Regular readers will be familiar with my fascination with Medieval manuscripts. I recently came across on Vintage News a detail I wasn’t aware of: that Medieval knights were often pictured fighting giant snails.
Take that, you dastardly snail! Image: British Library
Scrolls and manuscripts dating back to the 13th and 14th century often contain marginalia–broad margins and blank space that was filled with different notes and drawings (you can read more about them in my previous post, (Medieval-style Doodles, marginalia, and manicules). Funnily enough, gothic manuscripts abound with depictions of an epic snail versus knight standoff.
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.
So, Why Were Medieval Knights Pictured Fighting Giant Snails?
Photo: Brunetto Latini’s Li Livres dou Tresor, c 1315-1325 via British Library
So, what was the deal here? Historians have been unable to come to a unified answer.
The first serious contemporary study of this odd phenomenon was written in the 1960s by Lillian Randall. In her book The Snail in Gothic Marginal Warfare, she presented one hypothesis to explain the reasoning behind these drawings: perhaps the joke is that snails, what with the shells they carry on their backs and can hide away in, are some sort of parody of a highly-armored chivalric foe. We’re supposed to laugh at the idea of a knight being afraid of attacking such a ‘heavily armored’ opponent. Silly knight, it’s just a snail!
Lillian Randall proposed a further explanation that could account for the fact that snails so often antagonized the knights. She proposed that the snail was a symbol of the Lombards, a group vilified in the early middle ages for treasonous behavior, the sin of usury, and ‘non-chivalrous comportment in general.’ However, she could not explain why the knight was always supposed to lose the battle.
The Queen Mary Psalter, c 1310-1320 Photo by British Library
However, not everyone would agree. As early as 1850, Comte de Bastard presented his idea that the depictions could serve as a metaphor of Resurrection. The reason behind this interpretation was that in two manuscripts the drawing was in the vicinity of the miniature depicting the raising of Lazarus.
A further explanation put forward by some scholars sees the pictures as a representation of class struggles. It could be that the snail represents the poor classes while the knight stands for aristocracy. The hopeful creators found a way to grant the victory to the poor, even when it is only on the piece of paper.
Furthermore, snails could be the embodiment of social climbers, slowly but surely winning their place among the higher ranks in society. Or they could be a metaphor for women. Lastly, maybe they are just a straightforward representation of snails as annoying garden pests that are hard to get rid of.
Enter the Internet
Photo by British Library
Where historians have failed, the Internet has stepped in with some explanations ranging from the fanciful to the hilarious. Here is a selection of my favorite ones from the Vintage News’ Facebook page:
- The snails represent time. The passage of inevitability is the foe every individual, no matter how strong, faces.
- The snail’s shell is one of the creatures which exhibit the phenomenon of Phi, thus representing nature and God. Those rebelling against them are doomed to fail.
- Earth was invaded by giant alien snails, and those pictures are the only surviving record of it.
- Snails represent sloth, one of the 7 deadly sins.
- No meaning at all. Just middle age doodling.
- It’s allegorical: the knights fought boredom daily: no Internet, no TV, it was the old, olden times.
- Because snails are even deadlier than killer rabbits.
- It’s evidence of the ancient and deep-rooted war against the Old Ones. How does one draw that which defies description? With the closest real-world comparisons. Slugs, snails, snakes, dragons, Kraken, animal-headed men, etc.
- And my favorite: the knights were slugging it out!
So, what’s your favorite explanation? Or, even better: do you have one of your own to offer?
[tweetthis]What Did Knights Have Against Snails?[/tweetthis]
Nicholas C. Rossis 
This is the first I have heard of giant snails fighting medieval knights. I am sure it had a proper meaning and they did represent some evil. The idea it might be the commoners is interesting.
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Whaaaat? You weren’t convinced that snails represent the Old Ones? 😀
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I was wondering about the Sloth thing. Could have been artists saying the nobility were becoming lazier in their diries to the people. Using a snail come mean it was slowly happening over time.
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I find it sad that no one subscribes to the Old One” interpretation :b
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I thought those were more octopus and squid-like.
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Meh, what did those Medieval scribes know? Snails might be the closest thing to an octopus they’d ever seen.
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I don’t know. For some reason, I don’t think the Old Ones would be this tricky or subtle. They always come off as fairly blunt to me with their insanity and massive sizes.
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Hey, that’s… erm… size-ism?
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The Old Ones would understand.
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Interesting… in Asia it is always a fierce and powerful dragon. A snail is known to be slow, slimy and can hide in it’s shell. So, maybe the idea here is that while the snail might “appear” to be a “nobody,” it is the snail that must be feared the most in the end. Slow and steady wins the race, right.
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Ooh, I like that. Sort of a variation on the Tortoise vs Hare fable!
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How interesting…I had not known this about. I like the idea of the snails representing time and that which we cannot control, but try to.
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Why doesn’t anyone like the idea of the snails representing the Old Ones… or aliens? 😀
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I might be able to be convinced about the alien theory 😉
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Incredible information, thank you! I think that the allegory of God, Time & Universe is the right thing. And there should be something more substantal. A good post to ponder on.
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Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I like the fact that we all can choose our own interpretation 🙂
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🙂 Indeed! And the funniest thing is that both chevaliers & snails used to have their own concept as well 🙂
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This a new one on me! Snails seemed so random when I read the title, but some of the explanations makes sense. My particular favourite is that they represent time…
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Yeah… I’m a bit disappointed by the lack of interest in the Old Ones or aliens theories :b
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Much like 60’s psychedelic art, I think the artists were just drunk or high. Or really, really bored. Or, they thought, “This will drive people crazy in 800 years!”
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Lol–my favorite kind of artists 😀
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It seems like there is an ancient story about the Loch Ness monster. They called him a worm, and he left a slime trail across the ground when he came ashore. Maybe there really were giant snail that needed slaying.
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That makes more sense than the alien snail invaders, I guess 😀
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Sloth was going to be my guess. But I think there’s likely some symbolism there that was never written. Recently I saw a great analysis on Twitter, of all places, about symbolism in still life paintings. Supposedly these painters were not supposed to create openly religious work, and resorted to symbolism instead.
Maybe the snails are something like that?
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I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that was the case. Indeed, several of the proposed interpretations are in a similar vein.
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