Glossary

Please skip this chapter to get to the story. It is for reference only and covers medieval war gear, clothing, military ranks, and magical lore.

Armour

Aketon: a thin, hip length, padded coat worn beneath mail and plate armour. The word was often used interchangeably with gambeson. To avoid confusion, I have used Aketon for a short, thin padded jacket and Gambeson for a long, thick padded jacket.

Aventail: a circle of mail protecting the neck, upper spine, and part of the shoulders. Often attached to a helmet or coif.

Bassinet: a conical helm that sweeps backwards to a pointed tip. It has a cone-like, removable visor, riddled with small holes.

Boiled leather: leather with stiff, plastic-like properties. Boiling leather in water shrinks it, increasing the density of the material. Sometimes treated with hot wax or oil as well. Also called cuir bouilli.

Brigandine: a thigh length coat with small metal plates riveted to its underside.

Chausses: mail leggings.

Coat-of-Plates: a surcoat with large metal plates riveted to its underside, both front and back. Later versions had sleeves like a trench coat and developed into the brigandine.

Coif: close fitting, mail armour for the head, worn with thin felt and canvas padding beneath. Covers the cranium, mouth, cheeks, and neck leaving the nose and eyes exposed.

Cullet: the back piece of a two part, skirt-like, hip and thigh guard.

Cuirass: chest and back plate armour.

Cuisse: thigh guards.

Cervelliere: a helmet covering the crown of the head. Often worn with a coif and/ or beneath another helmet. Developed into the bassinet.

Faulds: the front piece of a two part, skirt-like, hip and thigh guard.

Gambeson: a thick, knee length, padded coat. Sometimes worn over or under mail.

Gorget: a piece of plate armour protecting the throat and top of the spine. Some variants protruded over the chin as well. Their shape varied between a circle and a diamond.

Gousset: a small section of mail that covers a gap in plate armour, lighter than wearing a hauberk and reduces the number of required moving parts in plate armour.

Greaves: plate armour covering the shins.

Hauberk: a mail shirt, extending to the mid-thigh.

Kettle hat: a helmet with a wide rim and a low conical crown with a rounded tip.

Lames: Small metal sheets riveted together to create flexible armour. The Faulds and Cullet were constructed from lames. Armour constructed entirely from lames is called laminar armour or banded mail. Lorica segmentata (segmented cuirass), or Roman armour, is the arguably the most famous example of armour constructed entirely from lames.

Mail: armour made from interlocking, riveted rings. Rings varied in thickness, size, and the number of links. The most common was four whole rings (like a washer) joined to one split and riveted ring (like a key ring), called four-in-one. Mail could also be made entirely from split, riveted rings.

Variations included six-in-one and eight-in-one as well as butted (unriveted) mail and, vary rarely, forged mail.

Nasal Helm: a helmet with a nose and cheek guards, but no visor.

Poleyn: plate knee guards. These were one of the first pieces of plate armour to develop. Initially they were strapped over Chausses, in later periods they became articulated and were connected to Cuisse and Greaves.

Rawhide: untanned leather, often used to face (cover) wooden shields, especially the rims, to reduce splintering under impact.

Sabatons: armoured shoes constructed from lames. They were articulated and attached to greaves. More elaborate versions had long pointed toes, in line with pointed slippers for social occasions. Sabatons intended for use in battle had much shorter toes and were very popular with cavalry.

Scale armour: armour made from tiny plates riveted together. Plates could be leather or metal and of different shapes, including rectangles and fish scale-like shapes.

Spaulders: shoulder and upper arm guards. Unlike pauldrons, spaulders do not protect armpits.

Splinted: leather armour with metal plates riveted underneath.

Surcoat: a rectangular piece of leather that hangs from the shoulders down to the knees, covering the chest and back. Often embroidered with the owner’s heraldry or colours.

