Sword

SWORD, a general term for a hand weapon of metal, charac terized by a longish blade, and thus distinct from all missile wea pons on the one hand, and on the other hand from staff weapons— the pike, bill, halberd, and the like—in which the metal head or blade occupies only a fraction of the effective length. The handle of a sword provides a grip for the hand that wields it, or sometimes for two hands; it may add protection, and in most patterns does so to a greater or less extent.

Early Forms.

Of the actual origin of swords we have no direct evidence. Neither does the English word nor any of the equivalent words in other languages, Aryan or otherwise, throw any light on the matter. Daggers shaped from reindeer antlers occur among the earliest relics of man, and there are flint daggers of the Neolithic period, which may be supposed to have been the model for the first hand weapons made of copper. Bronze took the place of copper about 2000 B.C., and the transition from bronze to iron in Europe is assigned to the period i000 to 700 B.C. Whatever 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. We have also from Mycenae some very curi ous and elaborately wrought blades, so broad and short that they must be called ornamental daggers rather than swords. The leaf shaped blade is common everywhere among the remains of men in the "Bronze Period" of civilization, and this was the shape used by the Greeks in historical times, and is the shape familiar to us in Greek works of art. It is impossible, however, to say whether the Homeric heroes were conceived by the poet as wearing the leaf shaped sword, as we see it, for example, on the Mausoleum sculp tures, or a narrow straight-edged blade of the Minoan and Myce naean pattern. In any case, the sword holds a quite inferior posi tion with Greek warriors of all times. Strange as it is to a modern swordsman, representations in Minoan art seem to show that not only the bronze daggers but the long swords were used with an overhand stabbing action like a modern Asiatic dagger. The han dles are too short for any but a rigid grip without finger-play. Before about i5oo B.C. the rapier type was the prevailing one; but there is no evidence of historical connection between the Assyrian and the Minoan rapiers. It is thought that the leaf-shaped blade came to the Mediterranean countries from the north. So far as we know from works of art. it was mostly used with a downright cut ting blow, regardless of the consequent exposure of the swords man's body; this, however, matters little when defence is left to a shield or armour, or both. Attic vases also show warriors giving

point, though less often. The use of the sword as a weapon of combined offence and defence—swordsmanship as we now under stand it—is quite modern. If the sword was developed from a spearhead or dagger, it would naturally have been (and it seems in fact to have been) a thrusting weapon before it was a cutting one. But when we come to historical times we find that uncivilized people use only the edge, and that the effective use of the point is a mark of advanced skill and su perior civilization. The Romans paid special attention to it, and Tacitus tells us how Agricola's legionaries made short work of the clumsy and pointless arms of the Britons when battle was fairly joined. Asiatics to this day treat the sword merely as a cutting weapon, and most Asiatic swords cannot be handled in any other way.

Historical Types.—The nor mal 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 classi fied 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 or single edged. The double-edged form was prevalent in Europe down to the I 7th century. The single edged blade, or back-sword as it was called in England, is well ex emplified among the Scottish weapons commonly but improp erly known as claymores (the real claymore, i.e. great sword, claid heamh ?nor, is an earlier mediae val form), and is now all but ex clusively employed for military weapons. But these, with few ex ceptions, have been more or less ! influenced by the curved Orien tal sabre. Among early double edged swords the Roman pat tern (gladius, the thrusting sword, contrasted with the barbarian ensis) stands out as a workmanlike and formidable weapon for close fight. In the middle ages the Roman tradition disappeared, and a new start was made from the clumsy barbarian arm which the Romans had despised. Gradually, the broad and all but point less blade was lightened and tapered, and the thrust, although its real power was unknown, was more or less practised from the i 2th century onwards. St. Louis anticipated Napoleon in calling on his men to use the point ; and the heroes of dismounted combats in the Morte d'Arthur are described as "foining" at one another. In the first half of the i6th century a well-proportioned and well-mounted cut-and-thrust sword was in general use, and great artistic inge nuity was expended, for those who could afford it, on the mounting and adornment. The growth and variations of the different parts of the hilt would alone be matter enough for an archaeological study. One peculiar form, that of the Scottish basket-hilt, derived from the Venetian pattern known as schiavone, has persisted without material change.