Medieval Swords by Alex Hunt

Medieval Swords
The Sword was not the most common weapon of the medieval period, although it is most widely known. The sword dates back to the Stone Age where they used sharp, flat pieces of flint and had bone or wooden handles. Though these are technically called swords what we would recognize as swords really only be possible with metallurgy (start of Bronze Age). Fuller was a hammered or ground groove, making the sword lighter without reducing strength. Blade was the part used to cut. The average was 25” to 31” in length and 2” to 2.5” in width. Pummel was the part used to counterweigh the blade and secure the tang. Also usually had a rich design. Also used as a weapon. Tang was the unsharpened part of iron which the hilt is made around. Upper guard and lower guard were used to protect the hand from sliding sword blades of your opponent and keeping your hand from sliding to your own blade. Depending on style of pommel, you can tell what time period the sword is from. For example, washer style was used during the continental Germanic period. Also the boat, hat, and animal pommel were popular in the early Anglo-Saxon period. The triangular and pyramid pommel came from the early Viking period. The lobed style was used in the middle of the Anglo-Saxon period or around the 9th C. Tea-cosy and brazil nut style were used in the middle to late period of the Anglo-Saxons, or the 10th C. The making of a sword I found very interesting. It is called “pattern welding”. It is a time consuming and labor-intensive technique. It made blades very durable and robust. The blades were springy and hard to break which could be why Roland could not break his sword on the rock. Another common way to make a sword was to order blades from Rhineland. Rhineland was an area in West Germany located on both sides of the river Rhine. They then would add there own hilt to the blade they had received. Hilts were typically made from bone or wood. The full metal hilt and the hammered one piece of steel came around later in the late 9th C. This is the technique that everyone sees in movies. This involves a guy hammering away at a piece of metal to make a sword. Historians believe the reason they went to this technique is because the found better ore. In the sixth century swords appeared that had a staple and ring attached to it. At first it was thought that something was put through the ring to keep the sword in place if the user’s grip slackened. However they were solid so nothing could be put through them. Historians also found swords where the ring was removed. They believe that the rings were marks of honor for knights. In the 700’s sword detail took a decline. Also archeologists found less swords buried with dead from this time period. Historians think this is because of the Christian influence. Material objects were not supposed to be held in such high regard. In the 800’s it again started to become popular to have decorated swords. Saxon swords started to have the cross guard bend away from the hand and also were shorter and not as thick. This was to help secure enemy weapons in the cross guard in hopes of disarming them.
The Sword, in Germanic hands was always a hacking and slashing weapon. It had a shallow fuller and a long, flat blade. The pommel was richly made and historians often could tell rank of the sword wielder by the pommel.
There are many different versions of the story of King Arthur and his sword Excalibur. I am going to tell you about Sir Thomas Malory’s Excalibur. Arthur broke the sword he pulled from the stone fighting King Pellinore. King Pellinor was the father of Percival, who later went on the Grail quest with Galahad and Sir Bors. Merlin saves Arthur by putting King Pellinor to sleep. Merlin takes Arthur to a lake and at that lake is a lady and a sword being held out of the water by a hand. Arthur speaks with Lady of the Lake and asks for the sword. She lets Arthur have it in exchange for a gift. Arthur agrees and rows to the sword and gets it. Sometime later King Arthur is killed by Mordred. Sir Bedivere is with the king. The King asks him 3 times to throw the sword back into the water. Sir Bedivere lies to Arthur two times about throwing the sword into the water. When he finally does a hand comes up and grabs the sword.



Bibliography
Pollington, Stephen. English Warrior from Earliest Times. Norfolk England: Anglo- Saxon Books, 2002
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte Darthur Oxford New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1998.
Wikipedia.org