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FritzVicari — Breaching the Walls, Fellin, Estonia, early 1211
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#assedio #baltic #crusaders #crusades #estonia #fellin #germans #krieg #letts #livonia #medieval #medievale #siege #war #baltico #battaglia #livs #balts #xiiicentury #crociati #northerncrusades #sakkalia
Published: 2016-03-18 12:32:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 4369; Favourites: 46; Downloads: 23
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Description
Better late than never.
[...] Lyvones cum Lettis struem lignorum siccis lignis superadaugent usque ad plancas. Eylardus de Dolen desuper ascendit. Sequuntur Theuthonici in armis [...]
Chronicon Livoniae, XIV, 11
ENGLISH (based on Henrici Chronicon Livoniae, R. Bartlett, The Making of Europe, E. Christiansen, The Northern Crusade, W. Urban, The Baltic Crusade, S. Turnbull, Crusader Castles of the Teutonic Knights (2))
Livs and Letts raised the pile of wood with dry logs, until it reached the top of the walls. Eylard of Dolen climbed the pile, with armored Germans followed him...
On the fifth day of the siege, a pile of wood was raised high enough to reach the top of the outer walls of Fellin, which the Germans breached. The Saccalian estonians vigorously defended themselves with stones, javelins, arrows, burning vehicles and even logs, but could not resist the assault and reatreated in an inner fortification, presumably the main body of the castle. The battle would have raged another full day inside the heavily damaged fortress...
In the drawing you can see the assault on the outer walls, probably a bit more slow paced than you may have imagined it. The Estonians on the breach had formed a shieldwall, and so the charging Germans, which are attacked with stones from the nearby towers.
ITALIANO (basato sulla Henrici Chronicon Livoniae, R. Bartlett, The Making of Europe, E. Christiansen, La Crociata del Nord, W. Urban, The Baltic Crusade, S. Turnbull, Crusader Castles of the Teutonic Knights (2) ) :
I Livoni e i Lettoni accrescono fino all'assito la catasta di legna, con tronchi secchi. Eilardo da Dolen vi sale sopra, seguito da Tedeschi in armi...
Il quinto giorno dell'assedio, una catasta di legna, accumulata già nei giorni precedenti e attaccata più volte col fuoco, venne accresciuta fino a raggiungere l'assito delle mura esterne di Fellin. Gli Estoni Saccali si difesero vigorosamente con pietre, giavellotti, frecce, veicoli in fiamme e persino tronchi, ma non poterono resistere a quest'ultimo assalto e si ritirarono in una fortificazione interna, probabilmente nel corpo principale del forte. La battaglia avrebbe continuato a infuriare ancora per una giornata...
Nel disegno, l'assalto alle mura esterne, forse a passo un po' più lento di come ve lo sareste immaginato. Gli Estoni sulla breccia hanno formato un muro di scudi e così i tedeschi, che sono anche attaccati da pietre lanciate dalle torri.
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Comments: 17
Is it just me or does that quote give anyone else the mental image of Eylard of Dolen going unarmored before the Germans? (although that may just be because I don't actually know where Dolen is or was and therefore mentally filed him under "German").
In any case, please keep up the very fine work Master Fritz!
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Ahahah yeah, it may sound like that. But I guessed Eylard was armored as well ahah - well, I honestly hoped for him!
Thank you very much anyway!
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Thanks. Glad you appreciate.
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I've been wondering where you've been!
Excellent as always, you sure know how to make those Latin lines come to life!
P.S.
Have you heard of Jonathan Lindström? He recently released a book called The bishop and the crusade in 1206: about war, colonization and God's man in the Nordic countries, it's mainly about the first Swedish settlements in Estonia and the archbishop Andreas Sunessons if i don't miss remember. I heard Jonathan Lindström at a lecture on tv, interesting stuff and the man seemed to know what i talked about. Not that i'm well read on the subject. Anyways i though of you when i heard about it so i though i should at least let you know about it
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Thank very much. I've been quite busy in the last few months, and my drawing activity was focused on what I was asked to do at the academy. Some of those stuff pleased me, and I'll be probably share some of it in the coming days.
I don't think I ever heard of Johnatan Lindström, but maybe I just can't recall it know. Do you know if his works were translated in English? I'd gladly read the book you are suggesting, but I'm unable to find anything on it and the author. Googling his name only tells me of a football player. :/
As difficult it may be to find English translated book on the Baltic crusades, it is generally even harder to find books of Swedish history in italian. Still, after Stieg Larsson, our libraries were literally invaded by tons and tons of swedish (and more generally scandinavian) noir and crime books, many even never published or heard in Italy before. My father possess a collection so huge that he had to build a small bookcase only for them only. 
So who knows, maybe one day we may have at least sparse publication on at least some of the most famous characters of Swedish history too. I'd like to read, for example, a biography of Gustavus Adolphus and his time. I always check the "G" letter in the biographies sections of libraries, just in case ahah.
