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A Dictionary of Chivalry
This illustrated dictionary includes customs, events, items of clothing and armor, historical figures, and places of the Middle Ages.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 30, 2024
The book is clearly intended for a popular audience, rather than a scholarly one. (You can tell by the selection and modernization of the quotations and by the paltry citations.)
It's a bit dated in its assumptions, and I believe the vaire/verre theory to explain Cinderella's slipper is no longer widely accepted, but I really liked the book overall for the terminology, stories, and illustrations.
Especially loved reading about the heraldic symbols and conventions, including how to represent the various tinctures in hatching or in trick. Pauline Baynes's drawings are perfect for this.
It's a bit dated in its assumptions, and I believe the vaire/verre theory to explain Cinderella's slipper is no longer widely accepted, but I really liked the book overall for the terminology, stories, and illustrations.
Especially loved reading about the heraldic symbols and conventions, including how to represent the various tinctures in hatching or in trick. Pauline Baynes's drawings are perfect for this.
September 2, 2019
Edmund Dulac, Hieronymous Bosch and Pauline Baynes: this, in order of preference, are my all-time favorite 3 artists I’ve ever come across in life - with Syd Barrett and Van Gogh tying for a quick 4th (way inter alia).
She is amazing and spent two years on this book. I love her, I love her.
Tolkien is the one who discovered Baynes and helped her reach recognition as she deserved. Similarly Jim Morrison’s reference in an interview to a rather obscure musician then (Nick Drake) summitted him into the attention of many as he deserved of his own merit. Strange how these things work, such a Pentangle.
Pauline was a 5 with a 4 wing on the enneagram, I am sure of it. Such detail in all her works; and as Christ said of 5’s on the sermon on the mount (per Bennett): “Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see El/All.”
One fault she did have, however, as fives do, was she said that though she could work alone in a room with Tolkien she didn’t feel the same, comfortable, with C.S. Lewis (whom she illustrated all the Chronicles of Narnia for later). Such Balderdash! As if such a jubilant, self-initiate - such wise, kind, man - had “creepy, old, craven, protestant tendencies” or some such.
If Gail Ann Dorsey, David Bowie’s bassist, could work alone in a room with him without reticience for years - given the walking man-whore that Bowie openly was - why could not Baynes with Lewis for even but an hour? Sometimes people can be such inner Septuagenarians in a way.
Fives in their purity in one way can turn to being prurient in another - but they are such fine tuned telescopic microscopes feeling all emotional energies in the world in them in such a delicate balance one can’t blame them for being stand offish (however misguided they can accidentally be until they integrate to 8 up the octave).
So all praise to Baynes, I’m not saying she went on a witch hunt against Lewis or something after all, she still figured out how to work with him, she figured a way past it. But she was flat wrong about Lewis’s inner hearts’ transmissions.
In any case, she was a truly transcendent artist and that’s what counts. Yeah, all time fav 3 for her work given out to all we sailing down here to the northern 9’s.
She was the first to draw some of Tolkien’s characters, by the way. When she did he was said to murmer quietly:
“there they are, there they are.”
I give her art a 10 or an 11.
She is amazing and spent two years on this book. I love her, I love her.
Tolkien is the one who discovered Baynes and helped her reach recognition as she deserved. Similarly Jim Morrison’s reference in an interview to a rather obscure musician then (Nick Drake) summitted him into the attention of many as he deserved of his own merit. Strange how these things work, such a Pentangle.
Pauline was a 5 with a 4 wing on the enneagram, I am sure of it. Such detail in all her works; and as Christ said of 5’s on the sermon on the mount (per Bennett): “Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see El/All.”
One fault she did have, however, as fives do, was she said that though she could work alone in a room with Tolkien she didn’t feel the same, comfortable, with C.S. Lewis (whom she illustrated all the Chronicles of Narnia for later). Such Balderdash! As if such a jubilant, self-initiate - such wise, kind, man - had “creepy, old, craven, protestant tendencies” or some such.
