Where They Put SPEARS (and other polearms) When Not Fighting? 

As any seasoned roleplayer will know - when you're not using your spear you put it in the backpack alongside your spare plate armour, longbow and 5000 gold pieces from the last dungeon you looted ;)

In scandinavian and Finnish churches the porch is called “weapon house”, the explanation I was given at school was that in medieval times people had to leave their arms there before entering the church proper.

I'm an infantry veteran, I'd like to point out that leaning our weapons together in a "rifle teepee" is still done today, when we don't have anywhere clean to lay our rifles in the field.

Even storing a bo staff for Karate, we've noticed that it's typically a bad idea to just lean the staffs against the walls because they'll slowly pick up a bend/warp.

"Now remember kids, leaning a poleaxe against the wall can be dangerous!" *Immediately leans poleaxe against the wall*

Storage, there is the Irish saying of "keeping the pike in the thatch." Also if guarding a merchant moving goods by cart the side of the cart would be a good option

In Game of Thrones, when the giant made it into the tunnel of the ice wall, he was attacked by men with swords. Even then, I thought, "get some freaking l9ong spears and poke at him from out of his reach".

I swear to god... Matt is escalating on that inuendos... cementing the silver fox of hema status.

i haven't been able to find a place to put my shaft for years thanks for the tips

On storing salt near the fire: Smoking salt also imparts additional smokey flavor to food seasoned with the salt. More useful (more noticeable?) nowadays since most cooking doesn’t use flaming wood and needs another way to get smokey flavor. Good alternative to liquid smoke and easily obtained.

Don Quixote, FWIW: “…country gentlemen or hidalgos who keep a lance in a rack, an ancient leather shield, a scrawny hack and a greyhound for coursing.”

I once read in the description of the guard room of a Rhine river castle that the roof beams were marked up from the guards sticking the tips into the beam to hold their pole arms out of the way.

Glad to see I'm the first to see Matt's thick shaft!

In terms of how/where people would store weapons in those time periods I think I would look at it from a practical standpoint and use a more modern comparison. That would be to take another item that people use/wear outside of the residence but wouldn't use inside - take in the not too distant past, hats. There was a time when most men wore hats out of doors and as a consequence a very common home furniture piece became the hat stand/rack in most people's houses. So, I would think at a time when weapons like these were far more commonly carried about outside but weren't inside that there likely would have been some kind of standardized storing method - perhaps not a rack etc, but at least something that would be common to most residences/buildings that people would recognize as where you'd store weapons. So, this doesn't answer how they specifically would have done it, but I just put forward that there probably was a recognized method/place/household accoutrement that was implemented widely for storing weapons - that likely would have been just as familiar to people as a hat rack would have been. Just for the sake of convenience/familiarity if nothing else - as people then were likely just as inclined toward convenience as people are today.

I'm afraid I can't remember where I saw this but, in one account, they talked about storing halberds outside the house under the thatched overhang of the roof so that they were protected from rain, hidden to a certain extent but still be a place they could be quickly grabbed. From the military side quite a few spears in the classical period had spiked butt caps which could be stuck in the ground to keep them upright and also be used for hammering any corpses on the ground to make sure they were dead and not playing possum without damaging the edge of the head.

Hey I played Skyrim I know how this works, you just put it in your "inventory" and magically pop it out when you need it. You can even carry 500 weapons at once, you just walk really slow.

This video speaks to me! At the last LARP event I was at, everyone knew exactly where I was because my polearm would be leaning against the building just outside the door frame.

It’s not the length of your shaft that matters. It’s how you wield it and what you do with the tip.

I just finished the Odyssey. Were as well as having an armoury, Odysseus had many of his spears and gear hung in his main hall's walls. And so has to get his son to stealthily remove them before he can kill the suitors feasting in his hall. Interestingly one the shields brought out from the armoury was described as covered in mold. Suggesting even that wasn't full proof against time. How much does temperature fluctuations effect wood? I'm always paranoid of my axehafts stored in my shed encase they form cracks on hot days. Idk if inside a house would be more stable temperature as well as moisture level.

