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A Superficial Overview of Western Medieval Arms and Armor

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:02:16 +0100

The goal of this article is to give a brief overview of the development in arms and armor during the middle ages. That is, I won’t go into detail here, and much is to be said about every single thing here, more images could be included and more sites linked. But the goal is to not bombard people with information only vaguely aware of the medieval arms and armor repertoire - people who have largely been influenced by movies, series and horrible documentaries. Hence I’ve included images to show visually the development of not only technology but also the aethetics over the time, as well as links to websites and Youtube videos (furher below) which can be further explored.
Similarly, I will name “archaeological evidence”, some names and words you can put into your preferred search-engine and continue with an auto-didactic approach.

Important Information

It is important to keep in mind that all developments of armor and weapons required also some development in the crafts and arts. Hardened steel development fairly late, the craftsmanship required to create large plates of steel with variable thickness and while being light enough for a man to wear and fight in is not trivial, while alleged cheaper and simpler methods, such as gambeson (layered linen) did not appear for most of the middle ages despite the technology and material to create these being abundant.
Mass production of plate and maille (we are talking about close to hundreds of thousands of full sets of plate armor per annum in the shops of Northern Italy and some German and French cities) required not just materials, bloomeries, water-powered grinding wheels and the knowledge to use these effectively but also a efficient pipelines, manufacturing, and a good putting-out system.

Another important aspect is the artistic: Armor and textile fashion was always interwoven (beautiful cloaks with elaborate brooches over maille, painted-on armor did not only serve decorative purposes but also protect the steel from water. Surcoats, jackets, arming doublets and pourpoint worn underneath and sometimes also over the armor). Some pieces tried to mimic older styles: The Barbute, for example, was inspired by the Corinthian helmet, while the Armour Alla Antiqua appears a lot in painting and frescos. Individual links of maille might have had different colors to create patterns. And so on.. But here I will only talk about the armor itself.

6th Century: Late Antique Influences and Early Migration Period Continuity

In the 6th century, armor drew heavily from late Roman traditions, with “barbarian” groups (e.g., Franks, Lombards, Anglo-Saxons) adopting and adapting Roman-derived gear - is what many would say. However, the Romans adopted maille armor and the Spangenhelm from the Celts. This is evident from the fact that the earliest findings of maille armor is from 3rd century BC in modern-day Slovakia and Romania. Body armor typically consisted of short-sleeved mail shirts (byrnie), made from interlocking iron rings (often alternating round and flat for better flexibility and strength), covering the torso to the waist or mid-thigh. Scale armor (overlapping iron, bronze, or horn plates) persisted in some regions, influenced by Byzantine or eastern steppe contacts, but mail became more widespread due to easier production by small workshops. However, and we see this for a very long time, many went into battle with little to no armor apart from perhaps a helmet. Hence the rather large size of shields compared to the late-middle ages with its wider access to other means of physical protection.

Helmets were predominantly Spangenhelms - a conical or rounded skull constructed from iron bands (spangen) riveted to plates, often with a nasal guard and sometimes cheek pieces or aventails. These evolved from late Roman ridge helmets but were lighter and more regionally produced.

Shields were round or oval, made of light wood (often lime or poplar), and could be thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges, with a central iron boss for hand protection and rim reinforcements. Weapons focused on versatility: the spear (primary for thrusting and throwing, with leaf- or kite-shaped heads) dominated, alongside single-edged swords (spatha-derived), axes, and bows. The scramasax (a long seax knife) appeared as a sidearm.

Archaeological evidence includes Lombard graves in Italy (e.g., Fiesole necropolis finds with spearheads, axe heads, and scramasaxes from the late 6th century) and continental Germanic sites showing mail fragments and spangenhelms. In Britain, early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries yield spearheads and shield bosses, reflecting gradual adoption of mail among elites.

7th Century: Alleged “Princely” Burials and Vendel-Style Developments

By the 7th century, armor quality improved for presumably high-status warriors, reflecting emerging larger kingdoms and trade networks. Mail byrnies remained short-sleeved and waist-length for most, but examples extended further, sometimes with added reinforcements. Mail production refined, with smaller ring diameters enhancing cut resistance, though full-body coverage was exceptional.

Ornaments on helmets in northern Europe would deserve their own article. (and they have, many, even proper paper! Sometimes on a single helmet) The famous Sutton Hoo helmet (c. 625 CE, East Anglia, England) exemplifies this: an iron bowl with tinned bronze pressblech foils, garnet-inlaid face mask, boar-crested eyebrows, and neck/cheek guards echoing late Roman cavalry styles but with Germanic animal motifs. Similar “crested” or ridge helmets appear in Scandinavian Vendel-period graves (e.g., Vendel and Valsgärde in Sweden), featuring embossed decorations, boar imagery, and elaborate crests indicating shared networks across the North Sea.

Shields retained round forms with iron bosses (often domed or spiked); some shields had decorative fittings and were often painted poly-chromatically. Weapons included pattern-welded swords (early examples with twisted rods for strength and pattern), angons (barbed throwing spears), and axes. Spears remained ubiquitous, often with socketed heads.

Archaeological evidence is richest from “princely” burials: Sutton Hoo ship burial (Mound 1) yielded a mail coat (one of the earliest near-complete examples), shield with elaborate boss and fittings, spearheads, and the iconic helmet. Comparable Scandinavian finds (Vendel graves) preserve helmet fragments and mail traces. Langobardic shield bosses (7th century, Met collection) and continental grave goods confirm regional variations, with mail more common in Frankish and Lombard contexts.
They are often called Princely Burials because it is often assumed that the moment something nice and fancy is inside the burial place it must’ve been some important person, i.e. a princely person.
However this view is getting increasingly more unpopular, as more well-preserved are found, which suggest that even non-princely persons were given finer and nice funerary goods.

8th Century: Carolingian Consolidation and Wider Mail Use

The 8th century saw some kind of “standardization” under Carolingian expansion - Charlemagne later restricted its export. Byrnies lengthened slightly for better coverage, though full hauberks were still rare. Many still went with little no armor apart from a helmet. The shield still served as the main protection which is reflected in its size compared to the smaller shields emerging in the late middle-ages.
Helmets included spangenhelms with nasals, evolving toward simpler conical forms and some retained decorative elements from Vendel traditions. Shields standardized as round wooden types with iron bosses.
Weapons emphasized spears for cavalry and infantry, with one-handed swords still reserved to men of higher status. One- and two-handed axes and bows continued to be used.

Archaeological evidence includes Frankish and Lombard graves with mail fragments, spearheads, and axes (e.g., continuing Lombard sites). Repton Stone (late 8th/early 9th, but reflective of trends) depicts chainmail figures. Vendel-period continuity into the 8th century shows persistent helmet styles in Scandinavia.

Overall, the 6th - 8th centuries featured small changes in maille and helmets. Armor remained status-driven, with archaeological grave finds (Sutton Hoo, Vendel, Lombard necropoleis) providing primary evidence of regional diversity and continuity (I keep stressing the point of continuity - the alleged collapse due to the disappearance of the Western Roman institution did not hamper the development in arms and armor in any meaningful way. There were no technological breakthroughs until much later but I debatable whether the Romans could’ve done any better. Certainly not Romans of the late Roman era).

From the 9th to 12th centuries, European arms and armor evolved from Carolingian continuity - itself rooted in Roman traditions - into proto-knightly culture, shaped by Viking raids, feudalism, the Norman Conquest (1066), and the early Crusades (from 1095).
Chainmail (hauberk) became the core of what was considered good protection, expanding in coverage and sophistication, while helmets, shields, and weapons adapted to mounted warfare and changing threats like archery and cavalry charges. Full body armor (by the standards of the 8th century, that is: not full body armor) remained largely something for the elite, with mail hauberks symbolizing status amid growing feudal levies. Length and style of armor changed, though how armor functioned stayed largely the same. As a note, we can observe this also in fashion: while the early middle ages had similar fashion to the late-Roman period except with small changes here and there, from the 10th century onwards a unique fashion style started to develop, and by the late 11th century we can say that there is a uniquely “high-medieval fashion”.

9th Century: Carolingian Standardization and Defensive Responses

How A 9th Century Anglo Saxon Earl Shall Be Armed

In the 9th century, under the Carolingian Empire and amid Viking, Magyar, and Saracen pressures, armor emphasized reliable mail defenses for mounted and foot warriors. The hauberk (or brunia) was typically short-sleeved, waist- to thigh-length, made from interlocking iron rings (often riveted for strength), weighing around 20 - 30 pounds. Charlemagne’s edicts restricted mail export, underscoring its value as high-status gear for professional retainers.
Helmets retained spangenhelm forms - conical or rounded iron skulls with bands, nasal guards, and occasional cheek pieces, providing basic cranial protection. Shields were predominantly round, wooden, central iron boss, and rim fittings for slashing defense.
Weapons prioritized versatility: spears (leaf-shaped heads, often thrown or couched for early mounted use), single- or double-edged swords (pattern-welded blades for flexibility), and axes (broad-bladed for infantry cleaving). Bows and all manners of long knives supplemented.

Archaeological evidence includes sparse mail fragments from Norse contexts (e.g., early Danish finds hinting at continued use) and Carolingian grave goods with spearheads and shield bosses. Written sources like capitularies confirm mail prevalence among elites.

10th Century: Norse Influence and Feudal Foundations

How A 10th Century Viking Jarl Shall Be Armed
How A Viking Huscarl Shall Be Armed

The 10th century saw Viking raids accelerate armor adoption across northern Europe, with mail spreading via trade, settlement, and conflict. Hauberks lengthened toward the knees with front/rear slits for mounting, sleeves reaching elbows. Mail coifs (hoods) began appearing, though not universal.
Helmets remained nasal spangenhelms or conical types, sometimes with added aventails. Shields stayed round.
Weapons evolved: swords developed fuller grooves for lightness, T-shaped or brazil-nut pommels; lances gained prominence for couched charges (aided by stirrups, widespread since the 8th - 9th centuries); axes featured longer hafts for reach.

Archaeological evidence is richest from Viking-age Scandinavia: the Gjermundbu mail shirt (Norway, c. 950–975 CE), a near-complete riveted mail hauberk (with possible lamellar elements), found in a cremation grave alongside a helmet. Other finds include mail fragments from Birka (Sweden) and Danish sites (e.g., Bispetorvet pit-house, late 10th–early 11th century, with corroded rings including decorative copper-alloy edging).

11th Century: Norman Ascendancy and Knightly Emergence

How An 11th Century Mounted Knight Shall Be Armed
How An 11th Century Norman Knight Shall Be Armed
How A Norman Noble Shall Be Dressed
How A Saxon Huscarl Shall Be Armed

By the 11th century, mail hauberks became longer (knee-length, long-sleeved to mid-forearm), often with attached coifs and occasional mufflers (mail mittens). Surcoats (cloth, usually silk, over armor) emerged for sun protection, display of status and possibly identification.

Helmets featured conical nasal types over coifs, as vividly shown in the Bayeux Tapestry (c. 1070s), depicting Norman and Saxon warriors at Hastings (1066). Shields transitioned dramatically: the kite shield (elongated teardrop shape, shoulder to knee, curved for mounted protection) replaced round forms, most likely developed for more protection of the legs and the horse for cavalry, held by guige strap and enarmes.
Weapons included arming swords (longer blades), lances (couched under arm for shock charges), axes (Norse-influenced broad types), bows, Javelins, slings and crossbows (gaining traction).

Archaeological evidence relies heavily on iconography like the Bayeux Tapestry (showing hauberks, nasal helmets, kite shields) and sparse metal finds. Maille continuity appears in Norwegian/Swedish graves; Norman contexts yield sword fragments and spurs.

How A 12th Century Angevin Chevalier Shall Be Armed How A 12th Century Norman Crossbowman Shall Be Armed

The 12th century refined full mail ensembles amid Crusades and feudal consolidation. Hauberks extended to wrists with mufflers and chausses (mail leggings) protected thighs/calves, either laced or tied.
Helmets shifted toward rounded/cylindrical nasal types, while kettle hats (broad-brimmed) appeared for infantry and great helm precursors (cylindrical, flat-topped with eye slits) emerged late in the century for face protection.
Shields largely remained in kite form (slightly shortened/flattened) but began incorporating some heraldic paintings.
Weapons stayed largely the same, with no radical changes during this period.
By this point, mail armor was about as good as it could get—full-body protection, driven by cavalry tactics, wealth, and craftsmanship. But where do you go from there? The answer: plates.

13th Century: Transitional Armor and Early Plate Experiments

The 13th century marked the decline of pure maille armor partly due to advancements in metallurgy, partly to a continued effort to improve protection against projectiles such as crossbow bolts and arrows, as well as against lances (in the context of heavy-cavalry charges). Hauberks remained full-length (knee to wrist, with coifs, chausses, and mittens). Transitional defenses included coats of plates (metal plates riveted inside fabric/leather surcoats. One of the rare cases where leather wasn’t just used for straps in armor).

Helmets evolved: the great helm (cylindrical, flat-topped, with eye slits and ventilation) became iconic for mounted knights, worn over mail coifs with skull caps for full-face protection or, also common later on, another helmet. It is speculated that this helmet was used during a cavalry charge to protect against arrows and bolt, splinters and lances, and was removed during combat for better visibility and breathing. This was done by connecting the great helmet with a small chain to the armor.
There were different variations, and stages of development, the pot helmet for example, and different forms but the idea was roughly the same.

Shields shortened from elongated kite to smaller heater or triangular forms. Weapons adapted: swords gained stiffer, diamond-section blades for thrusting; polearms (early halberds, bills) and crossbows proliferated.

Archaeological evidence is limited due to corrosion/recycling, but inventories (e.g., Tower of London 1338 holding 800 “pairs of plates”) and effigies hint at rapid development plate and an equally rapid adoption. Artistic sources (manuscripts, statues and seals) depict early plate limb defenses from ~1250 - 1300.
The 13th and later the 14th century saw a radical change in armor and subsequently, though not as radical, in weapons and tactics.

