I oredred The Swordsman Companion from the website on July 24. To date Chivalry renaissnace Bookshelf has not charged my credit card and I have not recieved the book. The last book I ordered took well over a month to recieve. I am on Louisiana, not far from the company. Is there something going on here that I am not aware of? Have any of you had similar problems? I shot them an e-mail and i am waitong on a repsonse. They have some hard-to-find titles but this wait time seems excessive.

Joel Whitmore

I've had minor issues in the past, nothing an e-mail didn't clear up. Maybe you should try giving them a call?

I've had no problems. In fact, I placed an order this past Sunday, and received it on Tuesday in Whitewater. Perhaps "The Swordsman's Companion" is on backorder?

I got my Swordsman's Companion in a week. I know a few others who order from Chivalry here and I have not heard of any problems. Keep trying because the book is worth it. Good luck.

Hm, I just recently got this uncool letter from Amazon.co.uk:

Dear Customer,

We are sorry to report that the following item has been delayed.

Christian Henry Tobler "Fighting with the German Longsword"

Our current estimate is that it will take an additional 4-6 weeks to
obtain this item for you.


For your reference, here is a summary of your order:

1 of Ian Peirce, Ewart Oakeshott "Swords of the Viking Age"
Usually dispatched in 1-2 weeks

1 of Christian Henry Tobler "Fighting with the German Longsword"
Availability: 4-6 weeks

1 of Guy Windsor "The Swordsman's Companion: A Modern Training
Manual for the Medieval Longsword"
Usually dispatched within 24 hours


Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk, we hope to see you again.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department

I placed my order on September 2nd, and now they (again) postponed the Tobler's book, possibly till the middle of December? And other two items, "The Swordsman's Companion" and "Swords of the Viking Age" should be dispatched yesterday (after 6 weeks), but I'm afraid I'll just get another notice of postponement. This is really the first time Amazon dissapointed me.

And I really can't wait to get them books...

Alexi,

Swords of the Viking Age is an excellent resource. It does include accurate measurements and weights of the examples pictured. I highly recommend it.

I know of one such book. It's called "Oborozeni stan srednjeveske druzbe na slovenskem na osnovi materialnih virov. Primer: Meci" (Armed class of medieval society on Slovenian territory according to material sources. Example: Swords), published in 2001by mag. Tomaz Nabergoj. It’s unfortunately (for most of the world) in Slovene language, and it describes on more than 200 pages 33 high and late medieval swords that were found in river Ljubljanica that flows through our capital citi Ljubljana. Each sword is represented in large drawing, with cross sections of blade at one or two points and cross sections of crosses and pommels. Swords are precisely categorised and described, and almost everything on sword is measured (in millimetres) – even such things as thickness of tang or cross at various point, width and depth of the fuller and so on.

There is of course wide variety of swords, but most of the early ones (11 – 13th century) are one handers very similar to “Gaddhjalt”, while later swords are almost all one and a half handers (there are two of the “Sempach” family, quite light – 1,2 and 1,3 kg). Some of the swords are now exhibited in our National Museum under exhibition “Treasures from National Museum”, and I believe this is the first time in the last 30 years that they saw the light of day.

I don't know if the book is available to general public, I have a photocopy of it.

Oh, and if you can read German, this should be interesting:

Geibig, Alfred, Beiträge zur morphologischen Entwicklung des Schwertes im Mittelalter: Eine Analyse des Fundmaterials vom ausgehenden 8. bis zum 12. Jahrhundert aus Sammlungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz Verlag, 1991) (German). So comprehensive is the wealth of information in this work on swords of the Viking Age and the immediately following centuries that it spills over from 375 printed pages into a catalog on five included microfiche. This work opens presenting a tetranomial digital classification scheme based upon pommel and upper guard face profile, pommel and upper guard profile viewed on end, pommel and upper guard profile viewed from above and lower guard viewed from below, simplified into several "combination types," followed by a classification scheme for blades of the same period, and then by hilt construction types. Correlations between types and estimated date of manufacture and find places are then presented. A detailed discussion of blade inlays and inscriptions is also provided and includes much detail including fairly comprehensive listings of known examples of the ULFBERHT and INGELRII groups as well as discussion of the various variants of the IN NOMINE DOMINI and -ME FECIT inscribed swords. A large number of swords are illustrated with detailed photographs and detailed lists cross reference the classification scheme with known examples. [/i]