15thc perception on swallowtail merlons?

[LiviuV]

(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?)

In Warren Ellis' graphic novel Crecy (highly recommended BTW), the English archers were ordered to shoot with "Loose!", which makes sense, I guess.