The Arma Christi [General discussion]

[VViews]

From Andrea Denny-Brown's book, p.263:
"As demonstrated by James Marrow, the appearance of incidents of the pulling of Christ's hair and beard in late medieval Passion literature has a rich prophetic and typological background. Marrow notes how, as early as the mid-14th century, depictions of hands tugging at Christ's hair or beard appear among the Arma Christi set. While O Dalaigh refers not specifically to hair pulling but to hair shearing (perhaps evoking the passage in Isaiah53:7 where he refers to the suffering servant being led as a lamb before its shearer). Furthermore the 15th or early 16th Man of Sorrows in the Franciscan friary, Ennis, County Clare, includes among the other Arma Christi surrounding Christ, a hand clutching a tuft of hair."

[Koen G]

Thanks VViews, that confirms that it's Christ hair. I was thinking of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as a tentative parallel.

   

It's together on the page with the plant with the snake/bird root..

[Koen G]

The Arma Christi also include a Trumpet, which the soldiers used to mockingly herald the "king of the Jews".
Maybe the root of f3v is a good candidate? The leaves also remind me of herald's flags (which were sometimes attached to trumpets) so they would also fit the (mock)heralding theme.

   

[-JKP-]

The tapering sectional nature of that root is certainly worth noting.

I was wondering if the hank of hair might refer to beard-man (who was probably Caiphus, the High Priest), but I think VViews's references confirm that it was probably Christ's hair (thanks for those, VViews).

[nablator]

The two hands are: MANUS DEPILLANS & MANUS ALAPANS - the hand pulling out hair and the hand slapping.

From the same book that VViews quoted: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

[-JKP-]

Thanks, Nablator.

More on that subject:

The hond, lord, þat tare of þyn here,   <<----
And þe honde þat slapped under þin here—
Þat pine be my socour there
That y haue y-sinwed with myn here,
And of alle oþur synne al so
Þat wiþ myn eren haue y herkened to.

[Koen G]

Checking a vague idea. Under the hypothesis that it is not meant as a literal root, what might the root of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. be meant to resemble? (I'm not thinking about one of the Arma Christi, something more general).

   

[davidjackson]

Looks like a horseradish.

[Koen G]

That one wouldn't get past EU regulations :p

[-JKP-]

At first glance, bunched cloth.