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Scythe Sword
The scythe sword (''Sensenschwert'') was a type of single-edged sword of the German Renaissance, related to the Dussack. It consisted of the blade of a scythe to which a sword hilt was attached. Like the ''falx'' or ''falcata'' of antiquity, it was thus a curved sword with the cutting edge on the inside (as opposed to the scimitar or sabre type with the edge on the outside). The only known surviving example of a true scythe sword (its blade being made from an actual scythe), is that of Thomas Müntzer (1489–1525), kept in the Historical Museum, Dresden. This sword has a representation of a runic calendar incised on the blade. Demmin (1893) notes the existence of other sword blades of the early 16th century bearing runic calendars in Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Munich, Graz and Luxembourg. It is possible that “scythe sword” may refer to the Thracian romphaia (Greek: ῥομφαία), most commonly a long curved blade with its cutting edge on the concave or inside edge with a pi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Renaissance
The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among Germany, German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which developed from the Italian Renaissance. Many areas of the arts and sciences were influenced, notably by the Renaissance humanism in Northern Europe, spread of Renaissance humanism to the various German states and principalities. There were many advances made in the fields of architecture, the arts, and the sciences. Germany produced two developments that were to dominate the 16th century all over Europe: Printing press, printing and the Protestant Reformation. One of the most important German humanists was Conrad Celtes, Konrad Celtis (1459–1508). Celtis studied at Cologne and Heidelberg, and later travelled throughout Italy collecting Latin and Greek manuscripts. Heavily influenced by Tacitus, he used the ''Germania (book), Germania'' to introduce German history and geography. Eventually he devoted h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dussack
A dusack (also ''dusägge'' and variants, from Czech ''tesák'' "cleaver; hunting sword", lit. "fang") is a single-edged sword of the cutlass or sabre type, in use as a side arm in Germany and the Habsburg monarchy during the 16th to 17th centuries, as well as a practice weapon based on this weapon used in early modern German fencing. Military sidearm The Czech term entered German usage in the Hussite Wars, after the sidearm used by the Hussites. In the late 16th century, ''Dusägge'' could refer to a type of weapon combining a sabre blade with the hilt of a sidesword (the German ''Degen''), also known as ''Säbel auf Teutsch gefasst'' ("sabre fitted in the German manner"). The ''Dusägge'' in this sense was used as a military sidearm; e.g. in 1579, Styria records delivery of some 700 ''Dusäggen'' by local bladesmiths, besides payment of 40 ''Dusäggen'' delivered from Passau, as part of the preparation for the war against the Turks under Archduke Charles II. The German ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scythe
A scythe ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. Reapers are bladed machines that automate the cutting of the scythe, and sometimes subsequent steps in preparing the grain or the straw or hay. The word "scythe" derives from Old English ''siðe''. In Middle English and later, it was usually spelt ''sithe'' or ''sythe''. However, in the 15th century some writers began to use the ''sc-'' spelling as they thought (wrongly) the word was related to the Latin ''scindere'' (meaning "to cut"). Nevertheless, the ''sithe'' spelling lingered and notably appears in Noah Webster's dictionaries. A scythe consists of a shaft about long called a ''snaith'', ''snath'', ''snathe'' or ''sned'', traditionally made of wood but now sometimes me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilt
The hilt (rarely called a haft or shaft) of a knife, dagger, sword, or bayonet is its handle, consisting of a guard, grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel. Pommel The pommel (Anglo-Norman "little apple") is an enlarged fitting at the top of the handle. They were originally developed to prevent the sword from slipping from the hand. From around the 11th century in Europe they became heavy enough to be a counterweight to the blade. This gave the sword a point of balance not too far from the hilt allowing a more fluid fighting style. Depending on sword design and swordsmanship style, the pommel may also be used to strike the opponent (e.g., using the Mordhau technique). Pommels have appeared in a wide variety of shapes, including oblate spheroids, crescents, disks, wheels, and animal or bird heads. They are often engraved or inlayed with various designs and occasionally gilt and mou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falx
The ''falx'' was a weapon with a curved blade that was sharp on the inside edge used by the Thracians and Dacians. The name was later applied to a siege hook used by the Romans. Etymology ''Falx'' is a Latin word originally meaning 'sickle' but was later used to mean any of a number of tools that had a curved blade that was sharp on the inside edge like a sickle. ''Falx'' was thus also used to mean the weapon of the Thracians and Dacians, and the Roman siege hook. Dacian ''falx'' In Latin texts, the weapon was described as an ' (whence ''falcata'') by Ovid in ''Metamorphose'' and as a ' by Juvenal in ''Satiriae''. The Dacian ''falx'' came in two sizes: one-handed and two-handed. The shorter variant was called ''sica'' (sickle) in the Dacian language (Valerius Maximus, III, 2.12) with a blade length that varied but was usually around long with a handle 1/3 longer than the blade. The two-handed ''falx'' was a polearm. It consisted of a long wooden shaft with a long curved i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falcata