14th Century: Widespread Plate Adoption and Articulated Defenses

How A Late 14th Century Knight Shall Be Armed

How A Burgundian Archer Shall Be Armed

By the 14th century, plate armor rapidly developed amid warfare demands. Transitional forms dominated early: coats of plates over mail, with articulated leg armor (greaves, cuisses, poleyns for knees) and arm defenses (vambraces, rerebraces, couters). Breastplates appeared as solid pieces by the late century. Plates during this time were worn over either maille armor or gambeson (Gambeson actually exists now!) as the plate could not fully cover the body yet.
Helmets also changed: bascinets (pointed skull, mail aventail/camail, often with hinged visors like houndskull) replaced great helms - no longer did you have to remove your entire helmet, you could simply move your visor up to see more and improve breathing. Kettle hats (chapel-de-fer, broad-brimmed) suited the common people’s budget.
True hardened steel as opposed to only case-hardened steel (i.e. the full thickness was hardened rather than only the surface) developed by the mid-to-late 14th century: it cannot be stressed enough how much of a difference this made! You could now make thinner plates which were stronger earlier plates.

The book The Knight and The Blast Furnance provides the following data, Joules needed for arrows or bullets to penetrate mild steel (0.15% carbon, akin to basic case-hardened iron post-padding):

Thickness	Arrow Energy (J)	Bullet Energy (J)
1 mm	55	450
2 mm	175	750
3 mm	300	1700
4 mm	475	3400

Multiply for each row the energy by 1.5 and you have the energy required for a bullet or arrow to penetrate hardened steel.

Shields diminished slightly in use as two-handed weapons rose; small targes appeared for tournaments. Weapons included longer swords, poleaxes (spike, hammer, axe head), maces (for concussive damage), and early handgonnes (primitive firearms by late century).

Archaeological evidence includes the Battle of Visby (1361) mass grave (Gotland, Sweden): over 1,000 skeletons with mail, coats of plates (many riveted plates in textile), and limb splints - typical for transitional armor. Effigies and statues show splinted greaves. We have a lot of pieces in museums and of course a plethora of illuminations ins manuscript.

15th Century: Full Plate Armor and Regional Mastery

How A 15h c. English Knight Shall Be Armed How An Early 15h c. French Knight Shall Be Armed

The 15th century achieved full plate armor (head-to-toe articulated steel suits), lightweight (45 - 60 lbs total, distributed), highly mobile via joints/articulations. Maille often protected gaps. Italian mills produced polished “white armor” (smooth, rounded, often asymmetric) while sporting a wide figure; German Gothic style featured fluted ridges for strength and fashion, and favored a thin waist and sleek aesthetic.

There were breastplates with faulds (hooped skirts), pauldrons (shoulder), vambraces/gauntlets (articulated fingers), greaves/sabatons (feet), tassets (thigh plates). Popular helmets were now the sallet (shallow bowl, often visor and bevor neck guard) and the armet (close-fitting, hinged cheek pieces).
The form of the armor itself had a purpose: the round and sleek meant that projectiles and lances would glance of, it’d be difficult to get a good angle to fully transmit the force of an attack into the armor. Breastplates varied in thickness, thicker in the middle around the solar plexus where you’d expect full impact with lances, and thinner at the sides.
Weapons also developed: famous ones like the estocs (thin thrusting swords), zweihänders (two-handed greatswords for anti-pike/mercenary use), polearms (halberds, bills), and matchlock handguns (emerging mid-century). One- and two-handed warhammers became more prominent, partly also since knights no longer needed shields when on foot. Many, and many variations existed of swords, polearms, maces and spears. We have beautiful examples of crossbows with engravings, and heavily decorated metal. This text does not do justice to the artistry of 15th century Gothic and Renaissance weapons and armor pieces.
This era transformed knights into near-impenetrable heavy cavalry (if he already wasn’t), and would remain so despite alleged fire-arms dominance over plate armor.

We have so much art from effigies, small statuettes, art from manuscripts, prints, paintings, frescos and so much more - if you know what to search for you will find an absurd amount of visual sources from this period. It is in some way impressive how few surviving pieces of full plate armor we have considering how much was produced but nonetheless, we can reconstruct fairly accurately what these looked like.

Some Afterthoughts

There are many thing we don’t actually know: how did Norman knights carry their swords when in full maille armor? We know they did but its not obvious from the imagery we have. How was the ventail, the part of a maille coif which goes over your mouth, attached? For some periods and places we know, for some we can only speculate. What did a group of a 100 men in full maille armor fighting with full intent to kill each other look like and sound like? We can only speculate and attempt to recreate that in some safe way…
How varied where some configurations of armor in a single unit of participants in a battle? Difficult to say. Probably fairly diverse but we usually see in illuminations in manuscripts which depict battles and fights the same person, knight, archer, whatever, copied over and over. Did they wear uniform equipment or did the artist only use one model?
I also didn’t go into many experimental pieces. The Kastenbrust emerged in modern-day Germany some time in the early 15th c., and disappeared again. Great Helmet, Pot Helmet, Bucket Helmet, rounded top, flat top, and so on. The 13th and 14th century saw many variations and developments until the sallet, bascinet and similar.

But the fact remains that the middle ages were not some time of stagnancy. Technology improved rapidly, at least from the high middle ages onwards, and hence arms and armor developed. A late Roman member of a comitatus would’ve been quite in awe if he saw a 15th century knight in Gothic plate.

Of course technology wasn’t the only thing that changed. Tactics and strategies shifted over time: Cavalry for the Romans were predominantly skirmishers, with some light shock cavalry, while the high-to-late medieval knight and man-at-arms were often heavy cavalry charging by and into enemy formations, ripping them apart, crushing them or simply lowering their moral by their sheer presence (imagine 200 men clad in steel from head to toe, covered in silk, embroidery and decorations you’d never be able to afford, on horses charging towards you, the ground shaking and the air vibrating with a thunderous bass sound. Maybe the turn in a large u-turn, as they often did, but maybe on the n-th repetition of this they charge as they see a demoralized gap in your formation).

It is hence quite sad how battles and knights are depicted in series, movies and documentaries. Cheap leather (as if that’d stop a lance, a bolt or even a strong thrust with a spear), formless or bulky plate, thin maille which hangs loose on the wearer, no grandeur, nor gravitas. The average man often armed with swords which would’ve been quite expensive until the 14th century, their shields colorless, their helmets rusty…

Henry V from 1944 managed to catch the aesthetic of the hundreds years war (except when showing the French and don’t look too closely at the common folk in the background) despite material rationing due to WW2, yet modern productions can’t even put some roundings and form in the.

Some Links to Look At

A collection of videos and publicly available information to read up on, or look at, armor and weapons.

Videos:

Texts:

Maybe a bit less accessible but still, for those interested, here are some book:

Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight: An Illustrated History of Weaponry in the Middle Ages (David Edge)
European armour, circa 1066 to circa 1700 (Claude Blair)
How to Read European Armor (Donald J. LaRocca)
The Knight and the Blast Furnace (Alan Williams)
Osprey Men at Arms Series (Multiple Authors)
The Wars of the Roses: The Medieval Art of Graham Turner (Graham Turner)
Armies of the Dark Ages (Ian Heath)

My Home Workout Routine

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 13:15:38 +0100

I’ve started to workout regularly and go running some time in 2019 when the first lock-downs started. At that time I used a pair of old dumbbells, a yoga mat and an old bench, all of those passed down to me by my brother.

After some years now I’ve changed some equipment here and my workout routine looks a bit different now though still I workout at home.
I didn’t have the goal to get that muscular or ‘jacked’ (as much respect I have for bodybuilders, I just don’t find their bodies appealing for me and find it vain) I just wanted to be fit and a bit stronger. The biggest joy is improving in the individual exercises themselves. Managing more reps or do the same amount of reps with a higher load.

So, with that out the way, let’s talk about the details of my workout plan.

Principles

I do an upper-body-lower-body split and go running in between. Hence, the plan looks like:

Upper body one day, running the day after, lower body the day after that, and then again upper body the following day. I continue this round-robin constantly unless I can’t for example during vacation, or when having spent the day hiking, or similar.

I also alternate between a high-rep and a low-rep day, and usually do 3-4 set, every set to failure, with 2.5 minutes between each set, and I usually superset 2 exercises. I.e. I do for example 1 set of some push-up variation to failure, and then directly follow that up with 1 set of pull-ups to failure, followed by a 2.5 minutes pause.

I use a pull-up bar and a 16kg-24kg Kettlebell, 2 rings, a dip belt for additional weight on pulls and occasionally my Indian clubs.

Also, I usually change some exercises here and there or add one but typically my workouts are the same exercises, just different variations of them.

Upper Body

For the low rep, high intensity day (go to failure each time with an intensity which usually allows me less than 5 reps):

Exercise 1	Exercise 2
Push-Ups (Explosive or Archer)	Pull-Up
Chin-Up	Dips On Rings
Wall-Assisted Handstand Push-Up	Tuck Lever Row

For the high rep workout:

Exercise 1	Exercise 2
Push-Ups (Normal)	Pull-Up (Without Weights)
Chin-Up (Without Weights)	Dips On Rings (Without Weights)
Kettlebell Overhead Press	Tuck Lever Row

Lower Body

High rep and low rep are essentially the same here except different weights and no supersets:

Exercise 1
Bulgarian Split Squats
Hindu Squats (Explosive or Normal)
Tip Toe Squat

This is then followed by 15-20 minutes of EMOM (Every Minute, On the Minute) Kettlebell swings.

After A Workout

I usually do some Kettlebell side swings (grip the 24kg Kettlebell in one hand, swing it backwards, then forwards laterally along the body, then when it is in front of my I change to the other hand, swing it back again and then forwards again, change hands again, and so on.).
And then I do some single-arm hangs from my pull-up bar.

Running

I just run, at a ~5:45-6:00 pace for around an hour. This isn’t particularly good but I did have to deal with an injured knee and a 1.5 year break due to other medical stuff. I started running again earlier this year.
I don’t have any intentions on running a marathon and while I’ve plateaued for now I’m not particularly interested on breaking through for now. I’m quite contend with going running for an hour at that pace.

Getting back into Japanese: Part 2

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 08:44:00 +0100

It’s been almost one year since my previous post about getting back into Japanese. I talked shortly about my Japanese journey and how I eventually burned out, though then, shortly before the blog, managed to get back to immersing in the language again.

I thought it might be interesting to write a short update on that.

The Past Year

I didn’t do as much immersion as I had wanted to in Japanese. Partly due to personal stuff, partly due to other hobbies like TTRPG, sport, friends, taking reading in German and English a bit more serious again and generally doing more stuff offline. (Yes, touching grass)

However, especially since the start of this summer I’ve managed to read a bit again in Japanese and watch more Anime and Japanese Youtube again.
Its pretty easy when you reflect just how much time you can spend here and there listening to something in Japanese. I often listen to 積読チャンネル, ゆるコンピュータ科学ラジオ and ゆる言語学ラジオ. Watching Youtube consistently is a bit difficult since I don’t find that much Japanese stuff that interesting. I usually watch Fitness, Tech and History related videos in English and German, and especially content in English is often so good everything else just feels not that good.

Just to illustrate my point, English Youtubers I don’t find equivalences to in other Languages:

and much more. I don’t watch Vlogs at all, cooking stuff and so on. Japanese Youtube has a lot to offer but I not that much of the stuff I like.
When I sit down and watch something on YT-JP its usually a documentary.

I did read a bit, usually online articles on history, and some (light) novels, though not in the sheer mass as I did in 2021 when I’ve read over 80 Japanese books in a year - you can check them out here.

Reflecting on Getting Back

Its been surprisingly smooth getting back into the language. I reset my Anki and started doing the reps again which was rough in the beginning but is not too bad once you get used again.

The worst part are the Kanji readings. Japanese has 3 sets of characters and one set are the Kanji - characters adopted from the Chinese language.
Kanji are pretty awesome and helpful when you encounter a new word but can be mean when it comes to how to read them. One Kanji can have multiple reading and often enough follows some internal logic but sometimes it does seem random.
When I started reading again I could read fairly comfortable (at least easier light novels) but had to look up so many readings for words I did understand, especially in the context. But I’ve got some parts of my intuition back and managed to excavate some of the knowledge pertaining to Kanji readings.

Continuing

I’ll keep reading of course - there are enough books I want to read. But since I’ve started reading a bit in Latin and have some English and German books on the stack I’ll have to see how to arbitrate my reading time to what language.

Maybe I’ll do another update some time.

Using the Mouse is Annoying and There are Better Options

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 09:21:00 +0100

I don’t like using the mouse—the computer mouse, I mean. Whenever a pop-up appears, or a menu needs clicking, or a file requires a double-click, or a link needs following, you have to search for it with your eyes, move your mouse there (after figuring out where your mouse cursor is), then open it with a double-click, a single-click, or maybe a wheel-click if you want to open something in a new tab. When you write code or use a text editor and need to move the cursor to a different line or a specific character, and so on…

All of this involves unnecessary and awkward movements. You have to scan the screen more than necessary and use that tiny bit of mental effort to do something so simple. And the worst part is, you have to move not only your hands but also your eyes to search the screen.

There’s a beautiful solution: the keyboard.

Let’s say you could press one key while keeping both hands on the keyboard (which they already are when typing) and all links get highlighted. Press another key, and you’re redirected to the link. Or press the capital-letter version of that key, and the link opens in a new tab. Wouldn’t that be comfortable?

Or what about scrolling with your keyboard without having to move your entire hand to the right side to press the arrow keys or the dreaded Page Up and Page Down keys?

Text Editing

When coding or writing an essay, wouldn’t it be nice to move your cursor using only the keyboard? To jump from line x to line n in one go? Or jump from one function to another?

