Why knights fought snails in medieval art

[@sammylong3704]

The answer is simple, in medieval times giant snails were a real menace but thankfully the brave Knights of Europe wiped them all out for us.

[@wackwacker8623]

Just like how lamps have shrunk Moths, Newton invented gravity to shrink the snails. The government wants us to believe no beasts can touch us, but I fear the day the moths and snails go back to their original size.

[@tavishfinnegandegroot3513]

ur one of the time travelling knights!! even tho theres no such thing as timemachine in the middld ages

[@CaptainSeaDog_]

This is my head canon now

[@rahmat4848]

@@wackwacker8623 lol 🤣 good thing Newton invented gravity huh?

[@ra_alf9467]

Knight Jiub

[@jordanguy4241]

This is not a question I've ever asked, nor was I ever going to ask. yet here I am for an answer

[@ReddishNeck]

Jordan Guy This is how we all feel, I think. Weird. But it's such an intriguing video title, we all just clicked on it.

[@SaladinGucman]

😂

[@StarStrike-1]

The answer lies in the stars. Specifically; a snail can be seen in Cassiopeia, where also can be seen the shining 'countenance divine' of William Blake's 'Jerusalem'. This countenance is that of the biblical god (c.f. 'snails! - short for 'god's nails' - being an interjection of surprise and es-car-got translating loosely as 'you're for god') and it is this the knights are confronting, with good cause. There is some myth about the snail returning to Jerusalem (can't locate it at the moment) and I think it safe to say that it is well on it's way. Happy days ahead!

[@dionjaywoollaston1349]

Nick Addey I always thought that the snails represent the French, given how the french like to eat snails and it would have been a bit ridiculous to paint a giant clove of garlic, I feel a bit sorry for the knights who had to fight giant snails”my liege why doth That fellow from palastine George get to fighteth a dragon while I must slay a giant snail”speaking in RPG terms would a giant snail be more or less dangerous than a slime?

[@Bee_v0mit]

O wow I saw you on a Jack stauber video and I see you in this comment section as well. Nice profile pic btw

[@Andy-gq5hb]

The correct title would have been, "Rare medeival memes"

[@giantsalsa3977]

Medieval Memes that Kept Them Ol Nobles from Ending it All

[@gingataisen]

Medeival?

[@jessicavernon8332]

Andy 🔥 comment.

[@aliifahbianca5504]

1k!

[@bashkillszombies]

Pepe!

[@r8them84]

everybody gangsta till the giant snail start fightin

[@Ginerization]

Then nobody helps with the dishes after...

[@mickymouse2445]

That giant snail that fights everybody really, really hard but also really, really slow

[@rahmat4848]

Just throw salt.. problem solved 😌

[@healthandsurvival4461]

You laugh but just wait....the great prophecy shall come true

[@ErwinSiegwardHermann]

everybody gangsta till it starts raining frogs and your body turns into a snail

[@FrizzleLamb]

This is the medieval times' equivalent to today's "this meme will be hard to explain in 100 years"

[@johnnoahdeandres9458]

True

[@Mary_OTT]

I don no If anyone cares but I made the likes 420

[@ginterka381996]

Hahaha, true. XD

[@rage_2000]

“Here you can see an image of a common guy with a green shirt immersed in some sort of blue flame….”

[@johnlee7164]

Try explaining 4 year old memes.

[@seepdrer3990]

When you are lvl 1 player, so you have to fight some snails to get some xp.

[@hylbertvonmayhem6562]

I know right

[@dheiyomain6775]

The grind

[@alternimousdimension]

Exactly

[@FarmerDrew]

Hahaha

[@TheSwordbird98sPage]

i have a feeling it was probably over something dumb. like a well-known person freaked out over a snail once and they started mocking them through drawings of snails vs knights

[@foxify_nz]

Kind of like sarcasm?

[@phanvan4076]

But nope it was racial slur

[@natebush8217]

Hmm..."Knights vs. Snails"...yeah, that sounds like the next big Dream Works hit! :D

[@venture3800]

and thus dank medieval memes were born

[@bashkillszombies]

Doubtful, it was some group so powerful that you couldn't ridicule them. To see who rules over you look to he who you cannot ridicule. Or count the cookies one can bake per year.

