What is the SPETUM? A winged spear, but NOT a 'Boar Spear'. With
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- čas přidán 29. 10. 2023
- Not all winged spears are 'boar spears', even though boar spears can be types of winged spear (though not always!). Following up on Tod's Workshop 'Weird Weapons' collaboration ( • Weird weapons - FOLDIN... ).
Also credit to the Worcester Art Museum: • Folding Spetum (2014.304)
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It's not a boar spear unless it's been used to hunt boar in the spear region of france. Otherwise it's just a sparkling spetum.
🤣
did not expect a PDO joke here. Nice!
Hah!
and blessed in the blood of a boar during a full harvest moon with precisely 3 French peasants present.
I remember seeing a boar spear in the armouries. I was so struck by how hefty it was I commented that it was more like a rhino spear!
I know right! They are massively chunky. I love them, but I wouldn't want to have to fight a human with one. They are so overbuilt for human combat.
And then you find their even larger and heftier cousin, the bear spear.
@@scholagladiatoria As you mention, though, multiple sources indicate folks did use them for fighting humans. Or at least they used weapons they called boar spears that looked similar. It's possible there were military versions for this purpose. I can't recall the source at the moment, but I believe there's at least one military treatise that mentions soldiers armed with boar spears. & of course Paulus Hector Mair included techniques for boar spear against halberd & against sidesword. Those don't look especially thick in the illustrations.
what if the boar is wearing a mithril chain shirt
@@makoyoverfelt3320well they would be a very well dressed boar.
if it got wings and is not used for hunting boars.. it must be ceremonial. 😆
Or cursed, if listed for sale on Ebay.
Only if they're made of copper alloy.
The go-to explanation in weird weapons seems to be "tournament use," which is honestly pretty similar to "ceremonial purposes."
What Tod's weird spear is? Very simple- it's just perfect recreation of the description, given by 10 year old me, of the coolest possible spear.
I highly doubt that anyone ever used a FOLD OUT BOAR SPEAR. They treated boars with far too much caution to rely on folding mechanisms against boars. Boars are dangerous beasts.
If you were a poacher, and had to dissamble it to hide it , and the parts were often parts of everyday tool, they could be.
@@piotrjeske4599Sounds less like a careful poacher and more like a dead poacher to me
Indeed. I'm originally from the outskirts of Berlin and the region is infested with boars. They have lost any fear of humans and even venture deep into the city of Berlin as such.
At one point two pregnant boar females had chosen two rather tiny "islands of wood" in the middle of the town I'm from to give birth to their young, probably because it had been close to human resources and still somewhat protected. One of them was rather aggressive when it had its young, so it attacked and heavily injured two elderly women and killed a dog.
I myself had numerous encounters and had to climb an electricity shed at one point.. 😅
@@kai_plays_khomusclassic German L, just get rid of the wild pigs, like how the British got rid of the predators on their island.
@@stefthorman8548 yea and doing that has absolutely fucked our ecosystems lol it’s indirectly been killing our forests and what little temperate rainforest we have left because all the prey species are completely out of control
On the one hand, I love expanding the depth of my knowledge. On the other, I hate realizing how much incorrect or incomplete information I've taken in and passed along over the years. Thanks for explaining this one!
Boar tusk for the lugs? As if being stuffed into your own intestine to make sausages wasn't humiliating enough...
I like to think they quietly chuckled to themselves while making those spears. I also love the poetic beauty of adding a bigger lug to your spear every time you manage to land a bigger boar.
"Wait, I recognize that tusk -- Uncle Bob???" - Boar, shortly before demise.
I think that by the time you are being stuffed into an intestine you`re long past humiliation.
Five years ago I thought that I knew a lot about swords and spear-type weapons. Then I found your videos. I have learned! And, with this video, I have been schooled yet again. I even bought a pattern 1912 saber following your review of them. Keep up the good work!
