medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
One cannot but suspect that the molten lead sneaked in because of its
appearance in the splendid movie of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with
Charles Laughton. The lead streaming out of the gargoyle's mouths is one of
the greatest cinematographic medievalisms ever.
Jo Ann McNamara
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diana Wright" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 5:43 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] Boiling Oil as weapon
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> I googled. I got molten lead along with the boiling oil.
>
> I'm not buying it. Yet.
>
> DW
>
>
>
> Marjorie Greene wrote:
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>
>> My response is bare bones: I heard or read somewhere that oil was much
>> too precious a commodity to waste on attackers. And taking the time to
>> boil water (not to mention the waste of the material used to light the
>> fire) doesn't seem very logical to me. That said, machicolation existed
>> for a reason and I suspect that any nasty stuff one could lay one's hands
>> on was used to pour down the splayed-out walls of a fortress or fortified
>> castle. The dictionary definition mentions projectiles or "missiles," not
>> liquids or rotten goo of any sort:
>> "an opening between the corbels of a projecting parapet or in the floor
>> of a gallery or roof of a portal for discharging missiles upon assailants
>> below"
>> If you google or dogpile "machicolation" or even try Wikipedia, you might
>> get some better results.
>> MG
>
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