[@aabcc]

"Yo dude look at this snail i just drew" "Hey thats a good one!! Imma draw one too." Medieval meme stealing

[@cerridianempire1653]

yup it's terriffying to think that our humor will just go full circle and revert back to banana slipping gags

[@CraftxTD]

This technically is a meme since a meme is an “element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.”

[@harukasaigusa8906]

Stop talking.

[@erikeriks]

Memes are like viruses if you think about it

[@hendywijaya3213]

real definition of meme

[@alarmy5211]

Haruka Saigusa bro what he do tho

[@VictoryDay-qe7vm]

@@harukasaigusa8906 no u

[@beelzeboo]

Its quite obvious that they were fighting giant snails hundreds of years ago

[@GrassPossum]

Or that people were much smaller then.

[@anaccountmusthaveaname9110]

@@GrassPossum They wouldn't have written normal sized books then. I think we should leave behind these childish conspiracies about tiny knights and stick to the hard science of gigantic snails.

[@kseventytwo]

anAccountMustHaveAName its not exactly ‘hard’ science, unless we talk about the shells

[@anaccountmusthaveaname9110]

@B. J. If giant snails aren't real, then explain how you were so slow to get a joke.

[@nikolasmichael6377]

That’s what the History Channel would interpret from this

[@dutchministryofdefence604]

its a older meme sir but it checks out

[@-yourandyoureare2different612]

an*

[@krabbza]

Thank you Robert EO Speedwagon of the Speedwagon Foundation from the popular anime manga franchise Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

[@yokokurama5174]

@@krabbza obnoxious*

[@itsjustlukeRevive]

Snail: *slimes* on Knight's foot Knight: DEMON!!! 🗡️

[@berry.mixxxx]

an f in the chat for the knight getting his foot stabbed

[@AbandonedChan8l]

@@berry.mixxxx F

[@poggersbutthole8444]

@@berry.mixxxx F

[@jeanmichelteub4884]

@@berry.mixxxx F

[@DulocGuardsman]

@@berry.mixxxx F

[@lukmigindnuforhelved]

Knights were the athletes superstars of the time. Monks were the academics. Maybe the nerds were mocking the jocks?

[@bluemantis1448]

A time when nerds bullied jocks?

[@lukmigindnuforhelved]

@@bluemantis1448 In their little margin world, yes :)

[@maosama3695]

Nah it's probably the king hired those knights to kill any snails they could find for if anyone touches the king he'll die.

[@deusexrockina]

Haha! Nice

[@venture3800]

@@bluemantis1448 not so much bullying as satire? 😂

[@ChronicleLiving]

Legends says that the French Knights are still fighting with snails in their fancy restaurants.

[@olddoggeleventy2718]

How dare you insult my French forefathers..."I fart in your general direction." ( Monty Python and The Holy Grail) couldn't resist the opportunity to use that line!

[@sendai6694]

Also the snails are eaten in the region of catalonia in spain

[@jayrussell1825]

Deww nut git funnee with ME, Meeseuer - - Sir Jacques Clouseau, Knights of the Ringside Tables

[@kwest9747]

Snails are widely eaten across Europe and can be popular village food, e.g on the island of Lebos. In fact you’ll sometimes find snails in the frozen section of Lidl (not by accident) even in the UK.

[@m1l22]

*_So basically this is the birth of shitposting?_*

[@philiproe1661]

Nah shitposting dates back to Egypt.

[@philiproe1661]

@Aleksa Petrovic Really shitposting is as old as drawing and writing themselves.

[@Anti-HyperLink]

Can you speak like a person?

[@guyfacks1320]

@Aleksa Petrovic the egyptians are as old to the romans as the romans are to us

[@lashlarue7924]

@@guyfacks1320 That is freaking mindblowing, but yeah. Actually I think the Egyptians would have been even more slightly older to the Romans than the Romans are to us (today)...

[@schmurble2254]

RIP dude at the end. Horrifically murdered by a mutant snail from the 1300s. Gone too soon.

[@Cyber_Noot]

KSJDbv you're right. Mutant snails are no joke.

[@millerrepin4452]

How insensitive my family was killed by mutant snails

[@TheOtherNeutrino]

It was a decoy snail

[@luiscarvalho6428]

TheOtherNeutrino If that's the decoy snail where's the real one...

[@witnesstochange1801]

Luis Carvalho right behind you!!!

