Sword knot

“ In the Swiss “Pfahlbauten” it was only the handle of the axe that was composed of horn, the cutting portion being flint or stone, inserted into the shaft at its thicker end. [86]
Swords, whether of bronze or iron, are almost invariably of small size, and double edged. There is usually a central rib to the blade, but in some instances fluting occurs. The ordinary crannog sword may be described generally as of two kinds, the one increasing in breadth from the handle to the end, which terminates in the form of a triangle; the other is shorter, with a broad straight-edged blade obtusely pointed. ”

“ When the boy blossoms into a warrior he is equipped with a spear having a blade thirty inches long, a short sword, and a knob-stick; the latter intended for throwing at an advancing enemy, or crushing the skull of a disabled one on the ground. ”

“ The blade, for example, became enormously lengthened, broadened, and flattened, and the spike occasionally became lance-shaped, or falcon-beaked, like a military pick, while the head of the shaft developed into a spike or a short, double-edged sword-blade. In the fifteenth century it became the favourite weapon for encounters on foot, when the pole was furnished with one or two guards for the hands, and was strengthened with iron splints ”

“ This revival of the proto-historic celt and headman’s instrument is a plain, heavy wedge of steel, fixed on a light, tough wooden helve or heft, thus concentrating all the force in the head that strikes the blow. Here there is no uncertainty about the use; and, were it not necessary in swordsmanship to ‘recover guard’ and to save self as well as disable the assailant, it would be the best, as it is one of the oldest, weapons derived from the club. But the cutting Sword, which in the short curved form is its congener, has a long blade that allows a choice of cut—a good choice and a bad choice. ”

“ The chief modern varieties of the curved blade are the Broadsword, the Backsword, the Hanger, and the Cutlass, the Scymitar and Düsack, the Yataghan and the Flissa. These several modifications will be considered in the order of their invention. Lastly the Egyptian ‘Sfet’ originated through Keltic the word Spata or Spatha [429] (Spatarius = a Swordsman) conserved to the present day in the neo-Latin names of the straight foining weapon—espada, espé, espée, épée.
Physically considered, the Sword is a metal blade intended for cutting, thrusting, or cut-and-thrust (fil et pointe) . ”

“ Dr. Evans [1000] considers the weapon ‘a kind of halberd or battle-axe;’ others, a commander’s staff or bâton of honour; but the article is too widely used to be so explained. A fine specimen of the Schwertstab with handle and blade of bronze, was found at Årup in Scania, and an analogous form is shown in a Chinese blade.
History, even written by their enemies, shows that the Ancient Germans were an eminently military and martial people. The bridal present consisted of a caparisoned horse, a shield, a spear, and a Sword. ”

“ The next step would be to fashion the ragged staff with fire, with friction, and with flint knives, shells or other scrapers, into a cutting as well as a crushing instrument; and here we have one of the many origins of the Sword and of its diminutives, the dagger and the knife. Pointed at the end, it would become the lance and spear, the spud, spade, and palstave, the pilum, the dart, the javelin, and the assagai.
Not a few authorities contend that the earliest weapons, the most constant in all ages and continuous in all countries, were the spear and the axe. ”

“ It is finely cast, and has, like the first, a bevel-edge. Its tang exhibits five plain bronze rivets, and three apertures for the reception of others which no longer remain; its length is 281⁄2 inches.
No. 3 is 26 inches long, and retains ten handle-rivets, and provision for the reception of two more which have been lost. It has a narrow grooved feather-edge, but no midrib.
No. 4 is a very beautiful leaf-shaped sword richly moulded, and presenting a broad and finely graduated central rib, by which great strength is added to the blade, rendering it equally fit for thrusting or striking. ”

“ The clash of our blades, both good ones, mingled with the roar of the surf. It was thrust and parry, parry and thrust, the keen pointed weapons gliding along their lengths like serpents. We circled about one another, each watching, with jealous eyes, for a false move, a misstep. Three times did he thrust at my heart, thinking to catch me off guard, but, each time, my blade was there before his, and the sword slipped off with a hiss as of hot iron. ”

