I've been a huge Lord of the Rings dork my whole life, and I'm always a sucker for a Youtube video on the topic. I clicked on
one yesterday and was rewarded with some awesome Swedish metal from a band called Sabaton.
I was thoroughly impressed by how well the lyrics described the seige of Gondor through the first stanza, but then was confused by how badly they didn't match in the second... so I started to research this further. I also had no idea what a "Winged Hussar" was. Then I found
this video instead. Same song, different video.
And thus I learned of the 1683 Siege of Vienna, and Prussian king Jans Sobieski leading his hussars across Poland and over a mountain to save Vienna after a 60 day siege by the Ottoman Empire. How Vienna was the "Golden Apple" of Christendom that the Ottomans intended to pluck. And how the Hussars arrived on September 11th to route the Ottomans in defeat.
Now I wonder if the September 11th defeat of the Muslim expansion into Europe is a sore date for them, their failed plucking of a ripe apple, and the motivation for the September 11th attacks on New York, the new Big Apple of the West.
Anyways. just learned about the Winged Hussars last night and thought I'd share. Spartan heroes out of myth and legend, never heard of 'em before. And a cool Norse metal song.