Actually.... I wonder if lobbing the pole-arm at the enemy was done more frequently than simply dropping it on the ground. With the latter, especially when if you're on the move, I would imagine the falling shaft runs the risk of tripping up the horse's legs.

I wonder if hanging pole arms above fireplaces evolved into hanging rifles and long guns above fireplaces.

I have the same issue wifey falls over my shaft often accidently hit the cat with it also. She's discovered a special spot where it can be tucked away though so that's good.

matt talked a lot about safety considerations when leaning the weapon on a wall, which made me wonder about sheathing. I dont have any experience handling medievel weapons, but i do own a nice axe for wood cutting that came with a simple leather sheath so you can safely carry it. how common were such sheaths for pole axes and spears? you could even oil inside of the sheath to protect from dampness no?

It is important for an early medieval warrior not to carry their spear upright on the London Underground, it gets jammed between the ceiling and the elevator casing it to crack loudly

I know my grandfather would store rakes and similar long farming implements in the rafters.

Hi Matt, thanks for this video - very useful! for the last couple of years I have been writing a novel and discovered your channel in my research, and this is a topic which I have been wondering about for a while. This, as with many of your videos, has been very useful to me, thank you very much!

I've often wondered about this very question. Thanks for answering it.

"The slow spear penetrates the shield." from "Collected Sayings of Girthy Halleck" by the Princess Irulan

I have always wondered this. Cheers for this video

Never have I felt more addressed by an opening intro than in this video. Thank you :)

Thoroughly enjoyed this!

Fascinating. Thanks Matt.

My daughter's current designated home defense weapon is a spear-like implement. It stands in a corner, point-down, in a piece of thick walled PVC pipe that has an end cap. Same idea as an umbrella in an umbrella stand, and the caps on intravenous access needles.

Use a reasonably length quarter staff as a walking stick & have a socketed spear head on your personage. Put it on & fit a pin then the hiking/walking stick becomes a shortish spear. A large long shaft like you have might be battle field weapon but I doubt it would be any good for traveling long distance in a civilian capacity.

Kingdom Come Deliverance covered this well in that you couldn't put a pole arm into your inventory, you had to just drop it.

Just realised how new this video is. Huzzah. Also was nice to see you on that video the other day discussing the Troy fight scene etc

The recent videos are really really interesting to Polearm enthusiasts like me, though I mainly teach the Chinese spear, this is still very very enlightening and fun.

So did the custom of hanging arms and armor in your great hall start out of practical necessity - it's the most dry and warm building in a castle or manor complex so prevents weapons from deteriorating. Of course it may have also been that way because most of the lord's fighting men also slept in the hall and would be close to their weapons in case of attack. Chicken and egg I guess?

your mentioning of identification of dropped polearms actually brings up a great oppertunity to for worldbuilders. My first immediate thought was it gives a good excuse for you to add extra artistic detail to each individuals weapon, so for example an entire column of spear wielders but each with a unique paint job on the shaft or something. it makes the world look even more fantastical whilst having a justifiable reason armies would choose to do it other than "it looks cooler"

That intro was superb!

