Happy Halloween!

Read the Books

'Books' glued to the wall may look smart but they add nothing into you. Read the books, do not glue the 'books'...

Moon Before Halloween

The moon is almost full. And the Halloween is almost here...

Rural Life in the Saxon Campus XI Century

  

1066 Battle of Hastings

- I has been killed. Then I has being lying for a while in the grass, stood up, and went into attack again. On the Norman side...

If only William the Conqueror would have known that his great battle to open English land will be turned into a show in which the soldiers would  quack, creepingly come to life and get to the combat again and again, and the battle itself will be played two weekend days each year, I  feel he would at least have brought celebrities and asked Coke-Cola and Nike to sponsor it from the very beginning. However, there were no  big boards at that old time. And unlike the other decorations, the only walls of the castle remained same.

According to the sequel, the Battle welcomed the very young warriors!

William brought quite a global army which consisted of Normans and all the nations previously warred down like Flanders, Brittany, France  and other Italians. Harold had his Essex fellows only, quite a few but not as organized and trained as his foe. And not as many (Wikipedia has  different from English Heritage opinion on this though). 

William has not been called "the Conqueror" yet, and English did not know that he would conquer them. So they were standing and waiting.

Just-William (of Normandy, of course) has galloped along his army with the "Yes-We-Can" speech, like in those movies, you know. Then he called for the  archers. English, by the way, also had archers. But just a few, and those did not fancy running in the field and collect their used arrows after  shooting, hence this professional area was not highly rated and highly developed among them, and they shot at sixes and sevens. William, on the contrary, has paid attention  to  his archers, provided to them trainings and other shootings. His archers performed by a big crowd and aimed into a defined part of English  infantry to make a hole. And they shot high and almost far!

The next action point of William was infantry.

He really believed the English are crawling-crying after his archers. But no. English have looked at what's on, and decided - to there!

The first combat was not really big. The parties probed each other, and left tired. But while the Norman infantry was resting and massaging, English were not up to that. William had another nice surprise for them: Norman cavalry!

English, however. kept confident, held the ground creating a wall of spears, swords and axes. Norman cavalry bad some fancy footwork around  and galloped away.

William was persistent. His infantry got up and gained the new instructions.

So the Normans went ahead again

But English warriors are fearsome!

Beware Norman!

Again has fleed away the Norman infantry. And again has remembered William about the Norman cavalry

And again the cavalry has galloped to the English side

No success this time, either!

Here, William has started getting bored. And he already wanted to have this battle won somehow. He started thinking and remembering... And he  remembered how, when his infantry was drawing back, English followed them and broke their line, just like English football team on the counter-attack with some Spain. William was a smart cookie, and he decided to bob out the English into the battle field. There was the third time that the William's archers nocked on their bows, and sent their arrows to awake some of English, and the third time that William  sent his troops against firm Saxons. The bloody combat has begun

As Harold has been killed by that moment, and there was no one to tell the English troops to hold the ground anymore, they swallowed the William's bait, and Normans managed to crash into English line. This was the last battle. Normans attacked again and again

Then they have squeezed the Saxons into the very corner. There was no place to drop back, the spectators were just behind the backs, plus the rain has started pouring. Well, tough it was!

Many were beaten-down in that combat. This time many warriors were even lying crooked until the very end of the battle

Finally, Normans won. After the Victory they went on the knees, and prayed

After pray, the warriors collected their trailing around swords and arrows, took up their injured and dead, and walked to their camps. The sky was terrific, and no one wanted to get wet under the rain

Thus, the Battle of Hastings made it into history. And sure, William of Normandy upgraded to William the Conquerorю

Ringlets

And in the ringlets there was lost sun...

Bags packed? Kids packed? Double-checked?

Photo of the day: carrying mommy gives her kids to breath and eat at the pit-stop time. Why not?