The Historicity of the Downstick

-- by Duke Sir Cedric Einarsson ©2016

Some people will tell you that "Downsticks" are an invention of LARP and are not modeled off any real-
world weapon. Heh. Uneducated people are funny.
The Downstick in the form that you may encounter in LARPs is designed for LARP requirements and
thus has a distinct look, but there are several weapons that bear a striking (all puns intended) similarity. Most of
these come from India, Africa, and some areas of Australia.
The Dinka people of east Africa and the Sudan did not
develop shields as we know them until late in their history, but
developed two unique club-like pole-weapons. They were so
infamous for this that other tribes often called them "Stick People."
One was a Kuerr or Quayre, made from strong wood such as
ebony with the swollen middle carved out to form a handle. Most
had one or two club-like parrying ends, some blunt and some
sharpened. At least one example had no ends and was just the
bulbous hand-guard, though this may be the result of having been
broken in use. Traditional African shields were eventually adopted,
but the Dinka continued to use Quayre in local disputes and duels,
reserving shields for wars.
(NOTE: The bow-like object shown is also a shield called a "Dang," and is meant to
catch an enemy club on the cord. Although very effective in stick-fighting against warclubs
and staves, our LARP group has placed them on the list of illegal weapons because of the
damage they do to foam boffer weapons.)
The Dinka and their neighbors also made shields from tortoise shells, and
occasionally attached either parrying sticks or short spears to them. While they can be used
in a classical-European style of holding the spear-end above the hand, the balance is
awkward and cumbersome, and is far better balanced when used spear-down, especially
since this is still a defensive weapon, not a weapon for attack in the conventional sense.
The Australians developed similar weapons called "Marrga." Some of these are
described by Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers in his book, The Evolution of Culture, as
a logical extension of common sticks into offensive and defensive weapons of all kinds.
"... the plain stick held in the centre gave the first idea of a defensive weapon, and
was used to parry off the darts of the assailant; an aperture was then made in the stick for
the hand, and the face of it became broader, developing into a shield, the narrow ends, however, being still
retained for parrying... I have shown that the long stick simply pointed at one end became a lance; a row of sharp
flints were gummed on to one side to produce a cutting edge, and these were then imitated in wood, and by
pointing them obliquely they were converted into barbs... another kind of barb was produced by binding on a
piece of sharp-pointed wood.
Most of these were double-ended weapons, more like the
Irish "Haladie" double-ended dagger, the "Wullo" shield of Ethiopia,
or the "Madu" double-spear from India. But while the traditional
madu was developed using antlers mounted over a small shield,
madus of northern India used wood poles or antler capped with iron
tips. Most of these were also double-ended, but one variant of the
used either a single end or a long- and short-end combination. The
version shown here is an 18th-century madu from northwest India.
Congratulations You are now more educated than you were.