Japanese Jumonji Yari had those at the sides often too. Weapon martial arts are universal, all of humanity comes to similar practical conclusions about what to do, how to use things, etc. It all makes sense.
ohh right, the folding spear! I almost forgot. Glad to see more about it :D
A boar spear would be wepon of choice for fighting zombies, for the same reason it was designed to fight boars, it prevents impale creature from reaching th user.
I agree with your hypothesis. More or less the same reason caused horns to appear on two-handed greatswords. What surprises me is that I don't see any point in using movable horns on such a spear, but it could make sense on a sword (easier to hide in the scabbard).
Yes, good point! Or good points rather...
Don't underestimate the value of looking cool. "Tacticool" is absolutely not a modern concept and some rich dude equipping his personal guard with weapons that look cool, fancy, and/or expensive even if they don't have a real practical advantage is far from impossible.
Till the 1930s , we would use pole weapons like that m and they were called bear crutches. You would use 2-3 to pin a bear, first by stabbing it and the locking the bear after it stood up on his hind legs, and then the 4th person would ax the bear. A poacher thing. Very dangerous because if the crutch cracked you would get a limb off or a dead person. They also had a spike with a "plate" at the end , so you could ram it in to the ground.
For what I know, here in Italy a chiaverina is the kind of spear-like polearm you were wielding in this video. It has stoppers instead of side blades.
The spetum (Latin) or spiedo (Italian) has longer, thinner, reinforced "sideblades" which at some point curve forward, much like in a skewer (which is the meaning of the Italian name). The side blades are very pointy, but usually not sharpened.
If the side blades curve backwards, then the weapon is a corsesca, in English korseke.
The one with the crescent-shaped, forward-pointing blades, in many cases folding like the one Todd made, in Italy is known as brandistocco, but in English is instead called a ranseur. To be noted that the English term brandestoc refers to a completely unrelated weapon, a kind of spring-loaded cane sword.
The partisan has the side blades fused with the main blade, broader and less prominent than in other weapons. In Italy we just use the same name: partigiana.
A similar weapon, the spontoon, from the Italian spuntone, had larger side blades that formed a half circle at the base of the main blade.
There is a weapon halfway between the partisan and the ranseur, which has triangular side blades at a 45 degrees angle to the main blade. It is called "corsesca palmata" or "pipistrello" in Italian and "chauve souris" in English.
These are the main kinds of winged spears I know about among the polearms.
Boar spears are completely different, as you brilliantly pointed out.
Thanks for your detailed post. I think the problem with some of these terms, is that they have not been used consistently in period, let alone in modern times.
@@scholagladiatoria Yeah, that's true for many weapons, especially blades. But with polearms in many cases the names have been used consistently, especially here in Italy. For example, what you call a billhook, bill, glaive-guisarme and in dozens of other ways in Italy has been simply a "roncone" (which means "very big bill") since forever.
A last point not mentioned. Matt’s spear has a somewhat pointy butt end. I can’t imagine why one would want a point on a boar spear as it would keep one from grabbing the end to push harder to keep the animal pinned. With a weapon it gives another option for killing or wounding somebody
The folding spear this video is about however, does NOT have a pointy end.
The spear in Matt’s hand isn’t the folding spear from the earlier video. Near the end of the video the back end of the spear comes into view and it has a metal tapering end. While I can’t see how sharp it is I wouldn’t wrap my hand over the point to push harder, but might use it to stab someone if the main point were pointed in an inconvenient direction.
Last time I was this early my wife got disappointed..
Sorry to hear that, but you haven't disappointed me.
"Let's not make a big thing of the length!"
-Many Guys Throughout History (Including Me)
I've never hunted boar with a spear (shocking, I know), but the idea that the weapon todd was holding might've been meant for hunting boar just gold me with dread when i imagine using it. Every part of it looks like it'd snap of the moment you actually stabbed something with it, even if that something was human and not pig XD
Matt, unfortunately, the Higgins Armory closed in 2013. Most of its collections were moved to the nearby Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, MA USA. I used to visit the Higgins, but I haven't been to the Art Museum to see what they actually have on display. I did find their website has digital images of at least some of the Higgins collection, with including weights and measurements of the pieces.
