Hi Dushin,
this is called a Dreschflegel and it’s used to get the grains out of the wheat:
The word “dreschen” is still in use, yet more likely as “verdreschen”, which is a synonym to “verprügeln” (to pummel).
And the word Flegel is simply the word flail in English. So flail has several meanings. Flegel could also mean a person, who’s rude and doesn’t know any manners or good behavior.
Are you trying to teach grandma how to suck eggs?
That’s why I posted it.
Ohh hey, sorry that first I misread one of the lines and then giving some information to the last pictures, which are not so self-explanatory and I just used the German words to describe it (and also because you used the picture with the name Dreschflegel), because of the different meanings of the word Flegel in German.
And I didn’t know that you’re a Grandma…
That’s how the saying goes, I know; silly Brits.
in response to the original concerns, there is a portion of fiore’s book where he discusses something called a villains blow, which is used against untrained peasants (villagers and therefore villains). basically, when someone throws a heavy fendente strike, as most untrained swordsmen try to do with a two handed weapon, you throw a posta di fenestre and let it roll your sword, using their force against them. the manuever in itself isnt remarkable, as its similar to the german hanging guards, but the context is important, as it implies that peasants had longswords often enough for this manuever to be worth mentioning in a fightbook. another example of the peasant sword is the grosse messer, which came about as a peasants blade before becoming more common
I visited the Hussite Museum in Tábor the past weekend. Let me just throw some of the weapons that were used 20 years after the game takes place. [They all have very long poles which I am not showing in the pics - making them suitable for use against oponent from the waggon fort, or to reach the opponent on horse, or to engage heavily armored knight on foot without getting to the reach of his sword.]
First, the countrymen weapons:
Now some of the townsmen weapons:
And then, of course, the famous Hussite firearms.
In any case, the weapons seem to have quite large parts made of metal. Price of metal could thus hardly be an obstacle to anyone looking to arm themselves - sources I read seem to indicate that training was. It was easier to get army of peasants fight effectively with the farm tools they used in everyday life rather than teaching them how to properly use a sword.
A blacksmith, however, would be presumably more around swords then farmers or townsfolk. Making swords would be probably more common for him in the time of peace then converting farming tools for weapons of war. And you can’t make a weapon properly unless you know how to use it.
Your sir got my like!
I am a professional historian and I’m glad that someone else posted this before me!
Every argument you make in your post is 100% valid and @warhorse should keep it in mind if they tend to bring the realism to another level.
Generally speaking, swords were the most expensive personal weapon to have in Medieval ages. Aside that, swords were a symbol of nobility and no peasant would’ve been allowed to carry one, even if he somehow scavenge the weapon among the dead after a battle. Axes, maces and hammers were the usual weapons for commoners and it would be great if @warhorse breaks from regular gameplay cliché to over-use swords.
As you mentioned above, together with their great price, swords were very difficult to forge back then (even today - ask your local blacksmith). Besides, to be an effective swordsman, one should be trained and possess special skills to wield the sword properly. Regular warfare training was another big difference between a peasant and a knight. For a commoner, an axe is easier to swing and harder to become damaged against shields or armor. A sword, no matter its quality, is a lot prone to damage in unskillful hands and a lot more deadly in skillful ones.
A crossbow could easily cost more than a sword. Anyways I will just commence a dump now with various sources. It’s maces and hammers that were used by nobility a fair bit more than commoners. Commoners were even required to own arms and armor according to their personal wealth, Cities usually supplied the lord with decently equipped infantry *. It wasn’t really until the levy (Heervaart, Heerban, Arrière-ban) was not longer used that some sort of disarmament policy started.
[quote] Ph. Contamine, Guerre, état et société à la fin du moyen âge , M. Prou, ‘De la nature du service militaire dû par les roturiers aux Xle et XIIe
siècles’, Revue Historique, M. Powicke, Military Obligalion in Medieval England, J. F. Verbruggen, Het leger en de vloot van de graven van Vlaanderen [/quote]
Here is a price list from the hundred Years war which roughly coincides with the period the game takes place.
[quote]Peter Reid in Medieval Warfare cites the pay scale in the Hundred Years War period as:
Foot soldier (billmen): 2d
Foot archer: 3d
Mounted archer: 6d
Man-at-arms: 12d (1s)
Knight: 24d (2s)
Banneret: 48d (4s)
Jeffrey Hull, in an article on the quality of swords, estimates the average price of a sword as 41d (2s 5d) and the average price of full harness as 276d (1L 3d).
Middle class professionals from cities seem to be earning around 4d a day, granted that they did not have right to pillage 
[/quote]
(article here: http://www.thearma.org/essays/Quality&Build.pdf)
Jlyga_u_onacHa, what area and time are you specialized in? I hate to repeat my argument, but to use the contemporary situation: a citizen can relatively easily get firearms in the Czech Republic. He may carry and use one for self defense. In most other European countries, that is unheard of. It is quite clear that you can’t use the example of the other countries to draw conclusions about the Czech Republic. The same applies to the 15th century.
