{"id":470,"date":"2017-11-19T10:11:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T10:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/?p=470"},"modified":"2019-04-29T15:06:38","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T14:06:38","slug":"fantasy-castles-real-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/19\/fantasy-castles-real-fighters\/","title":{"rendered":"Are fantasy castles real fighters?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was written by David C. Weinczok<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For many people not fortunate enough to grow up with a castle in their proverbial backyard (like me), books, video games, films and television shows are the first places they will encounter castles. Such images often stay with people for life and inform their view of what the medieval world would have looked like. I see this as an asset for historians and heritage professionals rather than a hindrance \u2013 sure, pop culture doesn\u2019t have a great track record with getting the historical details right, but if it sparks an interest in castles where one might never have arisen that, to me, can only be a good thing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m using the world of fantasy and fictional castles as way to discuss the real deal in a talk for Previously\u2026Scotland\u2019s History Festival<\/em> on Nov.19th<\/sup> in Edinburgh. My aim is to put the defences of famous fictional castles to the test \u2013 would, for instance, Mickey be able to withstand a siege if he holed up in the Disney castle? Do the fortresses of Game of Thrones<\/em> actually make sense or are they all show? How hard would it be to rescue a princess from the Super Mario castles?<\/p>\n

To find out, I\u2019m applying several criteria to each that can just as easily be used to assess the battle-readiness of real castles. For instance, are their turrets, crenels and wall-walks actually capable of bolstering their defence, or are they in fact just for aesthetic flair? Is their architecture specifically tailored to the demands of their environments? Are there multiple layers of defence, or do all hopes rest on a single strongpoint?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take Game of Thrones<\/em>\u2019 Winterfell as an example. I hate to challenge the might of a castle that has famously been untaken for \u2018thousands of years\u2019, but for that to be the case they can\u2019t have had a single decent winter in millennia. Take a look at many of the tower roofs in the image below. Notice anything peculiar about their design?<\/p>\n

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Image \u00a9HBO.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s right \u2013 a castle specifically designed to resists winter employs flat roofs on many of its towers. Why is this a problem? Because those roofs need to bear weight, and accumulated snow is immensely heavy. So, unless the towers are upheld by some ancient magic, their roofs will come crashing down with the first heavy snowfall. Perhaps the name \u2018Winterfell\u2019 is actually an architect\u2019s very reasonable warning about the weather!<\/p>\n

The first castles I probably saw outside of Alan Lee\u2019s illustrated version of The Lord of the Rings<\/em> were the castles in the original Super Mario. Now, I know they weren\u2019t designed to be overly scrutinised by nitpickers like me and the graphical limitations of early 1990s video games meant simplicity was key. But let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image \u00a9Nintendo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Credit where credit is due for having functional wall walks with crenellations and merlons that are actually high enough to fully shelter an archer. But we really need to talk about those windows. As a general rule of thumb, more windows means less defensive capability, and the larger the window the further that defence is compromised. The windows on Super Mario\u2019s castles are clearly exaggerated, but it\u2019s not hard to find real-life parallels. Take one of Scotland\u2019s most famous castles, Kilchurn on the banks of Loch Awe.<\/p>\n

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Image \u00a9David C. Weinczok<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Often thought of by visitors as an impregnable fortress, its western face leaves much to be desired. Kilchurn was never, in fact, a true fighting fortress but more of a domestic seat with castellated features. No stronghold hoping to stand against a determined foe would dare give them so many openings through which to fire and breach.<\/p>\n

These are just a few examples of what I\u2019ll be discussing, and there will be some surprising winners as well as losers out of it. It is my hope that talks like this will get people who have already been exposed to castles through pop culture to think more critically about them, all while having a bit of fun.<\/p>\n

David is a writer, presenter, and castle hunter, and you can find more from him on Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, and his website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by David C. Weinczok. For many people not fortunate enough to grow up with a castle in their proverbial backyard (like me), books, video games, films and television shows are the first places they will encounter castles. Such images often stay with people for life and inform their view of what … Continue reading Are fantasy castles real fighters?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[87,37,7],"tags":[135,83,85,84],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":742,"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions\/742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}