[@3hallaman]

Man, this guy just ignoring the invasion of the giant alien snails.

[@merrittanimation7721]

gingersassy I know right? Those men died valiantly.

[@tarasarma2888]

It's shameful. My friend's ancestors died in that war.

[@codyg6514]

You mean the Snailens right?

[@codyg6514]

Damnit, someone in the comments above already used my joke..

[@AT-gk1tw]

Cody Green is a genius.

[@eldaroses.g.r.7945]

So, it’s confirmed. Snail vs knight was a medieval meme. We’ve been memeing way longer than we get credit for.

[@thecandlemaker1329]

Even longer than you think. Ancient romans shitposted on rocks and the walls of their public structures, leaving such important messages as "On April, 19th I baked a bread"

[@TheCasualAbsurder]

Absolutely. Dawkins just rehashed some classical rhetorical analysis as an evolutionary advantage. Even “meme” is just a variation and abbreviation of “enthymeme.”

[@DeonGaming]

Even longer than you think. Ancient romans shitposted on rocks and the walls of their public structures, leaving such important messages as "On April, 19th I baked a bread"

[@roxyshow123]

The knights killed off the really big snails. So only the little itty bitty mollusks were left.

[@aljoschalong625]

@brainchild. Nonono, the knights didn't kill off the big snails - the normal, everyday mollusks, decimated the small anti-mollusc knights to extenction. So we still have snails today, but no knights, especially tiny ones.

[@pamungkastabah8163]

Breaking Darwin

[@ironsoul941]

Actually, in medieval times animals represented something. Snails possibly represented slothfulness, so fighting slothfulness and to keep copying might have been a theme many monks writings these books were familiar with.

[@naverilllang]

You know what represents slothfulness even more than snails? Sloths. Walked right into that one, didn't you?

[@rin_etoware_2989]

Sloths lived in America. Walked right into that one, didn't you?

[@thatonehamster4130]

@@rin_etoware_2989 and America is a sea away from europe Swam right into that one, didn´t you?

[@muhammaddaffaarvianda5050]

@@thatonehamster4130 and swimming wasn't invented yet in medieveal Europe Boated, idk, right into that one, didn't you?

[@raenaprottengeier]

they actually represented strength, because they carry their houses on their backs.

[@gunfiend5175]

The snail has finally caught up with them...it's their final day, and they are going down by their own terms!

[@kitsandcards7968]

Back then they go braggin about "I fought snails more fearsome than you!"

[@Corvus__]

Just like how an f-1 racer today could say "I've seen snails faster than you!"

[@lemiov6885]

In the next few decades, it would be mud crabs.

[@Corvus__]

@@lemiov6885 Why mud crabs?

[@kitsandcards7968]

@@Corvus__ it's an elder scrolls game reference hehe

[@Corvus__]

@@kitsandcards7968 So mud crabs, aren't a real thing?

[@Laerei]

600 years from now: why astronauts fought rainbow farting toast cats in digital era internet art.

[@mk_rexx]

We'll never know...

[@smaugtheimpenetrable8009]

The mystery will be unveiled , but until then...

[@anonymous.t6649]

Laerei ajakjsjjsjjehfbiejddjiosjenosodnowienodjdjowkemksidniwisn*djdj*eein(ejiiejdiiskwi*×××

[@milascave2]

Is that actually a thing?

[@MrGamelover23]

Opinunate ted Well Nyan Cat is the thing he described being fought.

[@yeah8598]

Obviously people back then were just immortal,the snail is inevitable.

[@tancredi7106]

Finally someone said it 💀

[@skellybird8697]

Oh this is Christmas *WAAAR IS OVER IFF YOU WANT IT and what have we done

[@jaschabull2365]

1:40: Praying is no use, knight. Snails never do anything quickly!

[@teslagirl1]

Shellikybookies. There's a wonderful Irish children's song about snails, and that's what they were called.

[@johnpetrov6602]

Yes it is most accurate to say the snails are a meme. In my law class we ran over an ancient Roman law that required individuals to flee from battle if an avenue of retreat was available, rather than to fight an aggressor. This law was meant to prevent personal skirmishes from resulting in pointless death. Two aggrieved parties would menace each other with weapons then slowly back away to avoid combat while keeping their honor. In the margins of the book containing this law, there is a knight defending himself from a snail. Obviously, the point is that he could easily run away from the snail. That's the punch line. Like any meme, every time it appears the joke is slightly different until the original meaning is obscured. The joke might have several origins; there's no telling where it came from.

