"Punch him in the throat! Kick him in the codpiece!" Ah yes, gentlemen at war...
Photo from here: Medieval-2.jpg (982×726) (independent.co.uk)
by Azincourt,
https://www.reddit.com/user/Azincourt
Medieval Myth Buster
Dear Fantasy Writers of Reddit,
Whilst there may be science
fantasy and urban fantasy, the most common way to write fantasy is to place
your characters in a setting that could be considered medieval. In other words:
Swords, armour, horses, archers and so on. This tends to be true whether you
are writing about humans alone or have created a number of different races, or
borrowed Tolkien’s staples. I decided to write a “Quick myth buster” sheet to
help out those who want to get a quick grasp of some of the basic, but commonly
unknown, facts about medieval arms and armour. It’s so common for swordsmen to
play a huge role in fantasy novels but for the author to have little idea of
what sword fighting was like that I figured it might be helpful.
EDIT: If there are any
particular weapons that I've not mentioned that you are interested in then I'm
more than happy to add to the post. I focussed only on the 'Core' stuff as I
didn't know if anyone is interested.
Disclaimer 1: If you don’t
agree with any of the points I put forward, or your swords are lightsabres, or
you just don’t like them, or your characters have super strength, or they need
special weapons to cut up insect people, then that’s all fine and I’m certainly
not telling anybody what they have to do! You can write whatever you would
like. This guide is intended for people who want an element of historical
realism to their weapons and armour. If you want it to work differently then
that’s entirely up to you and this post is not judging you for doing so.
Disclaimer 2: Some of the
things I’m going to say are pretty generalised. There are always exceptions,
but I’ve not tried to mention them because in doing so it gives too much weight
to the rarities, and diminishes the ‘norm’ which is what I’m trying to put
across.
A little about me before we begin (or “how I claim to know this stuff”): I have a degree in
Ancient History and Archaeology, a Masters degree in Medieval History, and I’m
about to start writing my PhD on Violence in Anglo-Saxon England. I also study
Historic European Martial Arts and train twice per week. It would be fair to
say that medieval warfare more or less consumes most of my waking thoughts. As
my background is in European history I won’t be talking very much about Asian
martial arts but am talking about the type of fighting that took place in
Europe between 500AD and 1700 AD.
I’ve aimed to keep this to
brief, bullet point form so that it’s not like reading an essay, with videos
provided for those who want to look into these ideas further.
Swords
THE BIG MYTH: Swords are the main weapon
of a medieval/ancient society.
THE TRUTH: Swords are always a secondary or tertiary weapon for warriors, meaning that you
would only use your sword if your main weapon was lost/broken/inappropriate.
Main weapons would almost exclusively be pole based weapons (lance, spear,
polearm, javelin, pike etc) or a missile weapon (bow, crossbow, sling, firearm
etc).
Swords are at a big
disadvantage against pole weapons in most situations but usually in both
battlefield formations and 1v1 situations.
Swords do not easily cut
through armour. A sword blade is very unlike either to cut, or punch through
either mail armour or plate armour. If fighting an armoured opponent, people
would use a Half Sword technique where they put one hand on the blade and use
it more like a spear.
So why use a sword? Swords are
light and easy to carry. They make great side arms because they can be hung easily
on a belt. They’re also aesthetically pleasing, and because in the early middle
ages making swords was very expensive, they have always been a status symbol.
Swords are iconic and indicate being part of a warrior class for much of the
middle ages, even after they became common by the end of the 11th century.
Swords are not heavy! Even the
longsword (often referred to as the bastard sword) only weighs 1-2kg
(2.4-4lbs). It is very very fast, light and swift. It is hard to parry an
attack with any sword even if you know that it’s coming! It’s totally fine for
even a slightly built person to wield a steel sword for 2 hours solid without
feeling tired.
