re in a place where people celebrate it as a formal holiday, although I hope that they’re thankful all year round,
And remember that, as always, there’s
MTCIDC
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