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Sounds interesting!
I don't know sadly. I was hoping it was translated because i could imagine that it would be quite interesting to both Germans and Balts... But i think it came out last year so perhaps it's simply to early to start looking for an translation. I'll let you know if i ever found out if its been translated of course
Yes there is no shortage of Swedish crime novels
Funny you should mention biographies on Gustaf II Adolf, because i have myself hunted for one for a long time(even though i of late have become more and more interested in the Great Northern war) and it would seem that the biographies are scarce!
I think there is like only one from the 2000's, but it's supposed to be written by one of those military hating historians and i know that a lot of Gustaf II Adolf fans was very upset of how he was portrayed.
But there is one written in 1932 by Nils Ahnlund called "Gustaf Adolf den store" which i think is well respected still. I also know that there is a lot of books about Gustaf II Adolf written by English historians, but of course it's not the same. It annoys me that i can't really recommend you anny thing... But look for Nils Ahnlund at a antiquarian perhaps you could find an old translation, if it exists. I have not read this book myself i just want to make that clear.
I could also mention (although i doubt they are translated) "Sveriges krig 1611-1632(Sweden's war)" by the Generalstaff from 1936.
When it comes to Gustaf II Adolf and his wars there is not much new stuff from Sweden, basically what i've found out is that if you want to learn about Gustaf II Adolf you have to buy old books.
It's like i said manny times, the great Gustavus have been forced to take a step back for Charles XII in modern history writing. And the modern Swedes aren't that interested in history anymore.... So i understand it's hard to find stuff in Italy because it's quite hard here as well. Although i did find a little interesting book about Swedish fashion during the Swedish empire, which i'm planning to read this summer with some refreshing cold beverages
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Pretty surprising to hear. There rarely are new publications on early XVII century in Italy, translated or not. Always had an hard time finding them, since more often than not they go out of print. It's curious, since one of our most important novel (The Bethroted, still studied in most High Schools) is set in 1629, when a great plague struck Northern Italy.
But I'm surprised Gustav Adolf is not covered in Sweden. I mean, while he died young, he had greater ambitions than Charles XII - or better, he would have had hadn't he died so early - and also greater influence in central and southern European history! Not to mention the importance he had on the art of war. Alas! Thank for your bibliographical suggestions, anyway!
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I think the reason why Charles XII have taken over the spotlight from Gustaf Adolf is because first of we Swedes love melancholy, second there has been a lot of dirt throwing on Charles XII from the political leanings on the left and a lot of glorification from the ones on the right(even the HBTQ crowd has tried to make him one of theirs), so he's more talked of in modern time outside the historical scene and thirdly we don't know that much about Charles XII for instance we barley know how he looked in his last years. And of course you have the death of Charles which is highly debated, also you have Charles quite frankly odd personality(whilst Gustaf Adolf is quite flawless).
I think that the biggest things that hold Gustaf Adolf back from being more popular are two reasons: Firstly his most famous action was to intervene in the thirty years war and a religious war ain't that popular nowadays(where's Charles defended the border, which in fair Gustaf Adolf did thrice(four times depending on how you look at it) and succeeded) and secondly his army wasn't wearing uniforms.... It's much more easy to remember men in yellow and blue then buff coats, cuirass and lobster helmets.
Also you have to remember that the modern Swedes just wanna be modern and even a bit more modern then the rest... History is the past. In Sweden local politicians want to remove royal statues because it's simply out of time. And another common phrase used by the anti-history crowd is "who cares how many people the two Carl's slew"...
I've debated this quite a lot with myself over the years, simply because i have never been able to choose one of the warrior kings as the "coolest". I mean Gustaf II Adolf as you said left a huge impact on history, Carl X Gustaf threatened the existence of nations, Carl XI reformed and made an big impact on the shaping of Sweden, Carl XII was the young hero who did not bend to the will of the invaders(he has simply been raised to the status of legend). So how can you chose? But i agree Gustaf II Adolf should be much more revered in modern times. The man was unstoppable after all.
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You accurately caught the pace of such an attack. I have, in a medieval recreationist society (the Society for Creative Anachronism), attacked breaches in full armor. It is no where near as easy as one would think. People who rush are quickly hit with arrows, or are caught by two or three defenders at once with no support nearby.
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That said, if you wanna enter a breach, you share have to march at least at the double not to lose momentum. Still, even at the double, would still be a much sluggier thing than what one may think, I agree, so I tried to portray something in the middle of a rush and a stalemate. Also, imagine how comfortable must have been to climb a pile of woods (so the chronicle says), fully armored, shield at hand... Thank for the insightful comment anyway!
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A very good piece again, with very dynamic poses. I like it!
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I'm glad you like it! Thank you!
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Pretty badass scene here. Great job with this
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