Back-Carry Before Conan
Or, BCBC.
For a long time I thought “Conan The Barbarian” (1982) was the first pop-culture appearance of BC.
NB, regardless of improbable contraptions made to “prove” things, no sword carried across the back in this movie is ever drawn from that position; in fact there’s a 3-second sequence devoted entirely to showing Conan getting his sword off his back and securing it at his waist before drawing it.
See it here, starting at 2:40.
In the next section of this scene, Valeria presumably does the same thing; at 0:27 her sword’s across her back, then there’s a brief cutaway to Subotai, and when we’re back with Valeria at 0:30 she’s got the sword at her waist and is drawing it from there.
Incidentally, though there’s often a brief scraping sound as swords leave scabbards, I can’t recall any examples of the infamous exaggerated “schinngg” noise, so I guess that cliché must have developed later.
*****
Then a few days ago, while tidying bookshelves, I found my long-lost copy of Thackeray’s mock-heroic Fireside Pantomine “The Rose and the Ring” (1854). Mine is the 1967 edition, evidently acquired from somewhere at a bargain price...
...and features Thackeray's own illustrations, including this one:
This is definitely back-CARRY, because an over-the-shoulder DRAW is neither intended nor possible. Here’s why...
Notice there’s no scabbard. However, there’s presumably a matching loop or point-cover for the other end, so I can visualise making it work like this:
Grab the sword left-handed and pull the whole arrangement, strap and all, forward and round until the hilt reaches your right hand. Now support the weight of the sword to let the strap go slack, and slide the hilt-loop backwards and off. Without it, there’s no tension to hold the other loop or point-cover in place and it will fall away, leaving the sword ready for business.
I’m pretty sure Thackeray didn’t think through his illustration in that much detail, so it may (?) have been based on contemporary rifle drill; the Crimean War was under way while he was writing, so he’d probably seen troops on parade.
*****
"The Rose and the Ring” is a Satirical Romantick (don’t forget the ’k’) Phantasy, set in a period best described as “Sometime Back Then”, and the periods represented by costumes in the illustrations are... Variable.
King Padella - sorry, that should be KING PADELLA - is wearing armour from 1160-ish. However, Prince Giglio, mentioned at the bottom of the page, looks a bit different.
Here he is, looking like he’s in the American Civil War (1860-ish - which is a good trick since the book was written and illustrated several years before it)...
...while the guards look like soldiers from the Seven Years War (1760-ish) and the prisoner looks like who knows what...
However, here’s Giglio again, in Theatrical Romantick Costume of no particular date...
...and again, now looking vaguely like Charles I as painted by Van Dyke (1640-ish)...
...and finally something which leaves me at a loss about what period it represents. Maybe “When Knights Were Bowled”, if that cannon-ball means anything...
“The Rose and the Ring” is a silly, and yet (in the right mood) entertaining story, and is also a demonstration of how to make Purple Prose earn its keep, since several characters speak not unlike Minette and the other affronted-Victorian-children cats who occasionally appear on Tumblr.
Whether this is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing depends on the reader...
There are several on-line versions: Internet Archive has a well-illustrated one here.
*****
And I still wonder what he’d seen or read to make him draw the carry-strap on that sword the way he did...
