Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Help pls. on 15th-17th C. cutlass & scimitar

fernando · 7th February 2009, 10:24 PM

Hi again, guys.
I completely agree with Jim's reminder that we must stick to the weapons business. Your knowledge in this subject is by far good enough to fulfill the plenitude of this space ... something that does not happen with me, as probably the least school educated character that posts in the Forum.
As i firstly introduced in my perspective, weapons typology is never easy to deal with; allways a struggle with translations, transliterations, ethimologic and semanthic paths ... not to speak of the greatest chalenge in tipyfying weapons, which is: does the discussed term refers to a specific model, or is it no more than a generic name, developed in a determined region to encompass a limited or wide variety of models and submodels coming from remote origins which, missing their name in the local 'catalogue', are baptized by the peoples with a name either alegoric to its shape or capabilities, or instead with a term close to that given if the original region or culture to one of its variations, preferably the most basic one ... such term being eventualy corrupted within time?
When i said that the scimitar could or could not have originated the falchion, i was only quoting sources; i am no scholar or any kind of specialist.
Assuming (then again) that the bracamarte is an equivalent to the falchion, i have just read in one of my humbliest books (Portuguese medieval war men), that such weapon is supposed to derive from the Vicking sax. How's that for an aproach?
I have also found a link, regretfully only usefull for those who can read castillian, where this problematic of the terminology
falchion/scimitar/bracamarte is discussed; complex stuff ... maybe too much sand for my truck.
http://images.google.pt/imgres?imgur...pt-PT%26sa%3DX
Without failling to see that some the aproaches from the various sides are convergent, i like the way Jim puts it, when he says that the term scimitar was used to 'illustrate the exotic sabres of the Moorish world'. Only i think that it was not only the way, but it still is, namely for the common person.
Fernando

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7th February 2009, 10:24 PM	#11
fernando Lead Moderator European Armoury Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Portugal Posts: 9,642	Hi again, guys. I completely agree with Jim's reminder that we must stick to the weapons business. Your knowledge in this subject is by far good enough to fulfill the plenitude of this space ... something that does not happen with me, as probably the least school educated character that posts in the Forum. As i firstly introduced in my perspective, weapons typology is never easy to deal with; allways a struggle with translations, transliterations, ethimologic and semanthic paths ... not to speak of the greatest chalenge in tipyfying weapons, which is: does the discussed term refers to a specific model, or is it no more than a generic name, developed in a determined region to encompass a limited or wide variety of models and submodels coming from remote origins which, missing their name in the local 'catalogue', are baptized by the peoples with a name either alegoric to its shape or capabilities, or instead with a term close to that given if the original region or culture to one of its variations, preferably the most basic one ... such term being eventualy corrupted within time? When i said that the scimitar could or could not have originated the falchion, i was only quoting sources; i am no scholar or any kind of specialist. Assuming (then again) that the bracamarte is an equivalent to the falchion, i have just read in one of my humbliest books (Portuguese medieval war men), that such weapon is supposed to derive from the Vicking sax. How's that for an aproach? I have also found a link, regretfully only usefull for those who can read castillian, where this problematic of the terminology falchion/scimitar/bracamarte is discussed; complex stuff ... maybe too much sand for my truck. http://images.google.pt/imgres?imgur...pt-PT%26sa%3DX Without failling to see that some the aproaches from the various sides are convergent, i like the way Jim puts it, when he says that the term scimitar was used to 'illustrate the exotic sabres of the Moorish world'. Only i think that it was not only the way, but it still is, namely for the common person. Fernando . Attached Images