Those of you into minimal tech like me probably know what I’m getting at: Vim keys.

Vim is a text editor with three modes: Normal, Insert, and Visual. Depending on the mode, you can either write text as in any normal editor or, in Normal mode, use keys mapped to commands such as “jump to line n” or “move forward/backward n words.” You can even remap commands to fit your personal style.

You move the cursor with h, j, k, and l. Want to go to line 200? Just type 200G. Want to go to the start of the line? Press 0. End of the line? $ has you covered. And so on… Vim has a steep learning curve, but afterward, it’s very comfortable.

Browsing the Web

I hate browsing the web with a mouse. Thankfully, Vimium exists. Press f, and each link gets highlighted with a letter above it. Press that letter, and you visit the page. Or press F, and the link opens in a new tab instead. D for down, U for up, Shift+j for the previous tab, Shift+k for the next tab, and much more.

I see a link, press f, and open it without moving my hand to the mouse or having to position the cursor over the link.

Files

There are many terminal file managers like lf or ranger (I prefer lf because it’s much faster and can be scripted with simple bash). They all follow the same idea: move around with h, j, k, and l; search with /; and more. Just use Vim keys. Easy. You can create custom commands and map them to shortcuts. For example, I have commands to convert selected files to PDF, create archives, or extract files from archives—all without a mouse, and never having to move my hand beyond the letter keys.

Others

I also have various shortcuts for my window manager, Hyprland. By pressing Super+[some key], I can open my browser, different browser profiles, my file manager, the terminal, VS Codium, or just Vim, Vim Wiki, or even the dreaded Discord (I really don’t like Discord…). I can open any PDF on my machine by bringing up a rofi menu, typing the name of the PDF or any of my Vim Wiki articles, setting the temperatures of the screen, searching the web or visiting bookmaked websites with rofi and so on.

Not much eye or hand movement is required.

Caveats

Sometimes you don’t have the option to avoid the mouse because a certain application doesn’t support it. Sometimes, the mouse is simply more convenient. But most of the basic things I do regularly on my PC can be done with the keyboard and can thus be simplified by using applications with Vim keys or mapping commands to keypresses.

This is a bit more cumbersome to achieve on Windows (I tried on my company’s laptop for work)—at least the key-binding part—but it’s still better than nothing.

TRRP Stories: Funny, Odd and Absurd Moments

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Sat, 04 Oct 2025 16:21:00 +0100

I’ve been into TTRPGs (Tabletop RPGs, like Dungeons and Dragons) for some time now, starting during the COVID-19 lockdowns (I think around 2022). I’d always known I’d like TTRPGs, but apart from playing a few short sessions of The Dark Eye, a German TTRPG, I’d never played them much. During the pandemic, I watched Amphibia, and something in it motivated me to find a group and play online.

Now, after a couple of years, multiple longer and shorter adventures, and two campaigns—experiencing both as a GM (Game Master) and a player. So I’ve collected various funny moments.

The Imploding Bag of Holding

This happened in Pathfinder 2e: We had helped a group of elves drive away a green dragon and afterward gave them tips on how to deal with it if it returned. Fast forward a few sessions and in-game days, and we received a letter saying they had successfully vanquished the beast when it came back. As a reward, they sent us a Bag of Holding—a magical object that can store a certain amount of items without expanding in size. The bag was completely filled with gold pieces.

One player’s character was curious about how it worked and tried to put in another coin… Let’s look at the rules for the Bag of Holding:

If the bag is overloaded or broken, it ruptures and is ruined, causing the items inside to be lost forever.

So, they put one more coin into the bag—and it imploded. The player ended up owing each other character in the party about 250 gold pieces (which they never repaid).

The Fight for the Rotten Fish

Another Pathfinder 2e story, same party, same players and characters:

We were in a tavern and (quite untypically) got drunk after finding a rare drink called Valhalla. Whenever you drink it, you hear Vikings shout Valhalla in your head. We followed the typical rules for drinking in PF 2e.

We got pretty drunk, and with one critical failure on a saving throw, my character was one stage away from death. One character—the same as in the previous story—decided to annoy my character (they didn’t like each other) by using Mage Hand, an invisible, floating hand, to move a piece of rotten fish toward my character. My character barely noticed.

So, I used my Mage Hand to intercept it. We rolled opposing checks, and my hand slapped the fish out of the other character’s hand, causing it to explode mid-air and fill the room with an absolutely vile stench.

One character, a human woman, had just returned from the toilet (her player had also just come back from the toilet and had been AFK before that). She returned just in time to hear the GM narrate how my character was nearly dead and slapping away a floating, rotting fish.

She was not pleased—neither the character nor the player (as we had something important to do the next in-game day).

Don’t Counterspell the Boss’ Teleport

This happened in Dungeons and Dragons:

We had just returned from a side quest for a woman who had been turned into a Medusa and now lived alone in the woods, lest she petrify everyone around her. We were told that the tears of an Ettin (a two-headed giant) could cure her. So, we went there, made some Ettins cry by beating them up, and returned to the woman. There, we found her dead, slain by one of the henchmen of the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy, usually the main antagonist).

This henchman appeared and disappeared regularly to take important objects, and in this case, he wanted the Medusa’s head for something. We had some dialogue, and he was about to teleport away (he was way more powerful than us but had no intention of fighting). My character, being a law-obedient ex-investigator and criminal hunter, had no intention of letting him go, so I used Counterspell to nullify the teleportation spell. It worked after rolling a die (as the spell used by the henchman was powerful and couldn’t just be counterspelled like that)…

Angered and probably annoyed, he attacked us. We quickly learned just how strong he was. He nearly wiped out our Paladin in one turn. While the rest of the party fled, my character swallowed their pride, knelt in front of the bad guy, apologized, and begged for mercy. I rolled a natural 20 on the d20 (the highest possible number, which usually means something special), and he let us live.

The GM later disclosed that only a Nat20 would have led to success in this case.

We fought him much later and eventually killed him. He was pretty annoying, as he made himself invisible and kept teleporting around the battlefield, from roof to roof, while half the party fought his minions in the streets.

Fireball Mishap

Another D&D story, and my most embarrassing one:

The classic story… a misused Fireball…
We had invaded a Gnoll cave since the Gnolls there had kidnapped nearby townspeople. A player had just joined the group with their new character (it was Session 1 for them…).

The GM mentioned the stench of waste inside the cave, and we fought in a room filled with waste—from which disgusting creatures kept emerging. I wanted to end the fight quickly, as we were running low on resources and had barely managed to get deep into the cave. So, I cast Fireball.

I thought waste referred to random garbage and didn’t consider excrement, feces, rotten meat, bones, etc.—so I didn’t think about methane. I was taken aback when the entire room exploded.

Luckily, everyone survived the explosion—or rather, the first explosion.

A short explanation about the new character: they were an artificer (a sort of magical craftsman) with nice armor that had an unstable core, which might explode if enough damage was dealt to the player. None of the players knew this. So, the room exploded, and everyone was happy we survived (or at least I was happy—and all the enemies were gone too!). However, the new player interjected:

Hey, GM, about ‘The Core’…

We could hear the GM having an “Oh no” moment through the microphone. They rolled a d6 to see if the core would explode. On a 6, the armor would explode; otherwise, the core remained stable.

The die landed on a 6.

The new character exploded, effectively getting annihilated, and our Paladin was dropped to 0 HP. The Paladin survived with the help of a quick healing potion. The artificer was gone, though. RIP Jyorg.

Review by the player of that session: “This was the most fun I’ve ever had with D&D.”

Near-Death by Underwater Implosion

We were fighting a Leviathan inside the Plane of Water (a universe where only water and underwater caverns exist). Since the Leviathan was invisible, I used Control Water and its Part Water aspect to create a 100 ft cube of air, which made fighting it much easier. However, in D&D, these spells require concentration. As long as you concentrate, the spell keeps going. But if concentration is broken—by taking damage and failing a concentration check—the spell stops.

Things went well until they didn’t. After a few turns, I took an absurd amount of damage (I had been doing well at avoiding damage or maintaining concentration due to various abilities and magical items) and failed my concentration check.

The spell stopped, and water poured in. Let’s do some math:

We could comfortably dive there (especially with magic), so water pressure couldn’t be too high. Let’s assume the pressure at 100 ft of depth: 43.3 psi + 14.7 psi of surface pressure, so 58 psi.

The force of the water gushing in is roughly pressure × area of one side of the cube: 58 psi × 1,440,000 in² = 83,520,000 lbs (~83.5 million pounds). The cube would fill within 0.2 seconds. This would kill anyone.

We expected a TPK (Total Party Kill) until the GM found one line in the spell description:

The water then slowly fills in the trench over the course of the next round until the normal water level is restored.

One round is 6 seconds, so the water was gushing in much more slowly than in the above calculations, which changed the force. We didn’t do the math for that and happily accepted the GM’s ruling that we didn’t take any damage in this case.

Pre-Ordained Nat20s

This happened at a TTRPG event in my city. I played a Halfling Paladin, a holy warrior wearing heavy armor. We infiltrated an underground cave system to fight whatever creatures plagued the nearby mining town.

We wanted to infiltrate by sneaking… but heavy armor makes sneaking difficult. In D&D, you roll two d20s and take the lower (worse) result to determine success. So, I jokingly said, “Watch me roll two Nat20s.” I accidentally dropped both dice while shaking them onto the table—and I rolled two Nat20s.

The GM ruled that I auto-succeeded on every stealth roll for the rest of the adventure, as moss and oil had lubricated my armor so well that it somehow, magically, muffled my sounds.

Oh, and the Paladin was a Nature Paladin, who values the natural world above everything else. We fought sentient plant-beings, and my character effectively genocided them—which, in hindsight, was pretty odd and funny.

I might write another one like this when I remember more funny stories and odd moments. There are certainly a lot of those.

Generating Anki Sentences with AI and Python for Language Learning

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 09:21:00 +0100

Anki is an incredibly helpful tool for learning and remembering information using spaced repetition. I won’t go into detail about why it works the way it does or the exact algorithm behind it, but if you don’t know Anki and spaced repetition learning:

The brain forgets new and old information at a given rate.

Hence, it would be very convenient for learning facts (such as vocabulary) if we had a program that gave us the information we are supposed to know at roughly the time we would forget it. One such program is Anki. It allows you to create decks with flashcards, go through them with a given rate of new cards per day, and repeat the older cards according to the spaced repetition idea.

As I mentioned in my previous blog Getting back into Japanese, I learned (and still learn) Japanese during COVID and now I am taking a Russian course at my university. For both, I have used Anki extensively, mainly for vocabulary, sentences with unknown verbs, or grammar.

For Japanese, I would just throw sentences with unknown words I encountered while reading (called sentence mining) into Anki and repeat (called repping) those. This is incredibly efficient if done correctly.

For Russian, however, since we have a set of vocabulary and grammar to learn during a semester, I simply generate Anki cards based on the provided vocabulary lists in a PDF. For that, I would parse the PDF (which neatly contained tables with Russian in one column and the translation in the other column) and generate the inputs for the cards automatically. However, creating the cards would still have been too much effort for me. So I used Anki Connect, an add-on for Anki which

communicates with Anki over a simple HTTP API.

This is very neat since we can now use something like Python to call this API and

execute queries against the user’s card deck, automatically creating new cards, and more.

So I parsed the PDF and generated the cards automatically, but then I had a much better idea. Considering we also have grammar to study, conjugations of words, and very specific topics to talk about in an oral exam, why not just generate short sentences with A1 grammar and rep those.

I didn’t have the time to immerse much in Russian, so I could not sentence mine, and repping Anki cards is way more efficient for passing tests. (As much as I like learning languages, I first and foremost need to pass exams with very little time to study due to other exams…).

But where to get the sentences with exactly the words and grammar I need? Well, you probably guessed from the title of the blog that I used AI, mainly Le Chat free version. I just needed a program to generate Anki cards based on an input, and then, if I knew my input format, I could just tell the AI to generate input data for me. The program for that roughly looked like this:

import requests

vocab = [
 {
 "russian": "Я встаю рано.",
 "english": "Ich stehe früh auf.",
 "category": "Grammar Test",
 "grammar_explanation": "'Я встаю' ist die 1. Person Singular Präsens von 'вставать'."
 },
 {
 "russian": "Ты встаёшь поздно.",
 "english": "Du stehst spät auf.",
 "category": "Grammar Test",
 "grammar_explanation": "'Ты встаёшь' ist die 2. Person Singular Präsens von 'вставать'."
 },
 .......
]

def create_deck(deck_name):
 result = requests.post('http://localhost:8765', json={
 "action": "createDeck",
 "version": 6,
 "params": {
 "deck": deck_name
 }
 }).json()
 return result

def add_note_to_anki(note, deck_name):
 result = requests.post('http://localhost:8765', json={
 "action": "addNote",
 "version": 6,
 "params": {
 "note": {
 "deckName": deck_name,
 "modelName": "Basic",
 "fields": {
 "Front": note["russian"],
 "Back": note["english"]
 },
 "tags": ["russian", "A1", note["category"].lower()],
 "options": {
 "allowDuplicate": False
 }
 }
 }
 }).json()
 return result

def main():
 # Collect unique deck names
 deck_names = set(f"Russian::Own Cards::{entry['category']}" for entry in vocab)
 # Create each deck
 for deck_name in deck_names:
 result = create_deck(deck_name)
 if result.get("error") is None:
 print(f"Ensured deck exists: {deck_name}")
 else:
 print(f"Error creating deck {deck_name}: {result['error']}")
 # Add notes
 for entry in vocab:
 deck_name = f"Russian::Own Cards::{entry['category']}"
 result = add_note_to_anki(entry, deck_name)
 if result.get("error") is None:
 print(f"Added to {deck_name}: {entry['russian']} - {entry['english']}")
 else:
 print(f"Error adding {entry['russian']} to {deck_name}: {result['error']}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
 main()

Loops through vocab, looks at category, creates a deck with this name in a given path (Russian::Own Cards::[category]), writes the Russian sentence to the front, and the explanation to the back. Easy. The only thing I had to get now was the input data, and for that, I copied and pasted some example input into the message box for the AI and told it something along the lines of:

Look at my example data for a small Python script and generate similar input data. I want cards with short sentences with A1 grammar and A1 vocabulary, specifically example sentences with all conjugations of [….] and example sentences containing [….]

