The poetry of Trauma: On the Crècy Dead
May 22, 2020 18:00:54 GMT
Post by demented on May 22, 2020 18:00:54 GMT
www.medievalists.net/2016/06/the-poetry-of-trauma-on-the-crecy-dead/
Just ordered the book off Amazon.
www.amazon.com/Battle-Cr%C3%A9cy-Liverpool-Historical-Casebooks/dp/1781382700/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&linkCode=sl1&tag=medievalistsn-20&linkId=8ef4016da6dcf7fd40b3642270916b91
"Fame leads Colins to a place in which any scrap of heraldry that could be gathered from the battlefield has been piled together so that the identities of the slain can be discovered. As Livingston mentions in his notes in The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook, there was indeed a tent used for such a purpose at Crécy, and Colins describes the ruined remains piled high:
There I saw cast in the middle of the floor
Many a ragged standard
And many a defouled coat,
And many a shield so shattered and so scratched
That no color nor hue appeared upon them (ll.424-428)
He recognizes many of the coats of arms, and dutifully describes the heroics of the fallen knights, listing them name by name. But, as Livingston suggested, mourning those he recognizes is not nearly as difficult for Colins as being unable to recognize other coats of arms:
Ah, Lord! I was so anguished
That I was seeing so many insignia there
And none that I could recognize,
Whether it were a little pennant or a standard,
A shield, a surcoat, or a pommel ornament:
All were dismantled and all were broken. (ll.468-473)
As Livingston noted in his talk at the ICMS, the fact that people were forced to make identifications of the dead by something so small as a heraldic sword pommel speaks to the fierceness of the fighting at Crécy, and the desperation of the heralds to collect the names of the fallen so that their souls could be prayed for. Fame does not know all the names of the fallen, so he suggests that Colins speak to two heralds who were there and had likewise suffered on the battlefield"