Cloak and Baldric

Gwern Branwen · 18 Feb 2009, 01:56 · from 2009-February.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:56:57 -0500 (EST)
Subject: (urth) Cloak and Baldric
In-Reply-To: <W91512262596741234891935@webmail30>
Message-ID: <frbcsx51plhpbdj0c8UYAxe124vaj_firegpg at mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org> wrote:
> No, it's not a new subgenre, it's a costuming question.
>
> So, Severian's got this huge sword on a baldric, slung over his (left) shoulder most of the time. Too big to hang from a sword belt.
>
> But how does that work with a cloak? It would have to be worn OVER the cloak, but, unless the cloak was pushed back over the shoulders, the baldric would essentially trap his arms in by holding the cloak tight around his torso.
> It seems he could have one side free, at least, but the other would be constricted.
>
> Or am I completely wrong? Am I mistaken, or is this not really much of a problem for a wandering swordsman?
>
> Are any of you guys Ren Fair or Historic Recreation types?
> any insight here?
>
> I ask because I was drawing Severian, and this suddenly struck me as a real problem.
>
> /Devil in the details
>
> ~Witz

I'll throw in a suggestion. 

Perhaps there is a slit in the cloak. Then he could have the baldric all tight around his body but the actual sword and sheathe would be outside the cloak and loose.

-- 
gwern
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