Hi guys!
I played AoE2 back in 1999 when I was a kid and my father pulled me back to it twenty years later.
AoE2 made me fall in love with History and it so happens that I studied medieval history at the university :-) So there we go full circle!
I was a total noob when I came back to the game. I didn't even know what a "build order" was and I totally disregarded boars.
HOWEVER
I learned better.
For my first message on this wonderful website I wanted to share some historical trivia with you guys :-)
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52505055c
1. Boar hunting was highly regarded during the Roman era and within ancient Celtic/Germanic tribes. Hunting the boar ranked among the best way to prove one's manhood. The boar was praised for its bravery and was seen as a dangerous foe. It so happens that the animal was closely linked to weapons and warriors in old germanic tales on a linguistic point of view.
2. However, past the Carolingian times, the boar started to be seen as a diabolical beast. Clergymen wrote on how its nose was always facing the ground, in search for food, whereas men can look at the sky and the stars. They didn't mind borrowing Ovid's verses on the subject (Met. I, 84-86): pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram | os homini sublime dedit caelumque tueri | iussit et erectos ad sidera tollere uultus. Saint Augustine, who remained the most influancial theologian during the Middle Ages, depicted the boar as a threat to the Lord's vines. Meanwhile, the deer became a symbol and allegory for Jesus Christ. Hunting the boar became therefore less noble and proper than hunting the deer.
3. Boars were yet hunted way past the "Dark Age" and well into the "Imperial Age" ;-) I'll leave you with this wonderfull burgundian tapestry that dates back from Joan of Arc's times.
View attachment Devonshire Hunting Tapistry. Boar & Bear Hunt (ca. 1420).jpghttps://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-devonshire-hunting-tapestries
I hope you enjoyed the trivia! ^^
See you all soon.
I played AoE2 back in 1999 when I was a kid and my father pulled me back to it twenty years later.
AoE2 made me fall in love with History and it so happens that I studied medieval history at the university :-) So there we go full circle!
I was a total noob when I came back to the game. I didn't even know what a "build order" was and I totally disregarded boars.
HOWEVER
I learned better.
For my first message on this wonderful website I wanted to share some historical trivia with you guys :-)
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52505055c
1. Boar hunting was highly regarded during the Roman era and within ancient Celtic/Germanic tribes. Hunting the boar ranked among the best way to prove one's manhood. The boar was praised for its bravery and was seen as a dangerous foe. It so happens that the animal was closely linked to weapons and warriors in old germanic tales on a linguistic point of view.
Further reading : Heinrich Beck, Das Ebersignum im Germanischen. Ein Beitrag zur germanischen Tiersymbolik, de Gruyter, Berlin, 1965 (Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker, N.F. 16).
2. However, past the Carolingian times, the boar started to be seen as a diabolical beast. Clergymen wrote on how its nose was always facing the ground, in search for food, whereas men can look at the sky and the stars. They didn't mind borrowing Ovid's verses on the subject (Met. I, 84-86): pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram | os homini sublime dedit caelumque tueri | iussit et erectos ad sidera tollere uultus. Saint Augustine, who remained the most influancial theologian during the Middle Ages, depicted the boar as a threat to the Lord's vines. Meanwhile, the deer became a symbol and allegory for Jesus Christ. Hunting the boar became therefore less noble and proper than hunting the deer.
Further reading : Michel Pastoureau, "Chasser le sanglier. Du gibier royal à la bête impure: histoire d'une dévalorisation", in Une histoire symbolique du Moyen Âge occidental, Paris, Seuil, 2004, p. 73-88.
3. Boars were yet hunted way past the "Dark Age" and well into the "Imperial Age" ;-) I'll leave you with this wonderfull burgundian tapestry that dates back from Joan of Arc's times.
View attachment Devonshire Hunting Tapistry. Boar & Bear Hunt (ca. 1420).jpghttps://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-devonshire-hunting-tapestries
I hope you enjoyed the trivia! ^^
See you all soon.