You just can't trust 'em

Those of you have have studied History at any level will probably be aware of Primary and Secondary Sources ... though, based on almost 4 decades of teaching the concept(s) as part of the NSW Junior and Senior History Curriculum, not everyone will have fully grasped the whole concept.

Primary Sources are, simply, those created (directly or indirectly) by people who lived at the time.

Secondary Sources are everything else.

The potential problem is that too many people assume that Primary Sources are somehow inherently better than Secondary Sources and are inherently infallible... which is where things tend to become ... problematic.

And I'm not just talking High School or University students either ... some authors of some texts (all too many, it seems sometimes) are guilty of this. Well, perhaps that's being a little harsh ... they are, perhaps, too trusting of the sources they use ... and that's often one of the reasons, one of the main reasons in fact, for the various 'everyone knows' issues I've been highlighting.

So, what are some of the more important shortcomings ...

A general dearth of (Written) Sources - prior to the development of printing by Gutenberg most people were illiterate and every record, letter, book or legal document had to be written out longhand. This constrains our picture of medieval life considerably ... there's a lot we simply can probably never know because there are no surviving records to tell us.

This is compounded by the fact that, even in England, most records for the period are written in an almost illegible (to modern sensibilities) hand with no punctuation and either in a corrupt form of Latin or in Norman-French (which isn't all that close even to medieval French) ... a lot of the relatively small (compared to later periods) number of surviving documents haven't been studied, or not sufficiently, because they haven't been translated or because those with the skills to decipher them are a small subset of active Historians.

Bias. This is so blindingly obvious you'd think it was blindingly obvious. Yet it isn't always - sure, people get things like sexism, classism and the like, but they miss the most pervasive.

The simple fact that so few people could read and write!

Records were done for the elite either by themselves or by those whose livelihoods depended on the elite giving them a job. To use a modern slang term ... how much of it is actually fake news?

You can, generally, discount pretty much any comments, even in passing, about the 'peasants' and their lifestyle ... they're all leaners, after all, at least to the literate Elite.

There's more to this whole aspect of medieval (or any) history, of course, and there's a discussion of its impact on how the uncritical, or not sufficiently critical, use of those wonderful primary sources can be so potentially misleading ...

Arbalests, Crossbows & Bows

There's a lot of misinformation (Heck. There's a lot of downright wrong information) out there on these three basic forms of missile weapon ... the following is gleaned from a variety of re-enactor sources ...

Arbalest. These only start to appear in the late 14th century, only start to be more than an occasional rarity by the middle of the 15th century, and only become (somewhat) common by the late 15th century. They differ from an ordinary Crossbow in that they have a spring-metal bowstave and, therefore, cannot be spanned without some form of mechanical aid. Rate of Fire was no more than a round a minute for a trained user and maximum range was 380-400 yards (~100 yards for aimed fire at individual targets). They were most commonly used as sniping weapons during sieges.

Crossbow. Though their use as Hunting weapons goes back to Roman times, they weren't widely adopted for military use, and then mostly on the Continent, until the 13th-14th centuries. They originally had a simple self bowstave and could be spanned by hand ... later models (from the middle of the 14th century) started to appear with composite bowstaves which required some form of assistance to be spanned. Rate of Fire was 4-6 round per minute. Maximum range was 300-350 yards, but accurate range for massed fire was 200 yards and for aimed fire at individual targets more like 60 yards.

Longbow. Maximum range was around 300 yards, Effective Range for Massed Fire was 200 yards and for aimed fire at individual targets, around 80-100 yards. Rate of Fire was 5-6 arrows per minute for aimed fire, or a dozen arrows per minute for massed area fire.

As you can see, despite claims by older works (and more recent ones that uncritically rely on them), the ranges at which these three weapons were effective was close to identical. Likewise, the damage they did was close to identical as well ... with higher draw weights being almost completely cancelled out on Crossbows and Arbalests by the very short arms and short draw distance compared to the Longbow.

The big advantage that the Crossbow family had over the Longbow was that it took, at most, weeks to make an effective Crossbowman, but it took many many years to train an effective Longbow Archer.

Short Bow. Differed from Longbows in that (on the Continent, where they dominated) they were drawn to the chest, not the ear. Maximum range was around 250 yards, effective range was around 100 yards for massed fire and 40 yards for aimed fire. Rate of fire was similar to that of a Longbow.

