Sunday, the day after my return from Denmark, I went once again on an Emory trip, this time to Bodiam Castle and Down House (the home of Charles Darwin). Both were great, although Bodiam Castle stole the show. It was built in the late 14th century by a rather punchy knight who earned his nobility and wealth by pillaging and successful combat against the French. It’s really almost the stereotypical image most people seem to have of a military castle, complete with moat. We had a tour guide who lived and breathed love of this castle. He showed us around dressed in period armor, and showed us how each element of the castle was carefully designed with defense in mind.

Apparently many people have written that the castle was simply for show, that the military designs aren’t right. However, he refuted this points to us rather convincingly. For example, they say that the gun openings don’t point directly at the drawbridge, therefore wouldn’t work. But, guns when it was built had an extreme spray effect, and therefore weren’t meant to be aimed straight on anyways, and would have worked.

The murder holes were also evidence of this. They were undecorated, and were very high up to prevent spear and crossbow shot at the defenders. This would indicate that there was a practical intent to the design. Through these, though, they wouldn’t pour boiling water or oil or anything like that, because with wooden floors you wouldn’t want to have fires. Instead, they would dump quicklime through onto the attackers.

Apparently in Wales there was an example of a similar castle holding out for months with only 40 men against about 3,000. You didn’t need many inside a castle if it was properly designed, and the men knew what they were doing. At the end of the tour we got instruction on the purposes and evolution of weaponry and armor at the time, and then best of all we got to try them on and mess around with them. The longbow impressed me quite a bit. It’s as tall as I am, at about 6 feet, and could fire with power at a distance of about 300 meters.

On one campaign in France, an army of the English brought with them 2 million arrows, when an arrowhead would take about an hour to make.

Okay, sorry for the delay. I’ve been awfully busy.

On Friday I went up to Helsingor which is north up the coast from Copenhagen, and is right across a narrow channel from Sweden. I went to see Kronborg, a castle from the 16th century which controlled the sound, and was supposedly the setting/inspiration for the location of Hamlet. It was really beautiful, the highlight being an absolutely cavernous ballroom. I really felt tiny in it, and I was the only one in the room for a bit until two German children decided to race down its length. Lots and lots of tapestries, I kept guessing which one was Polonius’ fatal hiding place. It’s right on the water as well, so that was nice.

Upon my return, I walked around the city a bit, and then made my way back to the hostel. There I was befriended by an English girl who works in Germany and was in Copenhagen for a job interview. We went out to a pub that was supposed to be 1916 decor, no music to promote conversation, and Carlsbergs that they pour over 12 minutes to get them just right. It was very cool, and we also made our way to a nearby rowdy Czech bar. It was raining, and really, really cold.

The next morning we managed to make it over to the Little Mermaid, which was underwhelming, but also right next to a very cool pentagon-like-groundworks fort. It had an old windmill and a good view. There was also an enormous and magnificent church, I believe called Malmokirken, but sadly I didn’t have my camera with me. It had a golden dome, and columns in the front, and the inside was a perfect circle. We also saw the Danish Museum of WW2, which really had some spectacular stuff, and was very moving. The stories of Danish resistance fighters who were killed, mostly under the age of 25, and last letters home before executions…Hard to describe.

The entire aforementioned area really reminded me a lot of Paris, in terms of building style and beauty.

Turns out my hostel does have internet access. I’ll try to be as concise as possible. I would wait till I got back to London and write a really detailed account, but I don’t want to forget anything.

I got in Wednesday late afternoon. It was quite an ordeal to get to Stansted Airport, I just barely got in before the gate closed. I was helped to get to the hostel by a kindly bus driver. He couldn’t understand my pronunciation of the stop I was trying to get out at, so I had to point to it written down. Østerd Vej, is how it is written. I said ”uhster vej”…Got the first part right. Apparently it’s pronounced ”uhstervai”.

As the sun sets rapidly here, and it’s very cold even when the sun is out, I decided to take a walk and call it a night early. I walked around the lakes, enjoyed seeing the swans, ducks, and uniquely Scandinavian architecture.

I got dinner at a Caribbean restaurant. I know, strange, but I was curious to see their take on it. The food was good, and I ordered a Hoegaarden. I got the ‘big’ one. I couldn’t fit my hand around the glass, it was enormous. I was kept company by two friendly Danish women in their late 40s. I then walked back and enjoyed conversation with the hostel staff (this place was recommended largely for their friendly staff). On shift in the evening is a long-term young couple. A Danish girl, and an Irish guy. We talked about the language, and I read my book. They play music I like here.

Today I got up early and walked over what feels like the whole city. The first stop was the Glyptotek. It’s a small but beautiful museum. The first room is a winter garden indoors. Absolutely stunning. Then there are vast collections of Danish paintings, classical Greek & Roman sculpture, and Egyptian stuff dating back to 2000+ BC. Very cool. There was one room downstairs with numerous sarcophagi and several mummies. I was alone in the room at the time, rather creepy.

