Falchion

Origin

The falchion is a single-edged sword that appeared in Europe around the 11th century and was used into the 16th. It is thought to have developed from the cutting tools of the butcher and the farm and from the tradition of the seax, the Germanic single-edged knife, settling in as the cheap, practical weapon in the hand of the common infantryman. It appears frequently in the illustrations and sculpture of the Crusades era (1096 to 1291) in particular, suggesting how widely it was used in real fighting. Because even an infantryman with no formal sword training could be effective with a simple chopping cut, it spread as a popular weapon easier to handle than the sword.

Features

• A single edge broadening toward the tip (about 60 to 80 cm)
• A cleaver-like design for a powerful cut
• A center of mass set toward the front of the blade
• A simple and cheap construction
• A weapon mass-issued to common infantry
• A weight of about 600 g to 1 kg

Stories

The falchion was the weapon of the common infantryman who had not learned formal swordsmanship. Thanks to the blade broadening toward the tip and the weight set forward, even the simple act of chopping down hard, without complex technique, had the power to cut deep into flesh. It was commonly handled in one hand with a small shield, a buckler, or a large shield in the other, and it was especially effective against a foe who was not properly armored. Being easy to handle and cheap, so that it could be put in anyone's hand, was its most practical advantage and the greatest difference from the knightly sword, which demanded training in swordsmanship.

Weakness

The weakness of the falchion arises from its being a single-edged cutting sword. With its edge on one side only, it is poor at the straight thrust, and being specialized for the heavy cut, its defensive moves such as precise parrying are also limited. Above all, against a foe in hard plate armor the cut scarcely told, so it was unsuited to anti-armor combat. That is, the falchion was a weapon that shone against an unarmored foe, but its limits were clear in meeting a heavily armored knight head-on.

Cultural Significance

The falchion is a weapon symbolic of the common man's sword of the Middle Ages. Where the knightly sword with its cruciform hilt was a symbol of rank and chivalry, the falchion was the cheap, practical weapon of the foot soldier. Interestingly, in medieval art the falchion was often placed in the hand of a low-status soldier or an executioner, or of a figure drawn as the enemy, a Saracen soldier, Goliath, a persecutor, as an iconographic mark set in contrast to the noble knight's cruciform sword. This is in part art reflecting the fact that the falchion really was the plain, rough blade of the common foot soldier.

In Popular Culture

The falchion appears richly in medieval manuscript illustrations such as the Maciejowski Bible, through which its form survives to this day. In fantasy and games it commonly appears as a class of heavy, strong cutting weapon, but its form is often unlike the historical falchion: the falchion of fiction is usually drawn as a deeply curved sword like a scimitar, whereas the real falchion had a nearly straight back and a blade broadening toward the tip. It is an intriguing weapon whose name is familiar but whose true form is widely mistaken.

Trivia

• Falchions that survive as genuine artifacts are very rare; the best known is the Conyers falchion of around the 13th century, kept at Durham Cathedral in England and tied to the legend that Sir John Conyers slew the Sockburn Worm, a dragon-like monster, and most other images of the falchion come down to us through manuscript illustration and sculpture.
• In medieval art the falchion was often drawn in the hand of a low-status soldier or executioner or an enemy figure such as a Saracen or Goliath, used as an iconographic mark set against the noble knight's cruciform sword, which reflects the fact that the falchion really was the cheap, rough blade of the foot soldier.
• The falchion is thought to have developed from the cutting tools of butchering and farming and from the tradition of the single-edged seax knife and is close to the German Grosse Messer, the great knife, yet in modern fantasy and games it is usually mis-drawn as a deeply curved sword like a scimitar.