And so on. I copied and pasted that into the script above and generated my cards. category could be anything. I have one for numbers, I had some for directions, etc.

I think this can be extended further: let’s assume you had a mining.txt which contains sentences and words you found while immersing in your target language, each entry being one line. You automatically get a translation from LibreTranslate, which provides a nice API, and write that into the backside of the card. I.e., you have hundreds of lines of unknown words and sentences in one text file (all the words and sentences mined during a week) and then automatically add them to Anki in one go.

How this might work after the so-called monolingual transition (when you no longer use translations but dictionary entries from your target language) is up for debate. Not all languages and online dictionaries provide nice APIs, and it would be difficult to look up only that one unknown word in a sentence. The latter might be possible if you had a database of all your known words (i.e., Anki… assuming it contains your entire vocabulary in that language somehow).

There’s still room for improvement in this workflow, but the script is a nice way to generate Anki cards for studying specifically for tests at least.

Indian Clubs are fun

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 09:21:00 +0100

I had been interested in traditional workouts and training programs for a long time, and reading some excerpts from manuals from the 19th century ¹ ² ³ and watching a YouTube video on Indian Clubs by Physical Culture Historians ⁴ ⁵, I became interested in trying out Indian Club exercises myself. The alleged benefits—such as improved shoulder health, cardiovascular fitness (when running, cycling, swimming, or jump rope aren’t possible), and strength endurance depending on the weight and exercises—eventually led me to purchase my first set of Indian Clubs: a modest pair weighing just 0.4 kg (1 lb).

Referencing several videos⁶ ⁷ ⁸ and the aforementioned manuals, I started swinging the clubs, and it was surprisingly fun—though unexpectedly tough for such a light weight. My shoulders, forearms, and even the muscles in my palms felt that first workout. It also showed how asymmetrical my skill level was. While my right arm and hand quickly picked up the movements, especially the smaller wrist rotations, my left side struggled significantly with the latter. What started as a physical exercise for health, strength, and cardiovascular endurance soon became a neuro-muscular challenge as well.

After about six months, I decided to try slightly heavier clubs and eventually settled on a set of 1.4 kg (3 lb) clubs. The difference was dramatic. At first, I could barely swing them for a minute before my hands and forearms gave out. While 1.4 kg may sound unimpressive, the effort required to accelerate, decelerate, stop, and control them was brutal. By the second workout, things felt slightly easier, but I’m still working towards swinging them as smoothly as I do the 0.4 kg clubs.
Reading about people from the past (and today on YouTube) effortlessly swinging 1.4 kg or heavier clubs is jut … really impressive. The grip strength and stability needed for 10+ kg clubs that are almost just as tall as oneself must be immense.

There are much heavier clubs and even maces available, and perhaps I’ll try out a mace someday—but for now, I think I have plenty to work on. Since getting the 1.4 kg clubs, the 0.4 kg ones feel even lighter in comparison, which has allowed me to experiment with more graceful and elegant moves designed to improve body control and the mind-body connection.

I think the low intensity of the light clubs (light clubs being between 0.4 and 1.5 kg) makes this a great tool for daily exercises. I wager that it also helps with regeneration if done within moderation on rest days. It certainly gets the blood moving.

A Bit of History

Originally designed to build strength for wrestling, Indian Clubs were later adopted by the British Army for rehabilitating wounded soldiers (a practice that continues in therapy today) as well as training healthy soldiers. Instead of using the heavy clubs favored by Indian wrestlers, the British focused on lighter ones (starting at around 1 kg for beginners).
Over time, club swinging spread into civilian society, where even lighter clubs were used to turn it into an art form emphasizing grace and coordination rather than just strength and endurance.

Some links

Indian Club Books and Manuals
Eastern Sports and Western Bodies The “Indian Club” in the United States

Rudyard Kipling Made Exceedingly Good Songs (And so did Peter Bellamy)

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 15:15:38 +0100

I ’ve always enjoyed folk songs from various languages, and one source of folk music I’ve long appreciated is Rudyard Kipling. While best known for his Jungle Book (which most people have seen as an animated movie) and his poem If, many might not realize that he also wrote songs and ballads.
Kipling’s musical works often relate to military themes, exoticism, the navy, and folklore. From Oak, Ash & Thorn, Smuggler’s Song, and Puck’s Song from his novel Puck of Pook’s Hill (a collection of fantastical stories from various parts of English history after a group of children meet the elf Puck), to Back To The Army Again, Big Steamers, and We Have Fed Our Sea, which were released in gazettes, poetry collections, and other magazines. One of my favorites is Oak, Ash and Thorn, sung by Puck himself (called The Tree Song) in the aforementioned novel. It’s a hymn to the three ancient trees - oak, ash, and thorn - which have always grown in England. They have witnessed Aeneas’ son Brutus come and found London as “New Troy Town”¹. They provide bows, shoes, and bowls, and a shade that no one does wrong to sleep in.

Yew that is old in churchyard-mould,
He breedeth a mighty bow.
Alder for shoes do wise men choose,
And beech for cups also.
But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled,
And your shoes are clean outworn,
Back ye must speed for all that ye need,
To Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Poor Honest Men is a lament of tobacco smugglers as they travel from America to Ye Olde England. On their way, they must slip past British cruisers, foreign ships, Napoleon’s Embargo “which is laid on all cargo”, and the law itself lest they be treated as dirty smugglers instead of the ‘poor honest men’ they claim to be. With Song of the Red War Boat, we board the ship of a Norse crew loyally following and searching for their master. However, Odin is angry with their master and therefore angry with them. As they sail the sea:

The thunder below and clamor
The harm that they mean to do!
There goes Thor’s own Hammer
Cracking the dark in two!

Despite this, they continue since “a man must stand by his master” - their loyalty endures even the wrath of the gods. The Song of Men’s Side is a beautiful story told by neolithic flint workers. They tell us of the great perils they faced at the hands of “The Beast” which:

[…] only grinned at our spears round his ears
Grinned at the hammers that we made;

But then the great god Tyr came and:

went to the Children of the Night.
He begged a Magic Knife of their make for our sake.

Tyr sacrificed his eye and hunted The Beast, which fled, “is dismayed at the Blade”. Now the flint workers can live in peace and no longer have to fear the “Shepherd of the Night”.

Peter Bellamy and the Young Tradition: Keeping Kipling’s Songs Alive and Celebrating Folk Music

Peter Bellamy, a folk singer, was perhaps one of the main reasons why Kipling’s songs remained somewhat in the mainstream. With a passion for all kinds of folk music, he took an interest in turning Kipling’s ballads from his novels into songs. His aptly named album Rudyard Kipling Made Exceedingly Good Songs focused on the maritime and martial poems of Kipling, while Keep on Kipling and Song’s an’ Rummy Conjurin’ Tricks feature all manner of songs such as Mine Sweepers, a history lesson with The Dutch at Medway, and a recommendation to keep cold iron nearby with Cold Iron.
Bellamy did not only vocalize Kipling’s works. Mainly Norfolk is a collection of various poetry from Norfolk and the surrounding area. Both Sides Then, another potpourri, features fantastic folk songs like Barbaree.

His group, The Young Tradition, was dedicated to reviving old folk songs and produced works like What Wondrous Love is This and the perhaps rather famous Agincourt Carol.

There is a myth that Brutus went to the British Isles after a prophetic dream and became the King of Britain. ↩︎

Book Review: Ghost Stories by M.R. James

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 09:21:00 +0100

It’s autumn, so it’s time for spooky and unsettling fiction books, and what could be better than a book called Ghost Stories - a collection of short stories by M.R. James?

M.R. James’s stories are not horror or spooky in the sense of Eldritch Horror, Cosmic Horror, or Jump-Scare Horror; in fact, they are not really horrific at all. The stories in this book are unsettling and uncanny; the horror here is not occult or grand, it’s mundane. Old books or ash trees bring about the death of people in some roundabout way, or old treasures hidden in dreadful places convince even those with the stoutest of hearts to give up on their treasure hunts filled with riddles and mysteries.
Sometimes we see something occult, a man performing horrific sacrifices or someone casting runes to ruin or kill a man. And sometimes this book ventures into the horrific, and instead of the inexplicable death

of a man, there is Oh Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad - a whistle that seems to summon something horrific, a truly dreadful creature.

The protagonists of these stories are similar to the author: medievalist scholars, librarians, archaeologists, and people interested in the old. They are in libraries, investigate old churches and gardens, look into curious events, and chase ancient mysteries. During their studies and inquiries, they are met by the most puzzling of secrets and inexplicable occurrences, horrific apparitions, and sometimes terrible fates.

The language of this book is old, clearly written in the late 19th, early 20th century by someone who was a master of the language. Descriptions are vivid when needed and purposefully vague at times. The vocabulary is old and extensive (and had me grab a dictionary more than once).

Some stories perhaps were not as good as others and left me wondering what the point was, but most of them are great. I can only recommend Ghost Stories. The only problem is finding a copy which has all of his collected works. My edition from Penguin Classics contains most of his works but not all of them.

Getting back into Japanese

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 16:44:00 +0100

My Japanese Journey

In the summer of 2019, I started learning Japanese with the specific goal of reading the Boogiepop series. Without going into detail, this book series is a mix of urban fantasy and mystery with an incredibly interesting writing style: stories are told from many different perspectives, and the chronology is often mixed up. The first six books had been translated into English and published by Seven Seas Entertainment in two omnibus volumes.

After reading through this series, I wanted more, but since there were no updates on translation efforts for the other books, I had only one option: learn Japanese and read the originals.

Naive as I was, I found digital copies of Genki, a popular Japanese textbook, and some Anki decks for Genki. I started learning the Kana in a weekend and continued with the textbook for some time. However, I realized that I couldn’t even read Yotsuba, an incredibly easy manga that even children can read. Granted, I started reading this series after finishing the first Genki book, but still, reading and understanding manga after just two months felt nice.

So, I looked online for what I could do and found Matt vs Japan, a YouTuber who had learned Japanese to a high level using what he called the Mass Immersion Approach, based on Steven Krashen’s Immersion Learning. While he is controversial nowadays, I think his older videos, like The Dilemma of Theory vs Practice, are pretty good for immersion learning beginners to watch. Essentially, the approach boils down to: “Don’t study the language, immerse yourself in content in that language and let your brain figure it out.” This was also based on the Natural Method that Mr. Krashen had looked into.

So, I started to ditch the textbook and simply forced Japanese into my brain by reading Yotsuba, then Dragon Ball, some easy blogs, and news websites online until I could start reading novels like GJ-Bu and Kino no Tabi, both of which are fairly easy. I also created my own Anki cards based on sentences I found during my immersion. (It still took me multiple attempts to get through the first paragraph of GJ-Bu.)

Fast forward two years (including multiple COVID-19 lock-downs), and I could comfortably read most novels, though I still had to look up some words. And yes, I eventually read Boogiepop; it’s one of the easiest book series I’ve read.

Everything opened up again, and I had to invest more time into university and work, which led to burnout with Japanese. The result: I didn’t do anything for two years.

Rediscovering

This summer, I started reading some Boogiepop books again, finished the last Owarimonogatari novel I had been reading for two years, and managed to rekindle my interest in Japanese. I don’t do it as intensively as before (maybe reading for one hour in the evening at best), and I don’t watch much YouTube or anime anymore, though that is partly because I’ve been busy.

The Awakening

Getting back into reading was rough – I had forgotten quite a lot of the Kanji I knew before, even when I knew the words. My vocabulary had decreased, and I had to restart my Anki deck. But despite this, it’s surprising how much I still understand. Boogiepop was almost no problem, with some unknown words here and there (a forever-problem for most language learners) and maybe some awkward sentences that I couldn’t understand intuitively anymore. However, reading wasn’t a huge problem for the most part.

Currently, I’m reading Ranpo Edogawa’s 陰獣 and 芋虫 (he is something like Japan’s Edgar Allan Poe), and considering the books are quite old, though the text has been updated to modern Kanji, I can read them comfortably with a dictionary lookup every couple of sentences or pages.

Overall, I can read comfortably, I do my Anki reps every day, and listening to some podcasts and watching YouTube is generally no problem. Some anime are quite challenging, but manageable.

Conclusion

I had feared getting back into Japanese, realizing how much worse I had become was quite frightening, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. I’m taking a Russian course (offered by my university) and I’m intrigued to see how well using immersion to supplement the course will work, starting from zero in this language. So far, the writing system is straightforward, but the phonetics in Russian are way more difficult compared to Japanese.

Maybe I can write an update on my Russian progress in some weeks or months.

Skipping is fun

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 16:21:00 +0100

I’ve been searching for some cardio exercises that I could do instead of running. It’s not that I don’t like running —I like it a lot— but due to an inguinal hernia (not a severe one for now), I can’t go running without feeling some pressure where I have the rupture. I tried more intense cycling with an old bike, but I never got into it that much, so I was left with mostly just walking. I like walking, and it’s a good way of staying decently fit, especially since I have some very steep roads nearby. However, I still wanted something more intense.

I found an old speed rope from my brother when I stayed at my parents’ place and started to use it — and it was fun. Initially, I was barely able to skip for more than a minute without making a mistake (and after almost two weeks, I am still by no means good at it!), but it’s so much fun and apparently, judging from some articles and videos I’ve found, a great way to improve your cardiovascular system with relatively short training sessions.