Thanks - yeah I said Higgins instinctively, but corrected that with Worcester Art Museum in the visuals. Cheers!
Very nice, informative video. Thanks for sharing!
Another thing which isn't on all but is on a lot of boar spear is some sort of mechanism for extra grip on the shaft. It comes in a lot of forms, lashings or extra decorations on the shaft are the most common I have seen. Which in all honesty make sense as when you stab a boar it might still rush you (it's flesh pushing against the lugs) and force the weapon from your hands. I don't think people stabbed deep enough with a spear to push against the lugs are likely to be that lively.
Thank you so much for spelling this out so fully. I've been banging on about winged spears not being boar spears for years.
If you were out on campaign and your spear head broke, could you (after the battle) requisition a new head put on? If the sockets on the new head were wider than the shaft, would you have to go cut a new one or would the quartermaster have a stock of dried staves? Was the bottom line that you had to maintain your own equipment and had to purchase everything yourself? How did logistics really work at the time?
In Spanish Bullfighting, the "picador" (a man in a horse) has a spear called "puya" to hit the bull in the back,and it is completelly different to that weapon. And I suppose, spears for bulls might be similar to spears for boars.
There is a boar spear in Met Museum (14.25.453) that only weighs 1,610 grams at 2.06 meters. That's lighter than most staff weapons made for fighting humans & seems more than nimble enough for fencing. & 14.25.36 is similarly light, as is 14.25.309 & a few others. Even the heavier ones are around 2.7 kg, which is similar to some partizans. So it doesn't seem like they were all overbuilt, though perhaps the hafts aren't original.
Makes sense since the boar is held by dogs while a knife is often used for the finishing blow as it can be placed more precisely over the heart for a thrust.
Just another excelent vídeo, Mat.
I could not clearly make out the term you used for the spear that is translated into spontoon but it sounded like the second word was *'verrina'*. That would be derived from the Latin word 'verres': 'wild boar', so even if it is a fighting spear, its name would refer to boar hunting.
Ghiavarina. If there is a connection to the word for boar then that is very interesting and I'll investigate. But in that same source, the word for boar is zenghiaro/cinghiale
@@scholagladiatoria Well, that word looks quite different, I could just go by the sound and to me it sounded like 'ger verrina' which would be an old Germanic term for spear* combined with the female latin adjective form of verrinus = 'of wild boar', 'wild-boarish', so that would have made sense.
But Ghiavarina does not look like it came from that, so I was very probably wrong.
*to be precise: javelin that can also be used for stabbing
Ghiavare or Ghiaia means "gravel" in Italian, from the latin Glarea. Although the literal translation of gravel means nothing in the context of polearms, the latin root glarea is similar to glaive, itself derived from the latin gladius.
Was investigating various weapons and the Chinese also had spears like these (i am sure that other big empires/important cultures had them, but the chinese weapons are better documented). What essentially happened is that people tried to modify the basic spear (the king of the battlefield) to serve more purposes, either to stop weapons or to have more blade movement options, to get better at slashing so you have more options (you sacrice some penetrating power, but honestly that always depends if your foes have sufficient armor), to get more reach, to have more armor penetration (spikes), to catch clothes, to trip foes or to entangle foes. Lastly these all can be combined with and thats how we have the partisan, ranseur, spontoon, halberd etc. Historically the more broader blades are corellated with less use of armor, but cultures always experimented with various medium-armored troops or combined arms troops.
I'd love to see a boar using a spear. From a safe distance.
One telltale sign that a winged/lugged weapon is designed for combat is if it has langets. While not every combat polearm has langets of course, no extant boar spear or period depiction of one that I know of has them.
