What Real Clerical Spell Scrolls Look Like. Ge'ez and Amharic Examples.

Here are some fascinating examples of real Ge'ez clerical scrolls from Ethiopia. They are currently on display at Elizabeth Street Fine Arts gallery in New York City. The gallery website has pictures and descriptions of several scrolls dating to the 19th century, although some extant scrolls date back to the 16th century. Most of the scrolls described on the website contain multiple spells related to protection and healing. It's striking to me how many of these spells are recognizable from our favorite fantasy roleplaying games. It's also interesting how many Ge'ez spells fit onto a single scroll.

Historical background from the website:

So called “Magic Scrolls” are long rolls of parchment, illuminated by talismanic and figurative images and texts, usually in Ge’ez (Ethiopian liturgical language), of protective prayers, invocations of secret names of God, or sometimes demons. They are produced and used for varied purposes, healing, protection from spells, exorcisms etc. Scrolls are referred to as “ya’ branna kitab”, “written on skin” in Amharic, “asmat” or “names” in Ge’ez or “ta’lsam”, “talisman” in Tigrinya.

Scrolls are made for a specific individual by  “dabtara” (an unordained “priest” who studied scriptures, singing and poetry, a practitioner of traditional medicine, magician) and are carried and used by that person extensively. They rarely survive through a few generations of use. The oldest known scroll is recently dated to16th century, while majority of great surviving scrolls date between late 18th to early 20th century, as do the scrolls in this exhibit.

Here are some magic scroll pictures. More thorough details, which I paraphrase here, are available at the original website:

Tigre magic scroll. Three sets of incantations: (1) "The Prayer or Legend of Susenyos, used for the protection of children and infants from illness, followed by an invocation of magical names for the protection of the scroll owner from demons.", (2) "prayers for protection from the demon Shätolay, blacksmiths, buda, etc.", (3) prayers against rheumatism and stomach ache.

Magic scroll contains: (1) Prayer of Susenyos, (2) Prayer for the “expulsion” of disease and the demon Shotalay", (3) prayer against the evil eye, (4) prayer against rheumatism and sciatica, (5) prayers against haemorrhage, (5) another prayer against demon Shotalay, (6) prayer against Zar Wellaj.

Gorgon scroll of Wälättä-Gabriel contains: (1) An invocation against unclean spirits, (2) prayer of saint Susenyos for keeping away sickness from babies sucking the breast of their mothers, story of Susenyos killing Werzelya, (3) names of God against Shotelay (4) names of God said by Mary against devils. ‘Yosamer, Armosadekél…’, (5) speech of Moses against barya, devils, people of Legion, (6) prayer of Susenyos, (7) prayer against belly pain, (8) prayer against side pain, (9) prayer for undoing bewitching, (10) prayer against the eye of Mejer and Tegrida, (11) prayer against the Evil eye, (12) salutation to Fanuel expeller of devils.

Mentzer's TSR Belt Buckle Collection

Here's an amazing image recently posted by Frank Mentzer over at The Acaeum:

Holy smokes I would look sexy sporting a fabulous double-lizardman buckle like that... Just wow!

OD&D Origin of THAC0 in 1978

Believe it or not the UCLA Computer Club had a D&D 'zine in the late 1970s called ANYONE WANT TO BUY A COAT OF MITHRIL? Here's an interesting excerpt I found in issue #4 from April 1978:

"One of the devices we use is THAC0 (To Hit AC 0). This is a composite of the character's type, level, strength, weapon, and other bonuses. THAC0 must be recomputed when any of this changes. THAC0 itself greatly speeds things up all by itself".

I guess this settles it. THAC0 is totally old school!

Oh yeah, the last line of the 'zine says: "THE UCLA COMPUTER CLUB MEETS FOR D&D SATURDAYS AT 2:00 IN 3514 BOELTER"! Cool!

This is probably the nerdiest blog post I've ever made. I think like 4 people might be interested in this...

Medieval Battle in England: Recent Archeological Surprises

The December issue of The Economist had a fascinating article about recent archeological work on the 1461 Battle of Towton where the Lancastrians fought a vicious battle against the Yorkists. This archeological site is remarkable because it represents one of the single largest known medieval battles ever excavated - they estimate there may have been as many as 75,000 soldiers involved in the one-day battle: ~10% of England's fighting-age population. Wow! It is also an important site because the mass graves are being excavated in such a way that the remains of individual soldiers can be pieced together to learn more about specific individuals. Contrast this with the mass grave excavations for the 1361 Battle of Wisby in Sweden, which were done in traditional quadrant-style, making it impossible to match bones of individuals together.

Battle of Towton - 1461

If you've read his far and you're interested in this kind of thing, you should follow the link to the article and read it. I am not going to summarize the whole thing here, but I just want to outline a few tidbits that were very interesting and surprising about the Battle of Towton:

1. The fighting men were BIG. There is a common stereotype that hundreds of years ago Englishmen were tiny people with rotten teeth. It turns out that the average height of Towton soldiers was only slightly shorter than a modern-day Englishmen. Many of the soldiers approached 6' and they were healthy and had good teeth. It turns out that the shortness stereotype derives from the fact that Victorian English were stunted in their height for some reason. 

2. Many of the soldiers had previous battle experience. Analysis of remains revealed that many soliders had old blade wounds that had healed up before this particular battle. Most of these soldiers weren't simply peasants forced to fight - they were fighting men of all ages: 17-50.

3. The longbowmen were highly trained from an early age. Many of the skeletons had enhanced calcification of the right shoulder and left elbow, suggesting they were highly experienced using massive longbows. Furthermore, one skeleton showed a special type of related "Little League Elbow" fracture that only occurs in adolescence, suggesting archery practice started from an early age.

4. They used handguns. The Towton site has produced some of the earliest evidence of lead-composite shot, as well as possible fragments of a handgun.

5. The battle was gigantic. Even if the estimate of 75,000 participants is exaggerated, a medieval battle with tens-of-thousand of soldiers is still impressive to consider.

6. There was extreme mutilation and overkill.  Most of the Towton excavation has thus far focused on a mass grave of soldiers that was a fair distance away from the main battle site. The majority of these skeletons showed massive repeated weapon trauma to the head - much more than would be necessary to kill an individual. One man even had his ear cut off. Futhermore, the individuals  did not show the normal combat wounds on the hands and arms seen at other medieval battle sites. The archeologists hypothesize this may have been a group of retreating Lancastrians who had removed their helmets to run faster. They were probably chased down by Yorkists on horseback who hacked at their heads and faces over and over again. Horrifying. 

7. The bodies were looted. Unlike at the Swedish Battle of Wisby site, where the soldiers in the mass graves still wore their armor, the Towton soldiers were completely stripped of their possessions before being thrown in the pits. A single ring was found on one soldier - it was probably hard to find covered up by the blood and gore.

Glad I wasn't there...