It's interesting that people assume the archer would grab the arrow by the fletched end and pull the head back up through his belt. Why not grab the other end (near the head) and pull the fletched end through the belt? Seems simpler to me. :)

Here's a link to a video of yabusame, japanese horseback archery and how they draw their arrows from under the belt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSrUC1Ir9OU

This is only really an issue if you're shooting barbed heads. For more typical (non-barbed) bodkins you can just pull them backwards out of your belt.

You can come up with all sorts of complex and convoluted methods for drawing and nocking the arrow but if you want quick, easy access to your arrows, just take them out of your belt and stick them in the ground in front of you. This is what English archers did; and still do today.

It may be difficult to tell in this lower-res image, but the arrows in the archer's belt have at least two different head types, presumably for different targets. To make the appropriate selection he would have to be able to tell at a glance or by touch or positioning which arrow he needs for a given target. And, in addition to the problem of withdrawing a barbed-head arrow from the fletched end, drawing an arrow out of the belt that way would most likely lead to drawing the incorrect arrow. For these reasons I think it makes excellent sense to draw down through the belt from the head end. That would be pretty efficient if your left hand is near waist level, with the bow tipped to the right. You'd be sliding the arrow onto the bow with a single movment versus at least two movements if drawing the arrow backwards out of the belt. Some of our archer friends should try both and tell us the results.

As for his headdress: This is common in German artwork of the period, especially in depictions of knights with their helmets removed. It clearly does serve as a hairnet (and sometimes literally is a hairnet) but might also have served as a way to add cushioning under the helmet. After all, the hair could simply be tied back in order to keep it out of the eyes. Gathering it on top of the head might serve a secondary purpose. On the other hand, there's no indication of a helmet in the depiction of our archer, and Dürer shows men in a public bath wearing such caps. It can't really be considered a form of arming cap, I don' think.

Speaking of Dürer, here's his famous painting of St. George. Note the typical headdress.

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I haven't checked out the yabusame video and I'm not familiar with Japanese archery, but I can attest that continental Asian archery makes extensive use of "closed" quivers that store the arrows point-up and that this kind of quiver allows for a very quick nocking action that allows me to nock without looking at the arrow. Basically, this action consists of grabbing the arrow like a pencil just below the head, then bringing the head over to the bow hand where it will be held in place between the bow hand's thumb, forefinger, and middle finger. Then the other hand slides up the arrow until it meets the feather or the nock (depending on personal preference), grabs the shaft there, and pushes the arrow forward through the "tunnel" formed by the three fingers of the bow hand until the arrow goes far enough forward for the nock to meet the string. The final step is simply fitting the nock against the string--often with the help of a gentle push from the three fingers of the bow hand (which still retain their hold on the arrow until shortly before the draw). No need to flip the arrow around or to butt the nock against the thigh.

I've only managed to make the technique work with Eastern-style placement of the arrow at the thumb side of the bow hand (to the right of the bow when the bow is held in the left hand)--in fact, I still can't nock in the European-style knuckle-side arrow placement without looking at the arrow. However, I'm not closing my eyes to the possibility that maybe the technique could be modified to work with knuckle-side placement.

Just found this. It shows a typical nock and draw with an English Warbow.

FYI: The bow is Italian high-altitude yew; only a lightweight (about 115lb); the arrow is 33" shoulder to nock, and 1/2" diameter; fletchings are 8.5" x 3.4"




Please excuse the arty music and editing - it's part of a larger test-piece video.

There has been a fair amount of discussion about the awkwardness of drawing the arrows from belt quickly, but I would assume that the chap is out hunting and so generally has plenty of time to draw out and select the arrow for the game.

However there are many depictions of English archers beseiging castles etc with the arrows in an arrow bag stuck through the belt and again these must be drawn out point first and although Glennan is right that they were often stuck in the ground prior to shooting, they also seem to have been drawn directly from the belt in this manner.

Tod

Ran across a reference that mentioned the similarity between the German and English longbow, and which also noted that the English imported yew from Basel. The implication was that design flowed along the same trade channels as the wood.