“ Each man had on his silk cloak and his regimental cap, and his long sword down by the flank of his horse, and his short sword in his belt, and his fine long ashen spear standing up high, with its long slender head of bright, sharp steel, shining and flashing in the sun, and the silk ribbons dancing in the wind, tied, between the iron and the wood, upon the spear. ”

“ I reserve for a future page the ‘split Swords,’ two blades in one scabbard, which were used in mediæval Europe, and which have been preserved in China.
To conclude this long and technical chapter. The Sword should be tightly mounted and well shouldered-up before and behind, leaving no interval between hilt and blade. The grip must be firm, and the tang secured either by rivets or, better still, by a screw at the pommel: if this be neglected, the weapon will not deliver a true edge. In trials both back and edge should be repeatedly struck with force upon a wooden post. ”

“ Whatever may be the further discoveries of archaeologists, we know that swords are found from the earliest times of which we have any record among all people who have acquired any skill in metal-work. There are two very ancient types, which we may call the straight-edged and the leaf-shaped. Assyrian monuments represent a straight and narrow sword, better fitted for thrusting than cutting. Bronze swords of this form have been found in many parts of Europe, at Mycenae, side by side with leaf-shaped specimens, and more lately in Crete. ”

“ Action grew faster and faster, and swords lighter and more manageable, until by the seventeenth century the customary weapon was the court sword, with a short, single-handed hilt, a small flat guard often magnificently decorated in chiselled steel, and a relatively short, light blade having a needle-like point, and often without any sharp cutting edge at all (Fig. 30) .
Fig. 31. A rondel dagger with a silver handle.
Fig. 32. An outfit for a hunter: dagger, knife, awl, and larding needle, all fitting into one scabbard. ”

“ Swords tended to become more ornate as the fifteenth century advanced, and towards the end and early in the sixteenth both pommels and quillons varied greatly in form and in size, the former being round, square, cusped, truncated, crescent-shaped, etc., while the latter tended both downwards and upwards, sometimes counter-curved, and curled at the extremities, but this feature became more pronounced later. The play of sword and buckler is very ancient, and was displaced in England by the rapier and dagger in the second half of the sixteenth century. ”

“ In another specimen the royal blade is much broader than usual, and two lions couchant form the ferrule, embracing the sheath with their paws and retrogardant or bending their heads backwards (fig. 212) . The ferrule of another is enriched with a guilloche. In the inscriptions of Assur-bani-pal [674] (Sardanapalus) we read of a ‘steel Sword and its sheath of gold,’ and of ‘steel Swords of their girdles.’ Another legend runs—‘He lifted his great Sword called “Lord of the Storm,”’ proving that the Sword, like the horse, the chariot, the boat, and other favourites, had names and titles. ”

“ The fence and clash of weapons consequent on modern swordsmanship, in which the sword [Pg 349] is made to supply both offensive and defensive arms, was altogether incompatible with weapons of cast bronze, liable to shiver like glass at a violent blow. Experience would soon teach the old swordsman the true use of his weapon; and so long as he had only to contend with neighbouring tribes equally armed, he would deem his graceful leaf-shaped sword and his massy spear of bronze the perfect models of a warrior's arms. ”

“ The sword is sharpened to the finest degree, and the blade is protected for about six inches above the cross-hilt with thick string, bound tightly round so as to afford a grip for the right hand, while the left grips the hilt in the usual manner. This converts the ordinary blade into a two-handed sword, a blow from which will sever a naked man into two halves if delivered at the waist. It may be imagined that a quick cut from such a formidable weapon will at once divide the hamstring of any animal. ”

