[Craig Peters]

I see that there are quite a few number of people selling longbows online, some purported to be medieval type bows, while others are simply listed as "longbows" without the designation of medieval. However, are there any bow makers who make the shorter style of bow frequently found in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries?

[Bartek Strojek]

The problem with making "earlier' bows" is that there's not that much known about them, sadly.

Finds are very rare and usually only fragments remain, and depictions in literature obviously aren't particularly detailed.

Still, I doubt that those bows would be really particularly shorter. There's not much point in making very short bows out of wood, they won't be very efficient most of the time.

Famous finds from Nydam and Thorsberg are assumed to predate Middle Ages, they seem to suggest that ~6 feet yew bow was pretty persistent 'template'.

http://www.arcus-lucznictwo.pl/index.php?id=49

So generally plenty of talented bowyers can make '11th -13th' bows, though it's kind of a guessing.

[Alain D.]

I've never seen convincing evidence to suggest that shorter bows, or rather the "short bow" was ever used in Medieval Europe, besides possibly in the form of Eastern-influenced composite bows which may have appeared in areas of Western Europe during the Middle Ages. Even if short bows did exist, we have little evidence to accurately reconstruct them in any way, besides records mentioning the woods used in bow making at the time. I would suggest reading up on your region of interest and finding some records pertaining to the woods used in the construction of their bows, then finding something made to the desired specifications that way. Personally, I would just stick with a yew longbow as a pretty safe bet for most of the Middle Ages as yew was early recognized as superior to elm and other woods sometimes used and considering that bows of "longbow" form have been discovered from ancient times such as with the Tyrolean Iceman.

-Alain

[Harri Kyllönen]

I'd say it's almost certain that "short bows" were used plenty for hunting and by militias since pre-historic times. 50 lbs of draw weight is fine for hunting and deadly in warfare.. This can be archieved by shorter self bows and with common woods so why waste time and money on long yew warbows.
Native americans often used bows as short as 1m for hunting and war. I suspect similar shorter bows (though not likely as extreme as only 1m long) could have been common in Europe too for common people who would use it for hunting and defence or militia duty.

Where to get them? I think some shops sell them as starter bows or bows for children and women. The problem is that they would propably also have a poor draw weight for someone who wants it to be as authentic as possible.

[Bartek Strojek]

[Terry Thompson]

The bow of Otzi the caveman was found with a simple (unfinished?) bow stave (1.82m) made of yew, leaning on a rock near by.

So, I would agree that Yew was identified as a decent bow material pretty early on.
-Terry

[Harri Kyllönen]

[Harri Kyllönen]

[Timo Nieminen]

[Alain D.]

I may be wrong, but I had the impression that the original poster was interested in military bows circa 11th-13th century rather than lighter, and potentially more diverse, hunting bows.

[Harri Kyllönen]

This is a bit OT already but ...



This is a bronze age bow found from Lake Ledro in Italy. It's made of yew, recurved and definately a short bow at 57".
But it's noteworthy that short recurved bows were known and used in Europe this early in history. Would longer and simpler bows replaced these almost completely? I don't believe so because Ötzi's longbow was over thousand years older than this one. Same goes for long Holmegaard and Meare Heath flatbows.
There must have been a reason to go through all this trouble instead of making a simpler longbow or a long flatbow from the same material.

[Craig Peters]

There are a few reasons to support the idea of shorter bows being used. First, as Harri has noted, there's a lot of manuscript evidence, not to mention carvings and other such illustrations, that suggest shorter bows did exist. I realize that medieval artwork is not always the most reliable for indicating the size of weapons. However, the prevalance of shorter bows in medieval artwork is common enough that one must ask: if all bows were long bow length, why would the artists have not represented the bows so that they were nearly as tall as the person wielding it all instances? That there are so many shorter bows shown is a good indication that such bows existed.

But we have better evidence than this. Andrew Halpin presented an article for the Papers for "Medieval Europe Brugge 1997" Conference entitled "Military Archery in Medieval Ireland: Archaeology and History". I quote from the relevant sections:

"Bows are rarely found on excavated sites but excavations in the town of Waterford have produced one complete bow and fragments of six others. All are simple yew bows dating between the mid-12th and mid-13th centuries, and they provide one of the first opportunities to look in detail at actual bows of this crucial period.

At first glance one thing seems clear: the Waterford bows are not longbows. The only complete example is 125 cm. long and the other surviving bowstaves were probably of much the same length. The arrowheads found with the bogs are as strongly military in nature as the Dublin arrowheads, so it is impossible to argue that these bows were for hunting and that longer bows were used for war. These are military bows, and, what is more, most of them seem to be Anglo-Norman."

In fact, Halpin goes on to argue that part of the problem lies in the term longbow, which has lead people to lead that a longbow is "qualitatively different from other wooden self-bows." He argues that long bows and ordinary bows as seperate, "it is more helpful to see the wooden bow as a single type, within which length (along with other characteristics) was a variable factor, depending on circumstances."

At the same time, Halpin also notes that we have a complete bow that is 185 cm long found at the crannog at Ballinderry. It has been dated to the late 10th century. So certainly, bows that were "longbow" length existed during these centuries. My point is that shorter bows existed alongside them, and were clearly used for war.

Here's the article for those who would like to read further: http://www.archerie-primitive.com/articles/Mi...reland.pdf

So, regardless of what we choose to call them, shorter bows did exist. I was wondering if there are any manufacturers who make them or who would make them.

[Craig Peters]

[Neal Matheson]

"There must have been a reason to go through all this trouble instead of making a simpler longbow or a long flatbow from the same material."
Recurved bows have considerably different flight characterisitics.
" part of the problem lies in the term longbow, which has lead people to lead that a longbow is "qualitatively different from other wooden self-bows"
Absolutely! In addition beyond the draw weight a "longbow" is not a particularly sophisiticated design and is incredibly ancient, more than one specimen is known from the neolithic. The earliest extant bow, from Holmgaard is a very sophisticated design. Modern cultural notions of progress, are just suiperimpositions and often don;t help in understanding the past. Rather than a progression or a regression the medieval long bow is just a design that met the needs of militaries of the day and fitted in with the limitations of the environment and technology.
To answer your question any bowyer will be able to make a shorter longbow though making one that shoots nicely will be much more challenging. As others here have written a shorter bow won't offer any advantage but will give a whole host of disadvantages but would only be margianlly more efficient with wood and would still take the same amount of time to make. A shorter bow might of course be much easier to carry around, fit on (shoot from?) boats etc etc.
If your German is up to it my friend Jurgan Junkmanns has released a pretty comprehensive archery book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pfeil-Bogen-Von-Altst...5BOS3CL069

[Neal Matheson]

I hope my reply was useful, I am really keen to see what any bow you buy looks like and more importantly shoots like!
Neal

[Harri Kyllönen]

[Neal Matheson]

Yup I was writing about self bows.

[Alain D.]