Super interesting and I think an important thing to add to the discussion. Like so many things small details can really throw of our understanding of history. Like a lot of things when we start to dig in to history we tend to focus on the really fancy flashy bits and forget that those are only effective because of what seems like much more mundane items. In reality as you dig down everything becomes really interesting. I locked right on when started bringing up moisture. This can actually still be a problem butwe don't realize how much technology has gone into dealing with moisture and its usually very inconspicuous. Anything wood will be very impacted and it has a major effect since wood becomes harder when it dries. This means any wood is easier to cut and damage as the moisture level increases. It is also easier to warp. With any long thin pieces of wood if they are left to set for long periods very small amounts of weight will cause them to sag and take set. This means that even when leaning it up against something its important to keep it at a very steep angle to avoid large warps and hanging it is always better. Shafts were probably polls turned on lathes to make them smooth and that means the fibers have not been cut evenly all the way around and the moisture changing back and forth is also likely to cause them to warp. Laying things in ther rafters where they are supported across short spans is also a great way to keep them especially since there is good even air flow around them. Since dry wood is harder it means it better resist compression. Resistance to bending is caused by one side going into compression while the others side goes into tension. So a dry spear will have a much stiffer shaft. If you disagree you are thinking about something else 😉. Bows are where this is critical since a good bow will have everything removed that isn't needed and if its not dry enough the fiber cells on the belly will begin to be crushed and the draw weight will be permanently lowered.it also means that the bow has to be bent further before the back will begin to be pulled into tension meaning it will store little energy for that part of the lower stroke. Since the goal when making a bow is to try to make as much of the material as possible store energy and do work it is now just useless weight that is dragging your bow slower. It means that basically you get a double penalty and even small amounts will cause larger losses in power. It is very easy to make a 100lb bow that is only as powerful as a 30 lb bow. Bowstrings were also natural and could stretch and might be soakes with glue to make them stiffer not fray. Glue is something that we very much take for granted and trying to add things that protect the glue from moisture that don't detract from its properties or strength is still something that chemist are working on. Often when people are talking about wealons of the past they will compare different bows and talk about the technology. However bows were nearly always very high performance but were limited to the material available and the climate. To be able to use some bows special drying boxes had to be brought and a procedure had to be gone through to string the bow. After few weeks in Wet weather they would have failed. Probably sooner. The purest and highest strength glue that they had was what we eat as jello or jelly. Its an incredibly strong gkue and there are still uses for it today and when kept dry can be as strong as epoxy. I also just wanted to say that keeping the moiser correct and even is important for any who are maintaining equipment today. Musicians know very well what the changes do to their equipment. I have broken 2 bows that I made because of improper storage and I did not realize that they were near a heater vent. Besides being dangerous its heartbreaking to loose something nice that a lot of work went into. Thanks for a cool idea

Great video, quite thought provoking as you said

As a GM, I really do like the idea of a magic weapon going missing while it's being stored by the town guard or the innkeep. Could be a fun side quest for the players to retrieve it, and might lead to later arguments with npcs over the local weapon laws :)

thanks for yet another great video, cheers

An entire video on shafted weapons and not a single instance of innuendo. Impressive!

The bit about gathering from around the country brings an interesting image to mind. You leave your village will a few of your friends, but as you continue on you're meeting people traveling to the same place. So you start out as a few, but end up in a large group by the time you actually get to the castle.

If the title gives you any doubt that it is an innuendo, Matt wastes no time setting things straight

So, my brain started playing the tune of "What do you do with a Drunken Sailor" but I was singing in my head, "What do you do when you don't need your pole arm? What do you do when you don't need your pole arm some time in the battle? Throw it on the ground and find it later. Throw it on the ground and find it later..." You could totally make this an educational song lol

I wonder if in the times of inefficient or no chimneys, storing stuff above the smoke line might also help to keep bugs and mildew away.

This was a wonderful treat, Matt! I've always stored my spear "Jaffa" (yes, that's her name!😁) vertically, but this made me reconsider. I always keep some sort of foam pad at the butt end, but now I'm worried that that could still promote moisture. Btw, at the Styrian Armoury/Museum in Graz, Austria, there are many Late Medieval staff weapons that still survive in amazingly excellent condition, and (based on photos I've seen) it looks like they're mostly stored horizontally.

enjoyed this. Im a double Bass player...I have the same problem when it comes to travelling and doing gigs!!

My home has lots of (ceremonial) spears and pole... things. And yeah, we keep them in a shed hanging off two loops of rope. The pole-umbrellas and flags had the fabric part covered in plastic bags for extra safety.

I would think storing any kind of weapon with the horses in an enclosed space would be a terrible idea, especially over any kind of extended period. It may be convenient in terms of space and accessibility, but there would be certain moisture issues as well as acidity that seem likely to accelerate corrosion even with the weapons elevated. A tack room (where saddles and such are kept, presumably for the same reason) might be an option, but may not have the space.

