I've
been looking at some manuscripts in search for archery equipment.
 |
| Maybe some kind of wickerwork inside this rather big bag. By Diebold Schilling. |
Some
kind of device to carry the arrows must have existed. It's easy to put a bundle
of small and light target arrows in your belt but when you put more than 6 heavy
war arrows in your belt it becomes awkward and arrows fall out or becomes
tangled in other equipment. For some years ago some of our company members made
arrow bags with a wicker construction inside so the bag would keep its shape. But
I don't know, the bag is a bit big and cumbersome... So I started to search for
an arrow bag that could be constructed with the kind of spacers found on the
Mary Rose and found Anciennes et nouvelles chroniques
d'Angleterre from 1470-1480. It has several pictures of archers and many
of them are wearing some kind of arrow bag. And as it seems that all the bags
can be opened in both ends.
I decided to try this out and made a reconstruction from the videos Nick Birmingham made(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkYaMAdgBKI). The bag works fine and it feels like this could have been something that would have existed...
 |
| My own reconstruction. |
Some other interesting things a found
in the manuscript is this. Some kind of sash or cloth tied around the hip. Only
archers wear this and I've seen it only in this manuscript. My first thought
was that it is some kind of bag tied around the waist!? When I started shooting
longbow several years ago, it didn't take long time before I asked my mom to
sew a bag for my bow. So I could carry it on my back. I then painted it with
linseed oil and bees wax to make it weatherproof. And why wouldn't the medieval
archer do the same? But I haven't seen it anywhere. But when I look again, I don't'
know... It doesn't look like it's tube shaped, maybe just the painters own
creations.
Wait here's another one, of Hans
Memling, and not an archer... Bugger...
If anyone have any ideas on this or
have seen it someplace else, let me know!
Hello, I love the image of the arrow bag that is laying on the ground that you use above. I haven't had any luck finding the original so I can site it. Where did you find it?
SvaraRaderaMy father and I published some of the research we had done on the carriage of arrows from 1066 to the Mary Rose.ot was published in the Royal Armouries museum journal, arms and armour, in 2010.
SvaraRadera