Overview
Flaming fire! Hot oil running down castle walls! Arrows and massive stones hurled at enemies! These were just some of the weapons soldiers feared during the Middle Ages. Throughout the period, the feudal system defined the weapons used in battle. While noble knights carried lances, spears, and swords, they were joined by peasant foot soldiers who often fought with little more than axes, daggers, and farm tools. Other weaponry of the period included the catapult and trebuchet, which were used for tearing down thick castle walls.Editorials
School Library Journal
Gr 4-5
Though these surveys mix revealing schematics with period images and photos of artifacts or ruins, they are only superficial skims of their topics. Castles, for instance, offers no background on the fortifications from which medieval castles developed nor (aside from one entrance tunnel and some views from above) any interior views. The author's discussions of siegecraft, swordcraft, and weapons manufacture are brief at best, and errors range from careless writing (iron flails sometimes "hurt soldiers as well as enemies") to factual flubs minor (no, scorpions don't bite) and major ("A curved sword was used for stabbing"). In addition, the unusual aerial plans of representative battles, included in several volumes, are confusingly presented. For both browsing and research, these take second place to equivalent titles in the "Kingfisher Knowledge" (Kingfisher) and "Eyewitness" (DK) series.