Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Dec 5th, 2017 at 1:33pm
The so-called "migration period" took place shortly after the falling of the Roman Empire. We could say it lasted from the late 4th Century a.D. to the 6th, 7th in some places.
It's called migration period because we see Germanic and Eastern European populations on the move, invading the once-proud frontiers of the Empire and settling there, fighting their way to success.
Italy was in the middle of the devastating Greek-Gothic war, splitted in two between areas supporting the Roman Emperor of Costantinople and areas conquered by the Germanic "pagans" that would soon estabilish Duchies and eventually convert to Christianity shortly after.
England was invaded by settlers from North Europe: Saxons, Anglians, Jute. The Romano-Celtic Britons tried to resist but in the end they had to give up Southern England to the invaders. Still they gave birth to the myth of King Arthur.
King Arthur in a typical 20th Century a.D. illustration
Spain was invaded by the Visigoths. France slowly saw the birth of dinasties such as the Merovingians, the Pipinidi and the Carolingians, in which the hero of Early Medieval Christianity saw the light, Charles Magne.
An exciting period indeed, a chaotic one, obscure at times: but how did all these people fight? Was there a weapon that allowed settlers to conquer new land, or Christians to defend their dominions?
That era's weapon that always fascinated me the most was the Germanic sword. It was modeled on the late Roman cavalry "spatha", or longsword, and was a heavy blade with two edges and a quite easy-to-make hilt that could sometimes be extremely elaborate.
The various types of migration period swords as labeled by Behmer.
Eastern European sword, 4th to 5th Century.
From Bildso, Scandinavia, 6th-7th C. Note the inlay on the pommel and the pattern welded blade.
Some months ago, a friend who's deeply into historical fencing gave me this migration period sword, stating that it was too weak for him to use in combat.
I was overloaded with things to do at the time, so I barely had time to dismantle the hilt, thus understanding what he meant: the blade didn't have a full tang, but a short one that only reached half the length of the handle. Everything was held together by glue.
The various pieces of the sword spent some time in my cellar until a few days ago, when I decided the steel the blade is made of was strong enough to be used for a new sword, this time "costruita come si deve", or "properly built".
I cut off some portions of the blade, thus making the tang longer. And I then spent the following couple of days thinking about hot to make the guard, the handle and the pommel.
I ended up with deciding I wanted my sword to look like the sword a middle-class warrior of the era could own: someone not too rich, not too poor, belonging to the warrior class and relying on his weapons to earn a living. He's rich enough to own a sword, but not enough to have an exclusive one.
So, I decided for guard and pommel made of two simple wooden plates each riveted between two bronze ones, and for a handle made of a couple dozens of leather discs, impiled on the tang, a solution to prevent the handle breaking as it would happen if it was made of wood and had to withstand a strong blow, that would make the tang work like a lever against the handle, possibly splitting it in two.
And shortly after everything was ready to begin...
Making these two sandwiches was quite easy and fun:
While hand-filing and enlarging the holes that would host the tang proved to be the most boring part of all:
The guard is finally done and fitted; providing the leather discs now...
...to be continued...
It's called migration period because we see Germanic and Eastern European populations on the move, invading the once-proud frontiers of the Empire and settling there, fighting their way to success.
Italy was in the middle of the devastating Greek-Gothic war, splitted in two between areas supporting the Roman Emperor of Costantinople and areas conquered by the Germanic "pagans" that would soon estabilish Duchies and eventually convert to Christianity shortly after.
England was invaded by settlers from North Europe: Saxons, Anglians, Jute. The Romano-Celtic Britons tried to resist but in the end they had to give up Southern England to the invaders. Still they gave birth to the myth of King Arthur.
King Arthur in a typical 20th Century a.D. illustration
Spain was invaded by the Visigoths. France slowly saw the birth of dinasties such as the Merovingians, the Pipinidi and the Carolingians, in which the hero of Early Medieval Christianity saw the light, Charles Magne.
An exciting period indeed, a chaotic one, obscure at times: but how did all these people fight? Was there a weapon that allowed settlers to conquer new land, or Christians to defend their dominions?
That era's weapon that always fascinated me the most was the Germanic sword. It was modeled on the late Roman cavalry "spatha", or longsword, and was a heavy blade with two edges and a quite easy-to-make hilt that could sometimes be extremely elaborate.
The various types of migration period swords as labeled by Behmer.
Eastern European sword, 4th to 5th Century.
From Bildso, Scandinavia, 6th-7th C. Note the inlay on the pommel and the pattern welded blade.
Some months ago, a friend who's deeply into historical fencing gave me this migration period sword, stating that it was too weak for him to use in combat.
I was overloaded with things to do at the time, so I barely had time to dismantle the hilt, thus understanding what he meant: the blade didn't have a full tang, but a short one that only reached half the length of the handle. Everything was held together by glue.
The various pieces of the sword spent some time in my cellar until a few days ago, when I decided the steel the blade is made of was strong enough to be used for a new sword, this time "costruita come si deve", or "properly built".
I cut off some portions of the blade, thus making the tang longer. And I then spent the following couple of days thinking about hot to make the guard, the handle and the pommel.
I ended up with deciding I wanted my sword to look like the sword a middle-class warrior of the era could own: someone not too rich, not too poor, belonging to the warrior class and relying on his weapons to earn a living. He's rich enough to own a sword, but not enough to have an exclusive one.
So, I decided for guard and pommel made of two simple wooden plates each riveted between two bronze ones, and for a handle made of a couple dozens of leather discs, impiled on the tang, a solution to prevent the handle breaking as it would happen if it was made of wood and had to withstand a strong blow, that would make the tang work like a lever against the handle, possibly splitting it in two.
And shortly after everything was ready to begin...
Making these two sandwiches was quite easy and fun:
While hand-filing and enlarging the holes that would host the tang proved to be the most boring part of all:
The guard is finally done and fitted; providing the leather discs now...
...to be continued...
