Long sword

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Long sword
Espadon-Morges.jpg
Long sword from around 1500
Information
Weapon type: sword
Designations: Hand and a half sword, bastard sword, two-handed sword
Use: Cutting and thrusting weapon
Creation time: approx. 14th century
Working time: 14.-17. Century
Region of origin /
author: 		Central and Southern Europe
Distribution: across Europe
Overall length: approx. 100 cm to 140 cm
Blade length: approx. 85 cm to 120 cm
Blade width: approx. 5 cm to 6 cm (at the blade root)
Blade thickness: approx. 4.5 mm to 7 mm (at the blade root)
Weight: approx. 0.8 kg to 1.8 kg
Handle: Wood, metal wire, leather
Particularities: a variety of variants
Lists on the subject

As Long sword or longsword is called two-handed swords of the late Middle Ages . However, the term long sword is very imprecise as it is used for different types of swords that were longer compared to previous types. The long sword developed from transition types such as the hand and a half sword since the 13th century . Only in the course of the 15th century did the two-handed blades become significantly longer than the one-handed ones. These renaissance two-handed swords differ from the long sword of the Middle Ages.

History and description

One-handed swords as predecessor types

The term long sword is ambiguous and can be applied to very different weapons, each longer than the types used at the same time or previously. First of all, the double-edged spathe, invented by the Celts in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, adopted in Roman and Germanic usage and further developed by the Germanic peoples, is called the long sword, as it was longer than the gladius or the sax and has a length of about 75-110 cm. After the one-handed sword of the Spatha type established itself in Europe, it was commonly referred to as a sword , even though it was a long sword. The blade is double-edged and, after the Migration Period, was provided with several, later one wide, fuller to control the mass distribution (often incorrectly referred to as a "blood channel").

Over the course of the Middle Ages, the design of the spathe changed such as taper and balance to make it more stitch-heavy. These were still one-handed swords that were used against shield and chain mail. The blade was usually ground with two edges. Later, however, swords with a central ridge were also created for better shock resistance.

Origin of the Long Sword

Around the middle of the 13th century, armor saw significant improvements and type XIIa and XIIIa swords (according to the Oakeshott classification ) enjoyed increasing popularity. These "great swords " or "war swords " were mainly used as two-handed swords . If necessary, the second hand was used to achieve better control and effectiveness. With the creation of plate armor , the shield became superfluous. This freed the left hand. From the middle of the 14th century there was a transition to the two-handed sword wield, so the left hand found its place on the sword handle, which was now up to 30 cm long. This two-handed guidance and the relatively low mass of often only 1.3 kg to 1.6 kg made complex fencing techniques possible with high impact force and precision at the same time. The style of wielding the sword with both hands against unarmored opponents was called the Long Sword in the 15th century (see Codex 44A8, Peter von Danzig, 1452). In contrast, the style of grasping the sword " half sword" with the left in the middle of the blade was called The Short Sword . That it was possible in against opponents Harnisch proceed ( Fix ).

Decline of the Long Sword

The long sword was replaced by smaller and lighter swords and rapiers , which corresponded better to modern warfare without strong armor. Although these weapons were less powerful and robust, they were more manoeuvrable and had a similar range. The fashionable and small weapons could also be easily carried to the cloakroom. Fencing with the long sword remained a bourgeois sport until the 17th century, but the art gradually died out. There is no preserved sword fighting school of the long sword in direct tradition for almost 400 years. Recently, many clubs and those interested in martial arts have been trying to reconstruct fencing with the long sword using the fencing books .

Typology

A classification according to the shape of the blade to determine the time of manufacture is made by the Oakeshott classification . Between 1350 and 1550, when the long sword experienced its military and civil heyday, it is primarily the Oakeshott types XVa, XVIIIa / b / c, XIX and XXa that are used as long swords. The most common type of long sword blade was XVa , which enjoyed continuous popularity from the middle of the 14th century to the 16th century. According to illustrations in fencing books by Fiore De Liberi, Hans Talhoffer and Paulus Kal, the Type XVa was the most widely used fencing sword, which was the predominant long sword variant between 1350 and 1450. However, since types XVa and XVIIIa are very closely related, an exact separation of the two types in images and other artistic representations is not always possible.

Preserved originals and fencing books by Liberi, Kal and Talhoffer also prove a change in the concept of long sword. Between 1350 and 1450, the blade length of the long swords was not much larger than the one-handed versions that had been common up until then. The term "the long sword" referred more to the two-handed guidance than the actual length. The optimal total length of the long sword is given, especially in early fencing books (first half of the 15th century) from the floor to the navel. Swords are also shown on corresponding illustrations, which reach their owners up to the stomach level. In the second half of the 15th century, an elongation of the swords became apparent, so that Filippo Vadi recommended a length from the floor to chest height in the 1480s.