Composite Bow. Generally found only on the margins of Europe or in the Arab/Muslim world.Despite claims by older works, often (all too often) repeated uncritically by more recent works, they don't have a significantly greater massed fire, effective fire or aimed fire range than Longbows, nor do they do significantly more damage than a Longbow of the same draw weight. Their big advantage is that they are shorter for the same draw weight than a Longbow ... an important consideration for use by Mounted troops.

As Medieval as Apple Pie

Apples have been regarded as a good way to end a meal since at least Greek times and mention of Apple Pies dates back to medieval times, though the first actual 'recipe' isn't found in written material until the 14th century ...

Take gode Applys and gode Spycis and Figys and Rey*sons and Perys and wan they are well ybrayed coloured with Safron wel and yt in a cofyn (pie crust) and yt forth to bake wel.

Note that no additional sweeteners - Honey or, indeed, Sugar (expensively imported) are mentioned.

What, exactly, are Herbs?

In medieval usage, Herbs include any green plant, roots, what we would call vegetables and herbs today, there is rarely, if ever, any mention of 'vegetables.'
 
So, for example, the following 13th century recipe for a 'Herbed Salad' -

'Take Parsley, Sage, Garlic, Chives, Onions, Leeks, Borage, Mint, Scallion, Fennel and Nasturtium, Rue, Rosemary and Purslane, rinse and wash clean. Chop them small and mingle (toss) them well with raw (Olive) oil, then lay on Vinegar and Salt and serve.'

Some unusualities ... only Fava or Broad Beans were available ... 'Common' or 'String' Beans come from the New World. Red (tasty) or Yellow (stringy) Carrots - Orange Carrots don't appear until the 17th century. White Watermelons, not Red.

Spiced rotten Meat

Nope.

Claims that the heavy use of spices was to disguise the taste of rotten (cooked) meat simply don't stand to even cursory consideration ... sure, the fashion was for heavily spiced foods, but, while spices might disguise the taste of rotten meat, they won't prevent you from dying of food poisoning if you eat it!

Another 'everyone knows' factoid.

(Though, of course, fermented meats are different ... like Icelandic Hakarl ... or, more commonly, salamis and the like ... as are smoked or dried meats which might, sometimes, be rubbed with herbs or spices)

A Project We Love!

We've hit $7112 funding and have been rated as a Project We Love by Kickstarter!

I am still trying to find freelancers who can do additional work on those countries/regions for which my access to English language sources has limited the amount of information I have been able to include ... but no bites so far.

I am very happy with the way things are going!

Putting Meat on the Table
Without going into exactly how much Meat each class of people in medieval times ate, consider how much of a meat animal they ate (or otherwise used) ...

Pretty much everything was consumed, one way or another.

They didn't just eat what we consider the prime (muscle) cuts and select internal organs (Kidneys or Liver), they ate the Brain, the Lungs, the Womb, the Testicles, the Intestines (as Tripe), Tails and Tongues, Snouts and Ears, Trotters and Knuckles and used other bits for food related purposes ... Intestines, Stomach and Bladder, for example, as sausage casings.

The Hides, of course, were used for leather or parchment (for writing on or as window panes) which required different methods of preparation, while the Bones and Horns were the medieval equivalent of modern plastics (and bones and other bits could be boiled down to make glue for industrial purposes), bristles were used for brushes of various sorts, wool and hair for cloth, sinew for Bowstrings.

Pretty much everything could be used ... which doesn't mean it always was in every instance.

What use is Orbis Mundi 2? Part #1

While I believe that the material out there does a fair to good job of explaining what use OM2 will be, one recent backer asked this question, so it probably isn't as self-explanatory as I thought.

It was a dark and stormy night ...

... and Aelfric the Thief silently jiggled open the Tower window ...

!BZZT!

What window?

Towers have have either very narrow window apertures, with, possibly, wooden shutters or they don't exist and they have arrow slits ... IF there is a window, then there's almost certainly no glass ... and if there is, the window is fixed and cannot be opened (even if the 'window' used panes made of flattened Horn, they don't open either). If there are only arrow slits, then they're too narrow for all but a literally skeletal Aelfric to get through and have no window filling material to jiggle.

