MovieChat Forums > Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (2016) Discussion > How does a female blacksmith manage to p...

How does a female blacksmith manage to pick up a heavy sword


Apart from the fact that in no way would they have a female blacksmith in this period of time, how on Earth would she be able to pick up those heavy swords.

The swords they used in those days would be held by huge muscle bound warriors, and even they had to use two hands to hold these heavy weapons.

The blacksmith in the story has no muscles at all. She wouldn't be able to pick up a sword let alone work with it.

However I would believe it if Brigitte Nielsen played the part. Now she has the muscles to do blacksmithing.

I think the actress should be replaced by someone huge and muscle bound, and then the part would be believable.

reply

Because mud borns, trolls and skin shifters are believable and indigenous to the land and time period?

But the brown blacksmith unbelievable.

By the way, Brigitte neilson is a 52 years old 6 foot tall bag of bones.

reply

[deleted]

Realize this is a low-budgeted production. So it is bound to be pockmarked with cognizable(& non-cognizable) flaws. I would rather spend time criticizing flaws in Game of Thrones.

reply

Swords aren't heavy. The entire point of a sword is that its fast and manoeuvrable. A typical Viking sword weighed between 2-4 pounds. Any heavier than like 10-12 pounds and it's no longer a useful sword.

So I'm assuming that pretty well any woman, modern or otherwise, could probably hold any sword with relative ease. Now, fighting with it might be a different ball game, but I have no clue since I've never been in a sword fight.

reply

It is not just the weight of the sword you have to consider. A blacksmith also has to hold a big heavy hammer in which to shape the sword. They have to hold the sword and a big heavy hammer, and bash that sword into shape.

Now I can see that there are very big built women that could have done this, but the actress playing the part in no way would have had the body strength to be a blacksmith.

reply

1. The original argument made no mention of the actual smithing of swords

2. I think you'll find that smithing is far more about stamina than strength. The bulk is a result of the job, not a requirement.

3. A smithing hammer weighs like, 3 lbs and heated metals are pretty malleable, and you're not hammering the entire time. Half of smithing is waiting on the metals to cool.

reply

The average weight of weapons and tools is now being established with the available equipment that we have at our disposal. But was that the case even then?

That would raise a question. Beowulf is the oldest recorded anglo saxon poetry composed around 7th century during the reign of King Hrothgar[It is currently being debated whether he was an allusion to an actual king]. In the said supposed era, do you think there would be any scientifically accurate measuring tools? Weight would be determined on the nearest possible approximation of the then measuring tools. That said, isn't it only likely that a smith would usually not 'weigh' his hammer, but rather use something that he 'feels' will do the job? Which in turn, would vary from smith to smith. In this case from man to woman.

So logically an average 120lbs female would not wield the same hammer as say, a 250lbs smith? Note not every woman, in any era, would be a Brienne of Tarth.

Im feeling lazy now so I'll let you do the math and point out anything that I may have missed.

reply

1. The original argument made no mention of the actual smithing of swords

I should think the word Blacksmith would have given you a clue here.

Any blacksmith male or female doing this kind of work would build up muscles over time, but the said actress playing the part was not of a build that could do this kind of job.

It's not just whether she could do this job either. If you look at history through the ages, it wouldn't have been a job a woman would do. Even in the 18 hundreds women were seen as second class citizens who did not do male orientated jobs. After that things started to slowly change, but it took many years before a woman could actually choose what kind of job she would do.

You also have to remember that Beowolf was set a few thousand years before the suffragette movement and votes for women.

reply

...a few thousand years before...

er... 7th or 8th century AD. Thats a little over a thousand years.

reply

Aside from the fact that she's slinging them around all day as she makes them - by hammering steel with a large steel hammer - you still don't get it?

Okay.

..Joe

reply

OP, If you’re muscle-bound, you can’t swing a sword. Please know what you’re talking about.

reply