I would just like to add some info to the initial discussion:
The quest from the vertical slice (the first part of livestreamed gameplay) isn’t a quest as it will be in the game. For the presentation purposes we had come up with a pseudoquest that entails all key features and general mood of the game. As such this quest is in fact a combination of several planned quests from at least three different parts of the planned story. That’s why it feels so hurried - you have just waken up from a long recovery after nearly getting killed, you visit your lord and get accepted to his services, you get money to buy equipment, you go to investigate a major crime, you find the outlaws and swordfight them, all in 30 minutes. That’s not how it’s gonna happen in the final game.
Getting a sword, even getting one, makes sense for Henry (the protagonist). You just don’t know all the key details of the story and again the livestreamed quest isn’t a quest that will be in the game. Notice I am not even saying he’s getting a sword in the final game anytime soon. You might start with an axe. Who knows? Well, we know, but we’re not telling you 
Just thinking out loud - an armory is usually the high point of any castle tour. Correct me if I am wrong, but the lords usually had large stockpiles of weapons that they would distribute to any one able to defend the castle once the need has arisen, probably getting them back to the armory after the fight. It seems more plausible to be given the equipment directly (maybe + pay) then being given money to purchase it elsewhere.
I’ve seen the inventory of an old castle nearby, they easily had enough weapons to equip three times the full strength garrison.
The Hussites actually obtained armor and weapons from a few weapon depots quite early on in the war.
the availability of a sword depends on what country you are talking about . generally the bigger the sword the more power it showed hence the story of William Wallace being huge and menacing came from the fact that he was said to have used a two handed sword . (never stopped us from mounting his head on a spike and putting it on tower bridge 
)
anyway back to the availability of swords . it all depends on the type of sword most soldiers would have a sword of some kind however the higher your rank (the richer you’re ) the better your sword , this was the case for the English anyway from the start of the hundred year war the English crown did something that was uncommon , the English were preparing to invade france however lacked men willing to go because of the fear of french knights and leaving their farms , so the crown basically said that any man who pledges to go will be provided with a weapon and a wage , be it a sword or a longbow or whatever else , generally the swords were low quality however from then on pretty much every Englishmen had access to a sword/longbow . (the game being set around this time ) this was slowly introduced in other nations as before most armies while given a uniform as such but were not provided armour or a weapon this you had to supply , so its perfectly logical with the timing of the game that the character would be given a low quality weapon .
here is a nice woodcut/drawing.
*Three Peasants in Conversation by Albrecht Durer, 1497. Three Peasants in Conversation by Albrecht Durer
Notice the sword and the stirrups?
Another one from Albrecht also dated to 1497
woodcut of peasant working tree planting
Dancing peasants and peasants behind a hedge: Hans Sebald Beham (1500–1550)
Granted most woodcuts are from 100 years after this game takes place they do seem to disprove that they were really expensive.
Once metallurgy in Europe advanced to the point that good-quality homogenous steel was much more readily available, the cost of a serviceable sword did indeed drop.
It was mainly the Migration Era and Early Middle Ages where forging a sword was a particularly expensive. You didn’t have enough homogenous steel in sufficient quantities, so most of what was available was mainly used for the edge. The rest had to be pattern-welded from iron stock of various carbon contents to get a blade that was flexible enough it wouldn’t snap, but strong enough it wouldn’t bend (a major problem with early iron swords was they had a tendency to bend, which ruins the sword. You want the sword to flex, but spring back into shape again). That was an incredibly labor-intensive and complex process. And THAT’S what really drove the price of a sword up.
I live in Bulgaria. My theory was about High Medieval times in general. For sure there are regional differences among most of European countries, but still, my words are correct.
As far as gun ownership in Czech Republic is concerned, I didn’t knew that they let you have guns easily. I’m huge fan of guns and support gun ownership and self defense with a firearm. In my country the procedure to obtain a license is very difficult and yet, you are still not allowed to use your legally owned gun for a self defense, not even in your own home… Sh*tty politics…
That is wrong understanding. There are no “THEY”. You live in a democratic society. If you want to change something, get active and try to influence the public discourse. We, the people, elect our officials and they, more or less, follow the public opinion when enacting laws. That is the essence of Republic and Democracy.
For details, see
There is “THEY” and THEY don’t want US (common people) to have guns! Call it a world conspiration if you wish, but most countries does not permit their people to possess firearms. This is influenced by above-governmental circle of people who have their selfish repressive reasons for these limitations and it has nothing to do with people’s own “security”, “safeness” or such “politically correct” b*llshit. So, I will call them THEY by which I mean most of the corrupt politics working for exact same lobbies around the world. Unfortunately, my country does not make a difference from most other countries in gun politics. You should enjoy your Czech laws as long as you can (as long as THEY force your country to change)!
I wish you luck on changing anything anywhere! Except if somehow you are part of those above-governmental lobbies, but in that case I would feel very sorry for your morality - I’m sure you are not that type of person.
Words got A LOT offtopic and there isn’t any reason to continue here! I don’t wish to further discuss my beliefs with random forumists because I find the experience very unpleasing. Feel free to pass by my comment if you do not agree.
Nonetheless, thank you for providing me with your insight on things plus information about your laws! I will think about it.
Try not to turn this thread into a political one.
One more thing, I live in a country with one of the lowest gun ownership rates in the world and I am probably correct when I saw that 99% of the population (the democratic majority) wants to keep it this way.
Do you live in Poland?
