OSR and headless horsemen

In some forgotten places, a lazy visitor might find long tables where an antiquarian had labeled and displayed shards, stones and arrowtips of a fading past. Here, extracted from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, find these fragments of decapitation, and marvel.

***

The Green Knight's Head

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - with an ax - Sir Gawain struck a 'shattering' blow, and separated the Green Knight's torso from its head.

The fair head fell from the neck, struck the floor / And people spurned it as it rolled around. (translator, Brian Stone)

In 14th Century English, "spurned" would mean 'struck away with the foot.'

Notwithstanding all, the Green Knight grabbed the gruesome 'head by the hair,' 'pointed the face' to King Arthur's court, and the head hideously 'spoke with its mouth,'

"Be prepared to perform what you promised, Gawain / Seek faithfully til you find me.../ Go to the Green Chapel...to get such a stroke as you have struck. 

***

The Green Knight's Ax

The ax head 'was an ell-rod long' (45 inches), the blade was 'acutely honed,' and the 'great strong handle' was 'wound with iron' and 'graven in green with graceful designs.

As indicated in Moldvay's DnD Basic Rulebook, the Green Knight's ax could be a two-handed battle ax that deals 1d8 damage or a two-handed pole arm that deals 1d10. I'd bet the later, and call it a halberd. 

***

The Headless Horseman's Head


                                     [Etching by GH Broughton]

Lingering at the collector's tables longer, find these fragments - from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Late in the story, a 'horseman of large dimensions' appeared on the road through Sleepy Hollow.

Ichabod was horror struck on perceiving that he was headless! - but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle!

Reader of Sir Gawain, worse was the fate of Ichabod Crane.

...now Ichabod cast a look behind...Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups and in the very act of hurling his head...It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash - he tumbled headlong into the dust...

***

Such was the exhibit, Tete-a-Tete!

Thanks for reading.





 

 

 

 


 


 

 

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 9, 2024 at 6:27 PM

    Poor old Ichabod Cran(ium). Haha - good post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 10, 2024 at 6:02 PM

    That's a great pick-up! I did see the one where poor ol' Ichabod tumbled 'headlong' in to the dust.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 24, 2024 at 7:42 AM

    I like that etching, this is another good one: https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/9322/headless-horseman?ctx=894bea06-7a93-4c43-b264-0dded32531e4&idx=0

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 24, 2024 at 5:40 PM

    That's a great one from Nelson-Atkins! Thanks. I love the light and the sky. Maybe it's the moment when "On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his [Ichabod's] fellow-traveler in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak..."

    ReplyDelete

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