Gripping Beast Rally Behind New Cnut The Great Miniature
February 2, 2019 by brennon
Gripping Beast are bringing another hero from the Dark Age back to life on the tabletop with Cnut The Great who comes on foot and mounted, massive axe at the ready to hold off his foes.
As the mighty monarch who divided up England into Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria he was the one who cemented his rule in Britain firmly, giving over titles to Danish followers whilst being ruthlessly punishing to those of Anglo-Saxon stock.
Still, despite this, he was able to heal relations with the Anglo-Saxons by marrying his daughter to the Duke Of Normandy and converting to Christianity.
When he eventually returned to Norway and conquered it he earned the title of Cnut The Great and remained a powerful monarch right up until his death. Cnut has a masterful legacy and you can see that represented here in this very strong miniature.
Whilst I hate painting horses I actually think the mounted version of him is better here. I think there's a little more detail to work with and the stance works better too.
Will you be picking up Cnut The Great?
"When he eventually returned to Norway and conquered it he earned the title of Cnut The Great..."
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Both versions look really good.
Digging the look of this guy.
For a second I thought it was Gerry and you all were having a go at our expense! ? It is a fine miniature and I have to say I like both versions as well. Lots of detail to work with and ……. . . . I don’t have a need for him on any of my SAGA armies and yet I might buy him just to have a Gerry mini present on the table! He could be present always just at the edge of the mat and if a player thought that the opponent had pulled a ‘super cheesey… Read more »
So just went to the website to buy this, (and I did), and I discovered that you get both versions in the same package. So no agonizing over which version is best to fill the roll of your new ‘Judgement Gerry’ playing piece. ?
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Now I’m off to write rules to give ‘JG’ power on the tabletop.
It’s always interesting with dark age heroes because even the earliest art that survives is just an artistic impression from the sagas, songs and histories they could get hold of.
I always invisaged Cnut as less slender than this mini, but he definitely has a solid presence.
Might get him, because I still haven’t played Saga with one of the heroes involved yet.
Salute isn’t that long to wait I guess and Gripping Beast will be there. It might make it to the shopping list. ?
Not a massive fan of the mounted version. He looks like he’s riding a small pony rather than a horse and I think the cloak makes it look like the horse has a massive arse.
The foot version is pretty good though
That is correct though, in that time period this would already be considered a big horse. The horses of the Norse were even smaller.
I know what horses people used to ride and it still looks far too small to be riding into battle on. And the cloak still makes its arse look too big
has Ragnar returned ?
Definitely going to get this. I don’t usually play Saga with hero’s but I like to collect them. It was Cnut who married Emma the daughter of Richard Duke of Normandy. She was the widow of Aethelred.
There’s a lot of people who don’t like and avoid painting horses. Maybe a good topic for a 3 colours up.
My dyslexia made me read something VERY different into his name.
It was a time for Cnuts. Buggest Cnut wins (with the overall title eventually going to Guillaume le Batard)./ Charming times.
He looks like Ubba on “the last kingdom”, which is definitely a plus.
Both look great, tempted to pick them up.
Interesting name…