The medieval bow time forgot

The bow that most people think of as the iconic bow of the medieval period is the longbow, but that's not the only one.

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[matthewlentz]

Great video, Shad. Growing up, I was always intrigued by recurve bows and wondered why medieval Europeans didn't use them for mounted archery like the Turks or Arabs. The books I read either said that they didn't have the technology or that it was somehow against the knightly code of ethics. Then one day I was looking at the Bayeux Tapestry and saw a Norman knight using a recurve now on horseback! So then I was confused. Glad you made this video to clear up my misconceptions. I'd love to see a video on mounted archery in the Middle Ages and where the misconception that Europeans didn't practice it originated. Keep up the good work.

[HistoricalWeapons]

Hi Shad, thanks a lot for the shoutout. Thumb draw in my opinion is a lot harder for heavy bows. Even some horse archers also use finger draw when necessary, depending on the situation (examples include a sore/damaged thumb, lost thumb ring, or personal preferences). Thumb draw on the other hand allows a further draw length so more power stroke, and theoretically a faster release (although more testing should be done). On horseback, both thumb and finger draw can be done, and on both sides. There are many variations of these techniques which is mostly forgotten in the modern archery world today. Glad you can revive some of this interest with your popular channel!

[VimyGlide]

shad: *GRUNTS WITH THE FORCE OF A THOUSAND SUNS*
also shad: "oh it's not that bad actually"

[peteroneill]

I love how animated he gets on such arcane topics. Gotta love the passion.

[thefreshestslice]

Forgot? That's clearly the hunting bow, from Skyrim, Shad.

[jimsutter]

I am of Magyar descent, so am very happy to see you representing some of our kit.

[zetoma]

Growing up i loved the Rangers Apprentice series by John Flanagan. The first bow the main character gets is a short recurve because of the lower poundage for higher velocity. Its good to see short bows get some love.

[asa-punkatsouthvinland]

And I think Shad hit the nail on the head when he said that it's less expensive and complicated to make a longbow of high draw weight then a short composite bow.
The cost of producing large amounts of longbows is probably part of their appeal in medieval combat as opposed to composite short bows or crossbows. Many medieval crossbow men were mercenaries they're professional soldiers they bought their own kit. The bow was more of a primary weapon in many Asian horse cultures, thus there more likely to have a personal more costly; added to this is the fact that a short bows easier to shoot in multiple directions on horseback.

[salted]

I'm getting flashbacks to my childhood and only now I recall how much correct information the elder folk told me about archery and bows when I was a kid. There must've been a respected teacher who was deeply enthusiastic about archery and the knowledge has spread and trickled down to later generations.

[Zack-blgg]

“The medieval bow time forgot”
I was thinking about the recurve every time you criticized fiction for having small bows…
All jokes aside, I knew history of and practiced on the recurve before I even knew about longbows. So I thought if the recurve ALL the time in your videos, I think it’s really cool that you’re clearing up your misconceptions and addressing the recurve, it’s such a great bow.

[omichromium]

Dude i remember reading the Ranger's Apprentice series as a kid and oh my god, I was obsessed with European recurve bows and honestly still have a lot of interest in them, than you for making such a well-rounded, accurate and historical video to encompass possibly one of my favourite bows :)

[realdragon]

It's unbeliviable how much power is in such small bow

[Aukele]

I’m just happy to see Shad doing well and thriving.

[lukerogers]

Not going to lie Shad, couple months ago I beng watch your archery videos. After you opened my eyes to how the power of bows work, I created new rules for my bows for D&D. Made three categories, hunting bows, war bows, and great bows (200 lb). Love the changes that you inspired me to fix and thank you for the amazing work you do. Also I made Strength requirements for the bows.

[stewbird]

Liked how you commented on D&D bows. And after I watched this video I made my own Homebrew version for Bows in my D&D campaigns, hunting bow in simple weapons, and war Bows for Marshall weapons, and left it to my players whether it was long or short or recurved.

[Flamewolf]

so who else was cheering on shad at the beginning while he was stringing the bow

[SwedishSinologyNerd]

Historical pranks that ought to have happened: The King of France sells the King of England a large shipment of high quality recurve bows at a very low price.
French Courtier: "My liege! Why would You outfit our sworn enemy with such mighty weaponry?!"
Le Roi: "Pffft, zese bows, zey are useless in ze rain, and England hasn't 'ad a summer for ze last two hundred years!"
Monsieur Courtier: "Soooo... You plan on invading ze isles?"
Big Roy: "Ma non! We have ALSO sold a boatload of Byzantine Steel to ze Scots!"
*Hon-hon-hon intensifies*

[Omgoldrakanthiled]

I’ve always used the term “horse bow” when referring to Mongolian short bows specifically. And I thought that were called that because the string wrapped up the siyah was made from horse hair. I have no idea where I got this information in the past but now looking into it I have found nothing to confirm any of that 😂 good video learned a lot

[adamwu]

In my headcanon when playing D&D I always just assumed that the "shortbow" and "longbow" category names were an artifact of historical convention that no longer referred to the size of the bows, either dating back to the earliest days when the first bows were invented before composite bows, lamination or the idea of recurves even became a thing, and all bows were de-curve self-bows, or that the original naming of "short" and "long" bows referred to the range of the bow and not its size, and that by the time, in setting, of the campaign, bows were just classified by their performance, so any bow that performed the way the rules state a longbow should, is a longbow, regardless of its physical size, and any bow that performed the way a shortbow does is one, regardless of its size. I mean, once we get to enchanted bows and magical materials one ought to be able to make a bow of any size fire at any poundage, with the poundage controlled by the magic....

[itatane]

Interesting to think about how only Odysseus could string and fire his bow. Assuming his bow was a palintonos, it may well have been a composite recurve bow. If he were even marginally larger and stronger than others of his era and culture, it's easy to see why Homer used it as a plot device. (Or perhaps Odysseus simply knew how to string the bow properly, if it was a type the locals were not familiar with.) Homer was supposedly blind, yet knew just how powerful you had to be in order to string and fire a bow. Seeing poor Shad nearly pop a blood vessel really brings it home.