The falcata is a type of sword typical of pre-Roman Iberia. The falcata was used to great effect for warfare in the ancient Iberian peninsula, and is firmly associated with the southern Iberian tribes, among other ancient peoples of Hispania. It was highly prized by the ancient general Hannibal, who equipped Carthaginian troops with it during the Second Punic War. Name It is unknown which name ancient Iberians gave to the weapon. ''Falcata'' is neither a native name nor one used in classical sources, but a 19th century term coined by historian Fernando Fulgosio to describe the shape of its blade. The term derivates from Latin ''falcatus'', meaning literally "falcon-shaped".Luis Silva, ''Viriathus and the Lusitanian Resistance to Rome 155-139 BC'', 2013 Classical vocabulary did have a sword named ''ensis falcatus'', but it was apparently meant to be either a falx or a harpe. In any case, the name caught on very quickly and is now firmly entrenched in the scholarly literature. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scimitar
A scimitar ( or ) is a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade associated with Middle Eastern, South Asian, or North African cultures. A European term, ''scimitar'' does not refer to one specific sword type, but an assortment of different Eastern curved swords inspired by types introduced to the Middle East by Central Asian ghilmans. These swords include the Persian shamshir (the origin of the word scimitar), the Arab saif, the Indian talwar, the North African nimcha, and the Turkish kilij. All such swords are originally derived from earlier curved swords developed in Turkic Central Asia (Turkestan). Etymology The English term ''scimitar'' is attested from the mid-16th century and derives from either the Middle French ''cimeterre'' (15th century) or from the Italian ''scimitarra''. The ultimate source of these terms is corruptions of the Persian ''shamshir.'' ''Scimitar'' became used to describe all curved oriental blades, in contrast to the straight and double edged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabre
A sabre ( French: sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as the hussars, the sabre became widespread in Western Europe during the Thirty Years' War. Lighter sabres also became popular with infantry of the early 17th century. In the 19th century, models with less curving blades became common and were also used by heavy cavalry. The military sabre was used as a duelling weapon in academic fencing in the 19th century, giving rise to a discipline of modern sabre fencing (introduced in the 1896 Summer Olympics) loosely based on the characteristics of the historical weapon in that it allows for cuts as well as thrusts. Etymology The English ''sabre'' is recorded from the 1670s, as a direct loan from French, where the ''sabre'' is an alteration of ''sable'', which was in turn loaned from German ''Säbel'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Müntzer
Thomas Müntzer ( – 27 May 1525) was a German preacher and theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Martin Luther and the Roman Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer was foremost amongst those reformers who took issue with Luther's compromises with feudal authority. He became a leader of the German peasant and plebeian uprising of 1525 commonly known as the German Peasants' War. He was captured after the Battle of Frankenhausen, tortured and executed. Few other figures of the German Reformation raised as much controversy as Müntzer, which continues to this day. A complex and unusual character, he is now regarded as a significant personality in the early years of the German Reformation and the history of European revolutionaries. Almost all modern studies stress the necessity of understanding his revolutionary actions as a consequence of his theology: Müntzer believed that the end of the world was imm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth largest by area (after Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne), and the third most populous city in the area of former East Germany, after Berlin and Leipzig. Dresden's urban area comprises the towns of Freital, Pirna, Radebeul, Meissen, Coswig, Radeberg and Heidenau and has around 790,000 inhabitants. The Dresden metropolitan area has approximately 1.34 million inhabitants. Dresden is the second largest city on the River Elbe after Hamburg. Most of the city's population lives in the Elbe Valley, but a large, albeit very sparsely populated area of the city east of the Elbe lies in the West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands (the westernmost part of the Sudetes) and thus in Lusatia. Many boroughs west of the Elbe lie in the foreland of the Ore Mounta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Runic Calendar
A Runic calendar (also Rune staff or Runic Almanac) is a perpetual calendar, variants of which were used in Northern Europe until the 19th century. A typical runic calendar consisted of several horizontal lines of symbols, one above the other. Special days like solstices, equinoxes, and celebrations (including Christian holidays and feasts) were marked with additional lines of symbols. Runic calendars were written on parchment or carved onto staves of wood, bone, or horn. The oldest one known, and the only one from the Middle Ages, is a staff from Nyköping, Sweden, believed to date from the 13th century. Most of the several thousand which survive are wooden calendars dating from the 16th and the 17th centuries. During the 18th century, Runic calendars had a renaissance, and calendars dating from around 1800 were made in the form of brass tobacco boxes. The calendar is based on the 19 year-long Metonic cycle, correlating the Sun and the Moon, but the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