If you are NOT wearing armour
or have no shield, once they commence, sword fights end in about 1 second. You
can basically forget about multiple clashes of blade or anything that looks
like what you’ve seen on Game of Thrones. This video demonstrates longsword
fighting in about as historically accurate way as I’ve been able to find:
Wrestling is an essential part
of all hand to hand combat but often neglected! When two fighters get close to
each other they will commonly abandon their weapons and fight up close.
The longsword/bastard sword/2
handed sword was the knightly sword, and not very common. The most common
civilian weapon set is the single sword (or arming sword) with a buckler. Sword
and buckler combat probably played far, far more importance in the medieval
world than longswords. Our earliest fight manual, the so called “I.33” from
about the year 1300 demonstrates techniques for sword and buckler. The video
below is some really great interpretation of sword and buckler fighting (but
slowed down). You might note how the inclusion of the shield means that the
sword fight takes much longer.
Using a one handed sword with
nothing in your second hand is just weird and dumb. Most people would have used
a shield in war, a buckler in civilian life, a knife or cloak if you didn’t
have your buckler. Failing all of those you use your free hand to slap at the
enemy weapon when it comes near you! You can grab a static sword blade and it
will not cut you. Medieval European swords were very sharp, but you can grip a
sharp sword with your bare hand safely as long as it’s not pulled through.
I have to mention one of the
biggest myths: Katanas are in no way superior to other swords. They have a
mythology about their sharpness, but in most ways are quite inferior to
European longswords.
Spears
Spears were THE medieval and
ancient weapon. They were used in some format by every army from the beginning
of history to modern day – even professional soldiers have bayonets, turning
their gun into a spear. They are so underrepresented in fantasy that the only
notable wielders that spring to mind are Kaladin in Way of Kings and Oberyn
Martell in Game of Thrones. That’s not many for such an important weapon.
An inexperienced spearman will
often beat an experienced swordsman because the spear has a huge advantage in
reach over the sword.
A spear thrust could penetrate
mail but will not penetrate plate.
Swinging the whole pole around
your head is a totally legitimate historical technique.
The optimal hand to hand combat
weapons against plate armour are pollaxes or similar pole based weapons. These
weapons were specifically developed to fight against plate armour. If plate
armour is a thing in your world, this is what people should be using against
it!
Axes
The one handed axe is a weapon
that is used because it is cheap and easy to obtain, not because it is an
especially good weapon.
Axe heads need to be pretty
small. The huge axe that Gimli has in the LOTR films is far, far too large to
be used practically (and must require him to have enormous strength to wield).
An axe made specifically for war should be far smaller because in combat, speed
is what matters.
If someone chooses to use an
axe over a sword for non-armoured fighting then they need a very strange reason
to do so. A sword has huge advantages over any single handed axe.
Axes were seldom favoured but
they did have their uses. The Vikings made good use of the Dane Axe, a huge
double handed weapon – but its purpose was to hew at enemy shield walls more
than it was for personal combat.
Shields
If you don’t have plate armour,
you want a shield. Shields are awesome.
If you do have plate armour,
shields become redundant and you’re better off with a two handed pole type
weapon.
Shields are also very
inconvenient to carry around with you.
Unlike a sword, a medium sized
shield is actually pretty heavy. Training for 2 hours with a Viking style
shield will leave your shield arm tired. Since shields varied between being
little bucklers that just protect the sword hand and massive tower shields that
covered the whole body, it’s not really possible to give a ‘standard weight.’
Armour: If you want a great
documentary on armour, then the Weapons that Made Britain series is fairly good
and entertaining. Note: I'm using the English spelling of armour. If you're
American you can spell it your own zany way!
Leather Armour
Historically, this does not
really exist. Who would wear leather to stop getting stuck with a sword? It’s
like suggesting that you couldn’t push a kitchen knife through your shoe.
Leather armour would offer almost no protection against bludgeoning, cutting or
piercing weapons.
Leather armour is in fact
actually just ‘clothing.’ Clothing made of leather.
