Tue's european medieval WEAPON page
Ever wanted to see how your average AD&D weapon looked like? Or just interested in old weapons generally? Or maybe you just wanted to get it right? (cos AD&D really messed up some names...especially around mace, flail and morning star!)
Well here are some scanned photos from the book 'A glossary of the construction, decoration and use of arms and armor in all countries and in all times together with some closely related objects' by George Cameron Stone. And a few of my own comments to clear up some common mistakes by fantasy litterature.
Let's start in the Very Heavy sword section:
These are (european) Two-Handed swords... and as you can see, some of them are the size'n'shape you expected (like no 1). But Check out how slim the blade is on pic. no 4. Or how elaborate the guard is on no 6 and 7. And look again on the saw structure of no 6....I'll bet you thought saw structure was only a pure fantasy touch! Lenght is from top to buttom ca. from the standing users eyes and down to the ground.
Next type: The nearly as heavy as 2-h swords..the...
Hand and a half Sword.....better known as BASTARD Sword. Not as long as a 2-h sword...but not as short as a normal 1-h blade, this sword looks much like any other 1-h sword but has a specially long grip...as seen on photo.
Ok next type....the more modern sword....
The Broadsword......as you might see it's just a kind of singleedge, singlehand sword with an elaborate guard...called a basket hilt. The big difference from other swords on this page (and generally) is the period.... it's 17-something. Or to put it in another way AFTER gunpowder was being widely used. Broadsword are simply late swords! And should not exsist in a fantasy campaign without gunpowder. And it is NOT a broader-than-normal sword (ok maybe a little, but there are broader swords than broadswords). Actually these swords should not be on this page cos they are not medieval!
Now lets look at some oriental swords that keep reappearing in fantasy litterature...u prob know them by their quasi-american name scimitar or schimitar...but it's not at all their real name......
Most europeans would refer to these weapons as...curved sabres... Their actual english name is Shymeter but their more original Turkish name is Shamsir. Except from the name-confusion these sword are prob. what you would expect them to be..curved swords from the middle east. In India these sabres are called Talwar
Ok..next lets have a look and some miscellaneous swords.....
These are the 'normal' swords of fantasy litterature. And now u see what i mean by what i said about the broadswords.. cos some of these 'normal' swords are as broad and others are MUCH broader than broadswords!(especially no 5!) Otherwise, these swords are prob also what u expected, except that the term longsword does NOT exist among the people who knows about weapons.
Then there is a last type of sword i want to mention/show on this page... these are not at all lookin like u thought they would...
These smallsword are what u prob know as Short Swords.....but that name (like long sword) is not used by the people who knows about swords! And since these small swords do NOT look a bit the way a shortsword is discriped in AD&D u could prob say that short swords DO NOT EXCIST at all, except in fantasy literature. The swords on this picture might be small swords, but noone can wield one of these AND a 'normal' sword at once!(as per 2-weapon use in AD&D). Again these sword are very late swords dating from after gunpowder and therfor does not fit into a medieval fantasy world.
Wanna see something other than swords? click here to go to Boulgeon like weapons. Or here to go to Armor.