I read many years back (TH White?) that a boar spear was only intended to be presented to a charging animal (by a one-knee kneeling huntsman) that had been provoked to charge when cornered or at bay to hounds. The need for the shaft to be so stout was that the butt was jammed into the soil behind the hunter - so the spear had to withstand the impaled animal's enraged attempts to rip up the hunter after having run into the spear to its crossbar penetration limiter. The huntsman just had to hang on either for the boar to expire or for help to arrive and do added mischief to the beast till its quietus was achieved. Some pictures of boars shot by modern rifle-shooters show the great size and weight achieved by large examples of these hefty dangerous beasts - quite capable of badly ripping a man up or even killing him.
In Germany boarspears/ Saufedern are still produced and on small level used again. But only for final stab/ Fangstoß of wounded game, old style use is no more allowed.
I could see that being useful, especially since it can double as a walking stick and monopod.
@@justindunlap1235 : The lighter ones surely are usefull as a staff in some situation. But the heavier ones ? Doubtfull, also using them in old days for selfdefence, the Museum pieces look rather heavy, i don' t know know, If all of them had been good for this purpose.
It is allowed because it isn't forbidden to hunt with a Saufeder.
Having hunted boars with a knife I can attest you want those big old boys away from you as far as possible. Do we have any examples where the lugs are sharp points for delivering strikes?
In the American War for Independence, there was a plan to create folding spontoons or spears with shoulder slings. They were specifically meant for Continental riflemen, whose civilian octagonal-barreled long rifles could not fit a bayonet. While some documentation supports that these weapons were made and some even distributed to the army (Morgan's Provisional Rifle Corps), there is no evidence AFAIK of any seeing combat, and no surviving originals.
I'm a bit taken aback if this is a common misunderstanding. From seeing a few boar spears, the thing that's stood out to me most is the shear...girth of that shaft lol. I think that you can tell that, at least for the spears I've seen, whoever bought them *really* did not want that shaft to break ^^ I find it noteworthy that boar spears can be that thick, while spears used from horseback can be far finer (more in line with spears for fighting on foot) and those would get a lot more energy thrown into them. To my mind that says that boar hunters really wanted peace of mind, or that many spears used from horseback were not expected to stay whole for that long. Could well be both.
I was wondering what this rant was about, til you explained it in the end. I didn't even know that this was an issue.
Thank you for the video
Todd's spear reminds me of some Japanese yari.
Imagine getting stabbed in the septum with a spetum.
In the arsenal register of Stockholm castle and in surviving letters after Swedish king Gustav III Vasa we know about "knävelspjut". Something like; "mustache-spear". But probably descripting a staf sword.
*Gustaf I Eriksson Vasa
And wolfspears look different they are more like a short sword on a short staff.
Like the one at Skansen, Stockholm.
Please.
All the commenters Matt refers to trying to sound sophisticated with their knowledge of "boar spears."
All of them watched, like we all did, the cave troll use a similar weapon on Frodo in Balin's tomb, in _The Fellowship of the Ring._
Aragorn taught us that it,
"Would've skewered a wild boar."
I've heard of some weird weapon called a swordstaff, maybe the Spetum is connected to that? Or like you said I imagine is just an exaggerated Partisan
Yes there are a whole bunch of long-bladed spear-like weapons, which go by a variety of names (and some unnamed), which all seem to be related in various ways.
@@scholagladiatoria
Please explore this further, as in these polearms, even a minor change in geometry could signify entirely different use. It is one of the most unexcavated topics in all of HEMA in my opinion. Thanks.
Spontoons were also carried by Officers of Battalion Companies until the battles of the early AWI in 1775. After many armed themselves with private purchase Fusils.
You made several excellent "points" there, Matt.
Cool I knew there were winged spears but had assumed that bore spears had lugs like the one you demonstrated (not the blade) thank you
Love the part of history where the colour Sargent was armed with a winged spear and it was his job to keep the young ensign moving forward
LION HUNTING SPEAR. Spears with lugs, although they may have been adapted for war, were traditionally used for hunting. This is due to the fact that you don't want, as Matt said, for the animal to pierce itself on the blade and continue to run toward the hunter. This is because of how they where traditionally first used, which was a scenario in which a hunter would face down a charging animal and raise the tip of the spear at the last instant whilst simultaneously jamming the rear end of the spear into the ground, thus forcing the charging animal to impale itself. This was a technique, used not only to hunt boars, but was also a technique commonly used in Africa to hunt LIONS.
