#European Weapons

[cutecuttlefish]

The sword of the day is the stiletto.

The stiletto is an Italian renaissance-era dagger with a long, slender profile and a needle-like point. It is a development on the rondel dagger, and initially served a very similar purpose; a backup weapon to pierce through gaps in armor while in extremely close quarters combat. It was also developed from a second weapon, called a misericorde, used to deliver mercy kills to downed knights through their heavy armor. The narrow blade could penetrate through chain mail at the armpit to reach the heart, or even stab through the eye slits of a helmet to kill quickly via brain injury. Later, the stiletto was adopted as an assassin’s weapon, easily concealed and able to pierce through heavy leather and fabric clothing. The strikingly narrow blade is so iconic that it remains a name for many different kinds of long, narrow features, like extremely thin high heeled shoes.

[kultofathena]

The Milan Sword has a hot-peen construction that melds the blade and hilt together at the pommel and gives this sword a very strong and lasting hilt construction. The crossguard and pommel are crafted from steel with an antiqued finish and the grip is carved from Poplar and tightly bound in leather to complete the sword.

[armthearmour]

A beautiful black and gilt Cup-hilt Rapier,

OaL: 44.6 in/113.3 cm

Blade Length: 36.8 in/93.5 cm

Width: 11.1 in/28.3 cm

Depth: 5 in/12.7 cm

Weight: 2.1 lbs/963.9 g

Italy, ca. 1650, housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[artschoolglasses]

Hand-and-a-Half Sword, European, possibly British, 15th Century

From the Met Museum

[illustratus]

A rare Mediaeval Sword taken from the Mamluk Arsenal at Alexandria during the last Crusade in the second half of the 14th Century

This sword was given as a gift to the Mamluk rulers of Alexandria by the Christian ruler of Cyprus and Jerusalem, King Peter I as part of a gift sealing a treaty. The sword was then forcibly taken back into Christian hands during the last Crusade's victory over the city of Alexandria. Consequently the sword symbolises the history of the time when Christians and Muslims fought for dominance in the eastern Mediterranean.

King Peter I, the King of Cyprus and Jerusalem, launched the last Crusade in 1362 against the Muslim Mamluk Empire in the region. A fleet set out from Cyprus and proved victorious, taking the city of Alexandria with immense amounts of plunder returned to Cyprus, including this sword. Such was the treasure and weapons taken from the captured city that many of the overloaded ships had to jettison cargo.

David Williams, Head of Bonhams Antique Arms and Armour Department, says: "The fascination of this sword is that it has survived some six centuries having been gifted by a Christian King to a Muslim ruler and kept in the famed Alexandrian armoury and then taken by force by Crusaders and returned to Europe. It is a remarkable survivor of the Crusader period."

[solcattus]

Designs for a Dagger and Sheath, 1543

By Augustin Hirschvogel

[fallloverfic]

I've seen some very odd takes about certain language used in the scene where Mizrak rebukes Olrox at the end of Castlevania: Nocturne, which I think might be due to lack of knowledge about the historical context of certain things.

CW: historical racism against First Nation groups

I know reading academic articles isn't for everyone, but I have to wonder if a lot of people in the Castlevania: Nocturne fandom have not watched things like, say, Disney's 1995 animated Pocahontas, which, for all its many, many flaws, features the song, Savages. I'm not going to quote it in full here, you can find the song lyrics elsewhere (though the European colonizers do use the lines "vermin" and "barely even human", among other epithets). It's not a great song for a lot of reasons (among them being it tries to "both sides" things). But to look at the scene in CN where Mizrak, a Christian working in a European Christian church with at least some Europeans, calls Olrox, a First Nation man, an animal without the understanding of how Christian European colonizers (typically as part of or at least backed by some Christian churches) have viewed First Nation peoples and treated them, and certain epithets used for them, and how European Christian dehumanization of "new world" groups and non-Christians generally worked/works?

Well.

[geraldtheoceanman]

Redraw of the one singular panel they get

One with and without the helmets

[plushri]

250,000 people turned up in London for Palestine yesterday! Make the next demonstration on Saturday 9th March even bigger, please show up if you can.

