Here they come to snuff the rooster, oh yeah
Yeah, here come the rooster, yeah
You know he ain’t gonna die
No, no, no, you know he ain’t gonna die
(prepares self for deluge of “is that a cock on your face?” jokes.)
Don’t knock it. Roosters can be terrifying.
That is clearly parade armor, it is designed to look impressive to the village or city you just conquered.
Big Alice in Chains fan. This totally made my night.
Here’s your man:
Worth plenty of gold to stand around wearing it saying “Yeah, I’m feeling pretty cocky”.
Exasperated 16th century German knight - “No, really, it’s a cockatrice. I swear.”
Agrarian people understand how viciously mean and insanely persistent a rooster can be. Foxes go after the hens but leave the rooster alone for a good reason.
Or, more likely, on your way to the tourney.
Would be funnier if the relief was concave instead of convex. “That was Sir Shecky. Shecky was not the best knight but we kept him around because he’d do anything for a laugh. Why, you should have seen his helmet!”
where you would take it off and put on something much more functional and not covered with days and days of work in the filigree.
That’s a very beautiful and elaborate example of an armet, a type of highly fitted helmet. It was probably the pride and joy of one particular person, who would always wear it any time a helmet was called for. If you captured such a helmet it’d be unlikely to fit you, so you’d hang it on the wall for a trophy, or ransom it back to the owner.
Armets evolved into the simpler hounskull (also called a “pig face” or “dog face”) bascinet. Bascinets do not have the hinged and locking cheekplates or the extremely dished out back, so they can fit a wider range of head shapes.
Meanwhile, in Japan…
https://www.google.ca/search?q=mempo&client=firefox-a&hs=WYP&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=IfGUUojZFon8oATZ54KgBg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1914&bih=1090
I was about to post this identical pic. Run away! Run away!
Is that armet designed to be a challenge? If you laugh or even giggle while in presence of the Emperor you will be slain, now behold him in is horned nerd disguise!
Somehow none of the metal stuff is as creepy as what everybody was doing once war gasses hit the scene. Maybe it’s just an entire adolescence playing games filled with sinister gas-mask mooks; but those things are creepy.