[@OktoPutsch]

one of the most interesting comments here ,Sir, thank you.

[@rib_rob_personal]

That's really freakin' cool.

[@ixian_technocrat]

Do you happen to remember the title of the manuscript with the aforementioned law and the drawing?

[@johnpetrov6602]

Ixian Technocrat Ah well it would probably have been out of the Code of Justinian. That's all I remember.

[@Barbeque_Sauce_1234]

If you removed the old law then you'd have to find every reference to it and change it appropriately, then check the references to _those_ laws to make sure they still made sense... New laws sort of overwrite old ones. There's that one about it being legal to shoot a Welshman with a longbow, but newer laws about bodily harm have priority.

[@willhoffman6629]

False. The Knights were granted immortality but in exchanged a snail hunted them down, if caught the Knights would perish. The photos depict said events.

[@TurquoiseIcy]

We have come full circle haven't we?

[@maybeIAMthetuba]

"photos"

[@chistinelane]

The reason we don't see them is because the knights won. The greatest heroes we never knew

[@scienceme9794]

Yeah, Don Quixote wiped the giant snails out before he took on the windmills.

[@JotaDeeMeO]

Otherwise we would have heroic stories about snails and dragons nows.... and let's not talk about snail movies..

[@Wavemaninawe]

Surely you jest. Knights were wiped off the map centuries ago. My brother is still fighting snails in his garden to this day.

[@alantomy1444]

chistine lane history favors the victor

[@darrenlynch2619]

The snails were very clearly just a meme for the medival arts

[@bashkillszombies]

J

[@jeremyuzca7697]

I imagine a video in 2420: Why 2020 memes used to have a frog named Pepe?

[@josephsellers5978]

No need. There's already a doc out on that.

[@SomeoneJustWatching]

England, making memes since 1200

[@marmorealcandors]

Donald J Trump isn’t New York your city?

[@Jescide]

Leonard Marc Ramos America is his city

[@martind349]

Jescide Life and all of these Londons' still

[@xenotypos]

The manuscripts (in this video) are written in old french. So I doubt any of those are from england.

[@taptapuyo2714]

Harry Sinclair before it was cool. 😎

[@mugensamurai]

Maybe they really hated escargot.

[@noneofyourbeeswax01]

I was expecting to find that the snail represented the French, a traditional foe of the English and notorious eaters of the cuisses de grenouilles, flesh of le cheval and more pertinently, as you have pointed out, the escargot in question... but apparently not.

[@Changeling9au]

Don't trifle with truffles! :)

[@Hal-kc5bk]

and the french

[@TheLiamis]

mugensamurai or the french

[@mywallet7367]

are you in the wrong timeline?

[@Nytr8]

Title : why knights are fighting snails in images Video: we don’t know exactly why

[@bashkillszombies]

J

[@metalheadz9635]

Don't have to waste my time now,👍

[@hobbesfield1082]

I just kind of learned that medieval monks made memes. I can die happily.

[@ghiribizzi]

Hobbesfield well that escalated quickly , well for medieval time standards

[@92alexmaster]

There are even older memes. The Three Hares meme is about 1500 years old from China, The Abracadabra is from the Roman Empire and The Sator square dates to the roman republic.

[@AxelLeJeff]

And Kilroy has existed since the dawn of man.

[@facelessman9224]

History's first trolls!

[@crazyeyes8962]

It's really not hard to imagine when you realize that a bunch of dudes who all lived in monasteries totally remote from the rest of the population were in control of almost all written information

[@caityreads8070]

obviously it's because there used to be giant killer snails and the brave heroes killed them all which is why there isn't any anymore

[@theAverageJoe25]

Their weapon were made of salt

[@Texelion]

They probably played Bastion.

[@TheSkepticalIdealist]

crusades was actually about snail wars

[@pauljones3017]

But there still are snails arround, what we lack is knights. Huw...

[@robjossick7380]

The brave men didn't kill the snails... The brave men rode them.

[@justas423]

My theory is that it's a representation of them fighting boredom.

[@bashkillszombies]

You'd be wrong.