I’ve been mixing skipping sessions with some light footwork exercises I found on YouTube for HEMA since I plan to eventually get into that sport, and with these ~30ish minute session I feel like I’m improving my endurance ever so slightly while feeling absolutely no pain. It’s been barely two weeks since I started doing that, so it’s difficult to judge, but at least I’m happy that I can do proper cardio again on my rest days.

I’ll start running again once I’ve had my surgery, but I’ll definitely pick up the jump rope once or twice a week for some sessions.

On wasting time that is not wasting time

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Wed, 08 May 2024 15:15:38 +0100

I’ve had this thought almost a year ago: some things in your daily life that waste time are actually good and some things that save time actually waste more time.

This thought popped up in my head when I talked with some people about something much more unrelated; Walking and commuting. Some people take the tram or bus inside the city when walking is an actual viable option. For me everything that is reachable with around 30-40 minutes of walking is within walking distance and taking the some public transport or the car seems completely unnecessary, unless you know that you’ll carry something heavy like when shopping.

I deliberately choose a commute where I have to walk more even though I could a different route with a different bus and walk only a total of 5 minutes instead of 15. But this walkin in morning and when I come back from work is enjoyable for me, it frees my head and allows me to wake up or ‘mentally’ leave my workplace. Moreover, walking is healthy, an investment in your mental and physical health.

This also applies to cooking. I don’t like oven-ready meals and I usually don’t eat out unless on rare occasions with friends or family for special occasions. Cooking time isn’t time wasted (some people advertise these food boxes that send the ingredients, and easy and quick recipes to your house as a method to save time for shopping or thinking about what to cook…).

Its fun for me, though that’s subjective of course. You can cook the food however you want, you can add whatever ingredients you want, change recipes you found online, have the option to choose from so many recipes online or cook books, expand your culiniary horizons, and much more and all while also saving money in many cases.
Plus, depening on what you cook it’s generally healthier than oven-ready food.

When I talk to some people and ask them what they did, in some cases people who argued that doing x and y such as cooking on your own or walking instead of using public transport is, they often said something like… watching Youtube videos, being on 4chan or reddit, or whatever… i.e. literally wasting time, falling victim to some sort of algorithm created to keep you on a website or rage-baits. In the end they might have wasted even more time.

You might learn some things here and there (though I doubt from personal experience that falling into some loop of ’edutainment’ content the actual didactic value of these videos and articles) but if I could choose between healthy and good food, v.s. shallow information, I’d choose the former.
The great thing is; you don’t have to choose. You can often still add 15-30 minutes of walking here and there on a daily basis, spend an hour cooking on your free days and get 30 minute recipes for your work days on the evening and so on.

So in short; Some choices that supposedly save time don’t actually lead to more time. ‘Wasting’ time to improve your quality of time often enough isn’t actual wasting time.

People in the Past Weren't Alcoholics: Drinking in the Past

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 12:44:46 +0200

More and more people are seemingly turning away from the long outdated thesis that water in the past, especially during the European Middle Ages, was generally bad, unhygienic, and not drinkable.
The poor water situation was often used to explain why alcohol usage, typically beer and wine, was supposedly so high, they had to drink beer because the water was just too infested with dangerous bacteria! Unfortunately, this argument is still used in some of the more popular ‘documentaries’ and ‘history’ videos on Youtube, many of which have millions of views.

While this idea is still very much ingrained in many people’s heads (ask your friends or family members about whether they think people drank lots of alcohol and why that was the case) we see more and more articles trying to rectify this myth. (Just search for medieval water bad in Brave Search, DuckDuckGo or Startpage/Google)

Since this has been thoroughly debunked (And there wasn’t much to debunk — evidence for this supposed wide-spread alcoholism was barely existent anyways) I won’t go much detail here.
Rather, I will entertain the question: “What was the purpose of wine, beer, and spirits and what did they drink”

Taste

A Novel Concept: People in the Past Liked Tasty Things

The most obvious is of course taste. People liked the taste of beer, ale, wine, and such. There are people nowadays who can’t even drink only tap water or still water. Even if they drink only water, some have to drink some sparkling water in between. And then there are people who drink all kinds of tea, coffee, hot chocolate, fruit juice, soft drinks, etc. In the modern world, we have a ridiculous amount of options when it comes to getting our daily water intake on a regular basis.

Depending on when and where someone lived in the past, they had fairly few options: clean water was an obvious one (societies usually don’t grow when there are no clean water sources nearby) hot chocolate with chili in central and south America, coffee from the early modern period onward, tea in large parts of Asia (there is very little evidence for tea up to the early modern period in Europe) and, of course, wine, mead, beer, and ale.

What Were Some Options in Europe Before the Early Modern Period?

Getting tired of drinking only water? Just mix it with some wine like the Romans. perhaps add some honey to get mulsum. Alternatively, if you don’t want something alcoholic, you could just mix vinegar with water to get posca. (Personally, I like some balsamic or grape vinegar with water during hot summer days).

Or if you’re not a fan of wine, perhaps drink some weak beer (as low as 1%-3% ABV). Or perhaps mix it with water to make it even weaker?

Want something sweeter and spiced? Drink some hipocras — you can even drink it warm it up during cold winter days. Does that remind you a bit of Mulled Wine or Glühwein?

You want something sweeter? Perhaps some electuarium, a thickened fruit-juice-honey mix made with all kinds of fruits and whichever spices you had available (though not necessary), dissolved in your wine or water might suit your taste.

Water and the Wooden Container Problem

This might be less obvious or known to the modern person who grew up with glass bottles and fresh tap water, but wood actually changes how water tastes.
Leave water in a wooden bucket after fetching it from the well or leaving it in a simple barrel for some time, and the water will not taste as fresh as when you fetch it (one reason why we often see women in art carrying glazed earth-ware or ceramic containers).

Water can extract some of the flavor from the wood in the same way that it can absorb some of the taste of plastic or tin. This can quickly make the water taste stale. If you mix it with something, that already has a strong taste on its own (like vinegar, wine, beer, or spirits) it becomes considerably more enjoyable - vinegar, spirits, and some wines can be stored in wooden containers for a long time.

This is especially important when you are on a ship at sea in the modern period. Hence,, rum and gin were very often mixed into nearly everything the sailors drank — the water in the barrels simply turned stale, which doesn’t taste good.
However, the availability of liquor, especially if it was mixed into most of your daily water-intake could lead to some sort of alcoholism - and born was the stereotype of the drunken seamen and for this, we have very much evidence though that does not mean that every sailor was constantly, on a daily basis drunk!

Health

This might sound weird, but some people consider certain alcoholic beverages healthy if consumed in certain situations or in small amounts.
Spices were seen as beneficial and attributed healing properties for some sicknesses, so spiced wines and beer were sometimes recommended for sick people.

Some, especially Roman writers in antiquity, viewed a small amount of wine mixed with water as invigorating and good for longevity.

Certain wines were viewed as beneficial for mood and humor on certain days for certain people (medicine was still very much personalized: Astrology, astronomy, and birth signs were usually considered). In fact, some of the nobility had their personal master-of-wines whose sole job was to figure out which wine was appropriate for which days.

Imagine accidentally drinking an off-dry, savory wine with a floral note at a festival on the 23rd of March, when you’re a Pisces! The horror and the negative consequences on your body and mind could be tremendous!
Of course, most people didn’t think that; usually it was viewed as invigorating and good for your mood if you drank the right wine on a given day, depending on your birth sign and humor.
However, the master of wine was a very important and prestigious position.

Of course, this could also go in the opposite direction; some doctors have recommended to drink only water during certain seasons.

Hildegard von Bingen even wrote in her Physica Sacra:

It is more healthful and sane for a thirsty person to drink water, rather than wine, to quench his thirst

however:

One whose lungs ail in any way should not drink water, since it produces mucus around the lungs … Beer does not harm him much, because it has been boiled.

But she also stresses that one should be careful with water if you are not sure about the quality of water. People in the past had all kinds of opinions and ideas based on observations about what kind of water is the best to drink, which might be harmful, when it might be harmful and so on. Part of it was based on the four humors, part of it was based on what kind of water had the best quality (rain water vs running water vs. standing spring water vs … ).

On the other hand, even higher percentage spirits which slowly started to spread in the late Middle Ages in Europe (though Albertus Magnus already wrote about the process) were started to be viewed as positive:

It eases the diseases coming of cold. Comforts the heart. Heals all old and new sores on the bead. Causes a good color in a person. Heals baldness and causes the hair well to grow, and kills lice and fleas. It cures lethargy. Cotton wet in the same time and a little wrung out again and so put in the ears at night going to bed, and a little drunk thereof, is of good against all deafness

as Hieronymus Brunschwig in the 15th century wrote, who claimed that it also improved your mouth odor, gut health, chest pain, and so on.

Calories

While wine was attributed more often with positive health benefits beer and ale were partly considered good because of the calories they provided.
A medieval person working all day long would burn a lot of calories. Common estimations range between 3000-4000 kcal for a medieval peasant, so some extra calories, especially if they were easily drinkable and tasty were pretty convenient.

Pleasure

Of course, we can’t deny that many people like to get drunk. While liquor with a high alcohol percentage wasn’t available for most of the past, at least not in Europe, people could still got drunk on wine and beer.
I don’t think I have to go into detail here, since this is probably the most relatable for many people here.

However, it is important to mention that if you partied close to higher class people than you, you might want to be careful when being drunk — saying the wrong thing to the wrong person could have horrible consequences. This was also true for noblemen attending a festivity of someone higher status than them.

Beer and Wine Production

Beer and ale, the most widely available alcoholic beverages for the common people was often brewed at home; in fact, it was viewed for large parts of the high to late middle ages, as well as the early modern period, one of the housewife’s duties.

Monks, especially in their monasteries, were another huge factor in beer and wine production. They often had very strict rules on the quality of water as well as the ingredients in their beer. They codified them and wrote them down from the 14th century onward. (The Reinheitsgebot of the early modern period is only the most famous one and became widely accepted - local rules were far more common during the Middle Ages).

Rules regarding which kind of water to use varied heavily but generally followed the same ideas as before with the healthy benefits of various kinds of water sources: running, standing, spring, brook, etc. water.

In medieval England, there were even people tasked with walking from alehouse to alehouse to check on the quality of the beer that was brewed there (alehouses would usually brew their own beer) - breweries ran by monks usually were under the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical law.

One reason that might explain why monks are often associated with brewing beer in the Anglosphere are the Rules of St. Benedict, which, among others, restricted the amount of food and wine a monk was allowed to consume:

1 Everyone has his own gift from God, one this and another that (1 Cor 7:7).
2 It is, therefore, with some uneasiness that we specify the amount of food and drink for others.
3 However, with due regard for the infirmities of the sick, we believe that a half bottle of wine a day is sufficient for each.
4 But those to whom God gives the strength to abstain must know that they will earn their own reward.
5 The superior will determine when local conditions, work or the summer heat indicates the need for a greater amount. He must, in any case, take great care lest excess or drunkenness creep in.
6 We read that monks should not drink wine at all, but since the monks of our day cannot be convinced of this, let us at least agree to drink moderately, and not to the point of excess,
7 for wine makes even wise men go astray (Sir 19:2).
8 However, where local circumstances dictate an amount much less than what is stipulated above, or even none at all, those who live there should bless God and not grumble.
9 Above all else we admonish them to refrain from grumbling.

Though generally monks were, and still are, also associated with brewing wine in southern Europe. Some monasteries extended these rules to beer too, since they didn’t accept abusing loopholes like this, and some monasteries actually increased their beer consumption during times of fasting.

Moreover, many wineries were run by monks. Monasteries often tried to be self-reliant to a certain degree. Couple this with a strict work ethic, and you get a large production of alcoholic beverages among others.
And don’t forget the importance of wine in Christian liturgy.

Closing Thoughts

I always find it odd (well, I roughly know why) that this supposed alcoholism in the past is often attributed solely to the medieval period, sometimes perhaps even to the early modern period but not so much to antiquity. We don’t hear about drunk Mesopotamians (who gave a lot of importance to the communal drinking of beer, as far as we know), Romans (though their supposedly decadent parties are sometimes mentioned), Scythians, and so on.

And we never hear about why this was supposedly a problem solely in medieval or early modern Europe but not during the Roman and Greek antiquity (almost as if people think that aqueduct provided fresh running water to every corner of the Roman Empire), they seemingly ignore pretty much every other part of the world (what about North Africa, the Middle East, medieval China and Japan, South East Asia, India, the Native Americans, etc …?)

Nowadays, it is so simple to get fresh and clear water with little to no effort, store it in glass bottles for months with only minimal changes in the taste and quality that we often forget about simple questions like

How much effort did it take to get fresh water?
What did they drink if they wanted something sweeter, spicier, something more refreshing or if they wanted to get drunk?
How did they store water?

and many more. Everyday people had everyday problems and getting drunk every single day certainly wasn’t one of those for the vast majority of people.

Drunk people don’t design and build cathedrals that still stand after centuries, they don’t create such intricate relievio by hand on rings that you have to use magnifying glasses to see them, do such intricate stitching and sewing that outshine the quality and ‘artistry’ of modern machine-made clothes by magnitudes - one could continue this list for a long time.

They simply had, in some respects, fewer options when it came to drinking. Fresh fruits weren’t available all year around, and their juices couldn’t be stored for an entire year, soft drinks didn’t exist, and getting clean water took time and effort.

Did people on average drink more beer and wine than modern people? Maybe. We don’t have that much hard evidence, usually only the inventories and bills of parties and festivities, but that does not count into the average life of the average person.

Maybe people drank beer more often in the morning to carb-load before work (imagine doing that when you have an office job and need to drive there). Some people in the 18th century in some places were commenting on how coffee replaced beer in some people’s morning routine.
In the more rural areas in the German speaking regions a bottle of beer was sometimes part of lunch up until the 20th century.
But to insinuate that people were constantly drunk is just absurd and just pure ignorance.