The type XVIII and his subtypes was also popular after E. Oakeshott and stood in almost the entire 15th century, the sword weapon most militarily used, which can be traced to contemporary illustrations and originals preserved. From the second half of the 15th century, types XIX and XXa are increasingly found; this tendency from the prick-heavy rhombic blade to cut-oriented designs can be explained by the changed battlefield tactics. From 1450 to around 1520, mercenary armies armed with firearms and long spears prevailed, which finally sealed the loss of the military importance of the knight armies. The armor of the foot soldiers sometimes decreased significantly, so that the types XIX and XX as well as older flat blade designs could be used very effectively.

This means that the typology of the long sword is only possible with restrictions. From 1350 to 1450 it was mainly the types XVa – XVIIIa, which the fighter reached from the ground to the height of his stomach. These "original" long swords can be found in fencing books from both the Italian and German schools . From 1480 a shift to types XIX and XXa can be detected, whereby their length reaches the full height of the fighter in extreme cases.

Sports

The long sword is enjoying growing interest due to the revival and reconstruction of European martial arts.

→ See also: European sword fighting , modern sword art

Historical errors

Since the medieval long sword also allowed some techniques to be carried out with only one hand on the sword, the erroneous view has recently arisen that both ways of guiding were equal (hand and a half sword ). In some places it is even alleged that they were mainly one-handed weapons. The almost exclusive guided tour with two hands is historically correct. A large shield is usually not used at the same time as a long sword. However, there is evidence of the use of the long sword along with the buckler . For example, this is in the fencing book of Paulus Kal and in the anonymous Libr. Pict. A83 from the Berlin State Library, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation .

Lately, numerous writings have been published that deal with the subject of " Knights and the Middle Ages ". The term "long sword" is often treated imprecisely, and it often happens that the terms "bastard sword", "hand and a half sword", "two-handed sword" and "two-handed sword" are treated synonymously without any further distinction. In fact, most of these terms are of modern origin and do not appear in historical writings. Names for swords that have become generally accepted are: "Great sword" for types XIIa and XIIIa according to the Oakeshott classification , "the long sword" for the two-handed swords of types XV-XVIII of the 14th to 16th centuries , "Bastard sword" for a lower form of the long sword of the 15th century (better adapted to one-handed operation) and two -handed swords for the very large battle swords of the Renaissance . Here the terms “great sword” and “two-handed sword” do not designate one and the same sword shape and must not be used synonymously, especially since there is a purely time lag of more than a hundred years between the two sword types.

Weight

Often in the above. The weight of the two-handed sword transferred to the long sword. In the literature to this day there are statements that certify the long sword has a mass of over several kilograms. According to modern studies on preserved originals, the mass of the majority of long swords is between 1.2 kg and 1.8 kg. As for the two-handed swords, their mass usually stays below the 3 kg mark. There are also long swords from the 15th-16th centuries. Century, which penetrate with their weight into the realm of the great two-handed swords. These specimens are more of an exception than the rule. However, there are parade swords from the 16th to 17th centuries. Century, which actually weighs several kilograms - these swords are pure showpieces, which were not suitable for combat from the start and therefore were neither heat treated nor sharpened. The historical average mass of the useful long swords from the 14th to 16th centuries. Century, which were used in German and Italian sword fencing schools , is around 1.4 kg.

use

Another mistake is the way the long sword is used. The center of gravity was usually between 5 cm and 20 cm from the parry, with most swords around 1.2 kg to 1.5 kg it was 9 cm to 11 cm in front of the cross. In connection with the mass distribution, swords were designated as cutting and stabbing weapons, which enabled a cut and cut effect, but also allowed a high degree of blade control. According to the preserved written sources, the so-called fencing books , the use of a long sword had much more in common with the Asian martial arts known today than with the well-known action-packed depictions in period films and on medieval markets . The all-round from the films of the 20th – 21st Century well-known stage and exhibition fight is a completely modern cinematographic fencing system that was developed to meet the dramaturgical requirements of period films.

Typical long sword of the first half of the 15th century, based on contemporary illustrations and preserved originals

Since the beginning of the 19th century, there has been an opinion (which has since become obsolete) that long swords were intended to dent armor and therefore did not have to be sharp. This picture can be found e.g. B. explicitly in Walter Scott's " Ivanhoe ", an image that has remained to this day. As a historical source, Scott's books, like any other romantic literature, are out of the question, but this outdated concept is still held even in historical-academic circles. Here, the modern ideas regarding the medieval fighting methods play the key role: Today's stage fencing is based on the classical fencing , which is almost completely based on the Épée . Since the appearance of the short sword at the end of the 17th century, the European bourgeois art of fencing has concentrated completely on push fencing, cutting and cutting only played a sporting role in the civil sector, if at all (see saber fencing ). As a result, the fencers of the 19th century in particular tended to judge the long sword from the point of view of an Épée sport fencer, also due to the external shape of the long sword types XVa and XVIIIa, which were often reminiscent of a rapier from a purely visual point of view . This gave rise to the feeling that the late medieval long sword was not a fully-fledged cutting weapon and could therefore only be used for stabbing and as a striking weapon, which in the imagination of the time, together with the ascribed weight of up to 10 kg and the "enormous width", seemed quite logical.

