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Teutonic great helm...now with wings?
Sir Douglas:
Cool links, Sir Edward. Thanks! How did I ever miss that one of Tannhauser? Especially since it's right there on the Teutonic Knights' Wikipedia page...staring me right in the face...shouting "Hey stupid, over here!" ;D
So it looks like that particular style of wings was a heraldic crest unique to an individual knight, and not a helmet decoration that's part of the standard Teutonic kit as it would seem in M2TW. Obviously it's just a game and not a historical simulation (that's why I like to check into these things before I accept them as true).
Also, a couple of the Manesse images suggest that some of these crests may have been worn in actual combat and not just for tournaments and the like. I'm not terribly knowledgeable on crests; I'll have to read into it some more. Perhaps Sir Nathan will have some more information, too.
Sir William:
Sir Nathan is our resident guru on things Teutonic; if anyone will know, it'll be him.
SirNathanQ:
Teutonic Knights you say? Well yes, the crazy crested helms existed. I sport one myself. You see, while crests do make wonderful levers in the heat of battle, many were mounted to easily come off without any serious harm to the wearer. They serve a very practical purpose of identifying leaders in battle, where a surcoat might be obscured by bodies in the fray, a crest would rise above the line of heads, so that the soldiers would know their leader lived.
Among the Teutonic Knights, only leaders would be granted permission to wear one (I myself portray the Grosskomptur, the 2nd highest office within the Order in the Beauseant Brotherhood, and for Living History, I portray a Komptur, a district leader) and since they sacrificed personal heraldry to enter the Order, often the crest would take a strange shape, like wings, a fist, a wolf's head, horns, ect.
Hope that helps. :)
B. Patricius:
and here I was hoping Sir Nathan started this thread to show off a new crest!
the crests, and how they developed is a very interesting discussion in heraldry and archaeology as a whole. There aren't too many left of extant examples for us to admire. One really good example is "The Black Prince" Prince Edward. Here is an image from the Cantebury Cathedral taken from google:
it's something that indeed came about to help in the fog of war and to help identify leaders. It's very much the same as the flags sashimono used in feudal Japan:
to me, it's one of those amazing instances where the historical context actually is there for something most people think is made up. ;)
Sir Ulrich:
They did historically exist, I also know where you could buy them but they're located in Europe:
http://www.armorymarek.com/helmets-12th--13th-century
I would of gotten one, but I want my helmet to be a bit more versatile so I went with the dargen great helm, which is iconically German/Crusader. I could add a crest if I wanted but I dont think I will at the moment. Needless to say they do look quite intimidating and badass I really like the ones with the fists and hands on top, they're rather imposing looking which is rather cool.
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