Oh, and on a Tower, that non-existent 'window' (or narrow arrow-slit) is probably a minimum of 25 feet up a sheer wall.

So, Aelfric the Thief hoists himself over the Castle Wall and, skulking in the shadows, heads over to the Wall Tower (or, maybe, across the Bailey to the Keep) and gets out his lockpicks to pick the lock ...

!BZZT!

Who needs lockpicks? The locks of the period, insofar as they existed, could be picked with a narrow bladed knife or dagger! No need for special tools!

Then, of course, Locks are relatively rare. On a Wall Tower, the door from the wall walk will either be unlocked or barred from the inside and somewhat more difficult to deal with than a mere lock (yes, you can, in some instances, lift the bar and slide it aside if there isn't a masking door jamb ... maybe ... no special tools needed for that, either).

So Aelfric slips through the door into the corridor behind ...

!BZZT!

What corridor? Corridors simply didn't exist in medieval buildings for the most part - rooms opened onto other rooms directly (or onto the outside) ... and a Wall Tower isn't likely to have room for one anyway. The Keep Tower might, except that, as noted, they don't exist ... and, in the Keep, each floor is probably only divided up into nominal rooms with curtains or is simply one big room.

Worse, on the wall walk level of a castle Tower, the entry level will either be barracks for the Castle Guard (or, perhaps, the household of one of the officers) or a Guard Room ... and the Entry doorway of the Keep will have a Night Porter if not an actual guard.

Aelfric, having cased the joint, knows this is the quarters of one of the Knights in command of the garrison and slinks silently through the darkness ...

!BZZT!

Well, it's dark inside ... pitch black, most likely. Not only are candles expensive, they need constant tending or they will quickly gutter out! Then there's the fact that there aren't any windows - so no help even if it's a full moon!

The Knight and his wife are sleeping in a curtained bed, so they might not notice Aelfric's stealthy progress. But the servants sleeping in Truckle Beds or on Paliasses on the floor are an obstacle course!

Then there's the fact that pre-modern sleeping patterns divided the night into two equal parts with a couple of hours of wakefulness between ... dusk to sometime an hour or so before midnight asleep, then everyone's awake eating, talking, reading, having sex, then back to sleep an hour or two after midnight and sleep till dawn (even earlier for the servants).

Aelfric quietly rifles through the drawers and wardrobe ...

!BZZT!

What Drawers? What Wardrobe? Neither item of furniture yet exists!

Aelfric's gonna have to rifle through chests ... which, at least, probably aren't locked and merely have a simple latch ... but he'll have to do it by feel (remember, the Knight, his Lady and their servants are all asleep [Aelfric hopes!] in the same room!) unless he's really lucky and the chest's contents are divided up internally by, say, trays ...

I think by now you're probably getting some idea of how the information in OM2 can be valuable to GMs and add challenges for the (usually very cocky) players!

What's the use of Orbis Mundi 2? Part 2
So, Aelfric somehow managed to find some goodies in one of the chests in the Knight's chambers and renegotiated the potential minefield of the servants sleeping on the floor to let himself out the door ... and finds that it's pitch black outside as well!

Yes, he's smart enough to have picked a night with some moon out so he could see - but it's northern europe and cloud cover is common. Thick clouds have come over and blocked out the moon and stars ... and there is no other light, not even the light pollution you get in a big urban centre that would be reflected off the clouds ... it's so dark you can't even see the hand in front of your face (those of you who have gone camping well away from heavily populated areas know the sort of pitch black I'm talking about!)

So Aelfric carefully feels his way the battlements and lets down the rope he used to climb up, and climbs down to make his escape ...

!BZZT!

It's still pitch black ... and striking a light would be ... bad ... so, unless he's part Dwarf or Elf (or any race with Infravision) or has a spell or magical item that grants him such powers, he's going to have to stumble blindly several hundred yards to the edge of the cleared area around the Castle to where he might find 'cover' ... and he's just as like as not to stumble around in circles until there's a break in the cloud cover or it gets light enough for him to see (and be seen!)

Fortunately, the occasional break in the clouds allows him enough moments of sight to be able to stumble to cover and make his way towards the nearest village where he heads right to the Inn and slips inside ...

!BZZT!

