Mankind's first weapon was a club.
Simple, yet effective.
However, as mans' need to protect themselves, their family, and
their food grew, so did the necessity for better weapons.
During the Middle Ages, there was much fighting and declarations
of war because of the struggle over land and farming rights.
As history has shown us time and time again, there are leaps and
bounds when it comes to weapons innovations during war time.
Though most medieval weapons are fairly simple in design, some
are much more complex. An example of this would be the
crossbow. The crossbow is a finely tuned instrument of
death, as there are numerous weights and counterweights that
must work properly in order for the weapon to fire at all, let
alone shoot straight. A working crossbow was something to
be feared indeed. It is basically a medieval equivalent to
our modern day sniper rifle. The crossbow was silent and
shot arrows at a velocity unheard of at the time. Regular
bows could not create enough tension to really blast an arrow,
but the crossbow did. On the exact opposite of the
spectrum of weapons, there was the mace. The mace, though
relatively simple in design, was a vicious weapon to use against
an opponent. It is almost barbaric in appearance, yet
there is something aesthetically pleasing about the perfect
form. If a mace didn't kill you, it would certainly make
you wish you had--what with the disfiguring scars and general
damage done when one strikes you.
Swords are the classic medieval weapon of choice. Swords
started off as rugged hammered bits of copper and bronze, only
later in the Middle Ages to become the sharp, sleek weapon we
think of today. The invention of steel made truly
beautiful and deadly swords possible. Without steel,
swords would still be rather easy to break due to the brittle
nature of bronze. The styles of swords developed
throughout the Middle Ages to create a wide variety of sweeping
hilts, cross hilts, and basket hilts. Not to mention the
variety of blades that became available. There were large
flat blades for broadswords, narrow flexible blades for rapiers,
and curved blades for knights swords. Blood grooves were
perfected during this era as well, because it was useful during
battle. It was difficult to remove a sword from an
opponent after death without the blood groove. The sword
formed a sort of vacuum in your opponents' tissue, which proved
almost impossible to remove. In melee battle, this was
obviously not desired. You needed to be able to parry,
parry, thrust...remove your sword and repeat. The
invention and perfection of the blood groove in a sword's blade
helped to eliminate the vacuum effect so the sword was easily
removed from your opponent, allowing you to move onto your next
opponent very quickly.
Siege and warfare weapons were also perfected during this era
due to the high demand of reliable weapons. Weapons have
come a long way since the Middle Ages, but just remember that
most of Europe's major weapon production and invention periods
was during the supposed Dark Ages.
Shopping Cart
