[Sca-cooks] Special to Huette

[Jeff.Gedney at Dictaphone.com]

Stefan, I am currently writing a long article on boats and their evolution
through the SCA period. I would be happy to send it to you wen I am done.
I will also be glad to send you what I have regarding the knots found in
the oseberg find, though you might find them rather boring.
What was found was actually some loose cordage stuff that was stored in a
ceramic bowl, during burial, and was protected by a shield that fell over
the bowl.

The knots found are:
Eye splices
Toggles (a short wood bar spliced in the end of a rope and pushed though a
loop in another rope to hold it, rather like a button).
Square (Technically this is called a Reef knot in sailors parlance)
Overhand knots (technically a half hitch, depending on usage)
brailing lines and crowsfeet (several lines that are joined to a single
point to distribute stresses, usually used in sail control lines)
And two types of Cringles (Cringles are lines that are spliced into the
bolt ropes to attach control lines directly to the sail or attach the sail
to a spar.  Bolt ropes are ropes sewn all around the perimeter of a square
sail to strengthen it. )

By extension we can assume that they also knew about Two Half hitches, the
Clove hitch, and the Larks Head knot, as these are common variants of reef
knot and the half hitch.   I assume that they also had the Sheet bend, also
called the Weavers knot, because they use a variant of it to sieze to an
eyesplice.

I am having trouble putting a picture of the knots on the web for you to
see, so I can't do that but I cna certainly send it to you directly as part
of my article.

A note of terminology:
Knots are actually divided in three classes -
"Knots" are joins in a single rope, as in making a loop or noose. Overhand,
reef, and bowline knots are examples
"Bends" join two separate ropes, examples are the sheet bend and the
carrick bend.
"hitches" join a rope to an object, such as a pole or ring.  Ringbolt,
clove, half and "two half" hitches are examples.

This is not to say that these categories are firm and unyeilding. There is
considerable movement between categories.
Generally though, when the knot is used in a different category, it carries
a different name.

A Bowline knot is a sheetbend tied in a single loop of rope, a ringbolt
hitch is a larks head knot arounf a pole or ring - but it is also "spilled"
reefknot, two half hitches is also a granny knot when tied as a noose - it
is also the clove hitch tied around its own line instead of a pole.

It is not a good idea to join two ropes with a square knot as it easily
spills into a larks head knot, and slides apart, it makes a very poor bend.

Brandu,
AKSCA Capt Elias Gedney,
Patron of the East Kingdom Nautical Guild of St Erasmus
Master of ye Wycked Bitche, a 49 tonne lugger, plying the coaster trade out
of Yarmouth in East Anglia.



"All of this is by way of coming around to the somewhat paradoxical
observation that we speak with remarkable laxness and imprecision and yet
manage to express ourselves with wondrous subtlety -- and simply
breathtaking speed. In normal conversation we speak at a rate of about 300
syllables a minute. To do this we force air up through the larynx -- or
supralaryngeal vocal tract, to be technical about it-- and, by variously
pursing our lips and flapping our tongue around in our mouth rather in the
manner of a freshly landed fish, we shape each passing puff into a series
of loosely differentiated plosives, fricatives, gutterals, and other minor
atmospheric disturbances. These emerge as a more or less continuous blur of
sound. People don't talk like this, theytalklikethis. Syllables, words,
sentences run together like a watercolor left in the rain. To understand
what anyone is saying to us we must separate these noises into words and
the words into sentences so that we might in our turn issue a stream of
mixed sounds in response. If what we say is suitably apt and amusing, the
listener will show his delight by emitting a series of uncontrolled high
pitched noises, accompanied by sharp intakes of breath of the sort normally
associated with a seizure or heart failure. And by these means we converse.
Talking, when you think about it, is a very strange business indeed."
- Bill Bryson, "the Mother Tongue, English and How It Got That Way"





                    Stefan li Rous
                    <StefanliRous at austi        To:     sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
                    n.rr.com>                  cc:
                    Sent by:                   Subject:     RE: [Sca-cooks] Special to Huette
                    sca-cooks-admin at ans
                    teorra.org


                    12/28/2002 02:32 AM
                    Please respond to
                    sca-cooks






Capt. Elias Gedney said:
>> Naw!  We will be practising our Viking Knotwork.
>> It's long, hard, twisted, could take all night
>> and everything will come together at the proper
>> moments.
>
> I do actually have some documentation for Early viking use of ropes and
> knots...
>>From the Oseberg find, I believe...
> I believe they could come in right handy for the purpose. if you are into
> that sort of thing.

I'm always looking for good articles for the Florilegium. Want to write
this research up?
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****


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