Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

I write a lot about the Medieval period in Europe but I have to sometimes think that much of the world went through a fascinating cycle of Dark period, Middle Ages, and Renaissance. And one great example of this was brought to me by a PBS show I watched two nights ago. Secrets of the Samurai Sword. It was quite a remarkable show and it went through the whole process of how Samurai swords are made and how they achieve their remarkable quality. They actually take us to a little town in Japan where they still forge the steel the way its been done for hundreds of years and that alone is something. The master forger has to tend the forge for four days straight without any sleep to get a batch of steel that is good enough. The whole show was just astounding.

And if you are familiar with Samurai Swords or katanas you know they have a beautiful curve to them. But what I didn’t know is that the blacksmith doesn’t make it with this curve, it automatically happens when the sword is quenched. And it is due to the different expansion and contraction rates of the steel.

Anyway, I am a big fan of swords and weaponry that came out of Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance but the samurai swords were something else all together! They masters the art of carbon bonding and mixing two different types of steel into a sword without understanding why it was happening. And the best samurai swords today command prices of over $100,000.00. It’s a remarkble art that still continues today.

PBS has a companion site to go along with the show and it is here: Secrets of the Samurai Sword

Even though European culture and Japanese culture are so very different there were some remarkable parallels between the two. A couple of great examples of this different yet the same phenomenon would be the art of sword making and the similarities between the European Code of Chivalry and the Japanese code of Bushido.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Last weekend I was rummaging through a book sale and I ended up buying more than a few books. And the best find I had was a book called “Celtic Myths and Legends”. It is a reprint of a very old book by T.W. Rolleston. And evidently its been reprinted many times over the past hundred years.  Here is a quick look at some of the Table of Contents:

The Early Milesian Kings
Tales of the Ultonian Cycle
Tales of the Ossianic Cycle
The Voyage fo Maeldun
Myts and Tales of the Cymry

It looks to be just a wonderful book and although I haven’t started reading it yet I soon will be. 

The real point of this blogpost is the illustrations inside the book. The book calls it like this: “With Illustrations from Famous Drawings and Paintings”. And well, they are really great, all done in black and white, and they have a definite feel about them. Almost hard to describe and I want to say that a lot of them have a tarot card kind of feel to them. The frontispiece is entitled “Cuchulain and the Flaming Wheel” and it is by far my favorite art work in the book.

Earlier this week I was working at my sketch pad and thinking about what I should practice drawing with and the thought came to me about Cuchulain. I broke open the book and started drawing myself a nice replica of the painting. And it came out great - I may even frame it.

The story of the Cuchulain drawing continues -

Yesterday I was working on a new essay for the fantasy guide website. It is a summer reading list for fans of epic fantasy and I was thinking about adding some kind of an illustration to it when Cuchulain came to me again. I took a look at the picture and an idea popped. because of the unusual lighting in the drawing I thought it might be perfect to put a book right in there! So I did!  The Summer reading guide is here

It came out great and it just has that Epic Fantasy book kind of feel to it. I think I might be using this drawing a lot, or even as a banner on a site. It just gives the reading epic fantasy feel perfectly.

Amazon.com doesn’t have this exact copy of the book but they do have a nice reprint here: Celtic Myths and Legends
 

Popularity: 16% [?]

If you have been following along with this blog you probably know that I have been making a lot of mead. I and some business partners have been developing it with the intention of making a commercial meadery. So we have been doing a lot of experimenting with meads and so far that has been a lot of interesting (and delicious) work. 

Mead does take time and it will probably be two years before our first bottles of mead hit the market so to fill the gap in time between then and now we are launching a line of products for home brewers and mead makers. The first product is now officially launched and it is the Renaissance Carboy Cover.

If you brew your own beverages you understand the importance of keeping it protected against the adverse affects of light. These carboy covers will help you do this. They come in four different colors and fit carboys between the sizes of 5 and 6.5 gallons. 

The covers have some nice design elements. They are made of water-resistant nylon so are very easy to clean. They have an elastic band at the bottom so you can place them on your carboy without any lifting and they have a drawstring at the top for a snug fit around the neck. They fit carboys ranging from five to six and a half gallons in size.

If you are curious about the covers or would like to learn more visit the Renaissance Mead Website.

Popularity: 15% [?]