Villages are too small to support either an Inn (accommodation, sells food and drink only to guests, usually found in Towns or between towns on major routes) or Taverns (no accommodation, but sells food and drink) ... there'll possibly be an Alehouse (really just a private home where the lady of the household sells her home brewed Ale by the mug, usually through an external window and where the facilities consist of the aforementioned Mug and a bench outside the window).

No Alehouses will be open much after dusk. Inns will generally be full up not long after dusk, too, and closed even to nominal guests well before midnight. Taverns might be open later than Inns, but, again, the Curfew means they'll be closed well before late evening ... and, in any case, there are none.

So, Aelfric stumbles down the road (more likely a track) in the direction of the nearest town and heads in through the Gate ...

!BZZT!

Nope. If its before dawn, the Town Gates are closed ... and, unless there's a very important personage outside demanding entry there's no way they're opening before dawn (maybe, just maybe, if someone bribes the Gate guard?) ... and anyone they're likely to let in early, well, Aelfric is carrying a suspicious looking sack or pack ... so probably not a good idea!

Eventually, some time after full dawn, a crowd of peasants and travellers begins to gather around the gate and it finally opens ... Aelfric insinuates himself in the crowd and slinks through ...

!BZZT!

Nope. There's a toll ... and the gate guards will expect to inspect everyone's gear to see what they should be charged ... and Aelfric probably shouldn't allow that to happen.

So, maybe he climbs over the wall before dawn and skulks in the shadows until people start going around their business ... or maybe he has an accomplice and hides the goodies he stole in their cartload of hay or firewood (or whatever) ... or maybe he just hid it in an unsuspecting person's cart and will collect it later ...

Inside the Town, he finds a Fence he knows and pawns off the gear to be melted down into good honest coin and heads off to find a Tavern to celebrate and rest up a bit.

At the 'Silver Star' Tavern he strolls in and sits down at a bench and demands a mug of Ale and some food ...

2 silver coins for the Ale and a Good Meal for 5 silver coins where there are 50 coins per pound of 16 oz/454g (AD&D and many OSR)

4 coppers for the Ale and 5 silvers for a Good Meal where there are 50 coins per pound as above and 10 coppers = 1 silver (PFRPG)

!BZZT!

That's 1 coin @ ~9g ... the problem is that medieval coinage weights were not measured in Imperial/US 16 oz pounds but in various other pounds. Most commonly Troy Pounds in England, which have 12 oz and ~373 grams ... and there were 240 coins per Troy Pound, each weighing approximately 1.555 grams.

So Aelfric is paying the real world equivalent of 30d for that Good Meal and approximately 2 1/2d (2.5 pence) for the Mug of Beer (PFRPG) or 1/- (1 shilling, AD&D/OSR).

What was the real cost? Under the Assize of Bread and Ale, when Barley was 1/8d to 2/- per Quarter (ton) 2 gallons would cost 1d ... how much is in a Mug? AD&D and PFRPG reckon a gallon, which I seriously doubt ... but, regardless, it's five times too much.

For a 'Good Meal', harder to tell, but a 1/4d (farthing, quarter penny) loaf of Barley Bread would, according to the same law, weigh 5.8 kilos ... TWELVE POUNDS.

So, the 30d 'Good Meal' would historically buy 1440 lbs of Barley Bread. I suspect most of us would think that might be a little excessive.

Then there's the fact that the only coins minted in medieval mints (at least in England, France, Iberia and Italy) were silver or gold, overwhelmingly silver, in fact, as there was a relative shortage of gold in the west.

Coins were incredibly valuable ...

More on Aelfric's adventures to come!

What use is Orbis Mundi? Part 3 ...
While Aelfric is enjoying a well deserved, if overpriced, meal and mug of Ale at the Silver Star Tavern, let's move on to one of his acquaintances, Edgar the Black (so named because of his white blond hair)/

Edgar is the younger son of a Serf and, not having any real prospect of inheriting, or being able to afford to buy land or his freedom, but he had some skill with the Spear (not enough money to afford a Longbow) and so skipped 'town' to make his fortune as a mercenary.

Well, that was the plan.

Currently he and his fellow spearmen are attached to a Hundred of Longbowmen somewhere in France ...

... and he's just heard the alarm being raised. A Band of Frenchmen have been spotted!

