Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/56

 and a quarter to an ounce and a half, being considered by modern archers the proper weight of an arrow; and we cannot reckon that bowmen took the field with a smaller provision than four sheaves of arrows, or heads for that number. A sheaf of twenty-four arrows would not keep a bowman above ten or twelve minutes; and in an ordinary battle of three or four hours, allowing that arrows might be picked up and shot back in great numbers, we cannot suppose a smaller provision belonging to and transported with a body of bowmen than ninety-six rounds each, which, for a body of 4000 men only, would amount to above fourteen tons weight of iron in arrow-heads alone. For casting spears or javelins, of which in ancient armies, as in the Roman, more use was made than of the bow, we cannot reckon less than six ounces of iron to the spear head, or less than two spears to each man; and this gives us nearly two tons weight more of iron for 4000 men as their provision in this kind of missile. Of hand-weapons, such as swords, battleaxes, halberds, spears, and of defensive armour, such as head-pieces and shields, which every man had, and coats of mail or armour, which some had, it is sufficient to observe that all of it would be lost iron to the troops who were defeated, or driven from the field of battle leaving their killed and wounded behind, and all had to be replaced by a fresh supply of iron. We see in this great amount of iron or bronze arms, to be provided and transported with even a very small body of men in ancient times, why a single battle was almost always decisive, and every thing was staked upon the issue of a single day; and we see why defeat, as in the case of the battle of Hastings and many others, was almost always irrecoverable with the same troops. They had no ammunition on the losing side after a battle. We may judge from these views how important and valuable it must have been for an invading army of