PSA: Do you have your arming carpet?

[Sean M]

Modus Armandi Milites (circa 1320s): “First the fire is made and the carpet spread ...”

Gawain and the Green Knight; Fytte the Second folio 102v/98v, original here trans W.A. Neilson: “First a carpet of Tolouse (a tulé tapit) was stretched over the floor, and much was the gilt gear that gleamed upon it. The brave man stepped thereon and handled the steel, clad in a doublet of costly Tars, and afterwards a well wrought hood, closed on top and bound within with a glistening white fur.”

It looks like the cool kids in the fourteenth century brought out a good carpet when they wanted to arm.

I can't speak to the kind of tapestries which were used in France and its neighbours in the fourteenth century. It seems like there are not many surviving examples between Pazyryk and the sixteenth century. The German encyclopedia of the middle ages which I checked has no entry except "Teppiche, orientalische, mobile Bodendekoration, sind seit dem frühen MA in Europa sehr begehrt, ..." (so there is no entry for Teppiche, Europäische, although clearly rugs were made in Europe too and maybe a few scraps survive somewhere). The paintings in Guiron le Courtois (BNF NAF 5243) show many patterned textiles spread on floors, beds, and benches (but some may be embroidery or patterned felts or block printing or woven patterns without a pile ...)

One humane solution would be looking for the rugs from Iran marketed as “nomad” or “tribal.” Some of the people in the countryside still design and make rugs on a small scale for both their own use and the market, or sell their old camel bags and prayer mats when they are worn. In Isfahan it is easy to get a hand-made, plant-dyed rug in excellent condition measuring 4' by 6' for a few hundred dollars or Euros; I suspect that you can go lower by ordering several, picking a repaired one, or figuring out what the tourists tend to prefer and asking for something else (and the ones which have been used and repaired are probably closer to the local traditions, and further from what they think foreigners want to buy). A rug made in the countryside today won't be exactly the same as one made in the countryside in the fourteenth century, but it might give a reasonable effect, and in most cases creating the right general impression is all we can hope for.

That style of carpet would also make excellent flooring for a SCA camp somewhere which does not get too muddy.

(Edit: I should also point out that a low-end rug today is at best the kind of rug which a prosperous farmer or shopkeeper would own in the fourteenth century, not the kind of rug which the author of Gawain and the Green Knight dreamed of owning ... but if your goal is to communicate 'ooh, snazzy carpet' that may not be important, and I suspect that the high-end rugs made by professionals and marketed with the name of a city are even farther from their equivalents in the fourteenth century).

[Karen Larsdatter]

http://larsdatter.com/carpets.htm

[Cian of Storvik]

In SCA, carpet arms YOU!


Need a 70's photo of a fighter in carpet-armor.

[Konstantin the Red]

Not carpet, but not far from it, or contemporary with the last years of carpet: http://hellinahandbasket.net/wp-content ... gloves.jpg


Man in middle. A classic look at spun tops and flattop helms, and bicycle-tire shield rimming on unpainted shields. Circa 1979-80 from the look of the gear.

And another shot of him; looks like the carpet is turned backside-to. It's the right color for a carpet body defense.


Middle Seventies DIY HDPE bending -- up to early 1980s.

[Sean M]

In SCA, carpet arms YOU!


Need a 70's photo of a fighter in carpet-armor.

If a naughty bard wants to update the arming scene in Sir Gawain to the modern middle ages, by all means! ("First he dumped his duffel on a tarp of Home Depot / and much was the Kydex that clattered upon it / he stared and he thought of the straps to be mended / and the armourers' bills that had gone to buy beer / but he got out his duct tape and set down to work ...")?

In these threads I just lay out some sources and let people decide if they are helpful for their kind of medieval-ish fun.

[Ernst]

Chretien de Troyes, W.W. Comfort trans., Erec et Enide Pt. II, ll.2024-2663, c. 1170
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/erec/erec2.htm

And Erec summoned another squire and bade him bring his arms to arm his body withal. Then he went up into a bower, and had a Limoges rug laid out before him on the floor. Meanwhile, the squire ran to fetch the arms and came back and laid them on the rug. Erec took a seat opposite, on the figure of a leopard which was portrayed on the rug. He prepares and gets ready to put on his arms: first, he had laced on a pair of greaves of polished steel; next, he dons a hauberk, which was so fine that not a mesh could be cut away from it. This hauberk of his was rich, indeed, for neither inside nor outside of it was there enough iron to make a needle, nor could it gather any rust; for it was all made of worked silver in tiny meshes triple-wove; and it was made with such skill that I can assure you that no one who had put it on would have been more uncomfortable or sore because of it, than if he had put on a silk jacket over his undershirt. The knights and squires all began to wonder why he was being armed; but no one dared to ask him why. When they had put on his hauberk, a valet laces about his head a helmet fluted with a band of gold, shining brighter than a mirror. Then he takes the sword and girds it on, and orders them to bring him saddled his bay steed of Gascony.

