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Old 09-26-2020, 06:40 PM   #11
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: Oakeshott Typology Broadswords

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
I've seen the meme in older fiction. Specifically in the Incomplete Enchanter series by de Camp and Pratt. I just haven't seen any real swords to back it up.

People can get crossed up by artificial distinctions in the way material gets presented. If some curator wants to put up a display of "European Swords" and he starts with the Vikings and goes on well into the Renaissance you can get the idea of a steady evolution away from slashing towards thrusting blades.

Only if he had started with Roman Spathas those were very sharply pointed and all the Renaissance Falchions (heavy chopping blades) are in another display case if not another museum.
I believe in de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall the protagonist manages to surprise and defeat an experienced late Roman swordsman by thrusting with a sword, which the author thought would be an unimagined maneuver.
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Old 09-26-2020, 08:49 PM   #12
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Default Re: Oakeshott Typology Broadswords

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Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
I believe in de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall the protagonist manages to surprise and defeat an experienced late Roman swordsman by thrusting with a sword, which the author thought would be an unimagined maneuver.
I think this is also a thing in Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen.
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Old 09-27-2020, 11:54 PM   #13
Polydamas
 
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Default Re: Oakeshott Typology Broadswords

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
I saw a sword that on a TV show once. The would-be seller clamed it waa authentic but the expert the show called in decided it was a fake. I've never seen an authentic one.
Aside from the executioner's swords, I think there are a few blunt-tipped Broadswords in Egerton's Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour, but my copy is in storage.

The idea that someone invented the sword-thrust came from gentleman-antiquarians before the First World War like Egerton Castle. There were not really any reliable histories of European martial arts in English before Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe in 2000.
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Old 09-28-2020, 09:21 AM   #14
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: Oakeshott Typology Broadswords

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Originally Posted by Polydamas View Post

The idea that someone invented the sword-thrust came from gentleman-antiquarians before the First World War like Egerton Castle. .
He, no doubt was ignoring the other Victorians who had some early swords they wanted to call 'Bronze Age Rapiers". There's one of those in de Camp's The Tritonian Ring just to show how confused the issue was.
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