Weapons and Shields

Javelin: a short spear between three and five feet long, weighted for throwing. Javelins were used to create and exploit opportunities at range. They could weigh down shields, disabling them, skewer an inattentive or isolated enemy, or force an opponent to block one direction, leaving them vulnerable from other angles, they were effective spears too.

(OE: Gar/ Gara; ‘gahr’)

Longbow/ War Bow. While the English called a bow, a bow regardless of its intended use, a war bow was more powerful than a hunting, or practice bow. The size and strength was matched to the bowman. When strung, they were between six and twelve inches taller the bowman, approximately seventy inches (1.8m) from tip to tip. The draw weight averaged between ninety and one-hundred and ten pounds (40-50 kg), but could be as much as one-hundred and fifty pounds (68kg).

Each tip was reinforced with animal horn. The bow staves, usually yew, were cut so that the outer edge was predominantly sapwood, and the inner edge was heartwood. The demand for the staves was so great that, towards the end of the medieval period, English import taxes were often paid in bow staves, rather than coin.

Some longbows were more sophisticated than others. Rather than a crescent, they bent away from the archer at the ends, giving them more power; a design that may have been influenced by the smaller eastern European bows encountered during the crusades, made from laminated horn, fish-glue (boiled swim bladder), and sinew (beaten until it became fibrous, like modern fibreglass).

Archers would practice firing to specific marks or distances, e.g. (250 yards/ 228.6m), so that groups of archers could saturate an area with arrows allowing them to target moving troops, even charging cavalry.

Archers would often stick their arrows in the ground before using them, not necessarily because it was quicker to draw them from the ground, rather than a belt quiver, but to make them as dirty as possible, in the hope of causing death through infection, rather than the arrow itself.

(OE: Boh/ Bohas; ‘boh’, as in bot)

War Arrow: War arrows were longer, thicker, and heavier than hunting or other types of arrows to ensure sufficient weight to pierce armour, rather than shatter or bounce off it. They were, on average, thirty inches long (76.2cm) and three-eighths thick (0.95cm). Ideally they were fletched with goose feathers and nocked with horn.

Early arrow shafts were thicker in the middle for greater strength, whereas later ones were even (possibly for greater accuracy), or thicker towards the arrow head, for a heavier impact. Shafts for practice arrows were often thinner towards the arrow head, so they could be removed from targets more easily.

There were three main types of arrowhead: broadhead, blunts, and bodkins. Broadheads were shaped like a triangle, had high cutting power, and were effective against gambesons, boiled-leather, and un-armoured horses.

Blunts were thick ovals and were effective against plate armour, their heavy heads able to pierce, then shear through metal plates.

Bodkins were thin spikes and were effective at piercing mail. The heads were easier and cheaper to produce than broadheads and blunts, which could account for their common use. The two most common bodkin points were a short, thick spike and a long, thin spike.

Bringing the right arrow was as important as having the right armour against it, which may have contributed to the huge variations in arrow heads and multiple layers of armour soldiers tried to protect themselves with.

Gambesons, boiled-leather, mail and plate armour were all incredibly effective protection against arrows, much more so than modern films portray. For example, an average, medieval longbow at full draw, firing any arrow type, would struggle to pierce plate armour beyond twenty meters.

(OE: Gúðflá/ Gúðflán; ‘Gooth- flar’)

War lance: A twelve-foot, flexible wooden pole (usually ash) with a metal tip at one end and a conical stopper and a wider section at the other. They were most effective when a knight was galloping at high speed.

There were two types of lances, heavy and light. Heavy lances were used to knock the enemy down and break their lines. War lances, unlike tourney (competition) lances, were quite sturdy and a knight could hope to achieve several strikes before it broke. Light lances were designed to stick in shields, forcing both to be dropped.

A knight would lower their lance a bit at a time, keeping in sync with their horse’s gait, with the aim of reaching the height of their target at the last possible moment, so that the lance would not bounce up or sideways and miss.

