Questions for my story!

Libraries and local SCA people, or email someone at the SCA. (Society for Creative Anachronism). Many of them do an obscene amount of research, and might be able to help you.

As far as weapons... not necessarily. Swords are not necessarily made for male or female, but for fighting style, based on time period and on geographic locale (local styles of fighting... English style is very different from German style, and so forth). So generally, no. If a woman is going to be a sword fighter, she will be strong enough to weild a sword.

Shay

More questions... So, is it ok to call any girl's dress a frock? or do all the different styles need to have their own names...

Is tunic the right word for a man's shirt, what else do they wear? (think Lord of the Rings...) I know what things look like I just don't know if they are called what they would be if they were different before 18th century England... (i know those)

The word "frock" wouldn't really be used for just any women's garment. It didn't even describe women's clothing until the 16th century and then it was something pretty shapeless and rough. Gown is a pretty safe bet, usually. If you have a specific style in mind, I could probably let you know what the specific name for it would be (if it had one).

As for tunics, the tunic would be what you wear over the shirt. The shirt wouldn't necessarily be visible, though. I know quite a bit about costume history, so if you have any questions about what things are called or whatever, I'd be happy to help out. Just point me towards any examples of what you are thinking of, or describe it, or something.

There really isn't a whole lot out there on pre-rennaisance dance. They didn't write a whole lot about it until print came into style. Depends on how "pre-rennaisance" you mean. If you're talking about vikings--I suspect that some sort of folk ring or line dance or would be appropriate, though there are some mentions of dances being done with swords by men. If you're talking about 1200-1400 dances were mostly done in the round on social occassions. After 1400 or so dance got more formal and was done in couples. They tended to be rather slow and graceful because at that time the clothing, esp. for women, was long and very full and this emphasized the movement of the fabric. Peasant dance appears to have been pretty much circle folk type stuff.

As noted frock was not in use until late. For an outer garment, gown, kirtle, robe cotehardie (for men or women) would all be appropriate. For underwear, shift,or smock. Belts were called girdles. Cloaks are cloaks.

Your public library should have a dictionary of costume--Yarwood's is decent, but most any of them should give you the terminology you need, at least for fantasy. If you were doing historical I'd send you to my webpage for a list of sources that were in print a while back.

Hope this helps.

Like Mr Earbrass, I am the straying, rather than the sedentary, type of author.