[@reieben886]

Yes, before printing press, medieval scriber are very boring and time consumming job, they lose time to socializing with other people.. the snails symbolizing slowness and boredom

[@therealrenegade]

YES! Finally! I knew I wasn't the only one think that.

[@andyramirez6016]

Or sloth…

[@petrospetromixos6962]

Dmn thats actually the best explanation i ve heard reading the comments

[@aprilrhoden116]

This was hilarious and informative. This has sparked an interest in me for medieval manuscripts that did not exist before. Thank you, Vox.

[@Vox]

We linked the main paper/book in the description. If you want to just look at gorgeous medieval ms scans, this one is great: brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433279 You'll find a snail/knight battle on 169r. brbl-zoom.library.yale.edu/viewer/1020266 -Phil

[@aprilrhoden116]

Thanks again!

[@fdsdh1]

It might be worth taking a look at the British Library too, they have a fairly substantial collection of digitised manuscripts www.bl.uk/manuscripts/

[@aprilrhoden116]

Okay, Thanks, I'll do that!

[@JacobJonesy]

Are you older than 13, April?

[@thelardmaker6806]

In short these are basically medieval memes.

[@eeeeea]

The Lard Maker now i'm actually thinking what people in 1000 years from now will think about today's memes

[@Shaun-vy9vi]

Just clarifying something, they were called illluminated manuscripts because they often had gold leafing/inks that appeared to make the pages glow under candle light.

[@cristopherrobin5862]

Thanks!

[@cluckcluck6494]

Goku: I’ve got the strongest enemies Knights: Hold my beer

[@6catsinacoat]

To be fair... I haven't seen goku fight a snail ...yet.

[@cluckcluck6494]

Thomas Ridley Freiza will turn to a snail I tell you!

[@JarmalK]

@@cluckcluck6494 r u gay

[@jordantampubolon8694]

Hold my snails

[@atallguynh]

Hold my mead.

[@coreyshipe]

TLDR: Snails represent the Lombards, who were thought to be slimy merchants who carried their homes on their backs. The snail is a jest insult to the name of the time. (1400 Memes)

[@fuckingblackgod]

@@tijuanaforeplay8232 hehe, I understood that.

[@hunterkiller7352]

Oy Vey

[@Max_Le_Groom]

Only 1400s kids will understand 👍👌

[@Gadget-Walkmen]

lol just no, that's just ONE interpretation but no one knows for sure.

[@weaklistworm]

He tried to fight the immortal snail, a brave soul

[@vixen768]

FINALLY! An answer I've been looking for! Thank you. So much.

[@Sara3346]

Yes and I also wanted to know about the snails!

[@mdarnell514]

vixen768 no way, totally medieval world's misconception of ammonite fossils that could be quite large. You can see in the illustrations that sometimes they look more like modern day Nautilus's... or squid like in the opening... but... who can prove ammonites didn't walk on land? Maybe some were alive then still. >:)

[@RIFLQ]

The day I think about why knights fought snails is the day when Vox upload this video

[@JacobJonesy]

Okay the problem is that this is just an opinion. Take your "answer" not as fact.

[@Peasant_of_Pontus]

Snails=boredom. Reading=fighting boredom. Knights fighting snails=reading to pass time.

[@kimurico1]

Nice. I would have thought rather snail = time, knight fighting against snail = scribe finishing a manuscript after a loooong time of hard work

[@N1GHTSTRIKER-45]

Immortal snail meme predecessor

[@Ares-5933]

And we thought we invented memes, turns out memes are hundreds of years old

[@dutch1641]

Ares5933 during ww 2 memes were a thing too

[@nos4me]

Ares5933 memes started existing when culture did

[@krieginphernjacobson]

memes were born far before humanity, they will also outlive us all.

[@horatiotrismegistus616]

Memes are a new invention, like water and dirt.

[@flensdude]

So it turns out the Monty Python joke about the killer rabbit (and other small animals) has been a long running joke in Europe.

[@Abraxas948]

gladomi Ah yes, I remember when King Arthur was arrested and put in a police van before he could fight the battle for the holy grail. Oh, and how could I have forgotten about the holy hand grenade? Those crazy scribes sure were inventive

[@VinchVolt]

Gilliam took various liberties for the sake of comedy, but if you remove the jokes it ironically follows the original plot of the legends closer than most other adaptations.