A knight’s armour would sometimes have a small hook on one side of their chest so they could couch (rest) their lance more easily. A lance was couched by a knight holding their palm upright, resting the lance along the underside of their upwards facing forearm, and tucking the end under their armpit.

Infantry would form a schiltron, a circle of spearmen, to deny enemy lance charges.

The OE for lance is interchangeable with spear. (Wígár).

Mace: A pole with a large, spiked metal head. Short, one-handed infantry maces often had metal hafts, while the longer cavalry maces and two-handed maces had a thick wooden haft, reinforced with metal strips. Maces were anti-plate armour weapons. Their blows would transfer concussive force through the armour and maim the person within, regardless of whether the armour was pierced or not.

Maces appeared after OE evolved to middle English. The closest words I could find were cycgel (cudgel) and steng (pole/ cudgel).

Poleaxe: A tw0-handed, anti-plate armour weapon used by infantry with a five-foot, wooden haft, reinforced with metal strips, that may have evolved from the war hammer. The haft had three weapons attached to one end: a spear-head, an axe-head, and a hammer-head. There were many different variations in their shapes throughout history from spear-heads to spikes, half-moon to crescent axes, and square, flat hammer-heads to split, circular hammer-heads.

Like the mace, the poleaxe was developed after OE disappeared, but you can get close by combining spréot (pike/ spear) and æxa (axe): Spréotæxa ('Spray-ott-axar').

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Spear: A weapon with a six to seven-foot haft and a thick, eight-inch blade. By keeping the haft pressing against the underside of the forearm, the wielder can use the spear with one hand, leaving an hand free for a shield.

A spear’s length also allows the wielder to not only strike the person in front of them, but anyone to the side and behind their main opponent. Spearmen would often fight in pairs to help protect each other from such opportunistic strikes and to avoid a shorter weapon wielder, like a swordsman, closing in and killing them.

The haft was usually made from ash; the association with the wood is so strong that the OE for ash (aesc) can also mean spear, or lance, as well as wood-ash.

Spears require, arguably, less skill to make and use than swords and keep the enemy (hopefully) too far away to hit you.

(OE: Wígár/ Wígára; ‘Wee-gar’)

Sæx: a common blade used in Northern Europe from the sixth to the tenth century. There was a massive variation in size and style, but most of them fall into two categories, hand-sæx and long-sæx. Nearly all sæx have small hilts.

The first was primarily a tool with a single edge between three and eight inches long. Long-sæx were much larger and broader, often double edged with proper fullers (a central indent in the blade’s centre) and pattern welded (folded metal with a rippling pattern). They were intended as side arms, but like the smaller variants, they were also good, general purpose tools.

Long-sæx, called sæx in Rícewelig, are the standard sidearm for all infantry. While there are better, more modern blades available in Rícewelig’s time setting, sæx are the most common because they’ve been around the longest, making them cheaper and easily available to both military and civilians alike.

(OE: Sæx; ‘sax’)

War Axe/ broad axe: an axe with a large, crescent blade (four to ten inches), often with a spiked haft, and spike behind the blade. The haft of a war axe varied massively from the small Frankish throwing axes to the huge, two handed Danish axes and were often reinforced with metal strips. They were popular because, like sæxs, they were effective tools as well as weapons.

Although they were good at hacking shields, they were far from omnipotent and could become stuck (arguably the point of a throwing axe). The shield bearer might have to drop their shield, but the axe could be lost too, leaving both fighters vulnerable. Axes cause wide cuts and, like maces, blunt trauma.

The ‘crescent axe’ carried by the Rícewelig Húskarlar is one-handed, has a eight inch blade, a two foot, reinforced haft, a curved back spike, and a short top spike.

(OE: Bádæx/ brádæxa; ‘bard-axe’)

Buckler: a tiny metal shield between twelve and eighteen inches across with a fist sized boss (centre dome). Its popularity rose in tandem with duelling in seventeenth century Europe, as its small, light construction made it easy to carry about.

