Remarks on Arthurian Arms And Arming Scenes

Laura F. Hodges

Arthuriana, Volume 5, Number 4, Winter 1995, pp. 1-2 (Article)

Published by Scriptorium Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/art.1995.0019

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/424615/summary

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 Remarks on
Arthurian Arms And Arming Scenes
LAURA F. HODGES

The idea for an issue of Arthuriana concerned with armor, arms,

and arming scenes grew out of a discussion conducted on arthurnet
about conventions in medieval literature that many otherwise careful readers
skim past—conventions such as epic catalogs ofships and armies, descriptions
of battles, and such set pieces as the hero's or heroine's arming scene. The
question was posed, 'But what is the significance ofthese formal arming scenes?'
And this issue makes a beginning in what promises to be an ongoing and
illuminating scholarly process ofproviding an answer. This is a body ofmaterial
that may be fruitfully examined by specialists in the field of history, social
culture, literature, art, and technology.
The first revelation reaped in this process is the discovery that translations
ofmedieval literature into modern English often supply imprecise terminology
or explanations for arms and armor parts. Translators often lack specialist
knowledge of heraldic and armorial Terminology and, therefore, miss poetic
nuances in diction that medieval authors employed as common currency. And
medievalist readers have all too often accepted at face value these translations,
as well as editors' glosses and definitions for these terms. At fitst this appears
to be a negative find; however, it opens the door to productive new scholarship
in linguistics.
In response to this discovery, all contributors to this issue independently
found that they had to supply their own translations, emend translarions for
some arms or armor diction and/or passages, or correct old translations in
their discussion ofthe text. Sometimes this is necessitated by a medieval text
in which a reference to a piece ofequipment that was, no doubt, crystal clear
to a medieval audience, needs to be made accessible to a modern reader. At
other times there was the need to add linguistic data, now more accessible, to
older translations, or to make specialist information available to the non-
specialist teader. Readers of endnotes will find notations of this practice
throughout the issue.

ARTHURIANA 5.4(199;)
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The fresh interprerations ofold matters offered in this issue are sometimes
startling, occasionally discomforting, but always interesting, and some readers
will find them controversial. But all ofthe articles in this issue examine the
importance ofindividual pieces ofarmor and arms belonging to a knight and
their practical or iconic value in chivalric literature, and all are concerned
with the language selected by medieval poets to convey this significance. Thus
the inadequacy ofexisting translations that, at first, seems to be a disadvantage,
at second glance is revealed as an opportunity for multi-disciplinary scholarship.
And this leads to the recognition of a second positive outcome for
participants in this project, both contributors and Arthuriana readers: an
initial answer to the question posed at the beginning of these introductory
remarks as to the significance of formal arming scenes. This collecrion of
essays suggests that far from being static and conventional, each arming scene,
as well as each description of a piece of armor or weapon, incorporates
previously uncovered significance. In the hands ofthe gifted medieval author,
the scene or description may convey the protagonist's identity, social and
political stature, as well as contemporary values of the poet's culture. In
addition, elements of characterization are heightened, literary themes
underscored, and contemporary technologies depicted.
A third benefit of this undertaking lies in the knowledge that a large body
of arming scenes and descriptions of individual arms exists whose signs have
yet to be examined for the layers of meaning encoded by their authors and
understood by their contemporary audience. We reopen a rich semiotic vein
in this issue, and we look forward to future scholarship—concerned with the
intersecting ofhistory, technology, iconographie signification, material culture,
and literary meaning of arms and armor—which will continue to mine this
lode.