Peasants up to the 20th century had to do some work on pretty much most days (you can’t just not feed your animals for a day or two), and certain times where they had to work intensively every day (harvesting time in summer which was a very short time period with lots of work) so being hungover every Saturday as some students (and some office workers, I reckon) wasn’t really an option.
Perhaps the situation was different for students in the universities from the medieval era onward, perhaps it wasn’t — we don’t really know for a fact.

Either way, alcohol did play an important part in society in the past, at least in Europe, not for getting drunk but also for taste and healthcare.

Nightwalks are enjoyable

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:15:38 +0100

I’ve been doing some nightwalks lately and realized how comfortable, or perhaps rather how comforting, they can be. Originally, I started doing them for some night-time photography - and I still take my camera with me - but taking in the quietness and calmness of the town at night has become the main reason.

I have been trying to distract myself lately by not staying inside for too long, by going out doing something, meeting people, because otherwise I think too much about certain things. Generally speaking it has worked so far in some ways. Maybe not so much the distracting part but thinking while walking is completely different from thinking while lazing around in your room.

That I don’t get to read that much anymore because of this is a bit sad but I haven been in a reading slump anyways…

Photography and exploring is fun

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 15:15:38 +0100

Recently I’ve been getting into photography again, after I didn’t do any for almost eight years not. I bought a barely used Olympus OM-D M10 (Mark I) for 200 euros which also included a M. Zuiko 14-42mm Kit lense, 2 batteries, and an entire cleaning set. Almost a steal!
I’ve been walking around town a bit and so far enjoyed exploring all the places I had completely ignored before, view buildings and people from a completely different angle and generally just try to find interesting scenes to shoot.

I can only recommend to everyone to walk around the place you live and try to explore the places you’ve never seen. Whether that is some stairs you’ve walked by thousands of times, some inner courtyard, or a side alley that doesn’t seem too interesting from the outside; you might discover something interesting and unique.

I’ve added a gallery to this website where I will upload some of the more interesting photos I took. This gallery might be the only page with JS code and technically it could do without but I wanted something nicer for now. Maybe I’ll implement something simpler, perhaps a pure-CSS gallery, some day.

The Pageantry and Politics of Medieval Tournaments: An Overview

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:02:16 +0100

The common conception of medieval tournaments typically mirrors the depiction of tournaments in movies, games and fantasy literature: two knights charging each other, until one unhorses his opponent, proceeding to the next round, sometimes duels may follow. This is done until a some winner emerges. As rewards, winners get monetary prizes, the recognition of their peers and lords, or the favor of a lady.
The knights are usually depicted wearing more or less the same armor they would wear in battle, but overall lack in visual interest. There is some shouting, trumpets, and yada yada.
In reality medieval tournaments were much more dynamic, impressive, and grandiose. The pop-cultural depiction is somewhat influenced by early-modern tournaments (which were somewhat distinct from medieval ones), and the all-so infamous Victorian romanticizing - or the opposite of that - thereof.

What, then, were medieval tournaments actually about

While something akin to tournaments already exited in Roman antiquity, usually when people are talking about tournaments in a historical context they refer to medieval or early-modern tournaments.
And while there are records of cavalry competitions, whether as display of equestrian skills (“tournament” comes from the French word for turning - turning your horse in tight spaces was difficult and a sign of good horsemanship) or forms of fighting on horseback from the early middle-ages, historians usually agree that medieval tournaments started somewhere in the 12th century.
During this time knights began to meet for mock battles, where they would arrive with their full equipment, organizing into teams or groups and fight - or at least started to record these events around that time. These early mock battles were usually carried out on a field wherever they saw convenient with only a few spectators.

And here lies the main purpose of these early tournaments: training for war. They formed groups and fought in formation because this is what they would do in battles. They would take each other as prisoners because that’s what they would do in battle (and because it brought them money - these tournaments could be quite lucrative). They tried to skillfully unhorse or outmaneuver their opponent. They usually didn’t charge at each other in straight lines in one-on-one duels because this would rarely happen in real combat, though occasional exceptions existed - at least if we believe epic retellings of battles.

These battles were an opportunity to test which tactics worked, as well as a chance to form bonds and alliances with fellow knights by fighting together, gaining the respect of their peers by proving oneself in combat, even if the combat wasn’t entirely ‘real’. (injuries of all degrees were fairly common, as was the occasional death).
Since these battles sometimes took place where peasants worked and lived they started to complain about these knights meeting to fight on their domains. Especially the clergy viewed those tournaments as needlessly brutal and vain at the expense of the everyday life of the locals. But despite them repeatedly admonishing participants and telling the nobility to stop these tournaments continued. Ironically, even some people from the higher-ranking clergy participated in these tournaments on occasion.

These fights started to evolve over time - there are some indications that there might have been “safe-zones” where you could catch your breath, or ladies or heralds could provide a pause for a knight of their choosing during the battle. These battles varied from place to place - especially the German speaking regions had the so-called Kolbenturnier, a club-tournament where they would use wooden clubs.

Knights started to form societies which organized these tournaments, some of these societies could become quite powerful and influential. In the late middle-ages higher nobility would replace the role of these societies though.
Over time these tournaments changed into something more formalized, attracting more spectators, new rules and a system to follow. While the meelee, the mock-battle, remained the focal point, the most important part of the tournament, jousting and duels soon were added. Spectators, especially the higher nobility, offered an opportunity for social advancement. If you could prove yourself to be a capable knight in battle you could gain the favor of some other, more important nobleman, perhaps even the king, who might then employ you.

But spectators also meant that you had to put in more effort in representing yourself and your house. Knights bought, and sometimes went into debt for, new sets of armor made only for tournaments, adorned themselves and their horses with expensive cloth, added fancier crests (they also used those in real battles, but went for more expensive and elaborate ones in tournaments) on-top of their helmets and much more. Serving as the page for a knight who gained lots of renown in a tournament might even make you famous. In short: tournaments became a way of representing yourself in front of a crowd of nobility; something that could reshape your political career completely.

Displaying wealth was just as important as exhibiting proper courtly manners, horsemanship, physical prowess and combat skill;. And here is something that might seem odd for modern athletes but generally held true: winning wasn’t necessarily that important. Participating and fighting was, self-representation was. But winning? If you get surrounded in a meelee by multiple opponents, manage to deftly gain advantage and defeat some of them but eventually get overwhelmed you might not have won, but you displayed great skill and could impress important people, which then could improve your social or political standing over the course of only a few days or weeks.

Storytelling, recreating old battles, retelling ancient mythology also became an integral part of medieval and early-modern tournaments. Dressing up, one might call it cosplaying, or having your pages in costumes was also a thing. Pretending to fight your way to a “damsel in distress”, having to fight for a key to the tower she was trapped in, pretending to be some ancient Greek hero - all of these things were part of many tournaments. Does this remind you of the spectacles and fights in the Colosseum or other Roman amphitheaters? Whether the medieval people were inspired by the Romans, we don’t know. But it is entirely plausible that something similar developed independently, and humans like turning sport into pompous events - just look at the Olympic games, football world-cup or the American Superbowl!

Therefore, tournaments could also be used to improve morale, for local organizers or patrons to gain popularity among the people. During the Siege of Neuss in 1474 the defenders organized a tournament inside the besieged city. On one hand this was to entertain the citizens inside, on the other hand this was to show the attackers that the people inside the walls weren’t done any time soon. Tournaments were held before or after coronations, after victory in a a war or any other kind of celebration. They were used by lords to gather their knights in one place and have them renew their oath of fealty, gather support for some policy or (possibly political) conflict and much more. In short: tournaments soon also became a political tool, a form of celebration and a show of force/power.

Citizens started to become involved

As tournaments gained a broader appeal, wealthy individuals of the rising citizen class, especially in the Holy Roman Empire, in the late-middle ages also wanted to participate in these events. Knights weren’t too keen in letting plebs participate in their spectacles, so some tournaments, or certain parts of the tournaments, required proof that your were a descendant of a noble line (usually 2 generations). But despite the attempts to stop plebs from participating, the crests and insignia of wealthy citizen-families became increasingly common in jousts - the meelee was usually still knights-only as it was considered the “higher” and more important part of the tournament. But something odd started to happen: the citizens started to become really good at jousting.

Knights, as part of the ruling class didn’t necessarily have the same amount of time as some citizens for practicing jousting. They had to train for battle, for war in which they then would also participate in, fight in feuds, rule over their lands which meant administrative work, socialize and build a network of allies for which they often had to travel around, study, and so on. Jousting itself was therefore not always a priority. Some wealthy citizens often had more time to spare for practice than large parts of nobility.

Tournaments in the early-modern period

The meelee would become less relevant over time while the joust started to be the spectacle. Armor specifically made for tournaments (not just from an aesthetic point-of-view, also from a technical one), with lance rests (or arrêt) to direct the force of the impact into the entire armor of the wearer for stronger blows, armor to protect against breaking your neck when falling from the horse by limiting the movement of the neck and detaching your head from the armor (like being inside a shell that doesn’t touch you), frog-mouth helmets in which you were essentially blind once you straightened your back, less mobility and thicker plates, etc… armor that you wouldn’t want to use in battle but were nearly perfect for preventing injuries and mobile enough to get on a horse and steer it straight forward.

Shields, often targes, with spring mechanisms such that the shield would either fly away or burst on a good hit, lance points which didn’t’ have one point but rather three points to distribute the force better and help catching the enemy helmet, shield or some other piece of armor to rip it (partly) off. All of the medieval and early-modern love for complex mechanisms poured into equipment for tournaments.
Eventually tournaments started to disappear together with the knight, or at least the identity of the medieval knight, in the late 16th-17th century.

Some closing thoughts

There is much more to write about; armor and heraldry during tournaments, how tournaments were organized, the actually procedure, how it changed over time, differences between the various regions, and much, much more. There are lots of historical examples, pictorial and textual sources so we do have a fairly decent idea how those tournaments worked. But that would make this article a bit too long

If you want to look at some historical depictions or a tournament I can recommend the King René’s Tournament Book or Das Hausbuch der Herren von Hallwil)

I hope I could give a general idea about tournaments, and more importantly why these tournaments were actually a thing and how their purpose changed over time.

Major Hackher and the Siege of Graz 1809

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 22:52:05 +0200

One of many

The Napoleonic Wars is a period of history associated with many notable figures: The Duke of Wellington, Grouchy, MacDonald, Alexander I, of course Bonaparte, and many more. However, among these great men of history, there were also countless lesser-known individuals who performed deeds that, while perhaps not as grand, immortalized them in one way or another.

Among these individuals stands Franz Xaver Hackher, a member of the Austrian military during that time, who became a local celebrity in Graz and was immortalized as a statue of a lion.

Hackher was born into an old, small noble family from Lower Austria. Not much is known about his early life, but he eventually entered the k.u.k (imperial and royal) Technical Military Academy, where he received training as a military engineer. After graduating as a junior lieutenant, he participated in the Ottoman wars, during which he was promoted first to the rank of senior lieutenant and then to captain of the engineering corps.

He fought in the Siege of Mantua (1799), where the Austrian army defeated the French troops in the same city where they had suffered a devastating defeat three years prior.

Following his promotion to captain, Hackher was later promoted to lieutenant-colonel again.

The (not so) last stand of Major Hackher

When the French armies approached the city of Graz during the War of the Fifth Coalition Archduke Joseph withdrew his army from Graz. The defenders in Graz were told to hold back the French army under the command of Grouchy and MacDonald as long as possible to give the Archduke a head start.
When the French reached Graz negotiations started but Hackher decided to stall them, after a parliamentary urged them to just surrender the city. Eventually a peaceful surrender was negotiated, however Hackher insisted staying on the Castle Hill inside the city.

Castle Hill is a small but steep and fortified hill inside the city of Graz with casemates, an easy to defend strong-point. Grouchy eventually threatened the defenders by positioning artillery nearby but Hackher and his 900 defenders continued to hold out on the hill. Bombardment of the castle eventually started. The food stored in the casemates was rationed and while the city was already under firm French control small skirmished ensued.

After several day of French infantry attacks and artillery barrages that often lasted into the night French losses were around 300 casualties (mostly lightly wounded), while only 7 dead and 14 wounded Austrians are recorded. French attempts to blocked and dismantle bridges that led to the castle were partly successful, partly failed due to counter battery fire from defenders.

Gyulai arrives

Several days later, after the 20th of June the French General Broussier withdrew his troops from the city to meet the Austrian General Ignaz Gyulai, however no battle took place. Major Hackher retook the city gates and replenished his resources in the castle. The French forced Hackher again to fall back into to Castle Hill and the city fell back into French hands.

After Marmont reached the area with his troops Broussier consolidated his troops with Marmont’s army in the nearby village of Lieboch. However, Marmont received information that Gyulai reached Graz and ordered Broussier back to retake/hold the city.

A small battle ensured which eventually forced Gyylai to withdraw and allowed Marmont to march his army north to Vienna where he eventually fought in Wagram. If Gyulai had at that time managed to bind French troops to Styria, whether by defeating them close to Graz or simply withdrawing into the Graz-Styria axis Marmont might not have been able to participate in the Battle of Wagram - and it might have ended differently.

Aftermath

The castle on Castle Hill was later demolished as per the Treaty of Schönbrunn. Perhaps the castle might have survived if not for Hackher and his defenders.
Hackher was promoted to colonel and baron. He served under Carl XIV, also known as Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, and fought the French again in 1813-1814 where he’d receive the Swedish Order of the Sword.
He eventually retired and died in 1837.

A statue in his honor was commissioned and unveiled in 1909 but this memorial faced a temporary end when it was molten down in 1943 to produce weapons for the German war effort. A new one was made in 1966 and Hackher now stands again on top of Castle Hill, overlooking the city he had defended over 2 centuries ago.