(OE: hildebord or targe)

Heater Shield: a small, triangular shield between eighteen and twenty-four inches across and thirty inches long. It was much smaller and lighter than round and teardrop shields. Heater shields were popular with soldiers who already wore a lot of armour, both on foot and in the saddle.

Round Shield: a circular shield between twenty-eight and thirty-seven inches across. Shields were usually sized to the user, i.e. bigger shields for bigger people. The ideal wooden shield was constructed from two, perpendicular layers of butted, linden-wood planks held together by fish glue, reinforced with three iron strips and an iron boss using iron nails, and faced with raw-hide. Some countries, such as Norway, even had laws dictating how a shield should be made. Beech, oak, and ash were also used to make shields, but linden wood was popular because it was strong as well as light.

Round shields are used by the Rícewelig Húskarlar and Lindwígendas. Their standard shield is thirty-four inches across.

(OE: heaðulind, bócscyld, or scield)

Teardrop shield: a semi-circular shield with a tapered end to protect the shins and feet. Constructed in a similar fashion to a round shield. Teardrop shields were used by infantry and lightly armoured horsemen.

Clothing

Bliaut: a type of expensive tunic. It used twice as much fabric as a normal tunic, giving it many folds. They were worn by men and women, but had different features depending on the wearer's gender.

All Bliauts had widening sleeves. Women’s Bliaut widened from the elbow, often by a foot or more. Men’s Bliaut widened from the wrist and were unlikely to extend more than six inches.

Women’s Bliaut extend to the ankle, men’s extend to the knee.

Braies: shorts worn by men and women as underwear, that reached just above the knee. Secured by cord or a strip of cloth at the hip, as well as the knees, where they were attached to hose. Made from the highest quality fabric a person could afford.

Breast bags: similar to a modern sports bra. Observations on clothing only included what the observer could see. Accounts were usually written by men, often monks, who were unlikely to admit to seeing ladies underwear by writing about it, so ‘breast bags’, as described by a man, is one of the few descriptions we have of women’s underwear and the closest guess we have to what they actually wore.

I couldn’t find any references to ladies pants, partly because they wore longer tunics, and therefore their pants remained, for the most part, unobserved; I’ve assumed they wore braies, like men.

Doublet: A tight, padded jacket, with buttons or cord to close the front. It may have developed because of a desire to have a more ‘everyday’, or court variant of the gambeson.

Hose: unlike modern tights, these were more like long, tight fitting socks, which were tied to braies to stop the hose from falling down and keep drafts from blowing up the wearer’s legs.

Pelisse: a sleeved cloak, half way between a mantle, or cloak, and a coat. The hems were often highlighted with a different fur to the rest of the garment.

Tunic: a long shirt without buttons, could have long or short sleeves. Women’s tunics ended at the ankle, men’s ended at the knee. Tunics were often worn with belts to give them more shape. When performing physical labour, such as field work or laundry, both men and women would often tuck their tunics into their belts so they could move more freely.

Under Tunic: a thin tunic worn beneath clothing. Much shorter than a normal tunic. Women’s ended at the knee, and men’s at the mid-thigh. It was usually made with the highest quality fabric the wearer could afford, such as linen or silk, so even if their other clothing was itchy, it wouldn’t be able to touch the wearer’s skin.

Military Ranks

Herewísa (Hehreh-weesar): captain-general, the highest rank.

Þúsendealdor (Thoosend-‘ehah’l-dohr): a leader of one-thousand soldiers.

(Plural: Þúsendealdoras).

Cempa (Chemm-pah): warrior-champion, a leader of five-hundred soldiers.

(Plural: Cempan).

Hundredmann (Hun-dread-mahn): hundred-man, a leader of one-hundred soldiers, or one company.

(Plural: Hundredmenn).

Fíftiesmann (Fifft-ears-mahn): fifty-man, a leader of fifty soldiers, or half a company.

