While I fully acknowledge your expertise in archery, I do think you are at risk of avoiding common meanings of words to look for obscure alternatives. Pik meant something pointed in the vast majority of dictionary recorded uses across many subjects - weapons, tools, thorns, fish, shoes. That an arrow might be described pointed shouldn't be a surprise, but whether a specialist meaning lurks I wouldn't assume. I think I should be clear I am not suggesting pike arrow does mean what we call a bodkin arrow but that the term is vague enough that it could. Sean doesn't give a date as to when his is reference comes from - perhaps that might be useful?

Incidentally, Will, I'm interested whether you think all the four sided "bodkin" arrows are actually crossbow quarrels or just some? And apologies to Pedro for drifting away from his original topic.

I'm with you entirely - maybe I'm not being clear with how I'm writing my thoughts - they are just alternative thoughts! The common meanings are usually the most telling, but in odd cases like "Byker" arrows etc, the common meanings haven't actually helped - despite the hundreds of years of arrowheads being made, used and written about the word Byker has only ever been used once, so I tend to think we're missing something, instead of it being obvious, as it is in most cases.

If a pike head is something pointy, that could still easily be a Type 5 head - they're round and pointy - in fact all arrowheads are pointy, really. Type 5s are essentially bullets, and some I've seen are incredibly sharp and pointy.

I'm more than happy to be wrong though!

Re bodkins - I believe the long needle bodkins were the standard military arrowhead for most of history, until plate appears in the 14thC. At that point, I think (and this is based strongly on the archaeology, artwork, testing, documentation etc) they may have tried shortening them for a brief period but very quickly chopped the point off and welded steel edges, barbs and wings over the socket as they're so easy to make, so effective against armour and match all the records, drawings etc.

John Bradmore describes how Prince Henry was wounded in the face with an arrow at the Battle of Shrewsbury: "the schaft' wase takyn owt and the hede ther of a bod styll' in the hyndyr parte of a bone of the hede after the mesur' of vj ynche" (Ralph Moffat, Medieval Arms and armour: A Sourcebook volume 2)

On first reading I think he means "the shaft was taken out and the head of a bod remained in a bone at the rear part of the skull to the depth of six inches." Is bod another arrow term? In his glossary Moffat suggests a bod is a form of abode "stayed" so the key phrase would be "the head of it (the hede ther of) remained still (a bod styll) in ... a bone of the head."

He also has examples of whole sheaves of darts like sheaves of arrows or bolts (so they were tied in bundles with a cord or belt).

I would agree the confusion is caused by Bradmore's spacing of his letters, as Ralph Moffat suggests.

"the hede therof abod styll" , while archaic now, is still comprehensible. An abode can mean a lodging (as in no fixed abode) so "the head thereof still lodged" would also be translation of the phrase.

Bradmore also does not distinguish between shapes of arrowheads like the Moroccan manuscript does. That supports the idea that British war arrows usually had two-bladed barbed heads in 1403, like the French treatise from 1446 describes French arrows (et les fers ? deux tranchans en forme de barbeleure). Spikes would be easier to remove.


It would be good to know when crossbow bolts start to get called quarrels for their square (carr?) heads.

Well, if we are speculating :)

There are a set of words involving "bid" or similar meaning knife or dagger in the Middle Ages

English "bidow/bidowe", Welsh "bidag", Scots gaelic "biodag". These seem likely to be related, although the etymological connection has yet to be found. We know that bodkin in Middle English was primarily a narrow knife or awl. Is there perhaps a connection?

if bid/bod means sharp pointy thing, then bodkin meaning a needle or dagger makes sense. I also noticed that bidag, might be related to dagger. I read somewhere the first recorded use of dagger comes from Scotland.

Stuart Ellis-Gorman reminds me of the French words pile "spike, stake, dart" and pilet "dart, quarrel" https://anglo-norman.net/entry/pilet

Tod's "Arrows vs. Armour 3" series on YT has good pictures of what the English warbow shooters mean by "plate-cutters" (only those heads seem to be soft iron and tend to break off of the shafts when they hit plate, Ward Perkins type 9, Jessop type M9) https://www.medievalarrows.co.uk/product-page/type-9-jessop-m9

The Arrows v Armour series does seem to suggest that the "plate cutter" - a recent coining - has been misunderstood. These arrows would appear better at tackling non-plate armours.

Maybe someone can sic a grad student on those big projectile-points Will S mentioned (prehistoric archaeologists often use generic terms like "projectile point"). Until then its people like him doing what they can between their day job and their care responsibilities.

Arrowheads from this period seem poorly published because nobody can name the metallurgical studies, finds from the battlefield of Towton, etc. after starley-whats-the-point They just say they have heard of them.

Funding I'm sure has a lot to do with why no more studies are published. David Starley, incidentally, lost his job at the Armouries and, although he freelanced for a while, gave it all up to become a landscape painter and, latterly, gallery owner.

https://davidstarleyartist.com/index.html

Pikeheads usually have square or triangular sections, but javelins and darts in late-medieval art usually have bladed heads. Both can pierce well, so I wonder why this is? Is it just that you want a throwing spear weighted forward, but a long thrusting spear weighted further back? Maybe Tod could get his track and field star back to throw some javelins with heads by Will S?

Hi Sean,

Can you email over a description/drawing of what you think would be worth testing and the format of the test?

Regards

Tod