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.

Welcome to the Ironforge

The sound of iron hitting molten steel rings through the scorching heat of the workshop. It is late in the evening, and the only light comes from the massive forge, fires flaring up as the apprentice pumps the bellows. A crude bar of metal is taken from the flames, placed on the the anvil, to become elegant death.

Say what you want about human dignity, the sanctity of life, there is just something beautiful about a well forged weapon. Medieval weaponry, swords in particular, transcend crude butchery into true art. In our modern world there are a lot of misconceptions about the weapons from our past. For those that love weapons, there are few things more painful than reading a book that betrays the author's lack of knowledge on the subject.

As an aspiring author of epic fantasy novels, I take this aspect of the medieval setting very important. There has been a shift in recent years away from the traditional medieval European setting. But for those that still want to write that kind of fiction, and even those that want to write a medieval setting in a different part of the world, weapons will have to feature heavily in any non-modernized setting.

And if you're going to include weapons in your book, you might as well know what you're writing about. This means research. And while there are a lot of sources out there, research can take a lot of time when you have to hunt down all the different sources. Which is where this blog comes in. From now until I finish, if that ever happens, I will write about the general development of weapons, focusing on specific weapons from specific eras. All for your convenience. This will eventually provide all the necessary information for writing realistic weapons.

Since this project will be as scholarly as possible, every post will include the sources I got my information from. Any claims I make can, and should, be followed up on. Eventually I hope that this blog will become a premier source of information for enthusiasts of medieval weaponry and armor.

The main way I will organize my research is in the form of books. Each book will have a specific purpose, and will be published chapter by chapter. The first one I will write will be a general history of the development of weapons, currently titled A History of Weaponry. Since there is the possibility that I might post a chapter from a different book I want to write, each post will begin with the title of the book, followed by the chapter number and title after a colon. So a post could look like this:

A History of Weaponry: Chapter 1 - The Stone Age.

 After each book is done I will figure out some way to give them their own pages, to make reading them easier, and so you don't have to read the individual posts backwards. If I manage to figure out how to get blogger to do that.