![]() Image Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. With the advent of steel plate armour, additional weapons for penetration were sometimes added to battle axes, including sharp picks on the rear of the blades. Like swords, however, they gradually came to be made of steel as the metal alloy became more accessible. They even feature on the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings in 1066.Īt the start of the medieval era, battle axes were made of wrought iron with a carbon steel edge. Axeīattles axes are most commonly associated today with the Vikings but they were in fact used throughout the medieval era. The most obvious development is the appearance of a crossguard – the bar of metal that sits at right angles to the blade, separating it from the hilt – though these were also seen in late versions of the Carolingian sword. The 11th to 12th centuries gave rise to the so-called “knightly” sword, the variety that best fits our image of a sword today. These weapons combined both weight and maneuverability. This meant that pattern-welding was no longer necessary and that blades could be narrower and more tapered. Merovingian swords developed into the Carolingian or “Viking” variety in the 8th century when sword smiths increasingly gained access to high quality steel imported from Central Asia. ![]() They also often had sections that had been pattern-welded, a process whereby metal pieces of varying composition were forge-welded together. ![]() The blades of Merovingian swords had very little taper and, unlike the weapons we would recognise as swords today, were usually rounded at the ends. The first, the Merovingian sword, was popular among the Germanic peoples in the 4th to 7th centuries and derived from the Roman-era spatha – a straight and long sword used in wars and gladiatorial fights. There were three main types of swords used in the European medieval period. Image Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Merovingian sword, 6th century Carolingian sword, 8th century Knightly Sword, probably French, from early 15th century. ![]()
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