No span of man's history is more celebrated in song and legend than those years when battlefields rang with the clash of armor and ax, and knighthood flourished.
Here is a detailed and exciting picture of the knight and the world he knew: his education and training; the complex code he followed; his armor, weapons, and horses. Included, too, are the stories he heard, the enterprises that interested him, and the activities of his leisure hours. All of this information appears in the form of more than a thousand entries (many of which are extracts from literature and early chronicles).
The sharply drawn, intricate illustrations were prepared by Pauline Baynes. Miss Baynes's extensive research has produced accurate and colorful replicas of the dress and accoutrements of the times. These pictures lie side by side with Grant Uden's smoothly written, frequently humorous text. Together, they form a unique contribution to the ever-popular study of the Age of Chivalry.
—from the Thomas Y. Crowell dust jacket
The making of this Dictionary arose from the author's wish to give, in an accurate yet exciting work of reference, a picture of the Knight and the things that occupied his life and thought—his education and training; his armour, weapons and equipment; his horses and their accoutrements; the stories he heard and read; the captains he followed and the men he led; the complex code he was sworn to; the enterprises in which he was engaged; and the cathedrals, abbeys and churches where memorials of chivalry survive.
The book does not seek to hide the dirt, cruelty and intolerance behind the elaborate courtesies, the pageantry and the heroism. But the author believes, with the German philosopher, that 'the ideals cherished in the hearts of men enter into the character of their actions', and that, though the aspirations of chivalry were often dishonoured, the world would have been a poorer place without them.
There are well over 1,000 entries (with plentiful cross-references), ranging from short definitions to several paragraphs, and there are many extracts from literature and early chronicles. There is also a brief classified index at the end.
The illustrations in full colour and in black-and-white were drawn by Pauline Baynes page by page, to keep text and pictures side by side. This remarkable illustrator has captured all the changing moods of the entries, in splendid pictures ranging from gay interpretations of the fancies of mediaeval storytellers to accurate and detailed drawings of amour, weapons, etc., from contemporary sources.
—from the Longmans, Green & Co. dust jacket
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