The Flail in Medieval Times
The most common usage of the word "flail" in English-language countries today is as a verb. When most people use the word, they probably don't know its origin. In fact, The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines "flail" (the verb) thusly: a) "...to strike with or as if with a flail (like arms flailing the water)"; b) "...to move, swing, or beat as if wielding a flail (flailing a club to drive away the insects)." And the definition of "flail" as a verb comes from the root word ("flegel"), a description of the actual medieval / historical instrument, "flail," which Merriam-Webster defines: "a hand threshing implement consisting of a wooden handle at the end of which a stouter and shorter stick is so hung as to swing freely..."One variation of the flail was the "chain mace," composed of a long chain normally wrapped in leather with a steel ball (not the spiked metal ball like a flail) at the end. According to the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, the medieval flail was a weapon made of "one (or more) spiked metal balls" that were attached to a strong handle with a "hinge or a chain." It was commonly used in Europe from the 1
3th Century to the 15th Century, Wikipedia's editors report. Also, there is some clarification needed as to the significance for the era; the "knighted class" used swords, and held the sword in much higher esteem than the flail. But the foot soldiers in that era, especially the "Hussites," used the flail as their "national weapon" because swords weren't as powerful while warring on foot as they were while fighting on a horse, like the knighted class of warriors. What size was the average flail? The flail, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (www.bbc.com), had a handle that was about an inch wide and twelve-to-eighteen inches long. The chain that holds the spiked ball (the spikes were razor sharp and pointed, an inch to an inch-and-a-half long) could be as long - or slightly longer than - the handle. Why was it used? Besides as an Egyptian weapon of punishment, according to the bbc.com Web site, the mace and the flail were used "almost exclusively by warrior priests and warrior monks as a more civilized manner in which to kill." They believed that because the flail kills with blunt force, and doesn't usually d
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