[@MrMlinmlin]

but if you remove the jokes theres barely anything left... a dude named Arthur riding around with a bunch od dudes... -_-

[@gamingolympian4245]

Which is exactly what it was... What did you think there was some like intense war or something? It's a Dude named Arthur who happens to be king of Wales/Britannia traveling through some shithole looking for the Holy Grail.

[@BOAYang]

Lion: I'm the king of the jungle snail: *I'm about to end this man's whole career.*

[@martink9701]

😂😂😂

[@tigerboy1966]

Here's a thought- the pictures were charms to protect the manuscripts from being eaten by snails.

[@Kinopio710]

Medieval memes need to make a comeback 🤔

[@SargentoBonzo]

I want Vox to make a video about: Why knights fought RABBITS in medieval art i.pinimg.com/originals/67/00/c4/6700c497d421ae1d0f032e740f7dfd00.jpg

[@edwardliu111]

They have www.reddit.com/r/trippinthroughtime/?st=JD6NYJK0&sh=d881a549

[@Trashproductions2]

Oh I thought this was a meme.

[@lohitjagarapu9351]

+Matt B: What's going to do? Nibble your bum?

[@jonathanruiz866]

That's what I was thinking

[@2309-w5p]

There is an explenation: The knights were french

[@dearsol.]

*shook*

[@akachi1046]

shut up

[@mammontustado9680]

"En garde, escargot!"

[@lightningfletch5598]

Remember the Lombards were defeated by Charlemagne was also French. A French king at that.

[@Error_name_file_page]

I don’t like French. Or Northern Italians

[@fionacowell3544]

So.. Are you telling me.. That snails are the memes of the 14th century???

[@quandovoceleroscomentarios9622]

They had memes. They had swords and pretty people. They were cool.

[@armanderschreckliche]

Fiona Cowell Lmao 😂😂😂😂👏👏👏👏👌👌👌👌👌

[@henryt3802]

Fiona Cowell yup, they were people just like u and me, they also had their jokes, memes and running gags

[@henryt3802]

The Banana Melon dude my name's henry you should expect me to talk like that.😂

[@Katie-mw7pd]

JIM

[@yosefyonin6824]

*VINTAGE MEMES! VINTAGE MEMES! GET YOUR PERFECTLY PRESERVED 700 YEARD OLD MEMES RIGHT HERE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!*

[@hansofaxalia]

“The snails reveal something….” No words have ever induced a greater sense of primeval fear within me

[@cheesecakelasagna]

Someone please make this ancient meme great again!

[@superpositionhyper-webster6034]

D O U B L E E E

[@onewhoisanonymous]

God. I can heard the future historians trying to describe 21st century memes to our distant future generations. "Here we see a photograph of a young person outlaid with a black border. Notice the ancient text encircling the photograph...its true meaning lost to time. Dr. ---- has been studying their cryptic texts for years and theorized...."

[@BvousBrainSystems]

My most profound hope is that I'm somehow transported to the future you're describing. I'm basically a meme scholar, I can explain them all about it and finally feel like I'm good at something.

[@Diana-mu7pc]

This sounds like a joke on Futurama

[@NicolasOrlinski]

All memes will disappear. The 21st Century will be known as the Dark Ages 2 without any written documents. Why? Because in 2017 I can't even use links to the digital articles from 1999, because whole newspapers and portals disappeared and when you google after them you may probably find some notes that they ever existed. The digital world is as stabile as the Facebook account with hundreds of pictures and wise words which get banned and goes to the digital nirvana during the one single minute.

[@kipicbloud]

That thought has always been darkly amusing to me. We have "all" the information in the world at our fingertips, but when our civilization collapses and the next one rises, it is almost a given that there will be almost no written accounts of it given our reliance on electronics and transitional media that is wiped daily. Crazy, huh?

[@edlingja1]

Brandon Bricker it's like this analogy: Building a tent with no beams, instead we all have to blow as hard as possible to collectively help keep the tent up. If we all stop blowing, it ceases to be a tent and is, instead, simply just a very large blanket. Our current society relies on us ALL partaking in the fields of economics, politics, religion, and all other factors prevalent in our society.

[@LordBrittish]

Modern snails aren’t what their ancestors once were. Ancient snails used to tower over man, and we had to fight them off with fire and salt.