Next I walked over to the Christenborg Palace. This I need to explain in more detail, but I went underneath it to the ruins of the old castles that had been on the spot, the first built in the 12th century. I took as many photos as I could.

Then it was over to the Rundetaarn – Round Tower. This used to be the tallest building in the city and is attached to a beautiful church. The way to the top is really easy, as it is all spiraling, gently sloping ramps! It was also used as an observatory, and there’s a sculpture of Tycho Brahe in the front. The view at the top is great.

I walked over to Fredericksberg next, and as I got into the park my camera battery died. I’m going to have to go back and take some pictures on Saturday. I stopped in at a Danish shopping mall, and I spent a lot of time in another park this afternoon as well. I’m very sore, but feeling very accomplished.

Tomorrow I’m going to try to head up to Helsingbørn and see the castle where Hamlet is set. Maybe even jump over to Sweden while I’m up there.

Annalisa – would you care for some Viking Jewelry? Dad, a Danish newspaper? Let me know.

I gave a presentation today in my discussion group which took a Point-Counterpoint format. I was arguing against the statement that “We can reconstruct Early Roman History from archaeological and literary evidence.” I took the approach of trying to point out the limitations of the sources, rather than attempting to disprove it entirely.

Most of the problems stem from a few points. One being the issue of Survival of Evidence. Most archaeological evidence that survives from before 500B.C. (or even from later) does so because it was intended to. Funerary and votive objects were intentionally put into the ground, whereas habitation cites preserve virtually nothing. As such Archaeology can give us insights such as populations, and urbanization, it cannot as of now give us too much insight into social structure, political institutions, etc.

Further, written histories by Romans concerning themselves didn’t really arise until nearly 200 B.C. While it may all sound old, when you think about it, that means the foundation myths of Rome weren’t recorded by a Roman until 550+ years after they were supposed to happen! How much would you trust a historian to write about 1450 based on word of mouth only?

However, the general outline seems to be acceptable (although we must accept that mythology got bound up in there somewhere) and also remember that whether or not the histories are “factually true,” it may be more important to keep track of what the Romans believed about themselves.

In light of my points about the limitations of what we can conclude from the evidence, the conversation turned to the ethics of making conjecture and “common sense” (a loaded term) based arguments regarding archaic history. We did not come to any definite conclusions, as there is the difficulty of “Do we write conjecture or do we conclude nothing?”

I was told my presentation was excellent, a comfort when thinking I am an ambassador of sorts.

This was actually the most interest part of the Greek Alphabet/Literacy discussion, and I can’t believe I left it out. As such a small proportion of the populace was literate, it made literacy rather prestigious. As a result, there were many instances of graffiti (writing/carvings on pottery) where there is lettering that doesn’t form words, in order to make the object seem like a bigger deal. For example, in Greek Letters, it would just say, “sdkjpoi plokajsdf dlfkjasdf.” A literate person would know this is just gibberish, but most wouldn’t – a sort of, cubic zirconium of intellect.

Today it took an hour and a half to get back from campus to my dorm. This was a result of me waiting for the 29 Bus. The walk is only about half an hour maximum, but I was listening to music, and not feeling up for walking that far tonight. This was combined with – on the way there – the 29 Bus I was on spontaneously informing us that the third stop had become the last stop, and everybody had to get off without warning. They give you no heads up whatsoever, and when you’re paying 90p for a ride, it’s obnoxious to have to switch buses, and pay all over again to get to the same place. Oh, London. You’re run so badly.

My discussion section for yesterday’s Mediterranean 800-500BC focused on the inception of the Greek alphabet, and the impact of literacy in the culture. The answer was that most of the material on the subject was academic bickering that pretty much went nowhere. The most common consensus seems to be that the language was adapted from Phoenicia through a proxy of Cyprus, around 750BC. Even up until 200BC literacy would peak in Athens at around 20-30 percent.

Further, in a discussion with the Teacher’s Assistant regarding my upcoming presentation I mentioned Rome’s anti-elephant incendiary pigs. He responded that the most amusing thing he had seen in military history was the WWII headline, “Eighth Army Push Bottles Up German Rear.”

I’m in the middle of preparing for a paper on Brutus in Julius Caesar, wherein I plan to talk about how his character matches up to Roman Republican Ideals. In these preparations I have found – once again in Robin Lane Fox’s excellent survey history – that in the First Punic War the Romans lit pigs on fire and sent them amongst enemy elephants in order to panic them.

Another point of interest, between 91-89 BC, Rome’s Italian allies revolted and declared themselves “Italy” with their own Senate. They had their own coinage. On the coins? A sexually aroused bull goring a Roman she-wolf. How charming.