A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This is the long-awaited first part of a series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII. VIII) taking a historian's look at the Battle of Helm's Deep from both J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers (1954) and Peter Jackson's 2002 film of the same name. We're going to discuss how historically plausible each sequence of events … Continue reading Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part I: Bargaining for Goods at Helm’s Gate
This post is now available in audio format here. Hey guys, this is just a really quick post to address a question I've seen lurking around thinking about my previous post on the logistics of the loot-train battle. No pictures today, just some quick text on the topic. A lot of readers were throwing up … Continue reading New Acquisitions: How Fast Do Armies Move?
We're going to talk about the comically nonsensical logistics of the "Battle of the Goldroad" from Game of Thrones (S7E4), commonly just called the 'Loot Train battle.'
This is the seven (and last!) part of our seven part series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, Gloss., Retrospective) look at Sparta in popular memory and historical truth. Last time we talked about Sparta's battlefield record and came away noting that it was profoundly, disappointing average. Longer term readers will know, of course, … Continue reading Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta. Part VII: Spartan Ends
Today, in Part II of our three part series on War Elephants, we're going to look at the drawbacks of war elephants. Last time (here), we discussed the factors that made war elephants so powerful on the battlefield. To recap: war elephants had a strong psychological element (they are very scary) and could drastically disrupt … Continue reading Collections: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants against Wolves
Last week, we looked at a model for what the countryside around an 'ideal city' might look like. Today we're going to introduce some complications to that model (you will recall, our ideal city existed in a perfectly flat plain of uniform fertility) and see how they change the patterns of land use which in … Continue reading Collections: The Lonely City, Part II: Real Cities Have Curves
This week and next, we're going to look at an issue not of battles, but of settings: pre-modern cities - particularly the trope of the city, town or castle set out all alone in the middle of empty spaces. Why does the city or castle-town set amidst a sea of grass feel so off? And … Continue reading Collections: The Lonely City, Part I: The Ideal City
(Note: Thanks to the effort of a kind reader, this post is now available in audio format! The playlist for the entire series may be found here.) This is the sixth and final part of a six part series taking a military historian's look at the Siege of Gondor in Peter Jackson's adaptation of Return … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Gondor: Part VI: Black Sails and Gleaming Banners
This series is now available in an audio format; the entire playlist can be listened to here. The following is the third part of a three part series where we look at the question "how medieval is Game of Thrones?" and - if not the Middle Ages - what period of European history does Game … Continue reading New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part III
(Note: Thanks to the effort of a kind reader, this post is now available in audio format! The playlist for the entire series may be found here.) This is the fourth part of a six part series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI) taking a military historian's look at the Siege of Gondor in Peter … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part IV: The Cavalry Arrives