How did the handedess of a warrior affect their fighting ability?

by ThermoPacMan

I assume most warriors with swords or shields were right handed, but I imagine a left-handed warrior would have a more difficult time during combat. Were there any advantages to being a different handiness that the majority? Or was life generally more difficult?

Georgy_K_Zhukov

This has come up before, but unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much info on it. As is pointed out there, we have reason to believe that in a military based on shield formation, lefties would be forces to fight right handed, but that's about it.

As I said in that thread, for single combat - or at least as you'll see in fencing - though, there is a real advantage to left-handed fencers, but (as far as I'm aware) it isn't because they are intrinsically better or have more of a killer instinct. The main advantage is because a left-handed fencer is very used to fencing against right handed-fencers on a daily basis. On the other hand right-handed fencers practice against lefties very rarely.

A right-handed fencer who practices against lefties on a regular basis would essentially eliminate that advantage. Likewise, if a club was all lefties, so never fenced right-handed people, that advantage would mostly disappear.