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.
Still, lets not focus solely on the sword; there are other equally important weapons, albeit less popular. The spear is a great example. Almost universally regarded as superior to a sword, a spearman is said to be three times as dangerous as a swordsman of equal talent.
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.
And when facing a man wrapped head to toe in steel, a bashing weapon often serves better than any sword could hope to! For this reason, maces were often the preferred sidearm of western knights, overshadowing even the sword in certain time periods.
Finally, lets give a bit of recognition to shields. While not strictly speaking a weapon, a shield is almost unmatched for value in a melee fight, even if they aren’t particularly popular in modern movies and culture.
A top class shield wielded by a skilled fighter can serve to defeat almost any attack, and can even be used as an effective bludgeoning weapon. Though using two swords may be more popular in movies and games, I’ll take a shield in real life any day.
Hopefully you’ve learned a little about melee weapons from this. Though they are no longer practical in today’s world, we can’t just forget about the weapons that have defined our history for thousands of years.
If you still want to learn more about ancient weapons, you should to read my article about Roman Swords and other weapons of the legionnaires.