You mentioned Dane axes and mentioned LARP. This reminded me of something hilareous (at the time) in an all weekend LARP session. The dane axe to conform to safety rules had a balsa shaft (stained and varnished to look like teak almost) and the head was foamboard with some exceptionally springy rubber painted silver ish for the blade. I was wearing a HEMA grade helmet (I'd bought it because I liked the look of the thing) and got bonked on the head with the "Dane axe" and the shaft broke right by the head which bounced off and went a good 20 meters off into the distance. Everyone just fell about laughing (we had been drinking a bit at this point). As far as storing at the tavern was concerned then for those on foot there was an over sized eve outside with a horizontal rack for any weapon over 4" long. This was not however based on anything other than "there is nothing to stop it being done like this". As there was seating outside the "tavern" and in real life taverns used to have people drinking outside then that would I think reduce the possibility of the weapons being stolen. Just offering this up as a potential idea.

I don’t think I’ve heard that many double entendres in one presentation ever ! Congratulations Matt !

You've filled my head with ideas for storing my... fishing rods!

Finding your weapon in battle aftermath may have something to do with traditional decoration & (perhaps not so traditional) naming of weapons, maybe? Sure, both took on exaggerated life of their own, but as a practical beginning?

Matt is so right, Pembroke Castle is some 2 miles from where i live and the room are surprisingly small. The circular stone stairs are ridiculously tight/narrow and steep , presumably to make them easy to defend from above.

Hey Matt, after years of expecting it you finally popped up on my facebook Watch feed: Entertainment Insider's video "Pole Weapons Expert Rates 9 Polearm fights in Movies and TV." Cheers.😆

I’m sorry if this has been asked elsewhere, are there surviving examples of “this is Bob’s spear” kind of marks? Or would that mostly be like carved on the shaft/tie a bit of cloth kinda thing, and their for not survive?

Very good question! As a re-enactor I wondered about the same question. If I get caught in a short range, phalanx-like, melee battle and I could not use my lance because the range is now too close, I would rather pass it to the warrior in the line behind me so he could use it from the 2nd or the 3rd line while I hold up the line in the front. Better give it to an ally than throwing it behind the enemy lines where an enemy could throw it back to me!

Writing RPGs here, so thank you very much and now I am thinking about cattle designs I have seen that's included stables and thus possibly a stone building or at least foundation

Storing polearms in rafters is a thing even in tents - a small A cross-section tent may well use them as a stick that holds up the roof (or stuffed parallel to the stick that holds the roof), the larger tents, the kind you see re-enactors in, usually have wooden rafters, a sort of disc UFO thingy that spokes radiate from to make the gap between tentpole and tent wall bigger. You can put all sorts of things there, from polearms to your fancy brocade dress when you have to change into armor. If you can't fit the polearm into tent rafters, you can use a piece of string to hang it from said rafters near the tent pole, if the tent is tall enough. This also works with trees and whatnot, but then you have to worry about evening and morning dew, rain and all sorts of things. Protecting the weapon from that is best done by throwing some sort of fabric over it as well as oiling it (and treating the wood with boiling wax or oil), but it's hardly perfect. And as far as indetification goes, painting and carving are a thing. You don't have to engrave anything into steel, a bit of paint on the shaft, or a few minutes with a knife, and you have your identification mark - one that will not survive easily in achaeological record on account of decomposition.

So in other words, consider logistics. How about monasteries? Knights are known to have overnighted in them. Can we presume their arms were also in the stables?

when i go hiking with my quarterstaff i found a few good ways to slap a strap around it with no knot that lets me turn it up as needed to clear obsticals and even walk into buildings and just twist it so it at a 85 degree angle from its horzontal resting spot. which goes slightly behind my back. it uses up a lot of space if standing in lines at a theme park, but walking a reasonably wide worn animal path it is easy to twist and pull free as needed.

Mid September we celebrated out villagers 625th anniversary. Participant's were asked to dress appropriately for the era. I showed up in my early medieval tunic with axe, seax, shield and spear. During the day we all gathered for the unveiling of the newly restored doors if our picturesque little church. Then we went inside. I can tell you; a 2.5 metre (8.2foot) spear in hand and a 80cm (2.6foot) roundshield on your back, was quite a struggle though that small narrow door.