(Plural: Fíftiesmenn)

Téoðingealdor (T’ayuh’-thin-g’ehah’l-dohr): ten-man, a leader of ten soldiers.

(Plural: Téoðingealdoras)

Military Units

Medieval England had many names for different types of warrior, based on their gear. I’ve followed a similar pattern for the soldiers in Rícewelig. While inspired by history, the troop types, and their gear, are fictional.

Byrnwiggend (Búern-wig-gend): an armoured warrior. Warriors wearing Almain Rivet, or half-plate, a type of German armour, produced in great quantities for private armies. It was a mix of riveted lames, covering the shoulders and hips and a two part cuirass. In Rícewelig, it’s called rivet plate. The Byrnwiggendas wield poleaxes.

(Plural: Byrnwiggendas)

Gárberend (Gar-beh-rend): a javelin bearer. Mercenaries hired by Duke Helȝas Engram. They wear Brigandines and coifs, and carry three javelins, a buckler, and a sæx.

(Plural: Gárberendas)

Húskarl (Hoose-carl): a housecarl, or non-servile peasant; Rícewelig’s standing army. They wear a nasal helm with a boar decoration, a mail coif with an attached aventail, an aketon, hauberk, coat-of-plates, boiled leather iron splint boots and gauntlets, spaulders, round shields, and carry a spiked crescent axe with two foot haft and sæx.

(Plural: Húskarlar)

Knight: a heavily armoured, usually mounted, soldier. Historically, only a few would actually be knighted, the same as in Rícewelig. They wear a cuirass, spaulders, gauntlets, faulds, culet, gorget, hauberk, aketon, bascinet with aventail, chausses, poleyn, cuisse, greaves and sabatons. They carry a heater shield, lance, mace, and seax. Their horses wear a coat-of-plates barding.

Lindwígend (Lind-weeg-gend): a warrior with shield. The Tayandan Militia, they wear gambesons and kettle helms and carry large, linden wood round shields, seven foot spears, and sæxs.

(Plural: Lindwígendas)

Rídwiga (Reed-wig-ah): a Rider/ soldier. Cavalry wearing a gambeson and covered in mail, carrying spears, teardrop shields, and sæxs.

(Plural: Rídwigan)

Scéotend (Sh’ayuh’-ott-end): a bowman warrior. They wear gambesons and kettle helms, and carry a six-foot longbow, a sæx and a belt quiver of seventy-two arrows. Scéotend is both singular and plural in OE.

Wígárberend (Wee-gar-beh-rend): a Lance bearer. This is my translation of Lances Fournier, a type of French, mounted, mixed weapons squad, into Old English. Berend is both singular and plural in OE.

Lore: Monsters (contains spoilers)

Aetherbairn (Ath-air-bairn): A wóddréam-human hybrid. Unlike pure wóddréamas, Aetherbairn are not tied to a location, but to a human body. The populace believes older and more powerful Aetherbairn can change their body’s appearance and form, as well as possess objects and even people, becoming immortal.

(Plural: Aetherbairn. The word has no actual old or modern English meaning, was created to mean: spirit-child, or wraith-child).

Cargást (Kar-gahst): a sad spirit, or fearful ghost.

(Plural: Cargástas).

Déofol (D’ayuh’-foll): an evil spirit.

(Plural: Déoflas).

Draca (Drah-kah): A large, magical lizard that grows up to fifteen feet long. There are six species, each tied to one of the six types of magic. The smaller species have wings.

(Plural: Dracan).

Eten (Ett-ehnn): a giant. Elewys is sometimes mistakenly referred to as an Eten, she’s a foot taller, and more intelligent than most giants, but like Elewys herself, no one is quite sure how to categorise her.

(Plural: Etenas).

Gréatian (Gr’ayah’ti-ahn): an animal enlarged by magic. Gréatian cannot survive in areas of low magic density. Rapid growth by magic can cause the animals severe disfigurement and death.

