Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

fearn · 18th September 2010, 06:39 PM

Thanks Jim for that great summary.

Admittedly, I got to it from rereading Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky:

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

The interesting things here are that: a) no one (including Lewis Carroll) knows what vorpal really means, b) the vorpal sword normally portrayed as some knightly great sword, but c) there's general agreement that Carroll was thinking of a snickersnee when he wrote snicker-snack. (Wikipedia link).

I know that Jabberwocky is a non-sense poem, but I keep wondering if there was yet another hidden joke in there, if Carroll was thinking of a kitchen knife when John Tenniel (and everyone after him) drew the vorpal sword as some sort of dragon-beheading heroic weapon. Lewis Carroll did like jokes like that.

Best,

F

18th September 2010, 06:39 PM	#3
fearn Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,247	Thanks Jim for that great summary. Admittedly, I got to it from rereading Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky: One, two! One, two! and through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. The interesting things here are that: a) no one (including Lewis Carroll) knows what vorpal really means, b) the vorpal sword normally portrayed as some knightly great sword, but c) there's general agreement that Carroll was thinking of a snickersnee when he wrote snicker-snack. (Wikipedia link). I know that Jabberwocky is a non-sense poem, but I keep wondering if there was yet another hidden joke in there, if Carroll was thinking of a kitchen knife when John Tenniel (and everyone after him) drew the vorpal sword as some sort of dragon-beheading heroic weapon. Lewis Carroll did like jokes like that. Best, F Last edited by fearn; 18th September 2010 at 09:58 PM.