One fairly obvious thing that seems to have been missed here: if the wood is known to go damp or not last forever, then during peacetime it might make sense to keep just the tip of the spear, to then reattach later to whatever the local woodworker has leftover for tool handles/sticks, or even, in a pinch, a nice stick found on the ground in a forest. Replacing broken handles on tools and weapons would have been a steady business either way.

Some years i, no collector, could visit a meeting of region group of a german collectors society. A speaker spoke about lanceflags of german cavallry before 1918. He said, the ( in case of german imperial lances) steeltube made lancepoles had been stored in ,racks' , where the shaft was laying on three points.

In Denmark, we also have an open-air museum featuring authentic historic buildings, it's in Aarhus. It's called "The Old City" and growing up as a kid I didn't even realize it was a museum, lol. It's pretty impressive and it's just near the botanical gardens and a huge tropical greenhouse.

Just a thought on soldiers gathering for muster. I would have thought that as they travelled on main roads they would have gathered large numbers and probably had their own camps en route rather than staying at inns. I don't know if there's any evidence for this though.

Presumably the interest anyone would have in getting their spear back after a battle would have a lot to do with how expensive it was, how wealthy they are and whether or not they can replace it promptly, from spares or otherwise. Especially considering that spears seem somewhat perishable in battle proper, though only finitely _more_ perishable than the ones using them, on the occasions that battle occurs.

Good video 👍🏻

Well in Southeast Asia, during the time when the warriors are not fighting, they will detach the spearhead and attach it to a short palm-length (from the tip of the middle finger to the wrist level) handle and then keep it at the back of their sash, while the spear shaft will be used as a walking stick when travel. This is how the tradition of wearing the Keris at the back comes from which was started by the Javanese, but because of the constant war and assassination in the Malay regions like Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand, Sumatera Island, Southern Philipines, and others, most Malay men will wear the Keris at the front of their sash. Btw standard length of a Malay and Javanese spear is the same height as the owner's body which symbolizes who is the owner but it can get shorter are longer base on the spear style. The other way to know who is the owner is by looking at the shape of the spearhead and its Pamor. Salam From Malaysia 🙏😁

Where you sheathe or store your weapons is a very common topic among the HEMA channels, I have to say whenever the question comes up my first thought is usually "on the pack mule, or in the wagon train, or back at your house".

Gandalf "You wouldn't want to separate an old man from his walking stick, would you?"

I'm a Russian, i live in a relatively small flat and i have hooks on my (closed) balcony to hang up my skis under the ceilings. Another typical thing is to put them into a corner behind a wardrobe placed diagonally in the corner. Traditional medieval houses of my country would have cold entrance rooms called seni which would serve as a storage place for instruments and weapons that you could use against some bandits knocking your door. An axe is a thing to 100% be there both for firewood and bad people. A spear or a bow is most likely to be there too, hanged up.

Inns had rafters too ;-) Nobles had servants so it was easier for them... they either surrendered their horse and lance to the innkeeper/host and his stables and their servant looked after them and if this wasn't possible, their servant simply stayed with them outside. Servants also carried them around in between battles ;-) Ordinary soldiers probably carried their spear to and from battle on their shoulders and in between battles a.k.a when they marched for 4 days and no battle was expected they probably loaded them on wagons. Alternatively they could have take turns and carry 2 spears... one was their own and the other one belonged to their buddy who carried them for few hours later.

This was useful. I'm going to be joining some friends for a D&D campaign and my character uses a staff, that can either be used magically or as a quarterstaff, and I asked myself this question. "If I want to put it down to have that hand free, where do I put it?" and my first answer was "well I guess the quickest way is to literally drop it on the floor, but surely theres a better way" and no tabletop groups I'm in had a satisfactory answer so I instead searched for historical explanations for what a real soldier did in this instance. And thats how I found this video.

Getting more and more schoolboy with the shaft humor every few videos, love it.

I seem to remember that Roman spears had a metal cap on the back end and the name translated to "lizard killer" part of the purpose of that was that it would not draw moisture from the ground when leaned on something.