“ This composite weapon, uniting the club with the celt or hand-hatchet, and appearing in Europe with the beginning of the Neolithic period, plays a remarkable part in history, 89ancient, mediæval, and even modern; whilst its connection with the Sword is made evident by the ‘glaive.’ [308] The expansion of the edge and of the flanges developed two principal forms. For cutting wood the long-narrow was found most serviceable: where brute force was less required, the weapon became a broad blade with a long crescent-shaped edge. ”

“ Steel helmets and byrnes of shining rings, bucklers of tempered iron, and targets of thick bull-hide were cut by the sword, cloven by the axe, or pierced by the barbed arrow, or by the spear that was launched from afar; and unhappily in the early part of the battle, Kenneth of the Isles, Græme of Strathearn, and Dunbar of Lothian, fell from their horses, each struck by a mortal wound; for the first had the axe of Enotus the Dane driven through the brass umbo of his shield and the iron cone of his helmet, sheer down to his teeth ”

“ I have seen them bury it to the hilt in a buttonball tree, and in the body 47of a man, granting that it touched a vital spot, the knife would let life quickly out.
I had practiced this trick until, while not as good at it as the Indians, I had some skill. So, when I put my sword back, I thought of the knife, and I resolved to chance on throwing it at the snake. It was but a chance, for I knew that if the reptile was startled it would strike quickly, and I recognized the species as one whose bite was quick death. But I gripped the knife, and drew it from the sheath. ”

“ NCE upon a time there was a steel sword, whose blade was forged and tempered in a most excellent manner. The handle was of precious wood, with beautiful inlaid work of mother-of-pearl and gold. From his very birth the Sword was in the service of a gallant knight; and a sturdy, faithful sword he was. He fought for the sake of truth and of every fair lady, and against all oppressors of the weak. All who, even by word or glance, injured a lady dreaded the steel weapon: there was no man, no arms in the world, whom the steel [126] warrior feared. ”

“ Even those who cannot appreciate the artistic forging of the blade, the steel-setting, and tempering, must admire the exceedingly tasteful casting and embossing of the ornamentation, especially [ pg 377 ] of the guard-plates of the sword. They are often veritable works of art, unsurpassed in style and execution.
It is not very many years ago since the men who belonged to the samurai class never showed themselves abroad without being armed with two swords. ”

“ It is the hilt, and its peculiar formation, which more particularly distinguishes the sword from any other cutting instrument; but the blade—the faculty of cutting which it shares in common with the most domestic knife—is, after all, the most important part, the most requisite property of the sword. A peculiar play of imagination is pre-eminently poetic, but thought, reflection, the genuine passions of man—these must still constitute the greater elements of the composition, whether it be prose or poem. ”

“ Asiatics to this day treat the sword merely as a cutting weapon, and most Asiatic swords cannot be handled in any other way.
The normal types of swords which we meet with in historical times, and from which all forms now in use among civilized nations are derived, may be broadly classified as straight-edged or curved. In the straight-edged type, in itself a very ancient one, either thrusting or cutting qualities may predominate, and the blade may be double-edged orHistorical Types. ”

“ Among modern weapons we have, however, some which, like the sword-bayonet, are intended to serve a double purpose; and though there can be little doubt as to the true character of the knife-daggers, it is hardly safe to assert that all the dagger-like blades were without exception mounted with short hilts as poniards, and that none were provided with straight shafts as pikes, or placed transversely on a handle to serve as halberds or battle-axes. ”

“ The sheaths were invariably of wood covered with leather, with ornamental designs painted or stamped upon them, [Pg 53] and mountings of bronze or more costly metal. The sword is less often found in Saxon graves than the spear, as might be expected, seeing that its use was confined to the upper classes. ”

“ The simpler type of sword has no bronze hilt, but in its place a long tang, usually but not invariably with flanged edges, and shaped to fit the hand. This tang is pierced by several rivet holes, in which the rivets are sometimes found adhering, and these rivets were used to secure on either side of the tang pieces of wood, bone or horn, which with it formed the hilt. In some cases such swords have been found with wood or horn still attached. ”