Harsthorn
The harsthorn is a long coiled cow horn that is equipped with a trumpet mouthpiece and used to blow to fight.
origin
Harsthorns were already used by the Celts , Teutons and Vikings to be able to communicate in battle, to incite the troops to battle and to demoralize the enemy with a kind of acoustic warfare. The harsthorn is one of the oldest wind instruments at all. The scouts use harst horns in many places as a signal horn to call for tribal stinging.
Harst horns can be elaborately decorated with runes or studded with metal and were particularly common in the Alemannic cultural area. The sound of the horns must have had a tremendous effect , as at the Battle of Grandson in 1476. Nikolaus Schradin's rhyming chronicle of the Swabian War in 1499 stated: «The styer von Ure drives a rough song». The Uristier was also part of the party on more peaceful occasions such as the carnival rides in the early 16th century. The city seal of Freiburg , introduced in 1218, shows three towers above the city wall with three open gates. There are two guards on it who blow a harst horn to call for judgment day, which symbolizes justice.
Harsthorn in battle
It is known that the Confederates used the Harsthorns to intimidate their opponents during the battles. These harsthorns were also used for signaling, for example for gathering in the camp, on the march, in attack or for retreat. Here the Uristier and the cow from Nidwalden became famous. An unknown chronicler from the year 1468 writes about it, "that the loud-mouthed noblemen at the sound of harst horns the hair dryer went in their trousers and carried them over the bushes and sticks".
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harsthorn. Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, accessed on March 13, 2020 .
- ^ Coat of arms of Freiburg. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
- ↑ Harsthorn - Scout-o-wiki. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
- ↑ Unknown: The fighting strength of the old confederates, equipment and excerpt (1). Stadtschützen Luzern, accessed on March 13, 2020 .