Medieval History/warfare, Anything Medieval

[jime307]

Weapons, Warfare, And Culture of the Medieval Peoples are my specialty if Anyone has anything to talk about or anything they would like to find out this is a good place!

[jime307]

Knights in Training Played chess a lot for strategic combat training I guess.

One of the First and best types of Armor was Chain Mail, it was strong against slashes and some piercing. The thing about it hough is that if you were hit with a heavy bludgeoning weapon you would probably break bones rather easy...

[spatialguru]

I was always interested in smithing in general and making my own armour - just to learn something. Seemed chain mail was simple enough if you had time to spare, eh? Have you done anything like that?

I'm also very interested in swords and always enjoy a good fight. Would love to make one - maybe I need to take a year off to do it?

[jime307]

Huh Chain mail. You mean making some looks simple? That would be an interesting thing to do for sure. a bit time consuming though considering it involves making and interlocking thousands of inty metal rings. but I think that would really awesome to say you made your own mail!

I have a few swords myself (I didn't make them, though I did a bit of sharpening the edges.) I have a Katana(a cheap model full of many,many Nicks), and an odd Chinese fencing sword, it looks like a normal sword but it is very flexible so it wouldn't hurt someone in a fight. I have sword fights every day with my friends and I love doing it.

[jime307]

what is a tad bit confusing is that while at least 20 people have seen this and only one person has posted apart from myself

[LadyOfAvalon]

Hi jime307, I will speak for myself when I say that I tend to forgo the medieval forums and frankly don't know why because I love medieval history...a lot.

If you're interested in some really good books on the subject of medieval weaponry I have three titles here that might be of interest to you, here they are:

Ancient and medieval siege weapons-by Konstantin Nossov
Very well illustrated and accurate guide.

Fighting techniques of the medieval world-AD 500/AD 1500-by Matthew Bennet
This one is particularly good in explaining battle strategy.

Arms & Armour-by Frederick Wilkinson
In this one the book explains the different weapons use by man as early as cavemen all the way through modern day guns.

I've seen quite a lot of different armors in my travels and the one that impressed me the most was the one made for John of Gaunt,this man was simply a giant his armor as well as many kings are in display in the Tower of London.
It is a very impressive museum of weaponery in there and very rich in artefact too.

Hope you'll find these books are good references for you in your quest to learn more about this era.LOA

[jime307]

Wow thanks I'll be sure to check them out!

[TandVh]

Hmm- a question- you wouldn't happen to know the meanings behind the embellishments found on the front of the targh (shield) carried by The celts in battle? I have seen various symbols and metalwork on different targhs and have been curious.

[LadyOfAvalon]

Hi TandVh,

If you're interested in knowing about the targe and see different design of them you can look up the web site www.scottishsword.com and look on the far right at the bottom for the link " Targes ".
There are beautiful designs and explanation about this magnificent weapon.

And I found a little definition for your question concerning decoration here it is.

The targe is covered in cow or deer hide and decorated with nail heads. In history the Scottish clansmen did not have special designs to every clan to own targes, it was if you could afford to make one and find the time to design your targe then you did. Some people adopted one another’s designs. There would have been Targemakers trading to the Clansmen.

It has been known when the Jacobites of the 17th century killed a redcoat government troop, they would decorate their targes with the red material and the buttons from the tunics of the dead soldiers. After decorating their targes, the sight of the Clansmen approaching the redcoats would terrify them of the sight of the targes looking like they were covered in blood, but it was the tunics of their comrades.

In the middle of some targes, there are brass bosses with a thread that could take a spike that was screwed in. This worked excellently in the great Highland charge. The Clansmen were famous for their charge holding their spiked targe, a dirk blade, their basket hilt, and broad sword all of this in their hands while running at their enemy.LOA

[jime307]

Hmmm... Targes.

[TandVh]

Lady of Avalon- What a great site for info- I especially liked the antique swords and dirks presented there.
My son has a targe of a cross between The Bannockburn style and the Sterling style featured on the site.
Here's a fun picture of us messing around in the front yard one day-



As you can see- he has the spike screwed into the centre of the targe.

[LadyOfAvalon]

Indeed this was a formidable weapon and a protection for the soldier.

During these turbulent times of unrest unfortunately men were quite violent and gruesome fellows. Today we are only re-enacting battles with replicas of those weapons but imagine for a minute a man of 6'3" built like a bull with a full beard and all you can see are the eyes that have no expression except murder,coming at you with this weapon on one hand with a dirk hidden behind it and a long sword in the other. Yes these weapons were quite lethal and very fearsome.

If you want to see beautiful ones all you have to do is type "targes" on Google there are hawsome site there and all kinds of targes design you can find.

[Rindy]

What a wonderful thread. Here is a site where you can get hand made swords and daggers. This man knows his historys of swords and daggers. I have a copper dagger that is just out of this world.

He is a very good swords man himself. He has performed in movies such as Braveheart and King Arthur to mention a couple of the many he has been in.. He would be more than happy to make you one.

Here is his more information:

Custom Made Sword & Daggers

Slainte

[Rindy]

I am wondering if anyone has had a chance to stop by the site for the swords and if so what did you think? I do get a lot of compliments on mine.

Slainte

[jime307]

That seems like a great place to get a sword, I have bookmarked it and Maybe I will order one. Thank for the Link!