Sometimes i am baffeled what people think...
Pretty clearly not a boar spear. Their massive points are often hollow btw :)
Bohemian earspoon ? one of Henry of Skalice favorite :D
Ah yes, an AR-15, it's for hunting!
Very educational, thank you! Any chance you would comment on lances displaying lugs? Admittedly rare and mostly present in earlier centuries, but do you figure they'd use them for fencing from horseback as well?
Wouldn't the lugs on a boar spear benefit from being perpendicular to the blade stopping any chance of them entering the wound canal? I see a lot in those paintings that aren't. Also a question about winged spears in battle, you say 1700's but did the Vikings not use them then? I was in a Viking re-enactment group many years ago and winged spears were used, in fact they required the highest level of safety training and a special stamp on your membership card to use in re-enactments which is why I remember them so well, ironically a regular spear had the lowest safety training requirements so beginners started with those. I think there was so much safety training involved with a winged spear was because there are three 'pointy bits' going in different directions to worry about and control in a safe manner. Only one member of our lot was allowed to use winged spears as he'd been training all his life growing up in a re-enactment orientated family. I thought the Gauls and Celts used them too?
Good point about keeping the lugs out of the wound canal by mounting them crosswise. I wouldn't take medieval illustrations to be Gospel, though. Artists in those days generally very good at showing things in three dimensions.
I wonder of Winged spears came from boar spears and forks?
Cool
I love the pig no matter what you call it ...👍🤪
I'm dubious of the carriage idea - mid 16th century carriages really don't look like they'd have soldiers (bodyguards) in them. The box tended to be pretty small & carried the Royal(s) only - from paintings of processions soldiers were mounted or on foot (mostly the later). Even towards the end of Elizabeth I's reign, even the nobility are shown on foot in art.
I think the idea of a super high-status backup weapon, carried in a scabbard on one's horse seems more likely. I'm thinking of mercenary leaders like the Duke of Milan - he fought, generally on horseback - and he liked spending money, I could see him delighted by such a weapon.
I never thought that! Yay me!
Matt:
On another note. Pulling people of horses with polearms.
I've always accepted this without much thought.
However, roughly how do you go about this? I mean if the person is at full gallop on a horse I'm thinking you'd be in a world of hurt trying that. If they are in full plate armour getting purchase would be difficult.
I'm guessing that this was a technique used when the horse was stopped or at walking speed, possibly due to engaging or disengaging a foe or whatever.
Ideally, with several of you fellow footmen to help.
A vid on this. Yes!
I have one of those that I bought at a gun show for $3, because it was at the end and the vendor didn’t want to pack it out
3:58
Pretty sure that is Dragonslayer Orestein
the blocking compacity in combat of lugs made sense. but at least in the demonstration piece you were using, the lugs are fundamentally opposed to hooking, which you also suggest as a use case. They have a parabolic looking curve fading to the outside of the tool. Meaning you try to hook someone like in your shield example, it has an increased likelihood of simply slipping free? Am I missing something?
I guessed in the previous video that it seemed to me a portable high status boar hunting spear that is transportable in folded form to the hunting ground because it seems too unwieldy for combat use - even for fancy bodyguards.
Boar hunting seems like good fun done in the medieval way from horseback.
Does anyone know where the image at 6:20 is from?
I imagine a boar spear wouldn't do too overly well if it were collapsible
That's clearly just a boar hunting spear … for winged, collapsible boars. ;-)
Are there winged spears with more than 2 lugs? Or perhaps a spear with a circular "guard" like the pole axe on your right?
8:45 at that point you have an angry boar onna stick, which is a bad situation for everyone.