Mail Armour
The term ‘chainmail’ is a
modern convention, historically it was just called Maille.
Mail armour is not heavy. It
weighs about 11kgs. A U.S. marine carries about 60kgs on his back, whilst
mail’s weight is spread around the shoulders.
You could easily swim whilst
wearing it if you were a good swimmer. No experienced warriors in your writing
should find mail heavy.
Mail is super effective against
cutting attacks. You cannot cut through a mail shirt with a sword, even a two
handed sword. A good cut against it might cause concussion damage to the body
beneath, but the mail won’t even be damaged.
Mail is not very effective
against piercing attacks. Arrows, spears, sword thrusts – anything direct and
forceful will go through mail. If you’re interested in seeing how mail does
against various weapons, the following video is fairly decent:
Plate Armour
Plate armour is not heavy. A
full suit of plate armour only weighs about 20kgs (again, 1/3 of what a US
marine carries today). You could swim in it if you were a decent swimmer, but
it wouldn't be fun. It does restrict your movements slightly, but you can do
cartwheels, forward rolls etc without any kind of problem in plate armour.
If someone is knocked over, it
takes no longer for them to get up wearing plate armour than it does if they
are naked. The armour makes no difference, it is not restrictive like that.
Wearing a close visored helmet
will interfere with your breathing after serious exertion.
Plate armour did not commonly
cover the backs of the upper legs; it was generally assumed that if you were in
plate armour then you'd be sitting on a horse, although knights often fought on
foot.
Plate armour takes time to put
on, and you need help getting it on. It's not practical to wear whilst travelling
around.
Plate is probably the most
poorly represented armour in fantasy settings. When you are in full plate
armour THEY ARE A LIVING TANK! Although the quality of armour could vary
hugely, and surviving examples we have today are likely only of the very best
quality, a man in full plate was almost invulnerable to even direct blows from
the hand held weapons of the medieval period.
Your best bet to kill a man in
plate is to get him on the ground and put a dagger in his visor or in the
joints (which would be protected by mail), or pull his helmet off (if it’s not
buckled on) and get him in the head. As before, wrestling is an essential part
of any warrior's skill set.
Aiming to get a sword/spear
into the visor slot or other joint whilst the man is up and fighting should be
considered an essentially superhuman feat. People just aren’t accurate enough
to do that in a fight.
Do you want plate armour to
stop arrows? Depending on which technology level you aim at you can choose! By
the 15th century, Italian armour was arrow-proof as experienced by the English
longbowmen at the Battle of Verneuil in 1424. Earlier armour was far less
hardened.
Bows
You need to train for many
years to be able to be an effective longbowman. You need to seriously bulk up
your shoulders in order to give you a significant draw strength on the bow for
battle.
If you are just hunting or
shooting targets you don’t need this strength, but don’t expect your arrows to
go through armour. Even the bows of the strongest longbowmen eventually were
defeated by armour – a bow drawn by a slinky, sexy woman who hasn’t done some
weight training is not going to penetrate plate or even mail regularly.
If you intend to have main
characters using bows, you need to watch this video and see just what is
capable – somersaulting whilst hitting moving targets? Yep! 10 arrows in the
air before one lands? Sure. Shooting faster than Legolas? Yes absolutely!
There was leather armour, but it is thick leather 4mm plus, cuir bouillie treated with hot water to harden it further, it isn't the leather you make leather clothes from. It was sometime reinforced with metal strips etc,but It could function on its own, It is however not "light" or flexible as implied in many RPGs
ReplyDeleteAlso yes heavy draw weights are what you need for war, especially if facing substyancial armout, even for hunting you want something above 40lb draweight, which is more substancial that LArs is shootig in those videos, whcih are referanced at around 35lbs, though that is at full draw, he barely gets past half draw, so probably drawing 20-25lbs. While his skill is impressive it has nothing to do with shooting a long bow, or even heavy draw weight composite bows, it's trick shooting