Swords

[IceSpeed2]

I am reading more about swords because White Savage
corrected me on a detail about swords in other topic, and a few debates
broke out.



An American Renaissance poster suggests in an
article that Germanic tribes used two handed swords centuries before
900 AD and that Dane soldiers were at tactical disadvantages because of
them.

"to force back the Saxons, who were rading
the coasts of North -East Britain (Now East Anglia). And the result was
the gradual, but inexorable displacement of the dominant and far more
"civilized" "Romano-British" by the dull witted Danes with their two
handed swords and their chain mail armor</span>.
Several hundred years
after that, (c. 980 AD), Brian Boru, a distant ancestor of the Kennedy
family, thought it a fine thing to "invite" some English adventurers
from the Home".

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2004/10/exposing_the_op .php

</font></font></font></font></font> David A. Kyne was the poster</font></font>


Edited by: IceSpeed2

 

[IceSpeed2]

White Savage, swordforum.com will has not allowed me
to post yet even though the account is activated. Is this
normal?

 

[White Shogun]

I am reading more about swords because White Shogun corrected me on a detail about swords in other topic, and a few debates broke out.

IceSpeed,you sure it was me that corrected you? I'd hate to think so, because I admit I don't know much about swords!

 

[White_Savage]

There is simply little or nothing in the way of preserved two-handed swords or mention of them before the Medieval period in Europe, though of course people were always experimenting and isolated examples might pop up.

(There is, as you likely know, mention of warriors wielding normally one-handed blades in both hands for an especially powerful blow, the last stand of Harald Hardrada for example.)

Tactically, a two-handed sword simply didn't make much sense until armor had become suffeciently impregnable as to render the shield superfulous.

Be aware that translation of some of these obscure Germanic weapon terms is problematic and still debated. In any case, reference to a two handed weapons in the Dark Ages probably means an axe or other polearm.

Mail is first mentioned by the Romans in use by the Celts, though doubtless different millitaries of the period had varying amounts of the highly expensive stuff at their disposal.

I guess you've probably figured this out, but I'll mention belatedly that reconstruction of European martial forms is a hobby with of mine, and as I say, there are boatloads of mis-information on this rather obscure historical area. Just conversating, not really trying to bust your chops or anything there Ice. BTW, forgot to mention, good call on pointing out that the Moorish invaders of Spain were not ********, despite what some movies depict.