Author Spotlight: Michael S. Curl
In issue 9 of Medieval World: Culture & Conflict, Michael S. Curl published an exciting article about the principles and techniques of mounted lance combat. Since, he has written to share insights into his research interest - read below:
What sparks your interest in writing an article?
A mystery. Specifically a mysterious relationship between expectations and historical fact. Why is this relationship different than I had imagined? My favorite history book I’ve ever read is still Firearms: A Global History to 1700 by Kenneth Chase. It set out to answer a simple question: if the Chinese invented guns, why did the Europeans master them more fully by 1700? The obvious thing would be for the Chinese to invent gunpowder and then light the match on their path to global conquest, like you see in bad historical fictions, video games, etc. Instead we get this mystery.
My lance research started with the mystery of the couched lance. Why was it so seemingly prominent in a particular place and time, instead of others? After all, spears and horses are universals across large swaths of Afro-Eurasia for millennia. Then ,when I got into the manuals, I noticed this asymmetry in which side the horsemen were choosing, and I didn’t know why. Besides, I had just moved to the UK, so which side of the road you drive on was bothering me...
What medieval books do you recommend?
For lances, Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia by the late Noel Fallows and The Royal Book of Jousting, Horsemanship, and Knightly Combat by King Duarte of Portugal (though I would stay away from the 2005 translation). If you read just these two books you will get a good introduction to the concerns of medieval riders, with a focus on hunting and tournaments.
For my own pleasure, I love the The Medieval Traveller by Norbert Ohler. We modern historians move too far and too easily to appreciate the scope of the medieval world, when the Cathars were still a long way from Paris, and the Holy Land was not a cruise ship ride away.
What have you published to date?
No books published yet, but I have written some. For fiction, I have written soviet noire, historical fantasy, and my own pet project of writing the first ever good underwater fantasy series.
I first published aspects of my lance research in the Journal of the Royal Armouries. My other contributions to this magazine were in Volume 2, Issue 1 of Medieval Warfare, about the armor industry. I also published an online-only “Another world: the Aztecs” which was written in three parts, although only the first two parts have been published.
