The Medieval world was under siege by a swarm of giant snails, and the brave knights were the only thing standing in the monsters’ way.
Or at least, that is what medieval manuscripts want you to believe.
Margins and initials of medieval manuscripts often hold depictions of knights fighting against snails. And snails appeared to be formidable opponents indeed. They were giant, they were slippery, and some could even fly. These were no idle doodles indeed: medieval manuscripts were expensive and time-consuming to make, and the art of murderous snails is very detailed indeed. Nor were the snails the only monsters: murderous rabbits also made a frequent appearance. But in the period from 1290 until 1325, snails were a very popular subject matter. Art historian Lilian Randall counted 70 examples in 29 different books.
Images of knights fighting snails first started to emerge in the Northern French illustrated manuscripts around 1290. A few years later they spread to Flemish and English literature. These fighting snails would spill over outside the manuscripts, in some cases being found even carved into walls of cathedrals. Decorative panels on the main entrance of the Lyon Cathedral, inscribed around 1310, show a knight confronting a snail and another man threatening a dog-headed giant snail with an axe. Illustrations would gradually disappear in the early 14th century before briefly reappearing in the 15th century.
Such illustrations are widely varied. A knight could be mounted, or not. Snails appeared tiny or enormous. Sometimes a snail is next to the knight, other times it is on the opposite side of the page. But knight is usually depicted as apprehensive of his tiny foe.
So why were they there? The answer is easy: humor. While historians tend to seek deep philosophical reasons for why people do things, in most cases answers tend to be rather simple. Just as with today’s humor, overturning the expected events, outcomes and hierarchies is unexpected and funny. Knights were the supreme warriors of their day – despite the occasional popular mythology (Agincourt!), there wasn’t much that could defeat them except for other knights. So having a knight cower in front of a snail is inherently funny.
And snails were an excellent choice. On the one hand, they were small, slow, and seemingly non-threatening.
But in the Middle Ages, snails were also recognized for their unusual strength – being able to carry their home at their backs. And a shell made them heavily armored knights of the small animal world. Lisa Spanhberg however says that “the armored snail fighting the armored knight is a reminder of the inevitability of death,” a sentiment captured in Psalm 58 of the Bible: “Like a snail that melteth away into slime, they shall be taken away; like a dead-born child, they shall not see the sun.” Lilian Randall connected the snails to historical stereotypes: specifically, the view of Lombards as mean, greedy, and cowardly due to their money-lending practices.
These are good explanations and would certainly explain the ubiquity of the snail motif – especially since snails fighting knights is far from the only aspect of snails’ appearance in medieval manuscripts. Well, it’s a good explanation for why snails were chosen. As for why transcribers added crazy illustrations to manuscripts in general, the answer is simple: boredom. Transcribing one text over and over again can get boring quickly, and having some fun with illustrations was a clever way of alleviating that issue.
Memory of terrifying snails was preserved in a nursery rhyme,
“Four and Twenty Sailors Went to
Kill a Snail”:
Four-and-twenty tailors went to kill a snail;
The best man among them durst not touch her tail.
She put out her horns like a little Kyloe cow.
Run, tailors, run, or she’ll kill you all e’en now.”
Sources
https://www.digitalmedievalist.com/2013/09/29/knight-vs-snail/
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/09/knight-v-snail.html
https://justhistoryposts.com/2017/11/13/medieval-marginalia-why-are-there-so-many-snails-in-
medieval-manuscripts/
https://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/2023-06-13-why-medieval-manuscripts-are-full-of-doodles-of-
snail-fights
https://www.ancient-origins.net/weird-facts/snails-0017080
https://www.openculture.com/2019/05/why-knights-fought-snails-in-illuminated-medieval-
manuscripts.html
About Author
Toni Šušnjar is an amateur historian and fantasy enthusiast with an interest in ancient and medieval history as well as Medieval and High Fantasy, especially warfare. He also writes the War Fantasy blog.
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