02-17-2010, 07:35 PM
Well, discussing the military aspects of this poem is not the same as what you've been discussing earlier. Plus the Y Goddoddin, apart from a single name, has no Arthurian connections, whereas it surely is about post-Roman British cavalry. 
The number is random, or rather common, but unrelated. Plus, it has been suggested, the relatively low number fails to mention the grooms and/or common men fighting alongside these picked men.
Nobility? Hardly. IF you knew more about this, you'd have known that it was a mercenary force, gather by king Mynyddawg of the Goddoddin. Warriors or reknown, with some princes among them, but surely not all. Plus, how would that compare to Alexander's professional (and surely not all-noblemen) cavalry? Similar weapons? How on earth so?
Besides, this force was destroyed attacking/defending a fortress, not fighting in a cavalry action.
ArthuroftheBritons\\n[quote]The cavalry seems to be armoured with mail, perhaps a Burgh Castle style helmet, maybe some scale armour, and small shield. The poem also implies that the four-sided spear was used along with javelins and a spatha style longsword.
I wonder how you can deduce that from the poem, even more so because you are only using an osprey book which only generally discusses this subject. This is where you are rambling.
Quote:Please tell me if I am rambling or using this poem too much (Honestly I think I might be) or if I'm wrong, the Macedonian cavalry is not my specialty.Yes and yes.
Quote: Well, apart from the armour it seems that this warband was modled after Alexander the Great's Royal Squadron. The number, identification with nobility, and seemingly similar arangment of weapons leads me to believe that some sort of highly trained, vaugley Roman style of cavalry survived until this crushing blow at the hands of the Saxons where this unit was destroyed save for one, the author himself.How so? Alexander lived roughly 900 years before the defeat of the Goddoddin - how could the one be based on the other?
The number is random, or rather common, but unrelated. Plus, it has been suggested, the relatively low number fails to mention the grooms and/or common men fighting alongside these picked men.
Nobility? Hardly. IF you knew more about this, you'd have known that it was a mercenary force, gather by king Mynyddawg of the Goddoddin. Warriors or reknown, with some princes among them, but surely not all. Plus, how would that compare to Alexander's professional (and surely not all-noblemen) cavalry? Similar weapons? How on earth so?
Besides, this force was destroyed attacking/defending a fortress, not fighting in a cavalry action.
ArthuroftheBritons\\n[quote]The cavalry seems to be armoured with mail, perhaps a Burgh Castle style helmet, maybe some scale armour, and small shield. The poem also implies that the four-sided spear was used along with javelins and a spatha style longsword.
I wonder how you can deduce that from the poem, even more so because you are only using an osprey book which only generally discusses this subject. This is where you are rambling.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
