Stop laughing. I know the idea of snails attacking anything is kind of funny. But would you believe that medieval manuscripts and genealogies regularly depict snails in combat? Did snails used to be gigantic fighting machines? CryptoVille investigates!

I have to say this topic captivated me because of its absurdity. Then I wondered how big did snails ever get?

Let’s begin at the beginning. It seems that in medieval literature – you know the kind with huge margins normally beautifully painted with all sorts of images – scenes of knights in armor fighting snails of various sizes is quite common!

In fact, they are so common that noted medievalist (and former curator at the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore MD), Lilian M.C. Randall wrote a book titled, Snails in Gothic Marginal Warfare.

Here are some pictures of the fighting snails:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a website called Got Medieval run by Carl S. Pyrdum III that references this artistic phenomenon; however it hasn’t been updated since 2012.

Regardless, he is quoted in an article by Alexandra Dantzer for The Vintage News in February 2019 as saying, “You get these all the time in the margins of gothic manuscripts. And I do mean all the time. They’re everywhere! Sometimes the knight is mounted, sometimes not. Sometimes the snail is monstrous, sometimes tiny. Sometimes the snail is all the way across the page, sometimes right under the knight’s foot. Usually, the knight is drawn so that he looks worried, stunned, or shocked by his tiny foe.”

Historians as well as your CryptoVille curator are wondering what the heck is going on with the snails?

Fact Check

In real life, the largest snail known to science is still alive and is known as Achatina achatina. Common names are the Giant African snail, Giant Ghana snail, Giant Tiger Land Snail. As you can guess it lives in Africa, in the northern area of West Africa. It grows a shell that can reach 8 inches long (20 cm) while its body can reach up to 15.5. inches (39 cm) long! Clearly not something I’d want crawling around in my garden, although the tortoise shell-like pattern on the shell is beautiful.

Pyrdum further suggests that the snails may represent a parody of knights, who also have vulnerable bodies stuffed inside protective armor, much like a snail.

Enter the Lombards

Ms. Randall’s research caused her to follow a different tac around the manuscript margins. She thought the snail represented the Lombards and the ultimate class struggle that they were forced to wage.

The Lombards (a Germanic group of people who originated somewhere in Scandinavia) invaded Italy and set-up their own kingdom in the late 6^th century.  Charlemagne eventually attacked and defeated them in 774 AD and their lives changed dramatically ever after.

Everyone else viewed the Lombards as greedy, mean, and cowardly people. They became pawnbrokers and usurers (lenders) and caused a lot of grief for people, including the knights. The Lombards were unable to own arms, but yet they remained powerful in the financial sense.

This dichotomy caused people of the time to view them as powerful, but also impotent due to their inability to legally own weapons. So calling someone a snail at this time was derogatory.

Power of Images

Time marched on and we get to 1290-1310 AD. This is when the image of snails fighting knights entered the manuscripts of this period. There are 70 images of snails fighting knights in 29 manuscripts. Historians and medievalists wondered what they meant to the people of that era.

Ms. Randall thought they surely represented the Lombards who took advantage of other people.

At that point in history, the snail may have become a cliché and meant different things to different people.  Some people have suggested these possibilities:

 

1. Snails representing the insulation of the ruling class
2. Snails as social climbers.
3. Snails as a metaphor for women.
4. Snails representing the slowness of time.
5. Snails as a metaphor of the Resurrection (courtesy of Comte de Bastard, 1850)

The tricky thing about analyzing these images is that they didn’t come with any explanation, they are just secondary to the text within the book. Historians liken them to today’s memes. Can you imagine what historians will think of all the silly memes we see daily on Facebook and other places, which we all understand? But they won’t have a clue.

Killer Snails

I’m relieved to confirm that there are no, nor ever were, killer snails roaming the Earth. But their story within the aged pages of Medieval manuscripts and genealogies is still very interesting because it doesn’t just tell us the story of the people at the time, it also tells us our story, what it means to be a human expressing themselves as best they can whether it be in a meme, or a cartoon, or something else.

If you’d like to read more about Medieval manuscript margin-art, try and find Lilian Randall’s book (Snails in Gothic Marginal Warfare) or see Art in the Margins by Michael Camille.

Here are a couple other unusual images I found during my research. Seriously, they have to get on EVERYthing we work on! 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please also stop by our Facebook page, CryptoVille, where we share all manner of strange, beautiful, and sometimes silly things related to all things cryptid! Please Like our page while you’re there.

References

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/02/21/fighting-snails/

https://www.britannica.com/animal/gastropod#ref413026

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achatina_achatina

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Lombards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ISOK-XtvYs  by Vox Almanac