So he grabs his steel cap and mail shirt and quickly shrugs it on ...

!BZZT!

Spear armed infantry were the poorest paid, and poorest equipped soldiers in a typical English medieval army. While Edgar will probably have a steel cap (and a shield, most like), he's not likely to be able to afford a mail shirt. Not even a Longbowman could.

What he would probably have been able to acquire is an Aketon, a thick jacket of tough padded linen, probably covering him from neck to mid thigh and the arms down to the elbow or, possibly, the wrist. Hot to wear in a French summer, but the best armour he's likely to have.

He most likely wears it most of the time during the day ... but here's the problem, as far as we can tell from the primary sources, it is fastened down the back (the opening is a weak spot -- you really don't want it at the front!

If Edgar isn't wearing it already, he's going to need assistance to put it on ... and time.

Fortunately, Edgar is wearing it ... and he's got his cap on, shield and spear in hand when he hears the clank of someone wearing armour in the nearby copse ... and a half dozen mail armoured French men-at-arms appear out of nowhere ...

!BZZZT!

Nope. Mail armour doesn't 'clank' ... or 'clink' ... or 'jingle' ... if worn properly it rustles.

Anyway, even though he's alerted, Edgar barely has time to swing himself and his spear in the direction of the attackers ... one of whom seems to have chosen him as his own personal target.

The Frenchman, swinging his sword in a mighty blow cuts off Edgar's spear just below the spearpoint ...

!BZZT!

Medieval war spears, all of them, had a long metal tang or extension running for a foot or more down from the actual base of the spearhead to prevent such a thing happening.

Oh well, the sword slides down the haft of the spear and Edgar has to drop it before the blade cuts into his unarmoured hands ...

!BZZT!

Medieval war spears, all of them, had flanges on the sides to prevent this happening - rather like Boar Spears, in fact. So it's unlikely that this attack is any more successful.

Edgar is able to parry the sword blow, but the Frenchman is getting in too close for comfort, inside the easy defensive range of his spear, so he boots the man at arms in the crotch in a completely unexpected move ... some dirty fighting he picked up in a number of tavern brawls ...

!BZZT!

One problem ... medieval Shoes don't have soles. Or heels. They're basically like gloves for the feet, like Moccasins, so Edgar's more likely to break (or maybe bruise) his foot in such a move against someone wearing mail armour and, probably, at least a hardened leather codpiece.

Fortunately for Edgar, even though he badly bruises his foot and stumbles backward, falling on his back, his muttered prayer to the Virgin is answered and his blind thrust with his spear skewers the Frenchman as he darts forward to skewer Edmund ...

More on Edgar and his adventures next time ...

What use is Orbis Mundi? Part 4 ...
So, when we saw Aelfric last, he was having a ludicrously expensive meal at The Silver Star tavern ...

With the ill-gotten gains from robbing the Castle, he decides it's time he got some fancy new duds ... so he heads off to John the Taylor's workshop to have a look at what he's got in stock ...

!BZZT!

Ah. What stock, exactly?

Medieval Tailors make clothes from cloth the customer brings to them and make them to order. They do not have 'ready to wear' clothing ... if Aelfric wants something like that he'll have to go to a Pawnbroker. Yes, pawning clothes was common and many people probably never bought a new set of clothes in their lives, but rather bought second (or third, or fourth ... depending on how poor they were) hand when what they were wearing was no longer fit for purpose (or for their perceived social status ... it's likely they'd sell their 'old' clothes at the same time to defray part of the cost of the 'new' set).

Ah, well, so Aelfric heads down to Weaver's Lane to check out the bolts of cloth available at William Mercer's shop and, in consultation with William, decides how much cloth he'll need for the new tunic he wants. There's a nice lightweight cotton that would be great summer wear ...

!BZZT! No. Cotton's from India and isn't yet known in England (or Europe) and, in any case, it'll first start arriving when it's grown in Egypt ... and, with no Cotton Gin, picking out the bits of seed and seed pod from the Cotton Boll is slow ... and expensive ... so cotton won't be cheap even when it first appears! After 1400.

So, the choice is usually Linen or Wool ... or hessian or nettlecloth in some places. Usually linen for undergarments and wool for outerwear. Aelfric chooses an expensive Scarlet cloth, thinking the bright colour will make him stand out from the crowd ...

