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A sword (from Old English sweord; akin to Old High German swerd lit. "wounding tool", from the PIE *sver- "to wound, to hurt") is a long edged bladed weapon, consisting in its most fundamental design of a blade and a handle. The blade is normally of metal and often ground to at least one sharp edge and usually has a pointed tip for thrusting. The handle, called the hilt, can be made of many materials, but the material most common is wood covered by leather, fish skin or metal wiring. The basic intent and physics of swordsmanship is fairly constant, but the methods of using those physics vary widely from culture to culture. Most of the variations can be understood in terms of the differences in blade designs around the world.
History
Bladed weapons have been in use from the Bronze Age.
The sword developed from the dagger when the construction of longer blades became possible, probably in the early 2nd millennium BC. The hilt at first simply allowed a firm grip, and prevented the hand from slipping into the blade when executing a stab.
Iron swords became increasingly common from the late 2nd millennium BC. Iron is stronger and less dense than bronze, and has the added advantage that mass production is possible due to the wider availability of their raw material. The early use of iron swords is attributed to the Hittites, the Mycenean Greeks, and the early Celts.
Eventually smiths learned that by reducing the amount of carbon (added during smelting in the form of charcoal) in the iron, an improved alloy called steel could be produced. Several different methods of swordmaking existed in ancient times. One of the most famous is pattern welding. Over time different methods were developed all over the world.
In Pre-Columbian South America and Mesoamerica several cultures made use of sword-like weapons without developing metallurgy; for example swords with obsidian "teeth" mounted along the "edges" of a wooden "blade". These were known as "maquahuilt".
During the 17th Century and 18th Century, a smallsword was an essential fashion accessory in European countries, and carried by most wealthy men. As the wearing of swords fell out of fashion, their place in a gentleman's wardrobe was taken by canes. Some examples of canes incorporate a concealed blade and are known as swordsticks. The French martial art "la canne" was developed to fight with canes and swordsticks and has now evolved into a sport.
The sword was always more a weapon of self-defence than for use on the battlefield, and the military importance of swords had been steadily decreasing during the Middle Ages. Even as a personal sidearm, the sword began to lose its pre-eiminance in the late 18th century, paralleling the development of reliable handguns.
Swords were still used, although increasingly limited to officers and ceremonial uniforms, although most armies retained heavy cavalry until well after World War I. For example, the British Army formally adopted a completely new design of cavalry sword in 1908, almost the last change in British Army weapons before the outbreak of the war. The last units of British heavy cavalry were converted to armoured vehicles as late as 1938. Cavalry charges still occurred as late as World War II during which Japanese and Pacific Islanders also occasionally used swords but by then they were usually completely outmatched by an enemy armed with machine guns, barbed wire and armoured vehicles.
Types of swords
Swords may be classified into categories of varying scope. The main characteristics are blade shape (cross-section, tapering and length), shape and and size of hilt and pommel, age and place of origin.
- Bronze Age swords with typical leaf-shaped blades first appear in the 2nd millennium BC around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and in Mesopotamia.
- European swords
- Gladius the sword of the earlier Roman army, measuring ca. 60cm
- Spatha the sword of the late Roman Empire, longer than the spatha, the shape of which was continued during the early Middle Ages.
- Great sword - a broad term generally referring to the knightly sword of the high Middle Ages.
- Long-sword - a broad and somewhat ahistorical term, usually including the bastard-sword. Broadsword is a similarly ill-defined term.
- Bastard-sword or "hand and a half sword" - the traditional European, two-edged, straight sword for use with either one or two hands (see also Spadone).
- Zweihänder - the large and heavy, two-handed German sword of the 16th century.
- Estoc - 16th Century armor and chain-mail-piercing sword.
- Schiavona - an Italian Renaissance broad sword.
- Rapier - a longer European dueling sword, optimized more for thrusting than a slashing action.
- Small-sword - a very short and light descendant of the rapier, mostly for court use during the 18th and 19th centuries
- Claymore (Gaelic "great sword") - either of two types of Scottish sword; a two-handed design that is older and was used as an anti-cavalry weapon, and a more modern blade, famous as the "basket-hilted" claymore.
- Epee
- Falchion, Scimitar, Dussack, Grosse Messer, Cutlass, Sabre, Szabla, Backsword, mortuary sword: single-edged weapons not properly categorized as swords.
Several modern sports and martial arts have components based upon older principles of swordfighting. Among these are fencing, kendo, kenjutsu, escrima, aikido and some variants of kung fu.
A tool resembling the sword is called a machete (or, in Southern Africa, a panga) and is used to cut through thick vegetation. Indeed, the difference between a machete and a sword is mainly that of width and utilization, and several types of swords in history resemble the machete in construction, such as for example the scramasax, the dussack, and the falchion.
While a rigid classification is not feasible, the latter is usually referred to as a kind of chopping sword. The scramasax, usually lacking a cross-piece or any kind of guard, is more properly considered a war knife.
For a more comprehensive listing of swords types, see list of swords
Parts of the Western sword
The blade is the cutting part of a sword. In single-edged swords, the non-cutting edge is known as the back.
