Melee Weapons Of The Past
Today, weapons that fire hot lead across thousands of yards, destroy cities in a single blast of insane fury, or disable a man without harming him at all are the bread of butter of conflicts the world over. But even though they no longer have a place on the battlefield, there is something noble about the melee weapons that once ruled the battlefield.
It is the weapon of duelists, the sword, that has maintained the greatest popularity in the public eye. Every fantasy hero, every cartoon warrior, has a sword. Using a sword against gun-wielding opponents is particularly popular.
Be it gracefully curved katana from Japan, or brutally efficient zweihander’s from Germany, their is no denying that the sword is the single most dominant melee weapon in popular culture. Even in movies filled with firearms, it is never a surprise to see a suitably epic sword duel between the hero and the villain.
The sword isn’t the only melee weapon to talk about though. The spear in particular needs special mention; a weapon regarded by many to be superior to the sword in every way except for being easy to carry. There is an old saying: To defeat a spear user takes three times the skill it would take to defeat a similarly talented sword wielder.
It is for this reason that polearms, from lances to pikes to glaives, have almost always served as the primary weapon of armies everywhere. Add in the relative ease of producing a spear, and it is no wonder they were so popular with the armies of days past.
The last of the popular melee weapon types is bludgeoning and bashing weapons. Maces, morningstars, flails, even some bladed weapons such as axes fall into this territory. While these weapons have their own flaws, their simple efficiency means they cannot be ignored.
In particular, a bludgeoning weapon can have devastating effect when employed against armored foes. It is for this reason that at several points in history, western knights preferred maces and flails over swords as their sidearms.
Though not really a weapon, I feel this article would be incomplete without a mention of shields. Despite being even less popular in popular culture than other melee fighting weapons, the fact remains that the man with a shield is often the last man standing.
A skilled fighter can defeat almost any attack with a good shield in his hands, and the best can use them as a brutally effective bludgeon. Dual-wielding may be popular in movies and games, but I’ll take a shield for my off hand any day in real life.
I hope you’ve learned a little about melee weapons. While they are hardly practical in a world where gunpowder and more rule an ever more technological battlefield, we can’t forget the weapons that defined the world for centuries.
If you are still curious about ancient arms, you should to check out my article about Roman Swords and other arms of the Roman Legions.
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