A History of Weaponry: Introduction

My ultimate goal is to write about the individual specifics of every known kind of medieval weaponry. But before I can do that, I must first get a little history out of the way. Namely, the history of weaponry in general. One cannot discuss weapons properly without considering how those weapons came to be. The very history of armaments dictate the circumstances in which they took form, as weapons adapted to advancements in forging technologies and armory.

This project is partially inspired by my love of medieval weaponry, swords in particular. I have always wanted to keep a blog about weapons, but never felt like I knew enough about them. So with this I take it upon myself to learn everything I can find about weapons, and share my findings here.

My main purpose is to keep this blog as an ongoing reference for writers, who intend to write medieval fantasy, or in any setting that has pre-firearm weaponry. Since this is a history of weaponry meant to be used for reference in the writing of fantasy novels, I will not be going into detail about the development of firearms. This is a pre-firearms work only.

I will be dividing this work as if it were a series of books, into individual volumes. The first volume will cover the basics, from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The second volume will focus on the development of European weaponry, all the way from Greece to the Renaissance. The following volumes will focus on other parts of the world, such as Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Hopefully I will be able to complete this, and provide it to you in a way that is interesting to read. I do have to provide a small caveat that I will be trying to be as scholarly as possible, so chances are I will not be making this interesting for anyone that does not already have an interest in medieval weapons.