In contrast to the pure-bred Estoc , the allegedly inadequate cutting properties of the long sword can not be proven historically or archaeologically in sword types XVa and XVIIIa . There is a large number of original swords that have been in very good condition to this day, which make it clear that they are not suitable as "stick weapons", neither in terms of their size nor in terms of blade geometry. Cross-sectional photos of metallographic examinations are available from which the cutting angles of the swords can be determined; they usually vary between 20 ° and 30 ° and thus indicate a high possible sharpness suitable for cuts. The consistently rounded cutting edges that are so often postulated as found in modern combat weapons are not available. Although there are historical and archaeological faults in long swords, these were usually attached to certain points on the blade with the aim of ensuring the safe execution of the half sword techniques. With a cutting edge angle of about 25 ° in connection with a suitable mass distribution, the long sword results in a serious cutting weapon, which, with a thickness of 5.5 mm, is quite stiff in this area, but technically speaking, because of the insufficient moment of inertia, it can be used as a "Knüppelwaffe", ie as a cutting weapon, the v. a. acts through its impulse, is unsuitable, and in such a way does not develop sufficient effect even against armor.

As modern experiments with historically authentic replicas show, even longswords of the XVa type can still be classified as cutting weapons, which can achieve considerable cutting performance with the appropriate correct technique. This is also supported by the historical sources, but above all by the fact that the fencing books teach three methods of injuring the opponent with regard to the long sword: the cut, stab and cut. For these and the above reasons, the notion of a blunt long sword is historically untenable.

literature

  • Patrick Leiske: Courtly play and deadly seriousness. The bare fencing with the long sword in the German fencing books of the late Middle Ages and early modern times . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2018, ISBN 978-3-7995-1257-2 .
  • R. Ewart Oakeshott, “The Archeology of Weapons: Arms and Armor from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry” ISBN 0-486-29288-6
  • Wendelin Boeheim, "Handbuch der Waffenkunde", The weapon system in its historical development from the beginning of the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century (2000) ISBN 3-8262-0212-0
  • Liliane Funcken, Fred Funcken, "Historical weapons and armor of the Middle Ages, knights and mercenaries from the 8th to the 16th century" (2001), ISBN 3-572-01308-9
  • Hans Talhoffer, "Talhoffers Fechtbuch" depicting judicial and other duels (1999) ISBN 3-932077-03-2
  • Herbert Schmidt, "Sword fight: The fight with the long sword according to the German school" (2007) ISBN 978-3-938-71119-4
  • André Schulze, "Medieval ways of fighting - The long sword" (2006) ISBN 3-8053-3652-7
  • Konrad Kessler, "The fight with the long sword" (2007) ISBN 3-87892-091-1

Web links

Commons : Long Swords  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Tilman Wanke: Hand and a half sword - two-handed sword - long sword . Download as PDF ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Ewart Oakeshott: Records of the Medieval Sword, Boydell Press, Melton 1991, ISBN 978-0-85115-566-1
  3. ↑ Flos Duellatorum by Fiore Dei Liberi, approx. 1410 ( Memento from August 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Talhoffer Ms. Chart. A 558-1443
  5. ^ Kal, Paulus: Fechtbuch, dedicated to the Count Palatine Ludwig - BSB Cgm 1507, Sl Bavaria, 2nd half of the 15th century
  6. ↑ Tilman Wanke: Hand and a half sword - two-handed sword - long sword . Pp. 20-21
  7. ^ Sydney Anglo: The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe. Yale University Press (2000) p. 97
  8. ^ Kal, Paulus: Fechtbuch, dedicated to Count Palatine Ludwig - BSB Cgm 1507, online at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
  9. ↑ Robert Geissler: About the mass of swords. In: German Umbrella Association of Historical Fencers . November 16, 2019, accessed January 22, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Bidened weight diagram
  11. ↑ Zornhau e. V .: Dinkelsbühl revisited ZEF 06 (PDF; 85 kB)
  12. ↑ Zornhau e. V .: Dinkelsbühl revisited ZEF 08 (PDF; 111 kB)
  13. ↑ Sword excursions to Dinkelsbühl
  14. ↑ a b On the dynamics of swords . Site of Tremonia Fencing. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  15. ↑ Overview of sources: late medieval fencing books
  16. ↑ "What did Historical Swords Weigh?" by J. Clements (paragraph: Expert Opinions)
  17. ↑ ZEF-6 and ZEF-7, classic examples of a long sword
  18. ↑ A. Williams: Studies on Swords of the Renaissance
  19. ↑ On the sharpness of blades . Site of Tremonia Fencing. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  20. ↑ Hans Talhoffer Thott 290 2º
  21. ^ New York Historical Fencing Association; test cutting by director Michael Edelson
  22. ↑ the drew wonder that's a haw a stitch a schnyd