You just need some cornbread batter and hot oil, and you have yourself a corndog.
first boar-onna-stick, later sausage-onna-bun
I thought the lugs were there to prevent ober penetration on thrusts
can firearms be integrated in to partizans and winged spears? long cross hilted bayonet?
Yes
I guess the correct term would a fire lance.
...another case of many weapons with overlapping and interchangeable names
Because if you put any weapon on the end of a pole, it ends up with 200 different names ....
Higgins!!!
Is a fold up spear a better bodyguard weapon than a long sword or similar, or a crossbow ?
Good question. I'd say that polearms dominate swords in most cases, simply due to size and leverage. Missile weapons like crossbows are great, but not so much for bodyguards, as they tend to be required to protect their lord in an instant, often at close range and inside buildings.
No if you expect to go into battle you would never fold it because you already have a baggage train to carry one. If battle suddenly finds you, you won't be able to unfold it because you won't have time and it will be less useful in an all out battle as configured. That's why I suspect it's not for war. Perhaps city police/security could store them folded and then use them when needed against mostly unarmed folks(effectiveness not so much of an issue) but there are so few around that seems improbable. Perhaps just a real weapon converted into a hunting spear because that's what you have at hand already. One guy did it, other dignitaries in his hunting group thought" wow that's a good idea I can carry it on my horse with me" and had one made for them when they got home. Or they were just one offs to show the skills of the craftsmen that were never really used in battle due to their impractical nature and lack of durability, despite being cool.
I thought it would make a good assassins weapon @@MrBottlecapBill
Ah it's a boar spear, it's for hunting.
Another example of our modern attempt to apply specialized purpose to (early) medieval weapons. It seems rather obvious that whether it's an axe, a spear, or something else, multiplicity of function was the name of the game.
These examples were closer to partisans in terms of sword-length blades. I assume that they're fairly flimsy in order to be able to cut despite being this narrow.
If you want a thrusting weapon, you could get away with a much shorter blade on a longer pole...
Winged spears are in a way the antecedents of partisans.
Can't help but think that as in todays market, manufacturers of goods would come up with unnecessary gimmicks to sell products to uninformed/flashy customers. "Look it has 3 points and it's a folding boar spear too!"
Spears are to HEMA what Spinosaurus is to paleontology...
Highly successful and widespread on their time and so many different examples have been found that few know what their purpose were and why they had the features they had, and much of that is just left to speculation, and it doesn't help that there is so much overlap of features...
Maybe in the next video he will be Mett Euston
You mean a Saufeder?
Boar spears can be used in combat ...
... if you are fighting giants. ;)
....not all the skewers are pig skewers.... got it 👍
Good information 👍🏻
I'll share the video if you stop mentioning pulling things with the wings of winged spears, when the wing shape is specifically shaped to avoid hooking) while spears with hooks exist in the same era !
I don't think it helps that Wikipedia's boar spear article shoes a winged spear similar to yours, as well as a lot of companies selling them as boar spears.
Absolutely!!
🗿👍
Okayyy okayyyyy so its not a boarspear. Than its the fancy legendary spear of narnia where the monkeyking do monkeykinstuff. god dammit. (just joking. thanks that you take the time to read all thoughts from us and answere)
Weebs call it _Jumonji Yari._
They squeal like a pig when you stick 'em though...
For me, "spetum" is just too close to "sputum."
Boar spear or not that would be my choice facing a boar, a bear or my fellow human... alright I'd prefer a halberd or a bill in a man on man fight otherwise this spear would be favored in my daily life.
Not going to belabour the point. Unintended pun??
OK, Spetum is a kind of boar spear. Got it!
At some point, I can imagine you'd get boar'd of correcting these claims and have no more patience to spear.
Did you apologize to Shad yet?
Has Shad apologized to everyone that isn't a right wing white male yet?
@@AveragePicker At this point it's probably best to downvote and ignore these minions. It's ridiculous they're still going on about it.
@@dragonguard666they'll get bored eventually, most already have. It's only a matter of time.
A boar tusk boar spear is just so cool