[@checkmatefurries286]

I think this is my new favorite Vox video. Meme in peace, scribes. Meme in peace.

[@DavidBlaze420]

this means there were huge snails back then but the knights killed them all

[@ShipShipMaya]

David Blaze Definitely

[@NikkiKrissoff]

It’s all fun and games till the giant snail comes squirming into the room

[@yseson_]

Love the "pray that 🐌 kills you quickly" interesting fact an ex roommate and I would make our own paper and keep it in the basement guess what creature loves to eat fresh paper? 🐌 So I imagine it was a precaution toward being diligent in the care of precious paper

[@kriscampbell7807]

Oh gosh, I hadn't thought of that at all.

[@markusgorelli5278]

So it was a charm of sorts to frighten snails away. Cool!

[@crozraven]

or snails pictures were just medieval trolls

[@c.b.kansan1700]

Croz Raven my thoughts exactly

[@TechnoMinarchist]

Medieval memes

[@DZ477]

2019: Why knights fought snails in medieval art 2119: Why players fought chickens in CSGO

[@leo.6541]

They fought the snails to protect themselves from the legion of the Immortal Snails; they succeeded, and got rid of all except one.

[@leo.6541]

They used creative mode, by the way. Deleted all except the last.

[@allhailqueenhelga]

One interesting theory I've heard about the rabbits and snails is that they're simply there because the people writing the manuscripts were monks and one of the main duties of monks was gardening. And who are two of a gardener's main enemies? Rabbits and snails.

[@klyntarkenny8046]

Did medieval knights do battle with snails? Ancient Astronaut Theorists say “yes”

[@IamMeHere2See]

So it's basically the Wilhelm scream of Gothic literature. Cool.

[@trayray9034]

IamMeHere2See I

[@davidmccullough4678]

now I understand both memes and Adventure Time

[@gforskli4307]

David McCullough lol

[@samuelhadjaissa5201]

what you mean adventure time ?

[@fulcrum2951]

There is some snail waving its uhh "hand" in the background or something or a talking snail

[@samuelhadjaissa5201]

I guess that makes sense

[@liviahorowitz2225]

Plot twist: the crusades were actually just wars about killing giant snails, which were considered a delicacy for the elite.

[@cernunnos_lives]

So basically: how an ethnic slur became a meme for perhaps a few generations of scholarship.

[@thinkgodd2501]

Plottwist Giant Snails Exist!!!

[@yiyiyiyiyiyiooo3209]

THINK Godd Loooooool best comment EVER

[@shavedhomersimpson742]

God, I really hope not so...

[@ysabellabrave]

The knights killed them.

[@emmytweetie2177]

Is it ok to draw in the margins of my school books now????

[@Mars-ii6ki]

YES I LOVE UR GUYS' VIDS ABOUT HISTORY

[@booklover569]

so...knights battling snails was an ancient meme?

[@yesmansam6686]

Emily Daenzer it would appear so 😐

[@mandyzabohne7059]

As an avid gardener, I'm amused that there's no recognition that these monks were gardeners by necessity and that the snails - who are absurdly pernicious - were wrecking their hard work. There were probably layers of meaning, but frustration over literal food loss seems like an obvious reference. These are the moments when I remember that people who go to graduate school have rarely experienced things like hunger and manual labor.

[@nonamedpleb]

TLDR: IT'S A MEME

[@kurz6860]

*TL;DW

[@theanonymousmrgrape5911]

noname6500 "Tis a meme ye dip." -13th century monks.

[@sirman8886]

*TLDW

[@RandallStephens397]

the rare medieval pepe

[@octaviosardi3337]

Randall Stephens YES XD

[@spineck5499]

everybodys gangsta till the snails roll up in the castle

[@TheReverendGreene]

What if snails represented procrastination? Imagine you live in a monastery. People judge you harshly all the time, you're pressured to produce, but you never really go anywhere and probably lack motivation all the time. "Sloth" or laziness is a sin. Maybe it was an inside joke about how hard it was to fight off their laziness and actually make the manuscript they were always talking about

[@yooringonghan]

honestly that was my interpretation as well

[@darkmasterchief227]

Hmm yeah i gathered that too

[@jelkel25]

One of the 7 deadly sins, along with the 7 virtues a big part of Western culture that conveniently disappeared.