The blade may also have grooves or fullers, also known as "blood grooves." The purpose of these fullers is not to act as gutters for blood (as was once thought), but to lighten the blade while allowing it to retain its strength, in the same manner as an "I" beam in construction.
The hilt is the handle of a sword, and consists of the guard, the grip, and the pommel. It may also have a tassel or sword knot.
The scabbard is the case that the sword is kept in when not in use.
The ricasso or shoulder is a short section of blade immediately forward of the guard. Most swords have no ricasso. The ricasso is not sharpened, which sometimes allows a finger to be wrapped around the blade for better control. On some large weapons, such as the German longsword, the ricasso was covered with leather and might be gripped in one hand to make the weapon more easily wielded in close quarters combat. The maker's mark is normally to be found on the ricasso. On Japanese blades it is found on the tang under the handle.
The tang is the part of the blade extending from the top of the blade through the hilt and the grip. In a rat-tail tang the sword is held together by a nut screwed onto the tang above the pommel (in 20th-century and later construction), or the tang is peened over a nut on the end of the pommel (in traditional construction). It is one of the weakest types of tang. A "full" tang is the strongest type. In a full-tang sword, the tang is the same width as the sword blade. As the blade doesn't narrow where it joins the handle, it maintains all its strength.
The CoP (Center of Percussion), also known as the Sweet spot, is the part of the blade that can deliver the strongest blow with the least vibration. Most swords will have two of these points along the blade. The secondary one nearest to the hilt is a particularly poor point to have struck by another sword, if the user should make the mistake of believing popular mythology and using a sword edge to parry. Being struck at this point will allow the maximum force to be transmitted and is how a sword may suffer catastrophic failure.
From the 18th Century onwards swords which were intended to be used for cutting, i.e. with an edge, have been curved with the radius of curvature equal to the distance from the swordman's body at which it was to be used. This allowed the blade to have a sawing effect rather than simply delivering a heavy blow. European swords had a radius of curvature of around a metre as they were intended to be used at arm's length. Middle Eastern swords had a smaller radius as they were intended to be used with the arm bent. A significant defect that many European swords in the 19th Century had was the use of metal scabbards which tended to make them blunt, and consequently gave Eastern swords a fearsome reputation amongst European troops.
Swords intended for stabbing were normally straight, as it made accurate handling easier. European light cavalry (and infantry officers, who were usually on horseback) invariably had curved swords for slashing rather than straight ones for stabbing because if a thrust from a moving horse missed then it was hard to make a horse go backwards to repeat the thrust. This was particularly important when they were involved in skirmishes, which was the normal form that their fighting took. Heavy cavalry, which tended to charge en masse and not skirmish, usually had straight swords for thrusting.
Named swords
Many swords in mythology, literature and history are named by their wielders or by the person who makes them.
- Excalibur - King Arthur's sword, given to him by the Lady of the Lake. In other versions he obtained it by pulling it from a stone.
- Caliburn - Another name for Excalibur.
- Galatine - The sword of Sir Gawain in the Arthurian legends.
- Secace - The sword of Sir Launcelot in the Arthurian legends.
- Kusanagi (Grasscutter) - A sword of equivalent importance to Japan as the Excalibur is to England
- Sword of Damocles
- Thul fiqar - The legendary two-tipped sword of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib
- Tizona - the sword of El Cid.
- Szczerbiec - The sword of Polish kings
- Hrunting - Unferth, associate of Beowulf
- Gram (in the Volsung Saga) or Balmung (sometimes in later traditions) - Sigurd
- Tyrfing - a cursed sword from the Elder Edda
- Durandal - the sword that belonged to Roland, a hero of the medieval French epic "The Song of Roland"
- Joyeuse - the sword of Charlemagne (Charles the Great), the famed medieval king of the Franks and first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
- Grus- the historical sword of Boleslaw Krzywousty (Boleslaus the Wrymouthed), medieval prince of Poland
- Glamdring (Foe-hammer) - Originally the sword of Turgon, King of Gondolin in the Silmarillion, then the sword of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings.
- Narsil (Sun and Moon) (later Andúril, Flame of the West) - The sword of Elendil, and later Aragorn in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
- Sting - The Elven short-sword wielded by Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit and Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings.
- Stormbringer - The black sword used by Elric, a character invented by Michael Moorcock.
- Dyrnwyn - The legendary sword used by Gwydion in the Prydain stories by Lloyd Alexander.
- Catclaw - The sword used by The Gray Mouser in a series of stories by Fritz Leiber.
- Caladbolg - The sword used by the hero Cuchulain in the Irish epic the Táin Bó Cuailnge.
- Green Destiny Sword - The sword used by Li Mu Bai in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
- Vorpal Sword - The sword mentioned in Lewis Carroll's poem "The Jabberwocky" and now a well-known blade in Dungeons & Dragons
- Buster Sword - The oversized sword belonging to the videogame character Cloud Strife.
- Masamune - Named after a Japanese sword smith. Also used throughout the Final Fantasy series. Most famed for use by Sephiroth in Final Fantasy 7.
Symbolic meaning
The sword is also a symbol of violence, combat, or military intervention. It is used in this sense in Jesus' statement, "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword." Another example is the old saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword." attributed to Edward Bulwer-Lytton
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