Hunting the Boar

[Asinus Docet]

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.

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.

 

[Asinus Docet]

I started my journey online right here.
A murderer always comes back to the scene of the crime.

I've started a loooong-ass blog post about Wild Boar hunting, AoE2 gameplay mechanics VS medieval hunting. It's not finished yet but here's the link to start reading the first part of it if you're interested :-D Lots of love to the AoE2 community!

https://asinusdocet.tv/2019/09/25/wild-boar-aoe2-medieval-hunting-simulator/



P.S. I'll come back to this thread when the second (and I hope final) part of the blog post is released on my blog ;-)

 

[robdyrob]

Thank you. Will you also mention that hunting was a privilege of the upper classes? Hence, the knight-line should have an attack bonus against boars and deers.
Your article motivated me to read a bit more about the cultural history of boar hunting. Itwas apparently a big topic in ancient history (see e.g. this helmet) and mythology (e.g. the Calydonian Boar).

 

[Asinus Docet]

Thank you. Will you also mention that hunting was a privilege of the upper classes? Hence, the knight-line should have an attack bonus against boars and deers.

Hi! Thank you for reading. It will actually motivate me to finish the damn blog post, 11.

The actual historical part of the blog post is still being written. I'll discuss the knowledge of the wild boar from bestiaries and medieval encyclopedias, how the animal was hunted (drawing from well known and popular medieval hunting treatises) and I'll conclude with a short cultural history of the boar during the Middle Ages. Therefore I will address the fact that hunting was mostly a noble activity, however boars being pests they represented a threat to crops and farms, they were also hunted, trapped and killed by commoners. Plus, there was no real distinction between wild and domestic boars back then (not before the industrial revolution and new breeding techniques): the killing of pigs couldn't have resulted in a monopoly. It was another thing with the deer though. There were actual laws that prevented the common people to hunt down deer. To the best of my knowledge, not the same thing can be said of boars.

I hope it answers your question while I keep working on my blog post :-) again, thank you so much for showing interest in my humble work.

See you soon!