Free Hank Reinhardt's The Book of the Sword by Hank Reinhardt Page B

that you would think the enemy would have gotten tired of hitting the poor devils. Many of the skulls still have their mail hoods, and although the hoods did provide some protection, many of the blows cut through the mail and into the bone.
    One of the most unsettling skulls is one where the victim had been hit a sharp blow right at the bridge of the nose. The blow was so hard that it cut through the upper jaw. When I visited Sweden I was able to view the skull and I could see that the deepest part of the cut was in the center, indicating that it was caused by a crescent-type axe blade, or possibly the point of a sword on a hard sweeping cut. Whatever caused the damage, it wasn't enough to kill quickly. The one good thing is that the skull also shows marks from several other cuts and one hole in the side close to the temple. One can only hope that the guy didn't suffer too long.
    But Visby is not the only archeological source. There are a great many sources scattered all over. In Ireland there is a skull from the Viking Age that has had the whole right side sheared off. In Lima the skeleton of Francisco Pizarro, the Conqueror of Peru, showed the marks where he was stabbed repeatedly in the neck when he was murdered in 1541. [1] Numerous burial mounds in Europe have been opened and skeletons exhumed that show the results of many wounds. A surprising number of them show old wounds that have healed over. It is interesting to note that many of these skeletons show the wear and tear that comes from heavy physical labor.
    The tomb of Charles the Bold was opened in the 19th century. He had been slain by Swiss halberdiers during the battle of Nancy (1477 AD). To quote from Oman's Art of War in the Middle Ages , a halberdier "struck down Charles of Burgundy, all his face one gash from temple to teeth." When the tomb was opened it was found that he had been stabbed in the side, also in the fundament, and indeed his skull had been split down to his teeth! All of the wounds probably had been made by halberds. It is easy and gory to visualize what happened. He was struck a downward blow by some stout Swiss with a halberd. The force of the blow would force him down and off of his saddle, and two other Swiss, seeing openings, would have stabbed with spear or halberd. Not that either blow was needed.
     
    Reproduction halberd. HRC251.
     
    Of course these blows were not struck with a sword, but it does show the amount of information that is available to a patient researcher. It is my hope that one day someone with the time and resources can gather up all of this information about ancient hand-to-hand combat and publish it. What a fascinating book it would be! This chapter can only touch on some of the rich information available.
    Literary sources are another important area to explore. However, these have to be taken with a grain of salt, backed up and verified
    with experimentation when possible. Man has not changed any in the past several thousand years. He was just as given to hype in 3000 BC as in 2000 AD, and in England as well as Japan. When we read in "The Song of Roland" of some knight skewering a bunch of Saracens on his lance at one time we have a right to feel somewhat skeptical. When we read in early tales of some warrior bragging that the sword "Quernbiter" cut a millstone in half, we should raise an eyebrow rather than being convinced that it was evidence of some incredible new steel.
    Of all the literary sources, my personal opinion is that the Icelandic sagas are probably the most reliable. They are written in a laconic straightforward style that does not allow for flights of hyperbole. When we read that a sword flashed and someone had their leg cut off at the knee, we feel that it is very likely exactly what happened. There is a pragmatic acceptance of life and its trials and tribulations that runs through the sagas, coupled with the acceptance of death that makes them very believable. Iceland has excellent historical records,