In response to my What kind of weapon are you? post, Aron suggested that he thought I’d be a trebuchet, which is another medieval siege device. It’s like a catapult but different.
Actually, I’ve heard this before, but I think it is because my name sounds sort of like the word “trebuchet.” Anyway, I’ve also seen a trebuchet in action. It was at the one and only Renaissance Festival that I ever attended (I swear), and it was absolutely pathetic. The guys who were operating it did it wrong or something and the item which they’d intended to hurl just flopped right to the ground.
The most fun usage I’ve heard for the trebuchet though, was as a disease-spreading and demoralization weapon:
- This catapult changed medieval warfare slightly, in the sense that instead of killing everyone in the castle, different objects would be thrown over the castle wall to force the inhabitants to surrender. The items were usually dead livestock, horses and cows, fecal matter, corpses, rotting vegetables, anything that can rot, smell and give disease.
I’ve also read that they would throw severed heads, living enemy prisoners, as well as messengers sent from the besieged castle to broker a truce with the invaders. This is all absolutely hilarious to me. While I’m at it, here’s a print I found from c. 1507 of a trebuchet preparing to throw a dead horse. It’s not that great, but it’s a start.
Anyway, maybe I should change my weapon to this. It seems especially fitting somehow.
- END -
ASSOCIATED CONTENT @TMBCHR (Auto-Generated)
