Summary: Remember the Romans? God I hope you answered yes. So those Romans and their approach to weaponry was surprisingly utilitarian. The weapons were issued by your superiors, and then returned after use. They were a tool and nothing more. It wasn’t even like the famous speech in Full Metal Jacket. “This is my rifle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.” Nope, it was just a weapon of war. “Here’s your gladius, Paulus. Try to stick the pointy end in that German, please.” Now contrast that with the culture that’s growing in Britain. Your weapon isn’t just an anonymous tool. It was special. It was unique. It had a story and weorth of it’s own and was probably handed down to you from your forebears or your lord, and you were probably aware of the great deeds that were accomplished with it. Your weapon was probably quite decorated and named, and often, the name will use a combination of old english words to identify it. And I wont run you through a full vocabulary of words and their translations, but members I have put up a list of some old english words of war (and their translations) on the members section of the forums if you’re interested. And the great part about these names is the fact that they’re rather poetic and descriptive... for example, beaduleoma... which is translated to “battle-light.” It makes you think that it might have been heavily decorated with garnet and filigree, and thus it sparkled (not unlike a vampire) in battle. These weapons, at least the more elite weapons, had stories of their own. Think about it, not in terms of the sword Maximus uses in Gladiator... think about it more like Excalibur. King Arthur is important, sure. But Excalibur is an important weapon in its own right, and that extends beyond it’s use by Arthur. I mean, it even has a sexy backstory with a water goddess.
