The Death Scythe from Dante’s Inferno
This is a weapon I made out of foam. It is about eight feet in length and it is the main weapon Dante uses in the upcoming video game Dante’s Inferno. I show you the Death Scythe and how I made it. A full web based tutorial and lots of other fun projects on my website:
http://www.stormthecastle.com
In doing my research I have been coming up with a lot of interesting turns-of-phrase (and words) that we use today yet find their roots in medieval times. Here is an interesting selection of some of them:
Carry your heart on your sleeve - During tournaments a knight would often wear on his sleeve a favor from a lady such as a ribbon or veil.
Stretch a point - Points were laces that attached pieces of armor to the doublet. If they got loose or stretched they could render the armor ineffective or useless. A knight would not want his points to stretch.
Chink in the armor: Refers to weak spots in real armor such as gaps where different armor parts met.
Crestfallen: This refers to the crests on the tops of knights helmets during tournaments. In some tournaments the goal was to knock off the opponents crest.
Run the Gauntlet: A dangerous risk or dangerous undertaking. The gauntlet was a form of punishment for swedish and german military where a person being punished would have to run between two facing rows of soldiers who would strike him.
Knight in Shining Armor - This appears to be a compliment but could be used as a slight. The point being that if a knights armor were shining he was not tested in combat.
Panache - This was the name of feather endowed crests on the tops of helmets during the renaissance. They could be very bright and extravagent.
You probably know I have been working hard on a visual dictionary of medieval armor and weapons and that is a project that is going well. I am having fun and learning a lot of cool stuff. But, in my research I am also digging up all kinds of interesting medieval tid bits that don’t really fit into anything I am working on. They are however rather interesting so i thought I would share some of them with you.
Famous knights of yore had the tendency to name their swords:
Ok now let’s test your knowledge of weapons and armor.
Do you know what Gonfalons are?
How about a Scramasax?
Ever heard of a Spangenhelm?
LOL, Some fun stuff isn’t it?
How to make a small easy telescope
This is a tutorial on how to make a small refractor telescope using lenses. I show the basics of making the telescope and I also explain how to select the lenses and what types of lenses to use. I show you how to find the focal length of a lens. Lots more projects on my website: http://www.stormthecastle.com
Lots of telescope stuff on my other website: http://www.telescopenerd.com
I have been tinkering with the idea of a compendium of medieval weapons and yesterday I finally started working on it. It just seems like it would be a fun project to undertake and it will be interesting to see how many weapons I can get into it. The first section is on Polearms from the middle ages and I have spent two days now drawing sketches and researching just the polearms.
The history and development of polearms is pretty interesting and it is of course logical to see how they morphed over the centuries and how they were often adaptatations of farming tools - at least in the early centuries.
Well, if you are interested in polearms or medieval weapons in general hop on over to my medieval site and check out the new section on Medieval Polearms.
