I recorded and just finished watching "Medieval Fight Book" on NatGeo. It was a program on the Talhoffer text. I recognized the name in passing mostly due to referrences in modern texts and research. They focused on some of the more "exotic" features in the book, including seige weapons that seemed more like prototypes than common instruments (a horse-pushed "tank" for example), judicial combat between men and women, combat between armored vs. unarmored opponents, and some experimentation with an underwater breathing suit. Here's a the official Austrialian page for the program- http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/medieval-fightbook/fightbook-facts.aspx Author John Clements covered some of the segments on personal combat. The male vs. female combat was particularly interesting because the male had to stand in a waist-deep hole and weild a wooden cudgel while the female had a stone wrapped up in a scarf that acted like a flail. The armored vs. unarmored was nothing special to me but focused on using half-swording so the armored opponent could be struck with the pommel. Of the seige weapons, the offensive one was the aforementioned "tank" which consisted of two separate wagons. The front one was armored and had pikes and small cannon in it, facing the sides. The rear wagon was also armored and housed the horses. It should be noted that only the foremost wagon was in the book while the rear wagon was the subject of speculation, but frankly it only made sense. The defensive seige weapon was called a "crayfish" and was subject of much theorizing. The historian, who's name escapes me now, presented the idea that a number of these would be deployed to guard the gate of a castle and opperated by flywheels behind the walls. They were semetrical metal objects, low to the ground, with spikes and curved blades on them, as well as primitive grenades at the ends. This, they said, was intended to prevent people from riding through the gates for fear of being cut down by the ankle-level blades or the shrapnel-encrusted grenades. One of the most interesting aspects to me was the water-breather, for no other reason than they program pointed out that the design actually tested on the show came from another (unnamed) 15th Century manual. Perhaps such devices were used with some degree of regularity about this time. They breatheable air was pumped through a tube by a set of manned bellows. After a ten-minute test dive, the diver came up and was completely dry above the neck, proving that the test suit they built could at least work as advertised. Thought you guys might be interested.
Thanks for posting. I tried staying up for it after Knights of Mayhem but I ended up falling asleep on the couch. Going to have to look for it to replay.
Haven't watched, but this was an interesting point on the NG page: Only 40 pounds? That's far less than I thought.
If that's the case it's not that much more than police officer carries on himself during a regular shift no? Webbing belt, side arm etc. etc. Kuma what say you? It's probably about the same between a night and a soldier with his rifle and rucksack.
I watched this before. It was a fascinating program and a must view for anyone with even a passing interest in western martial arts. Cheers.
During my last deployment to Iraq, with all the gear and new plating on the armor all combined it was about 100 extra pounds. However, once you got used to it, you could get around fairly well in it. Sure it sounds like a lot, but when it's balanced and supported right you can carry a lot more than you think. You'll just be sore for a while until you get used to it.
100 pounds does sound like a lot. I only weigh 154lb (70kg). So that would be 2/3 my bodyweight. I don't see myself carrying that any distance.
You'd be surprised. One guy I served with who we called Weasel weighed maybe 135 pounds soaking wet with his boots on. He could ruck everyone else in the platoon into the ground and always volunteered to carry the radio, which adds another 15 pounds or so to all your gear. Most of the time you have packing lists so you all have the same gear in your rucksack. He was just some nutty farm boy from Alabama who loved backpacking and hiking on his own time.
My sister-in-law's brother tried out for special forces (US). He told her that the big, "body-builder" types didn't make the distance in the endurance tests - it was the lean wiry types that excelled. As a lean, wiry type myself I think I'd do better then most people, but 2/3 of bodyweight (or more in your friend's case) is pretty impressive for an extended period.
My armor is pretty full armor of early 14th century, a mix of padded clothing, mail and plate, and it weighs around 20-30kg (depending on what helmet I use and how much mail I wear; that depends on wether it's a war-setting or a duel-setting). No, it didn't weigh more, and the knights had probably tailored plate armor, that would give hardly any movement-restrictions at all. My armor is mass-produced, and doesn't fit perfectly, so I don't have any problems with the weight, but some problems with movement-restriction. Here's a picture of me in the evening at Grünwald, 2010, allmost 30 degrees celcius; on the battle itself it was 43*C: http://i871.photobucket.com/albums/ab271/Stolenbjorn/Mine sydde saker/juli2010039.jpg
