Improvised arm break treatment in medieval ages

May 10, 2009 16:36

Hello! I have multiple questions on this one scenario, I hope that's all right :)

Setting: I am writing a piece set in the "dark ages" around the time of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Arthurian legends. In the fandom canon knowledge and treatment of diseases and injuries is more advanced than it actually was at the time. For example there is knowledge of ( Read more... )

~medicine: injuries: broken bones, ~middle ages, ~medicine: injuries: historical

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sollersuk May 11 2009, 06:05:36 UTC
Further clarification about the riding (I have to put this in quickly as I am off on holiday today): I wondered if you were thinking of him riding bareback to round up the other horses. IRL at the time, there seems to have been no tradition of bareback riding in North West Europe; he would saddle up one horse that was in the stables to fetch the rest from wherever they were grazing. Horses appear not to have been used to it either, and would be alarmed by an attempt to mount in a really unconventional way. And assuming he has survived the bite but is still recovering, I'm not sure whether he would be able to vault onto the horse's back with an injured shoulder, though he would be able to mount using the stirrups.

And in much of Europe, the situation would be unlikely. Semi-wild ponies grazed free, but horses were too valuable to be left far from the habitation. It would be like parking tanks unattended a couple of miles from base in hostile territory. They would be put out to graze nearby, and assuming that they were wearing halters of some sort, he would probably have walked back leading them a few at a time. If they weren't wearing halters already, that would be the first thing he would see to.

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autumn_belias May 11 2009, 06:25:41 UTC
also the terrain doesn't make for droving (is droving even the right word when talking of horses? I know it for other livestock but... Oo), most of Europe wasn't flat and grasslands, forests dominated and where they didn't people would have tilled the earth for fields and no sane person would drove animals through fields used for food production, that's the death of commoners and nobility alike.

and as an afterthought:
I'm also unsure he HIMSELF would go fetch the horses instead of letting a stablehand do that, unless it was some covert operation bit.

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pizzazzical May 11 2009, 10:09:48 UTC
Hello, sorry about the confusion, I was being unclear. Basically the two of them rode out for some fresh air etc. and tied their horses up after dismounting. A few hours later the man goes back to fetch the horses but since there's two of them (and he has a bad shoulder) he basically loses both of them and he goes after them. When the horse rears he is on foot, which is why he fell over and sustained the break. The confusion is all my fault though so sorry about that!

Also, the bite from the mythical beast was healed using magic, so the wound is 100% closed up and free from infection, but his muscles/tendons/nerves etc. are still healing.

Thanks a lot about the information about the consequences of the fracture. I think one arm shorter than the other would be not too bad. Is there any possibility, considering the difference between actual medieval medicine and the more advanced techniques in canon, that he would still have pretty good mobility and strength if the arm was set properly?

Also, sorry about the dark ages/medieval mix-up. Just shows how bad I am at history and all that :x

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