So, I've been kicking around the forums for a while now and completely forgot to introduce myself. Well, I'm not sure what to say about myself, I could talk about my life, 8 years of depression and all that but well, that's just depressive so I'll stay clear of my personal life. I am bilingual and English is not my first language (learned it about 10 years ago). I started writing as a method of escaping the real world. The current world I am currently working on has been my WIP for years now and is currently at my 3rd major iteration (I "restarted" about 1-2 years ago now) I've written a 200k word story then proceeded to delete it as I did not like it. Otherwise, I am quite fond of history and willing to have a conversation anytime in regards to history, and while I am no historian, I do consider myself knowledgeable when in comes to history, especially European history.
Hey Necro, Nice to have you here. I haven't stumbled upon any of your posts yet but I do see that you have already 15 of them. May I ask what your first language is? Other than that: Have fun, engage and learn!
: ) Hello again, Necronox. So, do you mean the time in history which covers the Middle Ages? Does this mean you are the one to ask about swords etc?
By history I pretty much mean as anything before 1940. all the way back to 5000BC. Although I do have some "favourite" areas which I tend to read and research more about, such as: classical antiquity, Medieval times and early-modern era I do know about swords, although I am sure there are people more knowledgeable then me, especially if you are seeking extremely specific answers to certain kinds of swords. But if you have a question, I'd be more then happy to try and answer it.
Thanks! I have struggled to get much information about a few things in medieval times. At moment, i can only think of one. When people fraught with a sword and a knife, was it really a knife or a dagger?
I think you mean fought, as in "he fought with a sword a knife" since fraught i think is something else entirely, as in: it was fraught with danger When it comes to blades, there is a very 'gray' line as to where a knife end and a dagger begins. the same appears with short sword (what is short?). However, it should be noted the our word knife comes from the old norwegian world "knifr" meaning blade. Many soldiers, levies, militia, knights and otherwise warriors did carry daggers, they where cheaper then sword and allowed the wielder to target the weaker spots of armor, some daggers where especially designed for this such as the Stiletto or the french Coup de Grace, which was sometimes made of wood. Additionally, daggers offered a back up weapon, so fighting with a sword and dagger is not all that far fetched, and while dual-wielding sword is primarily to work of fiction, having a dagger in your other hand would allow you to target spots where your sword could not reach. There are also something called parrying daggers, there where daggers which was both used as a defensive weapon to deflect blows, but also as a secondary blade. These appeared much later in the medieval time during the times of Rapiers, epee, foil, and extremely thin swords. The advances in armor and metallurgy in Europe, mostly rendering slashing weapon obsolete and causing slashing, as a whole, to be generally disregarded when it came to making sword. thus the advent of the extremely pointy rapier-style sword which was designed to be able to slip through mail or crack and weaknesses in one's armor, these swords where allowed to exist by the same technology that rendered their predecessors obsolete, the advances in metallurgy allowed for much thinner swords. Back on the topic of parrying daggers, These parrying daggers varied greatly in size and shape, but a distinguishing feature of parrying daggers are their curved, crescent-like quillons (cross guards), this enable the user of the parrying dagger to sometimes and under certain circumstances, disarm the sword of their opponent. (image from wikipedia) When speaking about fighting with sword and knife, this typically refers to parrying daggers. Also, a common misconception about sword, is that the blade was the dangerous bit, that's more of a misstatement then anything else since the pummel could be used against armored target as a blunt weapon, (blunt damage is more effect against armor since most armor at the time was made from metal, a material exceedingly good at protecting the wearer from slashing or piercing damage, but exceedingly poor at soaking up the energy used. that's why most soldiers wore gambersons underneath their armor. the pummel was especially effective when target the helmet, as most soldier wore much thinner protection underneath their helm to soak up the force of the pummel - usually something like a wrapper cloth, or thick "cap". Additionally the cross guard in swords could be used as a hook, you could use it to pull people from horses or the knock people over. but that's not all there is to swords, each sword type has it's advantage, swords like the katana was exceedingly good at slashing damage but was extremely poor in the fields of cavalry use, blocking and stabbing (reflecting japan's lack of cavalry). the sabre, however, fulfills much the same qualities, it too is an exceedingly good slashing weapon, but being mostly single-handed and much shorter then the katana allowed it to be much better on horseback, reflecting the east's popular and common cavalry use. The list goes on.
I should also say, that the "Coup de Grace" also goes under the more popular name of "Misericorde", it was typically used to deliver the coup de grace to alleviate someone's pain and suffering when they where beyond help, hence it's name. but that was not only it's sole purpose, just it's most famous.
Thanks for all this extremely useful detailed information! I shall have to have another coffee before I go over it with more care... Very good indeed.
