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Battle cry

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File:Festiwal Polka 1 Fot.Wojtek Korpusik.jpg
A Māori performer giving a Haka at a folk festival in Poland
File:MC 09-0081-354 - Flickr - NZ Defence Force.jpg
NZDF soldiers performing a battle cry
File:All Blacks Haka - Dunedin, 14-06-2014.webm
All Blacks performing a Haka, 1:39 min

A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group. Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious sentiment. Their purpose is a combination of arousing aggression and esprit de corps on one's own side and causing intimidation on the hostile side. Battle cries are a universal form of display behaviour (i.e., threat display) aiming at competitive advantage, ideally by overstating one's own aggressive potential to a point where the enemy prefers to avoid confrontation altogether and opts to flee. In order to overstate one's potential for aggression, battle cries need to be as loud as possible, and have historically often been amplified by acoustic devices such as horns, drums, conches, carnyxes, bagpipes, bugles, etc. (see also martial music).

Battle cries are closely related to other behavioral patterns of human aggression, such as war dances and taunting, performed during the "warming up" phase preceding the escalation of physical violence. From the Middle Ages, many cries appeared on speech scrolls in standards or coat of arms as slogans (see slogan (heraldry)) and were adopted as mottoes, an example being the motto "Dieu et mon droit" ("God and my right") of the English kings. It is said that this was Edward III's rallying cry during the Battle of Crécy. The word "slogan" originally derives from sluagh-gairm or sluagh-ghairm (sluagh = "people", "army", and gairm = "call", "proclamation"), the Scottish Gaelic word for "gathering-cry" and in times of war for "battle-cry". The Gaelic word was borrowed into English as slughorn, sluggorne, "slogum", and slogan.

HistoryEdit

AntiquityEdit

  • The war cry is an aspect of epic battle in Homer: in the Iliad, Diomedes is conventionally called "Diomedes of the loud war cry." Hellenes and Akkadians alike uttered the onomatopoeic cry "alala" in battle.<ref>Burkert, Walter, 1992. The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influences on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, p 39f.</ref>
  • The troops of ancient Athens, during the Medic Wars and the Peloponnesian War were noted for going into battle shouting "Alala!" or "Alale!", which was supposed to emulate the cry of the owl, the bird of their patron goddess Athena.<ref>Per Hesiod, Penguin Edition of Works and Days</ref>
  • The Western Huns attacked with terrifying battle cries.<ref>T.J. Craughwell, 2008, The Vikings, Vandals, Huns, Mongols, Goths, and Tartars who Razed the Old World and Formed the New, Fair Winds Press, p. 41, Template:ISBN</ref>
  • One of the common Hindu war cry was "Hara Hara Mahadeva" meaning, "Hail to Mahadeva!" (Shiva).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Another common war cry in India was "Jai Bhavani" meaning, "Hail goddess Bhavani!”
  • A common war cry used in ancient Tamilakam was "Vetrivel, Veeravel", meaning, "Victorious vel, courageous vel." Vel is the spear of Murugan, the regional form of Kartikeya, the Hindu war deity. In the contemporary period, the battle cry "Vetrivel, Veeravel" is being used in the 191 Field Regiment of the Indian Army based in Madukkarai, Coimbatore.<ref>Kalki R. Krishnamurthy's Ponniyin Selvan: The first floods, Macmillan India Limited, 2000, p. 300Template:ISBN?</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Middle AgesEdit