Sources (in German):

hblock - The Poor Man's Pi-Hole

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 15:15:38 +0100

It’s not the poor man’s pi-hole. A pi-hole can be used for caching and includes a forwarding DNS server. hblock is:

a POSIX-compliant shell script that gets a list of domains that serve ads, tracking scripts and malware from multiple sources and creates a hosts file, among other formats, that prevents your system from connecting to them.

which means that it takes the domains from a deny.list, and the sources from URLs which are specified in a sources.list, removes all domains in an allow.list and writes them into your host file. This process rewrites your hosts file so either back it up or write it into a header file which is prepended to whatever hblock generates from the various sources.

For example: let’s take one of the various options from StevenBlack’s hosts file repo (one of the raw links), create a sources.list file in the /etc/hblock/ directory and paste the link to the file there.

Then run

sudo hblock

and hblock will update/replace your host file. If for whatever reason you need to clean your hist file you can run:

sudo hblock -S none -D none

Why use this instead of an ad-blocker

Because its browser independent. You wouldn’t even need an ad-blocker (uBlock also allows you to add the same lists, sources and what not, and you can add all the same sources uBlock uses). If you use multiple browsers this is much more efficient.
Youtube ads in videos won’t get blocked but if you use an alternative front-end you won’t have this issue anyways.

Sources I use

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/4skinSkywalker/Anti-Porn-HOSTS-File/master/HOSTS.txt
https://adaway.org/hosts.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/AdguardDNS.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Admiral.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/blacklist/master/adservers.txt
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_ad.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Easylist.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Prigent-Adult.txt
# You don't need a single Facebook or "META" service
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/blacklist/master/facebook.txt

Alternatives to Invasive Websites

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 18:14:08 +0100

JavaScript and its consequences has been a disaster for the internet.

Is something someone probably maybe said. Since most people reading this blog probably know that JavaScript is the most evil thing in existence (hyperbolically speaking - it has its uses of course) I won’t go into detail here why - same with why you should use alternative websites.
I will list here some alternatives and alternative frontends to websites which minimize the amount of JavaScript loaded and executed in your browser. Alternative front-ends are also often less distracting, and you might waste less time on those websites.
I will also give some more alternatives which don’t necessarily use less JS, but at least are less invasive than the mainstream options. This list might expand over time, its not complete since it will only cover things I have personally used, or used at least more than once.

Youtube

Youtube is one of the biggest and most visited websites on the web. Its also a privacy nightmare. Don’t visit youtube.com.
Instead use:

Alternative front ends

An Invidious instances: Invidious tends to break a bit sometimes, might need some configuration to run smoothly but the websites load much faster than Youtube’s and are much less smaller. (just look at the network tab…).
A Piped instance: Especially piped.video. Works much better than invidious in my experience however it might rarely struggle with availability. Playlists are sometimes broken though.
Youtube local: I run it locally on my machine (though ideally I’d be running it on a VPS). The sites load blazingly fast and videos buffer quickly.
Somtimes you might get an error message instead of comments but reloading usually resolves this (then again, why would you be reading comments in the first place?). It used RSS for subscriptions so if you already use RSS for that you can simply import your list. You can subscribe via the interface, make playlists, etc.
FreeTube: A desktop app. manages subscriptions (using RSS of course) and local playlists. Based on electron though, and electron is bad though.
Only RSS: the simplest method if you know what your’re doing. I use newsboat, then pipe video links from newsboat into MPV. It just loads the RSS feeds and you stream the video from MPV - never download anything that isn’t needed to watch youtube videos.

If you don’t want to use an alternative front-end, you could uBlock for blocking elements on the Youtube website, like the recommended tab, or the comments. For help on this go look here.

Alternative video platforms

Rumble: Sites load fast, the interface is clean. Pretty nice, though I don’t like that I get recommended so much about american politics and rage-bait.
Odysee: Slower than rumble but has more content, and a better recommendation system.

For smartphones

NewPipe: Also uses RSS feeds, you can listen to something while switching apps or turning your screen off, minimize the image and keep watching when switching tasks, etc… Download it via F-Droid, make sure to add the NewPipe repo to get the latest updates and you’re set
Youtube Vanced: I haven’t used it but is basically Youtube minus the Ads and some trackers removed. It’s also not open-source!

Searching

DON’T USE GOOGLE! ¹ Searching is something you will use a lot in your life, and something that could potentionally know a lot about you…

Searx: Its a Meta-Search engine, i.e. it takes your query and asks multiple search engines for results. These engines don’t know who you are. Pick a searx instance, configure whichever engines you want to use and done. May break, public instances can always disappear.
Brave: As far as I know it has proven to be quite privacy respecting, and delivers good search results.
Startpage: Alternative front-end to Google - more private but you’re still using and supporting Google.
DuckDuckGo: Yes, cuckcuckgo. Results are usually good, but can underdeliver especially when searching programming related questions.
Swisscows: Privacy respecting but uses bing results.
Wiby: I love this website. Its only for finding minimalistic websites and not something you’d use on a daily basis.

Twitter

In the case you actually, voluntarily wanted to use Twitter (🤮) at least use an alternative front end!

Nitter: Just pick an instances and use it. (Update: As of 28.02.2024 most of not all Nitter instances won’t work)

Same with twitter: at least be safe when going there.

Libreddit: I don’t know why they use HLS but just enable it in the config and you’re done.

Discord

… I hate this app so much ² ³ ⁴ and I hate that I have to use it for some things…

Using Discord

Webcord: The last non-official client that could get you banned. Its much better than using Discord in a browser, just read the docs. Based on electron but still, much better than using a browser with Discord.
In a browser: Trafotin has a good video on this. Follow this. Remember /science is evil.

Alternative

Matrix: A protocol which also allows E2EE. There is a lot of metadata attached to every message and people have been killed because of metadata but its still much better than Discord. Too bad most clients are not good though…
Mumble: For VoIP, it is technically not an alternative to Discord/
Jitsi: Either use https://meet.jit.si/ or install Jitsi on your own server. Also only for voice chatting but still, much better than Discord for that.

Ad-Blocking

Get U-Block origin and use it in advanced user mode. Everyone should do this, its not optional. Nonetheless, you’d have to do this for every browser (though you can export and import settings) and U-Block origin works differently for Firefox and Chromium based browser. Use also, in conjunctions with an adblocker, hblock or a Pi-Hole. I might write something about how to use hblock since its not that well known. Look at this repo for source files, or search for whatever tracker lists for a Pi-Hole and use those. You can manually add some domains.

Others

Have a look at https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends, its much better organized than this blog entry…

Redirecting

Use LibRedirect for redirecting automatically to any alternative front ends of your choice. Its that simeple!

Image Gallery

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 18:14:08 +0100

Thanks to mfg92 and his free Hugo Shortcode Gallery

The Counting Board or 'Calculating on Lines'

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 15:15:38 +0100

Introduction

Nowadays, with calculators capable of computing enormous numbers in our pockets, access to websites that allow us to solve complex integrals and derivatives, plot functions, and much more, saying that a board with six lines allows us to do basic arithmetic elegantly and fairly quickly even when using Roman numerals doesn’t necessarily seem impressive. However, boards like this were used for centuries, even for over a millennium, almost all over the world.

The complexity of computing large Roman numerals

Most of us are probably comfortable with adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing even larger decimal numbers by hand. Long multiplication and division make this quite intuitive, the grid method and various other algorithms are often taught in school but soon lose relevance as we learn to use a scientific calculator for anything more difficult in higher grades. Computing, especially multiplication and division, has been fairly challenging for larger numbers for most of human history, and anyone who has tried to do these ‘basic’ operations with Roman numerals knows how difficult basic arithmetic can suddenly become.

There are many methods to simplify more complex operations, most of which require only a sheet of paper and a pen, but one that was popular almost everywhere up until the 16th century in Europe was using a Counting Board.

I will go into detail about how we can use a counting board but before that we should first refresh our memory about Roman numerals.

Roman Numeral	Hindu-Arabic
I	1
V	5
X	10
L	50
C	100
D	500
M	10000

The Roman numerals are to the left and the corresponding Hindu-Arabic numbers to the right. To construct a larger number, you combine the letters according to these rules:

Symbols are combined to add their values. For example: II is 1 + 1 = 2, and VI is 5 + 1 = 6.
If a smaller number comes before a larger number, you subtract the smaller number from the larger one. For example, IV is 5 - 1 = 4, and IX is 10 - 1 = 9.
Roman numerals are written from left to right, and the largest value is placed on the left.
A symbol can’t appear more than three times in a row, instead you use rule 3. For example 4 is written as IV instead of IIII (Some old clocks might use this notation specifically for the number four though).

Simple enough. However, doing basic arithmetic is not necessarily that simple compared to the Hindu-Arabic system - but Roman numerals are all we have now, so what do we do? Exactly, we invent something that allows us to perform arithmetic in an intuitive and simple-to-understand way: The counting board.
A counting board is fairly simple: a board with multiple horizontal lines indicating powers of 10, and the spaces between them indicating five times the value of the line underneath it.

We can place a number on the board by using tokens, coins, stones, or similar items on either the lines or the spaces between them. If we put one on the bottom most line, we add one; if we place two on it, we add two. Placing a token on the space above adds a five. We added three ones and one five, which yields us an eight. We basically build our numeral, which we wrote down on small wax table beforehand (though I suppose no one notices if we use some modern paper for once) as a set of tokens on our table. Note that we only ever added tokens; we do not subtract within one of the three spaces, rather IV is represented as four individual tokens on the line for I - we might have to break some rules here and there for ease-of-use.

Why do we have these three vertical lines dividing the board into three sections (there were examples with only one line or more than three)? Because when we start doing some arithmetic, we need to keep track of the things we are doing. We can have one number in the middle, one to the right, and the result of our operation, including some intermediate values to the left - how someone uses this space is up to the arithmetician.

Now, with an overview of Roman numerals and the ability to put numbers on the table, let’s start doing some actual arithmetic.

Addition

Adding on our setup is fairly straight-forward. We put down one number in the center part and one to the right, then move all the tokens to the left. Simple, really. Although, there is one thing we have to keep in mind. If we want to do 4 + 4, we put down two fours, move them over to get eight tokens on the line for one… Isn’t this a bit difficult to read when we start doing larger numbers? Imagine twelve tokens in one line, eight in the space below, and seven tokens somewhere else. So we add two rules for our table to keep things a bit tidy:

If we have five tokens on one line we remove them and add one token on the space above.
If we have two tokens on a space between lines we remove them and add a token on the line above.

This makes sense since VV is not a valid Roman numeral; instead, we use X. Likewise, IIIII is V. Meaning we have to fix our result, remove five of the eight tokens on the line, and place one on the space above. Now we have… VIII. The correct result of IV + IV!

Now let’s add two larger numbers: 152 and 1052. We convert them to Roman numerals: 152 = CLII, which is easy to put down on the board, and 1054 = MLIV or MLIIII on the board. We move all tokens to the left side and get MCLLIIIIII. Let’s clean this up to make it a valid numeral for writing down on our trusty wax tablet, and we get: MCCVI = 1206, which is the correct result.

Addition is simple, juts merge the tokens together and correct the result according to the rules

We have taken the first step to becoming a master arithmetician. Next we need to learn another basic skill: subtraction.

Subtraction

Subtracting is actually quite simple too. Place one token on the line for I in one separation and two on the other separation. Now remove one token from each. One separation now has zero tokens, the other only one, because 2 - 1 = 1. We follow this method for subtracting any number from a larger number (Negative numbers? What are those?), and for this we don’t even need the third separation. However we do need one new rule for subtraction:

If you have a token on a line or space in one separation while not having at least the same amount of tokens on the other separation, you need to convert tokens for larger numbers to lower numbers, breaking the two rules we established for addition.

If we subtract, for example, II from V, we don’t have any tokens on the same line or space in the two separations. We have to convert the V into five I and then apply our operation, removing the same amount of Is on both sides until either has none left, which results in III. This can even be done by simply following patterns; we technically wouldn’t even need to know how to subtract numbers from a theoretical point of view.

But let’s do a more complex subtraction: We subtract CLIV from MLII (by now we are quite capable of placing the tokens on the board, so this part will be skipped). We remove all tokens on both separations on the same line or space until there are none left on one side. We are left with M - CII, so we have to convert our M into some Cs and Is. This has very quickly turned into the most intimidating number we have placed so far on the board: DCCCCLXXXXVIIIII or MCCCLX. But now we can follow our one rule for subtraction again, then convert the result into a valid numeral on our board, which results in DCCCLXXXXVIII or DCCCXCVIII, which is the correct result.

Subtraction, a bit more difficult since we have to shuffle some tokens around but still not that hard

We have learned yet another important arithmetic operation. We know how to add, and we know how to subtract. Multiplication and division are, in principle, for integers, just repeated addition and subtraction. All of the rules we have learned so far will come in quite handy soon.

Multiplication

Multiplication is basically just repeated addition. This is the simplest way of looking at multiplication and it should suffice for our counting board. There are no new rules since we essentially just do addition; we only need to use our board cleverly.
Suppose we wanted to multiply III with II. We lay down the first number in the center, the second one to the right, and start a very simple process: Lay down the same amount of tokens in each space and line as in the middle in the left separation and remove one token from the right separation. Then do that again; now we have no tokens to the right anymore and IIIIII to the left, which we change to VI.

This is how we are going to multiply numbers: add the larger one to the result separation (for us the left one) and remove one I on the right one. This is the same as saying 2 * 3 = 3 + 3. We could also say 2 * 3 = 2 + 2 + 2, but this requires more work and time. If we multiply something with, for example, five, we either convert the five to five Is and do the same as before or come up with some tricks.
If we were to multiply XII with V, we could do first II times V, which we convert to X, and then do V times X, and five tokens on one line are converted to one token on the space above. In fact, multiplying by five is almost trivial in a lot of cases. Multiplying by X is also trivial; we just move the token(s) over the space above to the line above. VII times X is LXX. I won’t go over all tricks (and there certainly are more than I know), but performing some multiplications and thinking about optimizations, we can very quickly find some neat tricks that make our lives much easier and our calculations significantly faster.