I can only talk about the Portuguese side of things. In Portugal, it was the single most widespread weapon in the kingdom, as it was in most of Europe. But these weapons were kept at home. For exemple, we have 15th century municipal ordinances for merchants in the city of Évora which required them to have a spear and a shield at the ready by the door of their shop/home, in case of trouble (Regimento de Évora, 'titollo dos que am de teer lanças e scudos e as penas'). There are some 15th century manuscript illustrations showing hafted weapons on a sort of rack built into beams right over doors (a particularly good example of one turns up in a manuscript of Valerius Maximus); more likely, however, spears just lay against a corner near the door.

Aging knight with a polearm when asked to hand over his weapon: Would you deny and old man his walking stick? I always assumed that cavalry, at least, would store polearms like they do other weapons, namely in a boot or holster as part of the horse's kit. Elsewise, stick it in a wagon or strap it to a pack mule, or have a servant tie a bundle of supplies to it and carry it for you.

I hope we get to see Matt in action at the reenactment.

Hang pikes and lances in the church bell tower, that way they stay straight. Actually saw a few old lances stored in a church tower on the Camino de Santiago

Another method ive used when climbing was to have a modified rock sling hold the base of the pole and then have that tied to a sling. Sort of like a back banner holder. It getd annoying while walking but leaning forward at all ( cause i usually do even on stairs out of habit) the staff isnt a burden

An interesting thing to cover maybe what to do when various weapons broken or damaged and you don’t have access to full repair or to buy new one? On battle field or perhaps campaigning and have some downtime but not enough money/materials/skilled artisans with equipment, or if you can’t just afford full repair and not planning to fight but want to fix it somewhat

I love the Krieger Armory Guardian arming sword making a cameo. It’s one of my favorites.

Another option for spears: stick it in the thatch. It'll keep the spear dry and easy to grab. For a halberd it may be difficult, but a spear can easily be inserted in the thatch.

Interesting discussion. We have the same set of issues here in America when we travel with our sidearms.

Matt if you are traveling & want to keep the damp away from certain item just use a rope. Bundle the item then tie it off at the base over a tree branch after hoisting it up high. Or use a bundle stake. You stab the generally wooden stake in the ground the top is a fork or some shape to tie a bag or what have you to it. up high in a bundle it isn't sitting on the damp ground. Not perfect but it does the job Matt.

Small rooms even for kings were easier to heat with a fireplace.

On a battlefield, were there camp followers who entered the fray, picking up dropped spears or other weapons for later retrieval? If your side has a thousand spears, and advance for hand to hand combat after the first wave is over, you'd probably want someone picking up your spears if you're forced to beat a hasty retreat (i.e. not lose them, not trip on them).

Wonder if you ever heard about the "Zeughaus" in Graz/Austria. Its a museum full of stuff you explain so well. Think its worth a blink.

A good video and an interesting topic. But could you please set up an post with name and/or a link to the open air museum you mentioned. Best regards from Germany.

I didn't think that how to store a spear would be an interesting topic. I was very wrong. Thank you for sharing this often overlooked but historically omnipresent problem.

If you're mustering, usually you're either a knight or lord bringing his retinue or, more likely, a member of such retinue. You wouldn't have been traveling to the muster point alone. In that case, wouldn't the polearms have been loaded onto the retinue wagon? IIRC there are actual records of such wagons' contents being tallied to judge the knight's fitness to join the army. Even mercenaries would have traveled in bands or gangs. When staying the night at an inn or town, just leave the wagon outside with a few guards taking turns.

Phalanx or pikemen had a tough time. Er innkeeper have you anywhere to store about 4 dozen 18 foot pikes. Yes, I know it’s an inconvenience. Yep I’m sorry we didn’t mention it in the booking. It was my serf who contacted you, I’ll have him flogged later. It’s just that there’s no room at the place with the big barn attached and I like the view out the back from this room.

who made that poleaxe? Love it

Double entendre's galore 😂 Cool vid m8 ✌😎

I have in my Man-cave/Pub a rack for my pole-arms, they are off the ground and stand up-right with a rope strung across the heads to keep them from falling over if someone knocks them while fiddling around. I wanted to have them vertically, just not enough space. We know that each and everyone that visits your home will start fiddling with your weapons-collection.