No, said Aziraphale, it's ineffable.

My post about Crowley seeking out Aziraphale, despite the fact that they’d just had two fights, had me re(-re-re-re-)watching the flaming bookshop scene again.

And you know what I noticed? The music is not just relevant to the thing about Queen tapes in the Bentley, or Aziraphale and Crowley being best friends. The exact lyrics they chose to overlay with the exact imagery it used, is impeccably tragic.

The music starts as he’s driving, and fades as he gets out of the Bentley and talks to the fireman. The moment he opens the doors to the burning bookshop the volume kicks back up to the line “you know I’ll never be lonely”. This is followed by a shot of the flaming gramophone playing “You’re my only one, and I love the things – I really love the things that you do. Oh, you’re my best friend.”

By the way, that’s not even the first verse of the song. It was purposely chosen (everything is meant) for that line and that music and that imagery.

After he realizes that Aziraphale isn’t actually in the shop, the music cuts out and it cuts to the ambient sound of a burning bookshop and dramatic music.

Like. Damn. Literally, damn, as in: this hellscape of Aziraphale’s burning bookshop and the sudden loss of his 6000-year-old ineffable husband has to absolutely be Crowley’s personal hell. Satan has nothing on the fact that Aziraphale is essentially the ONLY ONE who shows him any kind of kindness, decency, respect, and actual care. There’s also the fact that it’s not a one way relationship: he genuinely cares about and loves the angel, and he’s just gone suddenly while Crowley’s floundering to escape the Forces of Hell.

That again brings me back to the heartbreak of the scene in the pub where he’s drunkenly recounting how it all went wrong, as he sits there and essentially gives up for the first time in his existence on Earth.

So, anyway, I’ll be over here tending my broken heart.

sirobvious

“Sword”

Culture: French

Date: 13th Century

Length: 36 1/8 inches total, with a 29 ¾ inch blade.

Weight: 1 lb. 14 oz.

Credit: The Met

Info: Often called an “arming sword” in the present day, this kind of sword was also known as a “knightly sword” or just a “sword”, since Medieval people did not strictly categorize weapons. This example appears to have some sort of engraving on the blade. This may be purely decorative, or it may be some sort of maker’s mark. The museum page does not elaborate on this.

Swords like this, used in one hand, were often paired with a shield on the battlefield, if you were to even take it onto the battlefield as your primary weapon, which was unlikely. For the most part, spears of varying complexities and bows dominated Medieval battlefields. The advantage of a sword like this for battlefield use is that it is very easy to carry on your hip and draw quickly in case your spear is lost, or you’re in an archer formation that’s being closed in on by an unfriendly spear formation.

This ease of carry also made swords an ideal weapon of personal self-defense for travelers who could afford them.

petermorwood

(1) “Medieval” covers a long time and (2) archers and spearmen (plebs) weren’t the same as knights / men-at-arms (nobs) who carried swords as tokens of rank as well as weapons.

There’s a lot of art from the period of mail (11th-13th century) which suggests that one-handed arming-swords - at least those of Oakeshott Type X to XIV - were indeed used as primary weapons.

When plate armour became more common, axes, maces and hammers would have been both more useful and more usual, but that was a century or more in the future.

Spears on foot and lances on horseback do appear…

…as well as axes, maces or even the curious chopper / falchion shown in these illos from the Morgan Bible - there’s one visible just left of centre in the cavalry fight above, just left of centre in the mounted group below…

…and on the extreme right in the massacre below…

Here are a couple of repros, and a mace or studded club from the same source.

However for the most part swords seem to be the close-combat weapon of choice both in these illustrations and a lot of others. IMO that suggests artists were drawing “the usual” form of combat they’d either had described or seen for themselves.

YMM, of course, V.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.