Definition of "ventail"
ventail
noun
plural ventails
(historical) Synonym of aventail (“mail curtain or flap, on a helmet or a mail coif, that protects the lower face and neck”)
Quotations
Having unhorsed this enemy and hacked him into submission, the knight rips off his foe's helmet and turns down the mail ventail (protecting the vulnerable throat), perhaps pounds the fellow's face a bit with the pommel of his sword; ...
1999, Richard W. Kaeuper, Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe, Oxford University Press, page 206
Finally, the Carolingian byrnie might have had a mail ventail, or bib, hanging from the neck that, when raised and attached to the helmet, provided neck and lower face protection. The ventail is specifically mentioned twice in the ...
2006, William W. Kibler, Leslie Zarker Morgan, Approaches to Teaching the Song of Roland, Modern Language Association of America
[…] depicts the Virtues and Vices in combat. The Vices are trampled underfoo by the victorious Virtues wearing skirts and shirts of mail. Their helmets are bowl-shaped with a mail ventail (ventaille) covering the neck. On a twelfth-century capital in the church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Vézelay, David and Goliath are depicted fighting.
2009, Janetta Rebold Benton, Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art, ABC-CLIO, page 261
[…] even in the eleveth and early twelfth centuries, where helmets were of a simple nasal form, the wearing of a mail coif with a ventail that laced across the lower part of the face would have covered enough of the face […]
2010, Robert W. Jones, Bloodied Banners: Martial Display on the Medieval Battlefield, Boydell & Brewer, page 105
Then Jessup pulled the chain mail ventail attached to the hauberk over Alaric's head before raising the flap at his throat and tying it on both sides of his face to cover his neck. When his squire handed him his helmet, Alaric settled the ...
2014, Susan Lowenberg, D.M. Snelling, Collie Maggie, Surprised by Love: 3 in 1 Collection, BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC
(historical) The movable front part of a medieval helmet, originally including the visor but later specifically the separate lower section.
Quotations
The helmet, in its improved state, was composed of two parts; the headpiece, which was strengthened within by several circles of iron; and the visor or ventail, which (as the names imply) was a sort of grating to see or breathe through, so contrived as by sliding in a groove, or turning on a pivot, to be raised or lowered […]
1796, Legrand (cit.), Fabliaux Or Tales, Abridged from French Manuscripts of the XIIth and XIIIth Centuries, page 203
The rush and ruin of that stroke Latchet and helm and vizor broke; Away the iron ventail flew, Then burst upon the publick view, Death smiling proudly from his face, The last good lord of Monti's race.
1827, Chauncy Hare Townshend, The Reigning Vice or The Bridegroom of the Fay; a Rosicrucian Tale, in Rhyme, page 136
To get air for breathing was a serious problem , and records tell us that knights sometimes suffocated in their helmets; for with visor and ventail down breathing was seriously hampered, […]
1921, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Bashford Dean, Handbook of Arms and Armor, European and Oriental: Including the William H. Riggs Collection, page 109
(historical, rare) A vent or breathing-hole in a medieval helmet, for the admission of air.
Quotations
Here would be Sir Gawaine sitting on his antagonist's chest, and finishing him off, through the ventails of his helm, with the long sharp poniard called the Mercy of God. There would be a couple of knights who had suffocated themselves in their own helms during the course of a battle, a misfortune which frequently happened in those days of violent exercise and small vents.
2011, T. H. White, The Once and Future King, Penguin