Designing Your Character & Other Handy Things 2

Medieval Weapons

Swords.A sword is a long, edged piece of forged metal, used in many civilisations throughout the world, primarily as a cutting or thrusting weapon and occasionally for clubbing.The word sword comes from the Old English sweord, from a Proto-Indo-European root *swer- "to wound, to cut".A sword fundamentally consists of a blade and a hilt, typically with one or two edges for striking and cutting, and a point for thrusting. The basic intent and physics of swordsmanship have remained fairly constant through the centuries, but the actual techniques vary among cultures and periods as a result of the differences in blade design and purpose. Unlike the bow or spear, the sword is a purely military weapon, and this has made it symbolic of warfare or naked state power in many cultures. The names given to many swords in mythology, literature, and history reflect the high prestige of the weapon.Swords can be single or double-bladed edges. The blade can be straight or curved.

Arming Swords

Broad Swords

Falchions

Long Swords

Detail from the Morgan Bible f 29

Arming SwordsThe arming sword (also sometimes called a knight's or knightly sword) is the single handed cruciform sword of the High Middle Ages, in common use between ca. 1000 and 1350, remaining in rare use into the 16th century.Arming swords are generally considered to be descendant from the swords of the migration period and Vikings

Typically used with a shield or buckler, the arming sword was the standard military sword of the knight (merely called a "war sword", an ambiguous title given to many types of swords carried for battle) until technological changes led to the rise of the longsword in the late 13th century. There are many texts and pictures depicting effective arming sword combat without the benefit of a shield.

According to Medieval texts, in the absence of a shield the empty (normally left) hand could be used for grabbing or grappling opponents.The arming sword was overall a light, versatile weapon capable of both cut and thrust combat; and normally boasts excellent balance. Although a variety of designs fall under the heading of 'arming sword', they are most commonly recognised as single-handed double-edged swords that were designed more for cutting than thrusting. Most 12th-14th century blades seem to vary between 30 and 32 inch blades. As a rule, arming swords began to polarise in design forms from the late 12th century, becoming either increasingly squat and heavily pointed, or longer and heavier in design. This would seem to reflect two separate methods of adapting the arming sword to combat increasingly tough armour; either to make the blade sufficiently heavy-duty to inflict blunt trauma through the armour, or narrow-pointed enough to pierce it with a thrust. Arguably these two forms of blade evolve into the longsword, and the cinquedea.It is a common weapon in period artwork, and there are many surviving examples in museums. The arming sword was worn by a knight even when not in armour, and he would be considered 'undressed' for public if he were without it. The firstlongswords were actually little more than two-handed arming swords, but the difference in length grew substantially as time passed. Long after these larger weapons came into use, the arming sword was retained as a common sidearm, eventually evolving into the cut & thrust swords of the Renaissance.Arming swords are sometimes incorrectly referred to as longswords or broadswords (the former actually refers to a long-bladed two-handed sword and the latter to a type of broad-bladed basket-hilted sword popular in the 17th and 18th centuries).Arming SwordSwords.A sword is a long, edged piece of forged metal, used in many civilisations throughout the world, primarily as a cutting or thrusting weapon and occasionally for clubbing.The word sword comes from the Old English sweord, from a Proto-Indo-European root *swer- "to wound, to cut".
Medieval weaponry spanned a range from simple tools and farm implements to sophisticated siege engines.