One thing that surprised me in this is some of the seemingly valuable articles that were buried with the dead, either out of an unwillingness to go through the gore to retrieve them, or respect for the dead, or perhaps something else. At any rate, it's clear to me that Grim did his homework to make the battle scenes in his tale as realistic as possible, as evidenced by the dig in Gotland near Visby, and some other locations, and what was retrieved there.
The endless wars of human slaves.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a horror show. No wonder this place is quarantined.
Counter: We have gotten better!
Y: No, civilization has gotten better at hiding it yes.
So- The Hanseatic league made the city of Visby rich, they were spreading out into the countryside and oppressing the peasants, then when trouble came they hid inside the walls and sent the peasants to die against a superior army.
ReplyDeleteI don't know a thing about it save for what the article says- is this an accurate summation? Did Visby get sacked?
This might be a good lesson on who "enemies" are.
Unfortunately my historical lessons and simulations didn't cover Visby, although the Hanseatic League I have heard of.
ReplyDeleteWe talked about Visby once before here:
ReplyDeletehttps://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/2018/11/battle-of-visby.html
It was a fight over who got to collect taxes, so yes, it does say something about who your real enemies are.
I'm glad you found the descriptions in the novel accurate. (I won't say 'liked them,' since they entail some horrible things). I strive for accuracy in my understanding of warfare.
ReplyDeleteWhen most of the body is armored or difficult to aim, getting a headshot is very useful. A previous story had of a terrorist that shot the guard, but she had a bullet vest on which allowed her to recover and fireback the fatal blow.
ReplyDeleteCenter "mass" isn't always gonna do the trick. The human body is made up out of triangles.
Gotland sounds vaguely familiar. Is that that island to the east of Sweden?
Let's see.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotland
Ah... I remember this place. I ran an army simulation in that province historically near the Viking eras of 900 AD. It wasn't worth much at the time, but trade makes a difference.
This place constantly would get raided because it's richer than the Fjords, closer than Iceland/Greenland/England, but still way out in the hinterlands of Finnland/frontier/Witcher country area. Their defense forces are rather small and reinforcements from Sweden is a sea away. A positive is that with sufficient city anti siege defenses, the attackers don't have enough time on that little island to make siege engines before reinforcements can land.
The Danes must have had some historical claims still to that area, if only because they sometimes seized it for a period of time as raiders. Marriage ties too.
Grim's post makes more sense than the article about peasants. Peasants using mail coif? What, ahha.
The Black Death should have stirred up the peasants by that time, unless it came later.
Ah, and only a couple years ago- I should have realized- apologies for repetitive material.
ReplyDeleteNonsense! No apologies are necessary, and it was a flattering remark. Besides, 2020 has had so much new material that all the old stuff is fresh again. It's all been driven out of mind, and will need to be restored if it is important.
ReplyDeleteTo me, 2020 is kind of old material actually... but I guess that's a kind of ymarism.
ReplyDeleteThe good thing about getting advanced notice is that there less emotional shock at "new surprises" so to speak.
I remember reading somewhere that a bunch of the wounds corresponded to some sword fights in the Sagas, with what were probably head fakes followed up by sweeps to the legs. Once a man is down, he's pretty much dead.
ReplyDeleteThe exavations of the mass grave at Towton showed something similar, with a lot of coup de grace blows to the head.
Right. Knock them down, then kill them. I was teaching this tonight at the gun range.
ReplyDelete"Besides, 2020 has had so much new material that all the old stuff is fresh again. It's all been driven out of mind, and will need to be restored if it is important."
ReplyDeleteHeh, true!