Multiplication, repetitive but intuitive

Division

Let’s face the most difficult operation: division… but first we should refresh some basic math (don’t worry, we’ll do them with Hindu-Arabic numbers) concerning the division of integers.
If we divide 10 by 2, we get 5. Trivial for pretty much anyone, but what did we actually do? You could either say we looked at how often two “goes into” ten, or, and I assume you already know where this is going, we looked at how often we can subtract two from ten until we reach zero. So we could also say 10 ÷ 2 = 5 because 10 - 2 * 5 = 0. This also works with numbers that aren’t properly divisible by adding the remainder.
For example: 13 ÷ 5 = 2 R 3 because 13 = 2 * 5 + 3 or 0 = 13 - 2 * 5 - 3. We use the latter perspective on division for our counting board.

Let’s start by laying down some numbers: XIII in the center and V to the right. We then look whether we can subtract V using our subtraction rules; no we can’t, so we have to convert one X to VV. Now we subtract one token from only the center separation and add one token at the I line to the left. We can do this again until no V-tokens are left in the center. What about the three Is? Well, they are our remainder and we let them lie there.
So our approach is as follows: Larger number in the center, smaller to the right, we apply our subtraction rule with two new rules (sorry I lied earlier):

Only remove tokens in the center separation
Only remove tokens when you can remove all tokens that appear on the right separation. So if you have one I and one V to the right you should only ever remove tokens in the center if you can remove one I and one V at the same time.

Rule 2 means that if you cannot apply a subtraction at all lines and spaces at the same time, you either convert tokens of larger numbers to more tokens of smaller numbers until you can or you have reached the end of our division.

Let’s look at a more complex example: CCIX divided by LXVII. We lay down our tokens and realize we can’t subtract anything. So we convert one C to one L and five X. Now we can subtract our number on the right from the number in the center exactly once: we lay down one token at I. Again we can’t subtract the whole number on the right, so we convert and propagate our remaining token at the C and start subtracting again. We can subtract our number on the right three times with a remainder of eight - the correct result.

Division, the most laborious of the four arithmetic operations but intuitive, isn't it?

Did you notice something? We searched for the pattern on the right separation among the tokens of the center separation. To make this a bit clearer, let’s divide XXIV by XII (twelve was an incredibly important number in accounting, trade, taxation… pretty much everywhere). If we look at what we have in front of us, we could arrange the tokens in the center separation (XXIIII) as two XII triangles, which we can also do with the tokens to the right. How often does our triangle to the right fit into the shape in the center? Twice, so XXIV divided by XII is II.

Division basically breaks down to searching the pattern in the separation with the smaller number in the separation of the larger number and writing down how often it can appear.

And with this, we have learned all the four basic arithmetic operations - or so we could think. People in the Middle Ages also considered doubling and halving so important that they wrote down rules for those separately. This was very useful because we can abstract some more complex calculations to doubling and halving. (Think of 25 * 13. We double thirteen and multiply by ten, then we could multiply thirteen with ten separately, half that, and add the two results together.)

Why was this used for such a long time?

Counting boards, or ‘computing on lines’ as the German arithmetician Adam Ries called it in his book Rechnung auff linihen, are an intuitive way of learning and understanding basic arithmetic. Some readers might have learned basic mathematics in primary schools with an abacus for exactly the same reason - and an abacus is not much different from a counting board.

Any lay person, anyone who did not spend some time doing calculation after calculation, could observe someone doing this and follow the steps by observing patterns and knowing the most simple of rules. An observer wouldn’t even need to know any mathematics or Roman Numerals at all: as long as the rules among and between the lines and spaces, the rules for the different operations are known, you could check whether the merchant in front of you does their job correctly.

One problem with this can arise very quickly though; what if we accidentally move some tokens? We want to lay one down, pick one up, or move some, and by brushing over the board with our arm, we move some of those that should have stayed in place. This can happen undetected very easily with larger numbers. This was one reason why Italian merchants started to have two people independently doing the same calculations twice, writing down both their results and comparing them. If they both have the same result, they are more likely both correct; if not, they might not know where the error is, but they know that there is one and how large the error might be. If it’s just a tiny error, you could ignore it altogether; if not, you might want to redo all the calculations. And so double-entry accounting/bookkeeping was born.

Some closing thoughts {some-thoughts}

While this is not actually relevant in the modern world, any calculator can handle larger numbers in a fraction of a second without error it is still interesting to learn how computing was done centuries ago with a completely different number system. Hindu-Arabic numbers started to replace Roman Numerals, though merchants obstinately continued using the latter well after Italian scientists and scholars started to adopt the foreign numbers in the 13th century (much to the thanks of Fibonacci, who very quickly used the new, foreign notation), simply because of how transparent a counting board is to the layperson.

In fact, here in this article, we have looked at it from a more simplified perspective. In his book “Rechnung auff linihen,” Adam Ries formalizes the conversion of tokens on the line (linie) to tokens in spaces (spacio) and vice versa as elevatio and resolvatio as follows:

Elevation to a line

Liegen fünff rechenpfennig auff einer Linien so hebe die auff/ leg eine in das spacium darüber…

If there lie five pennies on a line, then lift them up and place one in the space above…

Elevatio to a spacio

Hastu aber zwen pfennig in einem spacio so heb die auff vnd leg einen auff die linie darüber

But if thou hast two pennies in one space, then lift them up and place one on the line above…

Resolvatio to a line from a spacio

Heb ihn auff leg einen in das nechst spacium darunder vund 5 auff die linie vnder dem spacio

Lift it up, place one in the next space below, and five on the line under the space…

Elevatio to a spacio from a line

Ligt aber ein pfennig in einem spacio … so leg dafür 5 pfennig auff die linien darunder

But if one penny lies in one space, then place five pennies on the lines below for it

You can read more in this website though it is in German.

One could spend quite some time mastering the techniques from above, creating their own counting board (you could very much extend it by multiple lines) on paper or on wood, find various tricks and simplifications as an exercise, and maybe gain a more intuitive understanding of numbers and arithmetic on the way. You could use dice sides to represent the number of tokens (instead of using six tokens, you could represent that with the face for six from a six-sided dice or use any larger-sided dice), or different objects to represent a different number of tokens (in fact, in some parts of the world, a nut could have represented A amount of tokens, the seed of a fruit B amount of tokens, and so on).

Negative numbers and fractions can be represented on the board by mirroring the board downwards: if you divide XIII by III, you get IV with a remainder of I, which in decimal is 13 ÷ 3 = 4.333... = 4 + 1/3, so laying down the number you divided by as many times as you have tokens on the remainder separation on the mirrored side allows you to represent fractions. Or you could use it for negative numbers, though you might have to adapt some of the rules.

There are a lot of possibilities to make it more usable for modern arithmetic, but either way, the counting board remains a gimmick, something to play around with and a glimpse into the history of mathematics.
We have not looked at any specific methods of simplifying calculations like the Russian peasant methods for multiplication, which would have been well known during the Middle Ages, merely at the methodology for actually computing something.
I hope I managed to instill some sort of fascination for one of the simple but elegant tools and methods people used before modern computing.

About

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Every article pertaining to history was not written by a historian, only by a history enthuasiast. I merely read a lot of historical texts and history books.

If you want to contact me refer to the contact page

Blog roll - internet stuff I like

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Some blogs, websites, videos and such that I like. In no specific order, and with a couple of words here and there why I like something. This is a potpourri of history, archeology, technology, music, cooking, TTRPGs and much more.
Constantly WIP.

Blogs

Medievalist: Their short medieval blogs are nice to read. They also have a Youtube channel.
Luke Smith: If you know him you know him.
bugswriter: ~~Indian Luke Smith~~… is what he’s definitely not!
Denshi: Mostly just like his Youtube channel and love his music Sabaudia
Cozynet: It’s cozy!
Doodlesdlev: Just read some articles there.
Extramundane
Homesteadtheinternet
Bikobatanari: Fun website with some nice art and interesting blog entries
Chuck Carroll
Manuel Moreale
Brett Lindler
Bryce Vandergrift
Manuel Morales
The Angry GM: Interesting stuff for GMing

Other Websites

TheMoeWay: Want to learn Japanese? Read through this website. Start with the guide.
History for Atheists
The Collector
Ancient Origins
going-medieval.com

Video Platforms

Music

Arany Zoltán: Amazing musician who tries to recreate various traditional pieces of music and folk music.
The Skaldic Bard: Recreates songs in old languages, even more interesting since he knows Old Norse (I love his Old Norse version of the Swedish anthem)
Farya Faraj: If you like ethnographic and actually historical music Faraj is probably the most interesting out there - so many cultures and song
Hohe Minne: Traditional music from the middle ages and early modern period, mostly German.
Bardify: Makes great RPG music.
Rok Nardin: Lots of epic RPG music.

Tech stuff

Trafotin: Makes cool linux videos.
Veronica Explains: Videos about various technology related subjects.
Vintage Computer Federation: Longer videos about old computers. Comfy.
Broadie Robertson: You probably know him already.

History

Schwerpunkt: A historian with a focus on the medieval period.
Geschichtsfenster (German): Not a historian but incredibly knowledgable in the late-middle ages. Does living history and likes to focus on conveying a proper image, that is a visual picture, of the medieval period.
Epochentrotter (German): A podcast about specific things in history, be it people or single events.
V. Birchwood: Sews her own historical clothing and documents her process.
Townsend: Comfy videos about the frontier men in the US by reenactors.
CrowsEyeProductions: Videos about historical clothing.
Cambrian Chronicles: A Welsh history channel
Early American: A couple of reenactors presenting 1820s Missouri.
V. Birchwood: Videos about historical clothing.
Premodernist: Nice and long videos on (usually) pre-modern history - and they have a decent length, as any good history video should have
Ursula’s historical recipes: Perhpas not quite as interesting and informative on the back-ground of the individual recipes compared to Tasting History but they are short, straight to the point and diverse.

Sciences

Mathologer: Deep dives and some short videos about mathematics.
Mathemaniac: Another great math-Youtuber.

Other

Fandabi Dozi: History, survival, bushcraft and a scottish accent.
Polsen kocht pannonisch ’s Beste (German): Videos about pannonian cooking

Contact me

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you want to contact me (either in English, German or Japanese¹) you can use:

GitHub: https://github.com/yuuza-neemu/
Email: yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com

GPG: Download or import it with curl -sL https://yuuuza.xyz/yuuza_neemu.gpg | gpg --import
Fingerprint: ABA25145602F9B762FF3D39556BA1C816BE05B69

書いていることは完全に理解できますが、私の返事はおそらくネイティブ・スピーカーのレベルには達しないでしょう。 ↩︎

Posts Archive

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Software I use

yuuza_neemu@protonmail.com (Yuuza) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s some of the software I use on a regular basis or alternatives to some specific software. This will be continuously updated.

Operating System: Artix Linux
Window Manager: Hyprland
Status bar: Waybar
Terminal: Kitty, I used to use Alacritty. I use Bash as my shell.
Browser: Librewolf with arkenfox (unly use FF with arkenfox!¹) or Librewolf, and Ungoogled Chromium for WebGL stuff. DON’T USE GOOGLE CHROME!²
Coding/Writing: NeoVim and VSCodium
Watching videos: mpv

Yuuza Website

A Superficial Overview of Western Medieval Arms and Armor

Important Information

6th Century: Late Antique Influences and Early Migration Period Continuity

7th Century: Alleged “Princely” Burials and Vendel-Style Developments

8th Century: Carolingian Consolidation and Wider Mail Use

9th Century: Carolingian Standardization and Defensive Responses

10th Century: Norse Influence and Feudal Foundations

11th Century: Norman Ascendancy and Knightly Emergence

12th Century: Crusader Adaptations and Refinements

13th Century: Transitional Armor and Early Plate Experiments

14th Century: Widespread Plate Adoption and Articulated Defenses

15th Century: Full Plate Armor and Regional Mastery

Some Afterthoughts

Some Links to Look At

My Home Workout Routine

Principles

Upper Body

Lower Body

After A Workout

Running

Getting back into Japanese: Part 2

The Past Year

Reflecting on Getting Back

Continuing

Using the Mouse is Annoying and There are Better Options

Text Editing

Browsing the Web

Files

Others

Caveats

TRRP Stories: Funny, Odd and Absurd Moments

The Imploding Bag of Holding

The Fight for the Rotten Fish

Don’t Counterspell the Boss’ Teleport

Fireball Mishap

Near-Death by Underwater Implosion

Pre-Ordained Nat20s

Generating Anki Sentences with AI and Python for Language Learning

Indian Clubs are fun

A Bit of History

Some links

Rudyard Kipling Made Exceedingly Good Songs (And so did Peter Bellamy)

Peter Bellamy and the Young Tradition: Keeping Kipling’s Songs Alive and Celebrating Folk Music

Book Review: Ghost Stories by M.R. James

Getting back into Japanese

My Japanese Journey

Rediscovering

The Awakening

Conclusion

Skipping is fun

On wasting time that is not wasting time

People in the Past Weren't Alcoholics: Drinking in the Past

Taste

A Novel Concept: People in the Past Liked Tasty Things

What Were Some Options in Europe Before the Early Modern Period?

Water and the Wooden Container Problem

Health

Calories

Pleasure

Beer and Wine Production

Closing Thoughts

Nightwalks are enjoyable

Photography and exploring is fun

The Pageantry and Politics of Medieval Tournaments: An Overview

What, then, were medieval tournaments actually about

Citizens started to become involved

Tournaments in the early-modern period

Some closing thoughts

Major Hackher and the Siege of Graz 1809

One of many

The (not so) last stand of Major Hackher

Gyulai arrives

Aftermath

hblock - The Poor Man's Pi-Hole

Why use this instead of an ad-blocker

Sources I use

Alternatives to Invasive Websites

Youtube

Alternative front ends