15thc perception on swallowtail merlons?

[Jorge_Stolfi]

There are relatively few castles with merlons that are small enoguh for a crossbow to sit on, and none of them have such a support in the middle. Normally, their purpose is to hide the man while he cocks the crossbow, after which he leans out in order to shoot with greater accuracy.

You mean that the notch in the swallowtail merlons is purely ornamental too?  Or a symbol of political allegiance/control by some specific party?  

I was thinking that the two tails of a swallowtail melon could give a bit extra protection to the archer's  head and shoulders when aiming and firing a crossbow.  Could that be their purpose? (By "support" I meant simply that the archer could rest the front end of the crossbow on top of the merlon before firing it, for a more accurate aim.)

All the best, --stolfi

(Speaking of which, off-topic but not totally: in one of the Lord of the Rings movies there is a scene where the leader of the Elves shouts "Fire!" ... to his archers. Was the verb "to fire" used for bows and arrows too, before the spread of firearms?  Os should he have shouted "Shoot!" instead?)