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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Somerset, UK
Posts: 8
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Just to throw this out there for consideration. Does anyone have any evidence for the use of the word seax dying out of use in England in the middle ages?
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#2 |
Lead Moderator European Armoury
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Portugal
Posts: 9,694
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Let me play the ignorant, Rob
![]() Searching (PDF) the work "Romeo and Juliet" by W. Shakespeare (1591) the term seax doesn't appear; only dagger, knife, sword ... Surprisingly the (circa 5000 pages) "Oxford Universal Dictionary" (1933-1969) doesn't contain this term. One can see in Wikepedia that the term seax is Old English, a language form that spans between V-XII centuries. Most probably you will soon find evidence that the term was dropped during the period you well suspect ![]() . |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: NC, U.S.A.
Posts: 2,087
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I no zero on this area, but according to Blackmore's 'Hunting Weapons from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century', a civilian dagger of the late Middle Ages known as a 'hauswehr' was the evolution (and demise) of the scramasax, developing a broader blade and of narrower cross-section, with edge curved to meet the back at the point. The older scramasax pointed tang was replaced with a strip tang to which two plates of wood, bone, ivory, etc, were riveted. An example of this evolution is shown from a 1476 manuscript. It stands to reason that with the demise of the form, the term also lost popularity. So, Fernando and you are both right-
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