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  • During the Scottish wars of independence, Scottish soldiers used Alba gu bràth as a battle-cry, a phrase that means 'Scotland for ever' (literally, 'Scotland until judgement'.) This was depicted in the film Braveheart during which Mel Gibson, playing William Wallace, shouts the phrase to rally his soldiers just before a battle commenced.
  • Each Turkic tribe and tribal union had its distinct tamga (seal), totemic ongon bird, and distinct uran (battle cry) (hence the Slavic urah "battle cry").<ref>Shipova E.N., 1976, Dictionary of Türkisms in Russian Language, Alma-Ata, "Science", p. 349</ref><ref>Dal V.I., Explanatory Dictionary of the Live Great Russian language, vol. 4, p. 507, Diamant, Sankt Peterburg, 1998 (reprint of 1882 edition by M.O.Wolf Publisher), (In Russian)</ref> While tamgas and ongons could be distinct down to individuals, the hue of horses and uran battle cries belonged to each tribe, were passed down from generation to generation, and some modern battle cries were recorded in antiquity. On split of the tribe, their unique distinction passed to a new political entity, endowing different modern states with the same uran battle cries of the split tribes, for example Kipchak battle cry among Kazakhs, Kirgizes, Turkmens, and Uzbeks. Some larger tribes' uran battle cries:
    • Kipchak – "ay-bas" ("lunar head").<ref>Zuev Yu. , 2002, Early Türks: Essays of history and ideology, Almaty, Daik-Press, p. 76, Template:ISBN?</ref>
    • Kangly (Kangars) – "bai-terek" ("sacred tree").<ref>Zuev Yu., 2002, Early Türks, p. 73</ref>
    • Oguzes – "teke" ("mount")<ref>Karpovdun G.I., Тіркмöн uruuluk en tamgalary. maalymattarynyn negizinde, in Karataev O.K., 2003, Kyrgyz-Oguz History (Кыргыз-Огуз Тарыхый – Этникалык Байланыштары), Kyrgyz Utuluk university, pp. 199–207</ref>
  • Desperta ferro! ("Awake iron!" in Catalan) was the most characteristic cry of the Almogavar warriors during the Crown of Aragon military campaigns across the Mediterranean from the 12th through to the 14th centuries.
  • Deus vult! ("God wills it!" in Latin) was the battle cry of the Crusaders.
  • Montjoie Saint Denis!: battle cry of the Kings of France since the 12th century.
  • Santiago y cierra, España! was a war cry of Spanish troops during the Reconquista, and of the Spanish Empire.
  • On 14 August 1431, the whole Army of the Holy Roman Empire (of the 4th anti-Hussite crusade) was defeated by the Hussites in the Battle of Domažlice. Attacking imperial units started to retreat after hearing Ktož jsú boží bojovníci ("Ye Who Are Warriors of God") choral and were annihilated shortly after.
  • Allāhu Akbar (الله أكبر, "God is [the] Greatest") and Allāhu Allāh (الله الله, "God! God!") were used by Muslim armies throughout history. Al-naṣr aw al-shahāda (النصر أو الشهادة, "Victory or martyrdom") was also a common battle cry; the At-Tawbah 9:52 says that God has promised to the righteous Muslim warrior one of these two glorious ideals.Template:Original research inline
  • Óðinn á yðr alla (Odin owns you all) – A reference to Odin's self sacrifice at Yggdrasil. Attributed to Eric the Victorious.

Pre-modernEdit

  • When suppressing peasants' rebellions in Germany and Scandinavia around 1500, such as in the Battle of Hemmingstedt, the Dutch mercenaries of the Black Guard yelled Wahr di buer, die garde kumt ("Beware, peasants, the guards are coming"). When the peasants counterattacked, they responded with Wahr di, Garr, de Buer de kumt ("Beware, Guard, of the peasant, [who is] coming").
  • The Spanish cried Santiago ("Saint James") both when reconquering Spain from the Moors and during conquest in early colonial America.
  • Polish "Winged Hussars" used to shout Jezus Maria ("Jesus, Mary") or Matka Boska ("Mother of God") during their charges.
  • King Henry IV of France (1553–1610), a pleasure-loving and cynical military leader, was famed for wearing a striking white plume in his helmet and for his war cry: Ralliez-vous à mon panache blanc! ("Follow my white plume!").
  • Burmese soldiers of the Konbaung Dynasty under Alaungpaya were recorded to shout Shwebo-Thar (Sons of Shwebo) during the Konbaung-Hanthawady War.
  • Most of the jaikaras were popularized by Guru Gobind Singh. The Sikhs have a number of battle cries or jaikara: the most popular ones are as follows:

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    • Gaj ke jaikara gajaave fateh paave nihaal ho jaavae, Sat Sri Akaal gurbaar akaal hee akaal|| (excerpt from ardas of Buddha Dal prayerbook (gutka) praising the blessing of uttering jaikara proclaiming supreme truth).
  • The Pashtun soldiers' war cry against the Mughals was Hu, Hu.<ref name=borah>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • The Gurkha (Gorkha) soldiers' battle cry was, and still is, "Jai Mahakali, Ayo Gorkhali!" ("Victory to Goddess Mahakali, the Gurkhas are coming!")<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • The "rebel yell" was a battle cry used by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.
  • Finnish light cavalry troops in the Swedish Army in the 17th and 18th centuries would use the battle cry "Hakkaa päälle!" ("Cut them down!" in Finnish), lending them the name Hackapell.
  • Irish regiments of various armies used and continue to use Gaelic War cries, "Faugh a Ballagh" ("Clear the way!") or "Erin go Bragh" ("Ireland Forever")
  • The Swedish army in the 18th and 19th centuries would be issued with the command to attack with "För Fäderneslandet, gå på, Hurra!" ("For the Fatherland, onwards, Hurrah!")<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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ModernEdit

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See alsoEdit

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ReferencesEdit

  • Guilhem Pepin, ‘Les cris de guerre " Guyenne ! " et " Saint George ! ". L’expression d’une identité politique du duché d’Aquitaine anglo-gascon’, Le Moyen Age, cxii (2006) pp 263–281

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External linksEdit

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