Posts: 13 Location: Lampeter University
Sun 30 Dec, 2007 5:12 am
I was actually waiting to return home (I'm en route as we speak, in a cafe with free wireless) to compile a full list of Saex-finds.
But thank you, I was going to list the finds specifically, but yes, there is evidence from the 5th C-onwards for daggers, saexes, etc. according to period. It is one thing that becomes obvious to reenactors and experimental archeologists and historians very early on: daggers, saexes and knives have a distinct (and not assumedly secondary) role on the battlefield.
The average saex has a distinct, rigid stabbing point, something the Romans had demonstrated time and time again works well in the press of a melee.
As for the comment that a spear seems suicidal in a
shield-wall; yes, in theory, it does.
Because automatically we think as individuals, and we also think in terms of a vicious direct foe and direct fighting; but in reality (as chess demonstrates neatly) the real threat is diagonal. Most men die from a spear-thrust delivered from a man two steps to the left, aimed at the neck, face or exposed arm-pit as the man himself makes his thrust. When we imagine an enemy charging in close it is easy to imagine the clumsy spear thudding into his shield and the warrior stepping forward and crashing his axe down. In reality, unless his comrades are unspeakably brave and well-organised, they will hang back at the killing distance (a spear thrust's length) as the suicidal maniac steps out of the shieldwall and exposes his left and right flanks. Having done this myself at both Regia shows and my own group's shows, I can assure you that you become the world's largest pincushion.
If a unit of men drive forward in a continous shield-wall and slam home, the spear is abandoned and a saex or knife drawn. Even then, men in the second and third rank can continue jabbing with spears, meaning that the man in their front rank needs to keep his shield high and his head low; hence the reason for sliding a saex below his shield-rim.
This may seem a very formulaic description, but most shield-wall combat falls down to simple formulas. The real 'cut and thrust' of the battle is more a question of your skill, speed, and notably team-work. A well-drilled unit of men will know when their comrade is 'opening up' an enemy, and will instinctively fight together a single unit. Men unaccustomed to fighting together tend to think as individuals, and die as such.
(Please note this is based on reenactment combat experience and interpretations of texts and images; notably the Bayeux Tapestry, the descriptions of battle in the Poem of Maldon etc. and is not offered as historical fact but historical interpretation)