222 THE KING'S MIRROR 



type of shooting weapons, such as spears and javelins 

 both light and heavy. But to resist the trebuckets, 

 the cat, and the engine called the ram, it is well to 

 strengthen the entire stone wall on the inside with 

 large oaken timbers; though if earth and clay are plen- 

 tiful, these materials had better be used. Those who 

 have to defend castles are also in the habit of making 

 curtains of large oak boughs, three or even five deep, 

 to cover the entire wall; * and the curtain should be 

 thoroughly plastered with good sticky clay. To defeat 

 the attacks of the ram, men have sometimes filled large 

 bags with hay or straw and lowered them with light 

 iron chains in front of the ram where it sought to pierce 

 the wall. It sometimes happens that the shots fall so 

 rapidly upon a fortress that the defenders are unable 

 to remain at the battlements; it is then advisable to 

 hang out brattices made of light planks and built high 

 enough to reach two ells above the openings in the para- 

 pet and three ells below them. They should be wide 

 enough to enable the men to fight with any sort of 

 weapons between the parapet and the brattice wall, and 

 they should be hung from slender beams in such a way 

 that they may be readily drawn in and hung out again 

 later, as one may wish.f 



The " hedgehog " { will be found an effective device 



* These curtains were evidently placed on the outer side of the wall, 

 f This translation of hengirigskarft is based on Blom's interpretation (Aar- 

 bogerfor nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1867, 105-106, note). The brattices were pro- 

 jecting galleries built along the top of the wall and were in use before it be- 

 came customary to build stone parapets. Cf. Oman, Art of War, 534. 

 t The hedgehog (ericius) in common use was a form of the cheval defrise and 

 was laid on the earth to impede a hostile advance. -I know of no other men- 

 tion of the device (igulkottr) described above. 



