纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 061刘易斯棋子（4）

 

They're much bigger than the figures that most of us play with today. The king, for instance, is about three inches (7.5 cm) high, and he comfortably fills a clenched¹ fist. Most of them are carved out of walrus² tusks³, there are a few that are made out of whales' teeth, and some of the pieces would originally have been coloured red, rather than the black that we're used to today - but all of them are now a pale creamy brown.

Let's begin with the pawns⁴. One of the puzzles of the Lewis Chessmen is that there are lots of major pieces and very few pawns. What we've got are pieces from a number of different incomplete sets - 78 pieces in all - but only 19 pawns among them. The pawns are the only pieces that aren't human; they're simply small ivory slabs⁵ that stand upright like gravestones. In medieval society, these are the peasants, brutally⁶ conscripted on to the battle-field. All societies tend to think of the people at the bottom of the heap as interchangeably identical, and the foot-soldiers here are shown with no individuality at all.

它们比现在常见的棋子略大。例如，国王高约八厘米，恰好能被握在掌心。大部分棋子用海象牙雕成，少数则是鲸齿材质。它们的颜色不是现在常见的黑色，其中有些一度被漆成红色，不过现在都褪成了奶油般的浅棕色。

我们先来看这些兵。刘易斯棋子留下的疑团之一，是这八十七个棋子中兵偏少，而大棋很多。这些棋子由残缺的几套拼凑而成，一共只有十九枚兵，它们也是唯一没有以人形表现的棋子，仅仅是一小块直立如墓碑的牙板。在中世纪欧洲，它们代表被粗暴地强征充军的农民。他们在所有的社会中都处于底层，在他人眼里没有身份，能够被随意替换，因而这里的步兵没有任何身份特征。

 

1 clenched   

v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He clenched his fists in anger. 他愤怒地攥紧了拳头。
• She clenched her hands in her lap to hide their trembling. 她攥紧双手放在腿上，以掩饰其颤抖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 walrus   

n.海象

参考例句：

• He is the queer old duck with the knee-length gaiters and walrus mustache.他穿着高及膝盖的皮护腿，留着海象般的八字胡，真是个古怪的老家伙。
• He seemed hardly to notice the big walrus.他几乎没有注意到那只大海象。

3 tusks   

n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头

参考例句：

• The elephants are poached for their tusks. 为获取象牙而偷猎大象。
• Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used in some parts of Africa. 非洲的一些地区则使用象牙、猴尾和盐。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

4 pawns   

n.（国际象棋中的）兵( pawn的名词复数 )；卒；被人利用的人；小卒v.典当，抵押( pawn的第三人称单数 )；以（某事物）担保

参考例句：

• The hostages are being used as political pawns. 人质正被用作政治卒子。
• The allies would fear that they were pawns in a superpower condominium. 这个联盟担心他们会成为超级大国共管的牺牲品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 slabs   

n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片

参考例句：

• The patio was made of stone slabs. 这天井是用石板铺砌而成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The slabs of standing stone point roughly toward the invisible notch. 这些矗立的石块，大致指向那个看不见的缺口。 来自辞典例句

6 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。