Comments on: Weaponry: Norman Arms and Armour http://www.historynet.com/weaponry-norman-arms-and-armour.htm From the World's Largest History Magazine Publisher Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:52:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Jon de Enefelde http://www.historynet.com/weaponry-norman-arms-and-armour.htm#comment-12548 Jon de Enefelde Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:18:14 +0000 #comment-12548 I am a member of the Adrian Empire which is a group of Mideval period re-inactors. My persona is a late 11th century Norman archer. Your description of Norman armour, arms and archery fits pretty well with other research I have found. What people who like to argue over what is period and what is peculiar to one cultural group or another need to remember about the Normans, is that they were highly adaptable. They did not rigidly stay to one style of clothing or weaponry over time. Rather, they took what they thought were the best ideas of enemies they encountered and incorparated those ideas into their own culture. Thus, to say that Normas only wore nasal guarded spanglehelms or that their shields and swords were all the same design is neither practical nor proven by evidence. Documents I have read suggest that Normans were wearing quite a variety of clothing, armour and using many kinds of weapons by the 10th and 11th centuries. Also, the arguement over what medieval bows looked like is a bit cloudy. As your article pointed out so well, no bows survive intact from the early periods. They wore out and were broken down to be reused for something else. The illustrations on the tapestries, monuments, early books etc. give us some idea, but are hardly the same as having an authentic 10th or 11th century bow in our hands. Limitations of the ability of the artists to depict the bows and especially to depict the style of their use have to be accounted for too. The article suggests that they fired their arrows from the chest instead of from the ear. I have tried doing that with my bow and found that I was accurate only up to about five feet doing that. When I fire the same bow from the ear, I am accurate up to 50 feet. It seems to me that if you were in short supply of arrows that you would try to make each one count for a hit. I think that the sewers of the tapestry couldn't figure out how to make it look like the arrows were being fired from the ear. My wife has tried embroidery and it is not as easy as drawing with a pencil. Let's face it, as lovely as the tapestries are, the images on them are a bit crude and not that realistic. Otherwise, a very well written article. Yours in Service, Jon de Enefelde I am a member of the Adrian Empire which is a group of Mideval period re-inactors. My persona is a late 11th century Norman archer. Your description of Norman armour, arms and archery fits pretty well with other research I have found. What people who like to argue over what is period and what is peculiar to one cultural group or another need to remember about the Normans, is that they were highly adaptable. They did not rigidly stay to one style of clothing or weaponry over time. Rather, they took what they thought were the best ideas of enemies they encountered and incorparated those ideas into their own culture. Thus, to say that Normas only wore nasal guarded spanglehelms or that their shields and swords were all the same design is neither practical nor proven by evidence. Documents I have read suggest that Normans were wearing quite a variety of clothing, armour and using many kinds of weapons by the 10th and 11th centuries.

Also, the arguement over what medieval bows looked like is a bit cloudy. As your article pointed out so well, no bows survive intact from the early periods. They wore out and were broken down to be reused for something else. The illustrations on the tapestries, monuments, early books etc. give us some idea, but are hardly the same as having an authentic 10th or 11th century bow in our hands. Limitations of the ability of the artists to depict the bows and especially to depict the style of their use have to be accounted for too. The article suggests that they fired their arrows from the chest instead of from the ear. I have tried doing that with my bow and found that I was accurate only up to about five feet doing that. When I fire the same bow from the ear, I am accurate up to 50 feet. It seems to me that if you were in short supply of arrows that you would try to make each one count for a hit. I think that the sewers of the tapestry couldn’t figure out how to make it look like the arrows were being fired from the ear. My wife has tried embroidery and it is not as easy as drawing with a pencil. Let’s face it, as lovely as the tapestries are, the images on them are a bit crude and not that realistic.

Otherwise, a very well written article.

Yours in Service,

Jon de Enefelde

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