!BZZT!

Apart from it being unwise for a thief to stand out from the crowd, scarlet cloth in medieval parlance is not necessarily a bright red (in fact, the name refers simply to the quality of the weave, not the colour).

Scarlet could be any of a range of colours including red, white, blue, green, and brown. Brown or Green would be an excellent choice for a thief or rogue who wishes to skulk and blend in in rural environments ... like Will Scarlet from the Robin Hood tales. Maybe Aelfric wants to try his hand at the forest outlaw shtick?

So, with his length of fine scarlet cloth tucked under his arm Aelfric heads off to John the Taylor's workshop and plonks it down. John's apprentice measures him up and Aelfric and John consult on what style he wants ... and they arrange for him to pick it up in a couple of days.

!BZZT!

Well, maybe ... if John has no other commissions, or has many Journeymen working for him, which isn't likely. There are no sewing Machines, everything is hand sewn, It'll be amazing if they can get it done in a week, more like a couple of weeks. Unless, of course, Aelfric would like to pay extra to jump up the queue?

... so let's leave Aelfric for the moment as he tots up the need to get the work done quickly vs the additional cost.

What is Orbis Mundi? Part 5 ...
... so, while Aelfric is loafing around Town waiting for his new suit of clothes to be finished he decides to keep his hand in by doing some light pickpocketing ...

!BZZT!

No pockets to pick ... though I expect most everyone knew that already. Most people had pouches or purses hanging from their belts or pinned to their tunics or, for the really rustic types, held in a fold of their tunic under the belt at the front ... so Aelfric is really practising his cutpurse skills ...

Well, maybe not.

Depends on the period ... by the 14th century there is a trend towards the belt, and the money pouch, to be worn under an outer tunic or tabard and accessed through a slit (or slits) in said outer tunic ... eventually, way way later than this, some bright spark will come up with the idea of simply attaching the pouch to the slit, inventing the pocket.

In the meantime, it makes the job harder ... especially if you haven't encountered it before ... and Aelfric hasn't ...

Oh dear! Aelfric has fluffed his cutpurse check! The mark is calling out for the Police!

!BZZT!

There. Are. NO. Police. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero.

The mark will raise a Hue & Cry which is simply a shouted 'Stop! Thief' or 'Thief!' ... and everyone within hearing is supposed to take up the pursuit.

In rural areas, maybe easy ... if there's anyone nearby. In a Town? In the crowded marketplace or narrow streets? Not so much.

Fortunately for Aelfric his 'Streetwise' (Urban Survival? Local Knowledge?) check is good enough that he both loses the pursuit and isn't seen close up by any of them ... and, even better, he's to pick up his new clothes that afternoon, so when he's out in public next there'll be even less to recognise in his new scarlet (green) clothes!

Still, he decides that maybe he needs a nice vacation ... perhaps he can head to the nearest seaport and take passage to France where his friend Edgar the Black is making his fortune with loot and ransoms, or so he has heard from mutual acquaintances just returned ...

So he heads off the next morning with his goods in a backpack, down the Royal Highway and it's carefully paved roadbed towards ...

!BZZT!

ROTFL! The vast majority of roads in England, including the Royal Highways, were only rights of way ... within that they were merely meandering dirt tracks and wagon ruts that turned into quagmires when it rained (and for days thereafter). Potholes were so deep that there are recorded instances of porters carrying heavy loads stepping into what they thought was a mere puddle and drowning in a hole so deep the water was completely over their heads.

Still, the locals are supposed to keep the right of way (approx 120' across for a Royal Highway, at least in clear terrain) free of brush and, except in forests, most trees. If trees are left, the locals have to be extra careful to clear the brush away from them ... shade for a weary traveller is nice, but cover for bandits not so much.

In some places there were the remnants of Roman Roads ... which hadn't been properly maintained (if they'd been maintained at all) for 600 years by 1000 AD, but were still generally better than anything else. Unfortunately it has been estimated that they only served about 40% of the important destinations of the post-Roman era ... the rest of them were literally roads to nowhere ...

... more on Aelfric's journey in a later post ...

