If you watch the Cold Steel videos you'll see how springy and flexible these blades really were. This is a one-handed Viking era sword but the same holds true for the hand-and-a-half swords those guys were using.
Makes you realize how the movie scenes where one guy uses his sword repeatedly almost as a club to beat the other guy down really don't get it right. Seems like doing that the recoil of the blade off a hard surface would play heck with your wrists.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
Just got done reading "A Brief History of Medieval Warfare" 1314-1485 by Peter Reid.
According to the book it was the British longbow and the European crossbow that drove the development of heavier armor in general and of plate armor specifically.
In response to this heavier armor, likewise swords became longer, requiring the use of two hands, such that guys stopped carrying shields. To put things in perspective tho, Cold Steels' hand-and-a-half swords the same size used in that contest weigh in at less than four pounds.
In that same period, in response to plate armor, war hammers and maces delivering a crushing rather than cutting blow became popular.
In the movies, guys in battles just keep on slashing at each other forever, combat after combat, but note how tired those two quickly became. In the book the author points out cases of guys found dead on the battlefield in full armor, not a mark on them, apparently dead of heat exhaustion.
I remember reading a Scottish Highlander Reenactor website over in England where these guys were serious students of fencing. Every time they staged a mock battle with a bunch of Highlanders charging each other, broadswords and targes in hand, almost everybody involved received what would have been a lethal wound in the first two minutes.
Makes you wonder how battles back then actually went down.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
If you watch the Cold Steel videos you'll see how springy and flexible these blades really were. This is a one-handed Viking era sword but the same holds true for the hand-and-a-half swords those guys were using.
Makes you realize how the movie scenes where one guy uses his sword repeatedly almost as a club to beat the other guy down really don't get it right. Seems like doing that the recoil of the blade off a hard surface would play heck with your wrists.
Modern steel, not iron or pattern welded. Not apples to apples.
Just got done reading "A Brief History of Medieval Warfare" 1314-1485 by Peter Reid.
According to the book it was the British longbow and the European crossbow that drove the development of heavier armor in general and of plate armor specifically.
In response to this heavier armor, likewise swords became longer, requiring the use of two hands, such that guys stopped carrying shields. To put things in perspective tho, Cold Steels' hand-and-a-half swords the same size used in that contest weigh in at less than four pounds.
In that same period, in response to plate armor, war hammers and maces delivering a crushing rather than cutting blow became popular.
In the movies, guys in battles just keep on slashing at each other forever, combat after combat, but note how tired those two quickly became. In the book the author points out cases of guys found dead on the battlefield in full armor, not a mark on them, apparently dead of heat exhaustion.
I remember reading a Scottish Highlander Reenactor website over in England where these guys were serious students of fencing. Every time they staged a mock battle with a bunch of Highlanders charging each other, broadswords and targes in hand, almost everybody involved received what would have been a lethal wound in the first two minutes.
Makes you wonder how battles back then actually went down.
I’ve often wondered what real battles were like back then. I think they were very fast and very brutal. For sure, they certainly weren’t the way we see them in movies today, with guys constantly swinging, then parrying and thrusting away endlessly.
Just got done reading "A Brief History of Medieval Warfare" 1314-1485 by Peter Reid.
According to the book it was the British longbow and the European crossbow that drove the development of heavier armor in general and of plate armor specifically.
In response to this heavier armor, likewise swords became longer, requiring the use of two hands, such that guys stopped carrying shields. To put things in perspective tho, Cold Steels' hand-and-a-half swords the same size used in that contest weigh in at less than four pounds.
In that same period, in response to plate armor, war hammers and maces delivering a crushing rather than cutting blow became popular.
In the movies, guys in battles just keep on slashing at each other forever, combat after combat, but note how tired those two quickly became. In the book the author points out cases of guys found dead on the battlefield in full armor, not a mark on them, apparently dead of heat exhaustion.
I remember reading a Scottish Highlander Reenactor website over in England where these guys were serious students of fencing. Every time they staged a mock battle with a bunch of Highlanders charging each other, broadswords and targes in hand, almost everybody involved received what would have been a lethal wound in the first two minutes.
Makes you wonder how battles back then actually went down.
I’ve often wondered what real battles were like back then. I think they were very fast and very brutal. For sure, they certainly weren’t the way we see them in movies today, with guys constantly swinging, then parrying and thrusting away endlessly.
Rob Roy has been recognized as depicting realistic sword combats, I was trying to find a clip where Rob Roy kills the brutish bully Guthrie in the tavern. IIRC its all over in the first exchange, like two seconds. OTOH neither guy is wearing armor.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
