Was throwing hammers as weapons common during European medieval combat?
Upvote:3
If you really want to throw something blunt, better use a rock. Just as effective and much cheaper.
I'd like to do an extended comment on this bit from Jos's answer. It's on the right track, but we can take it further. There are much more efficient ways to hurl a blunt object than a warhammer.
A hammer is, effectively, a rock attached to a handle. The handle on a hammer provides leverage to give more torque to the "rock" on the end and hit things harder. Same with a throwing hammer, the handle lets you throw the "rock" harder and further.
But as Jos points out, this is rather expensive, and rather heavy to haul around. What if we could take the general concept of a handle to throw a rock and make it cheaper?
You get the sling. A piece of rope acts as the "handle" to throw a rock. Cheap, deadly, universal.
Going back further there was the spear-thrower, which can just as easily throw stones.
It doesn't say that people never used throwing hammers in combat, but it does explain why they're not prevalent. Why throw the whole weapon when you can just throw the rock?
Upvote:11
No. Why throw a blunt object, if you can just as easily throw something far more deadly, like a throwing axe, a dart or even a knife? The Francisca throwing axe was a signature weapon of the Franks.
If you really want to throw something blunt, better use a rock. Just as effective and much cheaper.
Warhammers had a very different purpose. You need to wield (not throw!) them, to inflict serious damage. They worked very well against armour. A warhammer was a close combat weapon. Throwing one was pretty much useless.
Don't forget, hammers (usually) have metal heads. Metal was expensive until at least halfway during the Middle Ages.
And lastly, warhammers were mainly used by cavalry, almost always as a secondary or backup weapon. They would charge with a lance or sword, then switch to a warhammer when in close combat. (A lance wouldn't work in close combat.) It was not used by infantry, they had different weapons to work with.
A warhammer was a weapon that needed specialized training. Most infantry didn't have a lot of training. D&D is a fantasy game. A real warhammer was a relatively light weight slender weapon, definitely not a huge weapon as often depicted in D&D.
A real warhammer was very much like a modern claw hammer, with a longer handle, and one sharp end. In fact, a modern claw hammer would make a very good warhammer.
More post
- 📝 Why was Iceland not a part of the Danish-Swedish deal in Kiel in 1814?
- 📝 How much time would it take to mobilize an army during WW2?
- 📝 Has a hostile submarine transitted the Bosphorus submerged?
- 📝 Did ancient/medieval armies have music/chants to march to?
- 📝 Are views in Thailand on Axis powers influenced by colonization?
- 📝 Did Hitler get called a fascist by his opponents within Germany? Did he or other Nazis have a problem with that?
- 📝 In 19th century India, pre and post Raj, did any private British citizens actually own land in India?
- 📝 What is the title of a medieval mayor?
- 📝 Was Princess Elizabeth a van/ambulance driver/mechanic during WW2?
- 📝 What crops were part of the medieval spring harvest?
- 📝 What percentage of modern day Turks are of Bulgarian/Circassian/Greek/Serbian descent?
- 📝 Did the ancient Greeks have "taverns"?
- 📝 Did Cahokia have any communication with Mexica or Mayan civilization?
- 📝 In Georgian England, what was a water-party?
- 📝 What is the location of August Ferdinand Möbius' grave?
- 📝 Why did the Kingdom of Hawaii remain stagnant during an invasion?
- 📝 How do we derive information for civilizations from periods before record keeping?
- 📝 What is the title of the Magritte painting that shows a horse-headed woman looking out of a stone window?
- 📝 How long would it take a Victorian to travel from central Germany to the UK?
- 📝 During WW1, did any Irish join Kitchener’s Army?
- 📝 Were there high-ranking Japanese POW as witness at the Trinity Atomic Bomb Test?
- 📝 What was it like to have type 1 diabetes in the early 20th century?
- 📝 What did the Musa Dagh monument look like?
- 📝 Is there evidence people outside USSR were involved in attacks, within Soviet borders, between c.1928 and Stalin's death in 1953?
- 📝 Why did the Red Army change uniforms in 1943?
- 📝 What is the Truth behind Lord Macaulay speech ?(another version)
- 📝 Why are pre-Harappan strata grouped together with Early Harappan strata? Does this not obfuscate the development of the civilization?
- 📝 How have European microstates survived?
- 📝 "Dominion" of Canada?
- 📝 How could the USS Maine explosion have been investigated?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was throwing hammers as weapons common during European medieval combat?
- 📝 Was the act of servicemen exchanging their weapons for enemy weapons common during WWII?
- 📝 Was frequent bathing for personal hygiene in medieval Europe common or not?
- 📝 Was the European slave market in the East during the colonial era similar to the transatlantic slave market? If not (less brutal, etc), why?
- 📝 What was the life expectancy of a Medieval European monarch?
- 📝 What did European people of the 5th century AD eat during spring and what was the availability?
- 📝 Was rape common in Europe during the Middle Ages?
- 📝 Was it common practice in Victorian London or other Western European cities to name locations as places where fictional characters lived and acted?
- 📝 How common was drug abuse and related deaths in the USA during the conservative 1950s?
- 📝 How widespread was literacy in classical Greek in Europe during the medieval period?
- 📝 How common was cavalry in medieval Brittany?
- 📝 How common / uncommon was sword-vs-sword combat on ancient battlegrounds?
- 📝 What was the composition of Medieval European armies?
- 📝 How common was training with swords and other weapons at Newton's time in England?
- 📝 What was the relation of Barons to Counts/Dukes/Earls in England during the medieval ages?
- 📝 Was burning/disposing of furniture a common act during the Iranian Revolution?
- 📝 Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?
- 📝 Was Switzerland really impossible to invade during WW2?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?
- 📝 How literate were common people in Medieval Europe?
- 📝 Was there a plan to use nuclear weapons for terrain modification in North America?
- 📝 How common were marital duels in medieval Europe?
- 📝 Why was there a surge in the US incarceration rate during the 1990s?
- 📝 What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
- 📝 Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars?
- 📝 How did medieval manors handle population growth? Was there room for more fields to be ploughed?
- 📝 What kind of ink was used by medieval scribes in Iceland, given that there were no plant galls for iron-gall ink?
- 📝 How difficult was to escape from a naval battle after engaging into one during the Age of Sail?