[@BltchErica]

I wonder if they actually had memes inb4 christ. Imagine some egyptian kids drawing mummies with shiny eyes doing t poses on scrolls without any explanation.

[@Pugetwitch]

It happened.

[@chonacastillo4777]

Nice profile pic.

[@Pollicina_db]

There is one. When archaeologist found a place in Egypt with lots of pillars they noticed that one of them had hiyeroglifs. So they climbed up that very tall pillar to see what it said. It said:"This is a veryyyy tall pillar".

[@swiggitysk8]

of course they had memes. memes are a human thing. they were just called common jokes up until recently.

[@copperlemon1]

Romans had graffiti accusing each other of buggery and cuckholdry, by at least year 79, as demonstrated by inscription preserved at Pompeii.

[@justcallmehaterik]

So this was the first time the snail was hired to catch some dude? O.o

[@warhammernerd52Daxx-Lorenzo898]

+Vox, why don't we see cars in medieval art?

[@nemoflexual]

warhammernerd52 those things are way too hard to draw

[@KevGoesRiding]

Last time I came this early, it was the dark ages

[@maggers2580]

*dank meme age

[@youreallinsane]

the internet doesn't need to know your fetishes.

[@quester09]

Ride The Track and giant snails roamed the earth.

[@FERTHEBOSS1]

more like the dank ages

[@CeeVell]

Mh

[@lorettap.925]

I really like that first "snail" at 0:34. It's like a cat-snail. Cnail.

[@austinreed7343]

Gary?

[@IsThisRain]

*Insert comment here stating that the snails were medieval dank memes because no-one has commented this before*

[@NeptunesLagoon]

1000 years from now they will believe that primordeal Hello Kittys went to war with Cosmic Space Kittens with bad grammer ( has Cheeseburger)... Lol

[@SargentoBonzo]

𝕿𝖍𝖞 𝖒𝖊𝖒𝖊 𝖎𝖘 𝖉𝖆𝖓𝖐

[@BarryMichaels]

Stop, it's cringy - its 2018, old stale cringy memes are not funny anymore

[@NeptunesLagoon]

the snail shape also resembles Egypt and the Gulf that boarders it, its a snail shape.... and MEMES will return... MOCK MY WORDS Blasphemer!!!... Lol J/K

[@ReddishNeck]

Neptunes Lagoon *grammar. Oh, the irony.

[@BarryMichaels]

Memes are a thing, stale memes are just cringe

[@SerendipitousProvidence]

I heard it was called the dank age because of its unfathomably profound memes.

[@tnought]

Vox: Answering the important questions.

[@sarahtoonswastaken9990]

the immortal snail came for them

[@edwinpaulhermo7650]

Someone agreed to be immortal, that's what.

[@haarukko]

Snail... what a foul beast, intresting creature to observe as it slithes towards it's enemies demise

[@bluemariomedia8351]

Jontron: im a brave boi *see a snail* Jontron: NOT A BRAVE ENOUGH BOI FOR THIS!

[@akumayoxiruma]

I hope this margin decoration trend gets a revival: Medieval texts are so much more fun and memorable with decorations as well as their signature rhyme structure to make them more memorable.

[@sias9546]

My own hypothesis on the manuscript snail phenomenon is much simpler, less psychologically venturesome, and dare I say nearer-fetched. It goes as such: SNAILS ARE ARMORED.

[@xaedes]

Even simpler: snails eat paper(--> enemy of books) and they put up the fighters against the snails to give the book some protection. Not that the snails would care..

[@peehaha9742]

This question has been bugging me for months now! Thanks, Vox.

[@WolfBitesAndSleepyGraves]

Not me charging very slowly on my giant battle snail.

[@fionacowell3544]

I'm so glad this Vox video came fast... not in snail mail.

[@werbearjack]

So snails are medieval Pepes?

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

Now would be a great time to invest in rare snails before the normies realise.

[@happyswedme]

Imagine future scientists being like "at the dawn of the third millennia people liked to draw frogs"

[@TAURELLIAN]

𝖄𝖊 𝖔𝖑𝖉𝖊 𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖙𝖕𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌

[@renpingshengs]

i can only imagine hundreds of years from now someone interpreting our constant use of SpongeBob memes

[@ohnename4076]

*clap clap* meme review.