He trained and entered competitions–and won by huge margins.ĭriven by new information from a friend who researched historical “war archery,” Andersen’s focus changed. This early success motivated Andersen to push himself further, taking fast shooting seriously.
“So I made a test and the first time I tried I beat their record.” First time. “I watched a video of past winners, and my first reaction was that it did not seem particularly fast,” shared Andersen from his home in Denmark via email. Today’s archers are faster than those of medieval times and before, right? Nope.Īll but one: a Danish archer (and artist) named Lars Andersen, who has perfected the art and skill of speed archery. One would think improvements in technology, such as lightweight materials and state-of-the-art machining, would make our equipment today far superior. Hundreds of years ago, even thousands of years ago, archers fired arrows very rapidly. And looked pretty spiffy to boot.Lars Andersen: Artist, Historian, and Amazing Rapid-fire Archer Tod and other experts performed this same kind of test with the formidable steel gear and it held up admirably. Although direct hits to the arm still look like they’d render enemy soldiers inoperable.įor those who still want to imagine themselves as being impervious in their fantasy medieval battles, try picturing plate armor. Even with Tod’s direct hits, the shield keeps arrows away from where a person’s body and face would be. the bloody leg of pork.)ĭespite its lack of stopping ability, however, it’s still obvious a shield would’ve been very useful in battle. Several of the arrows even penetrate through the shield and chainmail without issue, driving deep into the faux soldier arm.
Tod fires multiple arrow types at the shield-which is made mainly of Poplar wood-and they all penetrate cleanly. In terms of the results, it seems like it’s safe to say that shields do not stop English longbow arrows.
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