If you're in the UK, email your MPs and urge them to support the potential motion for ceasefire in Gaza tabled for 21st February.

All you have to do is enter your postcode at the site will generate an email to your MP for you! Then autofill your information and it will send the email. It takes a few seconds. No ceasefire, no vote!

From the river to the sea 🇵🇸❤️

[cutecuttlefish]

The sword of the day is the lantern shield.

The lantern shield was an especially odd and rare Renaissance-era European weapon. In its most basic form, it is simply a shield combined with a lantern, used for fighting at night time. At some point, though, some enterprising young armorer decided that, well, we’re already incorporating a lantern into the design. What else can we add to it? So, several surviving examples are fitted with an integrated gauntlet, as well as a frankly irresponsible number of blades and spikes, giving a wielder a wide variety of offensive options. That said, the difficulty of their construction and rather niche use means that not many examples survive to the modern day.

[kultofathena]

Ronin Katana – Hand and a Half Bastard Sword #15

This late Medieval bastard sword from Ronin Katana has a tempered and sharp blade forged from 1075 high carbon steel with hollow ground blade geometry. The stiff blade will cut and thrust with authority and decisiveness. The guard and pommel are crafted from stainless steel and the grip is wood which is tightly bound in leather. The blade is mounted into the hilt with a peen over the pommel for a tough and lasting construction. The sword is paired with a wood-core scabbard which is overlaid in faux leather and fitted with stainless steel chape and locket. A simple sword belt and frog of faux leather is included.

Please Note: The sword scabbard with its buckles is arranged for wearing on the right hip for a left hand draw.

[captain-price-unofficially]

French gas attack on German trenches in Flanders, Belgium. 1 January 1917

[armthearmour]

An early Basket-hilted Broadsword,

OaL: 42.5 in/107.9 cm

Blade Length: 36.5 in/92.7 cm

Width: 5.75 in/14.6 cm

Depth: 4.25 in/10.8 cm

Weight: 3 lbs/1360.8 g

Potsdam, Germany, hilt ca. 1540, blade 17th century, housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[artschoolglasses]

Steel and silver axe head, Scandinavian, 11th-12th Century

From the Met Museum

[illustratus]

[journeytothewestresearch]

Story Idea: Part-Time God

Imagine a very unassuming guy (of any ethnicity or nationality) who goes to work, pays his taxes, complains about the price of gas, food, and rent (etc.), things any regular person would do. But he is in fact an ancient Eurasian thunder god who, when called upon, battles drought-bringing water-serpents in the clouds. His glowing ethereal form is that of a giant, bearded man with a horned helmet and ancient, golden attire. He wields either a stone mace or a forked thunder weapon that showers lightning bolts across the heavens.

This dual nature is not a case of a deity being cursed to forget their divine origins like the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Nor is it a case of a god being punished to live as a mortal like Marvel's silver age Thor. Perhaps the protagonist's father, the king of the gods, is aloof and disconnected from the human world. Therefore, our hero takes it upon himself to live among Man in order to stay grounded and to better understand their day to day struggles in an ever-changing world.

It's important to note that he is NOT a superhero. This god does not use his power to deter crime. It is only used in battling water-serpents, which ensures the survival of mankind by routing droughts that would otherwise destroy all the world's crops. Basically, if he doesn't perform his holy duty, the world will starve. It's best to think of the narrative in terms of ancient religion and the importance of the harvest to agrarian societies.

The meat of the story would be the strange juxtaposition between his mortal and immortal lives. There would be a clean divide between both, with episodes focusing on the tedium of his daily human activities and the explosive action of his divine battles. But occasionally these lives would bleed into each other; for instance, an injury born from his heaven-shaking combat, could be explained away as some embarrassing accident, like rolling an ankle or tripping up the stairs. Or, a human friend or coworker might notice his sour deminer after a drama-filled argument about the merits of mankind with his father in heaven.

If anyone asks, yes, this is a self-insert. I was bored while waiting for a doctor's appointment. I was wondering what it would be like to have a concurrent second life free of aging and illness, one where I could soar through the clouds and test my divine strength by battling ancient foes.