https://archive.org/details/erecundenide00chrt

Et Erec un autre apela,

2025 Si li comande a aporter
Ses armes por son cors armer.
Puis s'an monta an unes loges,
Et fist un tapit de Limoges
Devant lui a la terre estandre.

2630 Et eil corut les armes prandre,
Cui il l'ot comande et dit,
Ses aporta sor le tapit.
Erec s'assist de l'autre part
Dessus l'image d'un liepart,

2635 Qui el tapit estoit portreite.
Por armer s'atorne et afeite:
Premieremant se fist lacier
Unes chauces de blanc acier.
Apres vest un hauberc tant chier

2640 Qu'an n'an pooit maille tranchier.
Mout estoit riches li haubers,
Que a l'androit ne a l'anvers
N'ot tant de fer come une aguille,
N'il n'i pooit coillir roille;

2645 Car toz estoit d'arjant feitiz,
De menues mailles tresliz;
Et iere ovrez tant sotilmant,
Dire vos puis certainnemant,
Que nus, qui ja vestu l'eüst,

2650 Plus las ne plus doillanz n'an fust,
Que s'il etist sor la chemise
Une cote de soie mise.
Li serjant et li Chevalier
Tuit se pranent a mervellier,

2655 Por quoi il armer se feisoit;
Mes nus demander ne l'osoit.
Quant del hauberc l'orent arme,
Un hiaume a cercle d'or liste,
Plus der reluisant qu'une glace,

2660 Uns vaslez sor le chief li lace.
Puis prant l'espee, si la gaint,
Et comande qu'an li amaint
Le bai de Gascoingne ansele:

[Sean M]

Not long after an American gentleman acquired the use of an arming carpet, he was dressed in a Jeff Wasson harness. Coincidence?

[Sean M]

Since a gentleman of CAROLINA acquired an arming carpet, boxes of REAL SIXTEENTH CENTURY ARMOUR have appeared at his door. Coincidence?

[Bob H]

Since a gentleman of CAROLINA acquired an arming carpet, boxes of REAL SIXTEENTH CENTURY ARMOUR have appeared at his door. Coincidence?

"There was room for his ass, and a gallon of gas, but the rest hung out and he lost'em".

[Sean M]

The great Boucicault, who later became Marshall of FRANCE, suffered a lamentable defeat at the hands of the pagan TURKS. And what is even more plentiful in a Turkish camp than a French camp? Carpets! Not many years later the Turks suffered a piteous overthrow at the hands of the lame Timur the king of the PERSIANS. And who has even more marvellous carpets than the Turks?

[Glen K]

I believe the Templar rule also mentions a carpet as part of the equipment of a knight, but I think it is intended for sleeping on rather than arming on. Not sure why it wouldn't/couldn't be used for both... my copy is at home and I'm here stuck at work, but if someone else gets to it first they should add it to the sources above.

[Sean M]

The merchants of SWEDEN who spread their wares under the sign of Ikea now carry hand-woven rugs from Iran to the fairs of Europe. Ask for Orientteppiche or Oriental Rugs.

[Jehan de Pelham]

It makes sense to me. Lay your arms upon the ground? NAY!

[Sean M]

Mart found another example in the Chanson de Gaydon from the around 1230 (line 5882): "Savari was armed on a carpet."

[Sean M]

As the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval tells us (around line 950), the noble GAWAIN was armed and spurred upon a swathe of precious samite. And he did arms with Guiromelant the cruel at the Perilous Ford, and from that day forth he faced all the good kind of peril. Coincidence? I say nay.

[Sean M]

Some gentlemen and ladies of TORONTO and CHICAGO wished to do arms when the crown plague was stalking the land. They brought their arming carpets, and lo, their camp was not struck by plague, dysentery, or Lombards with some very well armed help asking when they were going to pay the interest on the loans for their horses and harness!



Source: https://nitter.eu/Phokion1/status/1453323687990603778#m (nitter is a way to see Twitter posts without the tracking and the demands to sign in)