You have to take into account a couple of things we take for granted. In those days, steel wasn't anything like what we're used to in modern times. The smelting process was very inefficient and incomplete, meaning you've got a lot of impurities. Steel is refined iron (dunno what they mix it with), and iron is very heavy. I'm assuming they also made swords thicker then you'd see now, partly for strength (since they're using impure metals), and partly because only the best swordmaker would have the ability to make a good lightweight sword. I've hefted a couple 20-30 pound wrenches in my day, and those were something like 30 inches long. Sam ps I always thought of the longsword as more of a clobbering weapon, ala braveheart. :) +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Ensure that you have read the CircleMUD Mailing List FAQ: | | http://cspo.queensu.ca/~fletcher/Circle/list_faq.html | +-----------------------------------------------------------+
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