Bows vs Swords
If you believe the typical FRPG (AD&D for example), a Longbow costs 75 gp and a Sword 25 gp - 1.5 and 0.5 pounds of gold respectively at their nominated 50 gp per pound. And that's a 16 oz pound, not a 12 oz Troy pound.

At a historical conversion factor of 8.5:1 for silver:gold in the medieval west that's 17 Troy pounds (roughly) and 5.67 (roughly) - or 4080 pennies for the bow and 1360 pennies for the sword.

 4080 pennies = 16320 Farthing Loaves = 195,840 (16 oz) pounds weight = approx 87.4 tons of bread!

1360 pennies = 5440 Farthing Loaves = 65280 (16 oz) pounds weight = approx 29 tons of bread!

 Just a tad overpriced!

 What did Bows and Swords actually cost?

 Anyone who tells you with a straight face that a chunk of wood costs more than a chunk of metal in medieval times - well, I have this deal in shares in the Sydney Harbour Bridge, cash, small bills, nonconsecutive serial numbers, please.

 Over 400 years and with changes to smelting tech making metal cheaper around the 13th century, it's hard, but the following ranges seem representative ...

Longbows: 6d to 2/6d. Mostly in the range 1/- (12d) to 1/6 (18d) in the 14th century.

Arrows? A Sheaf of 12, depending on the arrowhead and other factors, 3d to 1/-, and in the range 6d-8d in the 14th century.

Long Knives, rather like the Saxon Scramaseax, around 9d by the 14th century, probably 1.5 to 2 times that before the mid 13th century when metal was more expensive.

Short Swords or Falchions (sorta like a Machete, and designed for slashing attacks against targets either wearing no armour or no metal armour), around 3/- (36d) by the 14th century, again, probably 1.5-2 times rhat before the mid 13th century.

Bastard Swords (Hand and a Half Swords, intended for attacks against targets wearing metal armour) around 9/- by the 14th century, and, likewise, 1.5-2 times that before the mid 13th century.

Knight's Swords (either the same as Bastard Swords in the 14th century or a Longsword at any period), around 1 pound upwards by the 14 century and proportionally more expensive earlier.

These prices are, of course, for reasonably new weapons – older (worn) or simply older style weapons cost significantly less second hand - and anyone whose social class demanded a fancier weapons could pay way over the odds at any time (not the difference between the Bastard Sword and Knight's Sword - one is for those who simply want a killing tool, the other for those who want a pretty killing tool that enhances their social status!

Let there be light!

In most FRPGs light sources are easily available, cheap to run, and have long ranges – mostly lamps burning something called 'lamp oil' (which is mostly the same oil used in the ever popular 'Flaming Oil Grenade') -

Problem is (surprise! surprise!) they don't exist. There were three\ basic geographical groupings for light source types in the medieval mediterranean - NW and Northern Europe on the one hand and Southern Europe the second and North Africa, Eastern Europe (well, the East Roman Empire) and the Holy Lands for the third.  

In NW and Northern Europe the predominant source of light (other than fireplaces) were Candles (mostly tallow, wax candles were expensive and used only by the wealthy or the Church), Rushlights and Tapers (burning tallow) or Lamps (simply bowls with wicks in them) burning any animal fat handy. Lanterns, such as they existed, were mostly 'glassed' in (mostly with plates of horn, which is translucent only) candle holders.

In North Africa, the Holy Lands and the Eastern Empire candles of any sort are mostly unknown and the dominant form of lighting are Roman style lamps (or simple bowls with a wick) mostly burning olive oil, or, for the very poorest, tallow or animal fat.

Southern Europe tended to be an intermediate zone -- mostly burning candles as Northern and NW Europe but with a small intrusion of olive oil burning lamps.

And, no, they don't light up 60' around for a lantern or 240' for a Bullseye lantern (which, in any case, doesn't exist yet) - tallow/animal fat would be lucky to light up a yard, maybe two, wax is better, perhaps twice as far and probably about the same for olive oil - as far as visibility for the holder is concerned - though they'd be visible for far longer, maybe even longer than 240'!

Even within the visible range you won't be doing a lot of reading by the light of a single candle or lamp - you'll need several, at the very least and, even then, it will be a strain.

So all those adventuring parties trundling around at night or in an unlit 'dungeon' will be working practically blind, in reality - giving opponents with infra- or ultra-vision significant advantage!

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