Their website provides some information about hourglass gauntlets (http://www.medievalshoppe.com.au/hourglass-gauntlets.html):
"When fighting was almost entirely hand-to-hand, the thorough protection of the hand was necessarily of paramount importance. Armour for the head and body was, after all, but a second line of defence against the attack which penetrated the guard of the weapon. Any damage to the hand which controlled all offensive movements, as well as all parries, would place a combatant at the mercy of his antagonist. But the armourer had not only to give his attention to the protective qualities of the covering which enclosed a part so vulnerable and so likely to receive a wound, he had also to consider how he should least interfere with the use of so complicated a piece of mechanism as the human hand. It was on account of these very important considerations that one finds the gauntlet always more complicated in the details of its construction than the rest of the protective outfit.
Underneath the plate was worn a leather glove, to the fingers and thumb of which small overlapping scales were attached to complete the defence of the hand. Hourglass gauntlets are considered the zenith of medieval gauntlets. An example of this type may be seen on the brass of Sir John de Saint Quintan in Brandesburton Church, Yorkshire, which may be dated at about 1397. The famous effigy of Edward, Prince of Wales, known as the Black Prince, in the cathedral church of Canterbury depicts this masterful warrior wearing this kind of hand defence."
An image of reproduction hourglass gauntlets, sold by the Medieval Shoppe in Parkes, NSW. The Medieval Shoppe produces and sells replicas of swords, shields, armour, and other historical weapons.
Their website provides some information about hourglass gauntlets (http://www.medievalshoppe.com.au/hourglass-gauntlets.html):
"When fighting was almost entirely hand-to-hand, the thorough protection of the hand was necessarily of paramount importance. Armour for the head and body was, after all, but a second line of defence against the attack which penetrated the guard of the weapon. Any damage to the hand which controlled all offensive movements, as well as all parries, would place a combatant at the mercy of his antagonist. But the armourer had not only to give his attention to the protective qualities of the covering which enclosed a part so vulnerable and so likely to receive a wound, he had also to consider how he should least interfere with the use of so complicated a piece of mechanism as the human hand. It was on account of these very important considerations that one finds the gauntlet always more complicated in the details of its construction than the rest of the protective outfit.
Underneath the plate was worn a leather glove, to the fingers and thumb of which small overlapping scales were attached to complete the defence of the hand. Hourglass gauntlets are considered the zenith of medieval gauntlets. An example of this type may be seen on the brass of Sir John de Saint Quintan in Brandesburton Church, Yorkshire, which may be dated at about 1397. The famous effigy of Edward, Prince of Wales, known as the Black Prince, in the cathedral church of Canterbury depicts this masterful warrior wearing this kind of hand defence."
For their website see http://www.danelaw.org.au/home.htm
]]>Danelaw Medieval Fighting Society are a New South Wales re-enactment group who own The Danelaw, a 120 acre property in a pine forest between Sydney and Canberra that is used by re-enactment groups. The property includes a fort, axe- and knife-throwing areas, a tournament ring, as well as trebuchet’s, a type of catapult used in siege warfare from the twelfth century. The Danelaw Medieval Fighting Society were formed in the mid-1980s by James Adams as the Medieval Martial Arts Association of Southern Sydney. They adopted the current name in 2002. Members re-enact warfare methods with authentic costumes and weapons from throughout the medieval period, including such groups as Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Crusaders, Normans, Saracens, and the knights of the High Middle Ages. The property is named after the Danelaw of England, that part of England conquered and settled by the Vikings in the second half of the ninth century, and where aspects of ‘Danish’ law were used.
For their website see http://www.danelaw.org.au/home.htm
So all night long the battle goes,
Until the vanquished ogre sinks
Exhausted and the sharp lance drinks
His blood [...]
The hero of this poem, as the name Sir Anopheles hints, is a mosquito. The author here humorously stages an encounter between man and mosquito as a drawn-out battle between a recumbent Ogre and an intrepid and undaunted medieval knight. It is clear from the start that the tiny knight has the mastery; indeed as the night-long battle progresses, the final result is inevitable, and the sullen Ogre’s defeat is a foregone conclusion:
So all night long the battle goes,
Until the vanquished ogre sinks
Exhausted and the sharp lance drinks
His blood [...]