(The word means: to become great or enlarged. The plural is Gréaten, but as that is too different and confusing, both the singular and plural have been kept as the same, similar to the words: cannon and deer).

Heoruwearg (H’ehuh’ruh-w’ehah’rrg): A gréatian-type wolf. (OE: rabid wolf). Dolwillen names the Heoruwearg, Gristbitung, meaning: to grind one's teeth. It's like calling the giant rabid wolf ‘Gnasher’. The other name he considers is, Tórendan, meaning to rend, or tear into pieces.

(Plural: Heoruweargas).

Nihtgenga (niht-gen-gah): a goblin-like, evil spirit. Some believe they are abandoned changeling children, who become evil spirits after receiving insufficient love to maintain humanity. Supposedly, the original children are lured away by Cargástas, sorrowful spirits mourning the loss of their own children, or suffering from other trauma.

The Cargást can’t care for the child and it dies, so they possess the child’s body and return it to the original parents, becoming a changeling. Some believe changelings who aren’t rejected become Aetherbairn, or a similar variant.

There are other variations on the myth which blame Wóddréamas, or Déoflas, rather than Cargastas.

(Plural: Nihtgengan).

Wóddréam (Wohd-dray-ahm): a minor spirit, can be good or evil. Their body is always tied to a specific location, such as a spring, tree, or rocky outcrop. The more powerful they are, and the more magic surrounding their origin, the further they can manifest a physical form the location they are tied too. The more powerful ones (older) can look human and, with great effort, change their point of origin.

(Plural: Wóddréamas).

Lore: Gods and Magic

Drýlic (Dree-lik): means of magic or magical.

(Plural: Drýlice).

Drýmann (Dree-mahn): a sorcerer or magician.

(Plural: Drýmenn).

Feorhhord Gimcynn (F’ehuh’rr-horde Gim-kün) : a gemstone made from condensed magic. Means: soul gemstone, or spirit gemstone.

(Plural: Feorhhord Gimcynn).

Below is a list of the gods and goddesses worshiped in Rícewelig. There is no formal religion and the deities are best known for their elements. With so few Drýmenn, their names are not well known; residents are more concerned with survival, attributing their misfortune and luck to the bizarre, magical creatures inhabiting the land that can be driven off or encouraged, rather than the intangible Gods and Goddesses, who govern a power most people will never have access too.

Each deity has opposing positive and negative aspects, represent a season or solstice, and an element.

Feorhlíf and Ficolu are considered the most powerful. Followed by Síþ and Heorþ, then Áspringan and Þéon.

The residents of Rícewelig believe each subsequent pair is the offspring of the previous pair, because gods and goddesses, like royalty, don’t have many official options to choose from.

Feorhlíf (F’ehuh’rr-leef): represents the sun, immortality, power, wealth, arrogance and the Summer Solstice.

It is the name for life aspect, or yellow coloured magic.

(OE for: life).

Ficolu (Fik-ol-luh): represents the moon, beauty, secrets, dreams, despair, and the Winter Solstice.

Governs spirit aspect, or white coloured magic.

(OE for: fickle).

Síþ (Seethe): represents fathers, family, isolation, passage (both physical, e.g. journeys, and spiritual, e.g. death), and Winter.

Governs water aspect, or blue coloured magic.

(OE for: journey).

Heorþ (H’ehuh’rrth): represents mothers, harvest, abundance, entropy, decay, and Autumn.

Governs Fire aspect, or red coloured magic.

(OE for: hearth).

Áspringan (Ah-spring-ahn): represents daughters, music, new life, starvation, and Spring.

Governs Air aspect, or black coloured magic.

(OE for: to arise and dwindle).

Þéon (Thay-on): represents sons, growth, youth, adventure, drought, withering and Summer.

Governs Earth aspect, or brown coloured magic.

(OE for: to thrive, prosper, ripen, and grow).