id rather watch 2 people fight to the death more interesting they should've kept it "kayfabe"so it wasn't obvious it was fact but at the same time it would be somewhat moral
Longswords are bad. It's all about EINEINHALBHÄNDER(s). Also you can't really compare Italian and German blacksmithship because Europe in general had a pretty damn high level of skill in that regard (even better than Japanese blacksmiths [yes, a european longsword is better than a katana, c'mon and flame me you heretics!]).
tl;dr: europe as one is something you can compare, but comparing individual countries is pretty stupid because blacksmithship/skills got mixed a shitton of times due to people moving/migration.
@Galen - my German is somewhat non-existant but an image search of EINEINHALBHÄNDER just brought up a bunch of pictures of longswords (and a lot of people fucking around with then displaying shitty footwork and/or not wearing any protective gear beyond some gloves).
Actually, I was talking less about the smithing of the swords (totes agree with you btw--the Japanese didn't have the coke/coal to do some of the stuff the European smiths came up with) and more about the schools of swordplay.
The two major schools that I've encountered are German and Italian--the only real difference that I've seen between (at this point) being that of the two schools the German generally works better (and is safer for you) when facing people who have no clue about swordplay (and are just flailing their blade about), whereas Italian seems to be more tightly focused on dealing with opponents who know what they're doing.
Haha. Only if you're having a duel though, Sette. In the middle of a meat-grinder/battlefield were you're more likely to encounter opponents of the flailing variety, personally German strikes me as the more pragmatic option.
So, ofc, in battle the best would be to keep swapping styles depending on who you're facing. Versatility wins! :p
If it's a comfort though; in the majority of historical clashes between master swordsmen (generally bc there was an argument about who was "bist night") the guy who'd studied under the Italian school won. Basically it just boils down to one style is more suited to dealing with pubs, the other dealing with pros.
@FuzzyBlueBaron a real longsword is a "Zweihänder". Meaning that you must grab it with both hands to be able to control it properly (the blades of those weren't necessarily longer than those of a "Eineinhalbhänder", just the handle was longer so that you could comfortably hold it with both hands) - Medieval times.
In ancient times, people refer to Germanic swords as longswords, mostly because they were a lot longer than your average Roman gladius (aka short sword). The Romans had longswords as well, mostly for their cavalry units (Spathas).
Interesting. A number of bastards did come up when I searched for Eineinhalbhänder (along with a few knives, several paintbrushes, and some scantily clad women brandishing haircombs), but the overwhelming majority of images looked to be full two-handed longswords. Clearly the internet fails at making the distinction (big surprise there :p).
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