If Gail Ann Dorsey, David Bowie’s bassist, could work alone in a room with him without reticience for years - given the walking man-whore that Bowie openly was - why could not Baynes with Lewis for even but an hour? Sometimes people can be such inner Septuagenarians in a way.
Fives in their purity in one way can turn to being prurient in another - but they are such fine tuned telescopic microscopes feeling all emotional energies in the world in them in such a delicate balance one can’t blame them for being stand offish (however misguided they can accidentally be until they integrate to 8 up the octave).
So all praise to Baynes, I’m not saying she went on a witch hunt against Lewis or something after all, she still figured out how to work with him, she figured a way past it. But she was flat wrong about Lewis’s inner hearts’ transmissions.
In any case, she was a truly transcendent artist and that’s what counts. Yeah, all time fav 3 for her work given out to all we sailing down here to the northern 9’s.
She was the first to draw some of Tolkien’s characters, by the way. When she did he was said to murmer quietly:
“there they are, there they are.”
I give her art a 10 or an 11.
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July 29, 2022Pretty standard dictionary of all things pertaining to chivalry in the European Medieval Period--arms, armor, heraldry, castles, and the like. Most noteworthy for being illustrated by the great Pauline Baynes, who was best known for her work on The Chronicles of Narnia and The Tolkien Reader. Her spare, mock-medieval pen-and-ink drawings have a sly charm that's just impossible to describe. How I'd love to tour a gallery of her work!
August 21, 2010
This one is a delight, and any medievalist should get a kick out of it. All sorts of interesting tidbits, historical facts, and a lot on legends, with the illustrations by Pauline Barnes. Going for absurd prices these days, but worth it to find.
June 28, 2023
This book is so hard to review and even to read, yet it is so essential and beautiful. I would recommend every parent have one of these in the house for the kids to grow up with. Every parent, that is, who values history and literature and wants their kids to grow up with more than just skill in Call of Duty. If you are trying to put the great books in your children's hands, then have this volume nearby, so that they can delve into the mysterious medieval world of chivalry. I can't imagine understanding the poets or understanding the legends without this great reference book in the background.
As a bonus, and this is why I actually bought it in the first place, it is probably Pauline Baynes’ masterpiece as an illustrator. Yes, the same one that drew the Chronicles of Narnia and Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles.
You can only get them used, but get a copy. I've probably bought 8 or 9 of them as gifts.
As a bonus, and this is why I actually bought it in the first place, it is probably Pauline Baynes’ masterpiece as an illustrator. Yes, the same one that drew the Chronicles of Narnia and Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles.
You can only get them used, but get a copy. I've probably bought 8 or 9 of them as gifts.
May 11, 2018
As a kid, I owned the full-size compilation of the Chronicles of Narnia, with the full color illustrations by Pauline Baynes. I turned every page feeling like Lucy with Coriakin's book, knowing that the bright pictures contained magic that reading would bring to life.
Dictionary of Chivalry brought back some of that same magic and wonder. Every page has an illustration by Pauline Baynes (some colored, some black and white), depicting knights and ladies and heraldry and horses and armor of all kinds. The entries are fascinating and the style is enjoyable. Definitely one I want for my library someday.
Dictionary of Chivalry brought back some of that same magic and wonder. Every page has an illustration by Pauline Baynes (some colored, some black and white), depicting knights and ladies and heraldry and horses and armor of all kinds. The entries are fascinating and the style is enjoyable. Definitely one I want for my library someday.
June 9, 2025
This book shaped me as a child. It is one of the most wonderful compilations of the ideal of the Middle Ages ever put to print. Pauline Baynes' illustrations bring life and wonder to every page. Get it for your child or yourself. It is nothing short of magical.
July 22, 2022
A book to treasure chiefly because of Pauline Baynes' illustrations. She is best known for illustrating Tolkien and C S Lewis.
November 14, 2015
I haven't really read this, but it is a reference book. I am giving a five-star rating mostly because Pauline Baynes illustrations are so beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews