Ydars
Explorer
I have to disagree with alot of what is touted as "historical fact" on this thread. I am no expert but have read some 14th century training manuals on sword and axe fighting and have some limited experience of sword-fighting and test cutting.
Sundering weapons, disarming, tripping and all kinds of wrestling techniques were a very important part of all ancient combat and ALL professional warriors would have known at least which moves opened him to being disarmed/grappled/tripped even if he didn't know how to do them himself. Even the Vikings had sophisicated techniques for disarming by catching an opponents weapon between sword and shield and twisting. It takes TONS of practise, but I have met someone who could do it reliably. Hence, sundering and disarming without training is seriously unrealistic.
Swords can easily be broken or bent by hitting them on the flat of their blade with the edge of your blade; even if you don't break the sword, the hit blade vibrates so badly that for a few seconds it is like parrying with a snake and leaves you vulnerable!
The idea that battleaxes etc were big heavy weapons is a myth; no marshal weapon in common use ever weighed more than 4 lbs and most swords were 2-3 lbs in weight. Hence, they were quiet agile in combat.
As someone said earlier, this agility was needed because you HAD to have a shield until the invention of double mail, otherwise you were dead. Hence, double-handed weapons, like longswords (yes the LS really is a double-handed weapon historically) only appeared AFTER the invention of decent armour.
There are lots of myths about ancient armoured combat that come from the fact that, until recently, books like Talhoffer or Leichtenauer or De Liberi were untranslated and since most of us don't understand medieval German or Italian it was hard to read them.
The Bottom line is that western marshal arts, with weapons and armour, were just as graceful, technical and precise as any asian marshal art. We have just lost the living tradition and only have books to guide us.
Sundering weapons, disarming, tripping and all kinds of wrestling techniques were a very important part of all ancient combat and ALL professional warriors would have known at least which moves opened him to being disarmed/grappled/tripped even if he didn't know how to do them himself. Even the Vikings had sophisicated techniques for disarming by catching an opponents weapon between sword and shield and twisting. It takes TONS of practise, but I have met someone who could do it reliably. Hence, sundering and disarming without training is seriously unrealistic.
Swords can easily be broken or bent by hitting them on the flat of their blade with the edge of your blade; even if you don't break the sword, the hit blade vibrates so badly that for a few seconds it is like parrying with a snake and leaves you vulnerable!
The idea that battleaxes etc were big heavy weapons is a myth; no marshal weapon in common use ever weighed more than 4 lbs and most swords were 2-3 lbs in weight. Hence, they were quiet agile in combat.
As someone said earlier, this agility was needed because you HAD to have a shield until the invention of double mail, otherwise you were dead. Hence, double-handed weapons, like longswords (yes the LS really is a double-handed weapon historically) only appeared AFTER the invention of decent armour.
There are lots of myths about ancient armoured combat that come from the fact that, until recently, books like Talhoffer or Leichtenauer or De Liberi were untranslated and since most of us don't understand medieval German or Italian it was hard to read them.
The Bottom line is that western marshal arts, with weapons and armour, were just as graceful, technical and precise as any asian marshal art. We have just lost the living tradition and only have books to guide us.
