OT: Virtual Medieval Sword Museum

Thanks Cuz.:)

These old artifacts always make me peruse whether these blades served their owners well and did so by being used in combat whatever the form and if they did indeed wounded or killed people.
I wonder at the amount of old swords that like today's modern guns never had to be used for what they were potentially made for?

Do you suppose any of these old swords went unbloodied?
 
Originally posted by Yvsa ......Do you suppose any of these old swords went unbloodied?
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Can't imagine many going unused.
Especially considering the effort then to make such a weapon
compared to factory guns of today.
A khukuri can be multi-use and is usually more knife than sword.
With very few exceptions, every sword made was intended to kill.
Or at least, to offer that very real threat.
And when an owner died, unless buried with,
must have passed on somehow to new hands.
Don't think there were many collectors back then.

Read an article about the history of dueling;
(off topic from the medieval period)
For a couple of centuries at least, in recent times,
if you couldn't survive a duel you didn't live long.
Read that Abe Lincoln won a duel by intimidating his challenger
into conceading by idly lopping off limbs with a sword in
his long arms while sitting under a tree waiting.
 
I would imagine it is like having guns today. Many people have them, most know how to use them. They stand ready to defend themselves with them if attacked. Most people have never shot anyone with a gun, most police officers have never shot anyone. Most soldiers have not shot anyone except in time of war (few and far between). Swords were probably the same way. You have one, stand ready to defend yourself with one, hope you don't have to use it.

I was watching Conquest last night. Very interesting story about using a rapier. Extremely deadly weapon. Everything was about thrusting. Someone who was trained would end your life very quickly. Every time I have picked one up, I couldn't figure out how you could fight with one. It always seemed too heavy and unwieldy for actually sword fighting. The rapier was solely designed for thrusting, not cutting, and with the proper techniques and a second defensive short sword for parrying was extremely effective.
 
pretty tame, unless you wer an Ndn. Sowrds were made for battle or for royals, and the common and undecorated models were probably used and abused. We know that armor was used/reparied and used again for hundreds of years, and thus may it have been with swords.

Keep in mind that during this period only the most professional or mercenary of warriors had swords, or rich warriors. Most had a long knife, a spear, and perhaps a shield or bow. Armor was a luxury of the wealthy before that (which is fine, they were the ones who wanted the right of combat)

Warfare was the sport of the wealthy back then. An expedition took lots of supplies (which means money) to pull off. Imagine what our military today would be like today if the rich were financing it and fighting wars! Now adays its just the opposite--military gives contracts to the lowst bidder, and the rich don't hafta fight. So the warrior class has passed from the wealthy to the poor, as we saw in the last 150 years of war, maybe more.

Keith
 
Re: from sport of wealthy to the rich don't have to fight. I never thought of that before. That's a very interesting observation.
Cheers, Mark
 
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