Sword Sunday #52 - North's sword...and all good things must come to and end.

So, in something of a new tradition for my family, we sat down Christmas eve and watched "Rise of the guardians" as a family. Say what you will about the movie, but I found that the story narrative, the characters (a Tattooed Russian "Santa", a marshal arts trained, six foot tall, Australian Easter Bunny,  a hummingbird-winded, feathered Tooth fairy, and a plump, Sand man literally made of magic sand) and the plot to be engaging, fun, and most importantly, entertaining. 

So, for the fifty second Sword Sunday of 2020, I wanted to have some fun and talk about the set of swords our butt-kicked Santa Clause was swinging as he went against "Pitch", the aptly nick-named Boogieman. 

Our hard hitting Russian enforcer brings a matched pair of single bladed, straight-backed swords with single hilts and hand-guards. The handles are wrapped, and likely wire wrapped to help shift the center of gravity back towards the hands for balance, which lends itself towards the speed of the strike with a single handed weapon. 

If you look at the weapon in detail, it is actually a fairly well illustrated back-sword, which dates to the second quarter of the sixteenth century in western Europe, and did, in fact, have some counterparts into Russia. Like the weapon in the movie, the back sword was regarded has a sharp, fast cutting weapon with a secondary thrusting attack. It was made for the speed of the strike, and was used as a fast moving weapon meant to cut deeply on the strike or the draw. 

And, if you look at the movie and how "North" wields his matched pair, that is very much in line with how he swings at the Nightmares and then at "Pitch" in the film. 

So, Truth be told, Kudo's to the director and animators for this really well done bit of Hollywood weaponry. 

And, that leads us to our final topic of the series.

When I set out to do this project, I knew that it was be a one year undertaking, and I knew that while there was a lot more to talk about, I couldn't blindly go on just talking about swords, not with as many things as I have going on right now in my life. And.... to think that I laid out this project before 2020 became "2020".... the fact that I made it is, frankly, no small miracle in my opinion. 

I hope you have enjoyed this year-long voyage of swords as a topic, both as weapons and a cultural icons. it has been an eye opening process writing about them, and an engaging process sharing my findings and information about them with you.

But, as was said by better people than me,

All good things must come to an end.

And with that, I leave you on this, the last Sword Sunday, and the last Sunday of 2020. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"

Sword Sunday # 51 - Two case Studies, and a lesson in culture.

This week we take a quick look at two different situations on opposite sides of the world from each other. 

There is nothing Japanese about Miriam and Martin Carrington, of west Yorkshire, England. The couple, however, did have an interest in Japanese culture, and that lead them to purchase a 'wall hanger' decorate katana for their bedroom several years ago. As far as Miriam could recall, she had never even taken it out of its scabbard.  

but that all changed one night when three men broke into the couple's home while they were there and ordered them to hand over the keys to their £40,000 ($54,090.00) Audi. Martin ordered his wife to run to the bedroom and lock the door as the three men pressed in, shouting threatened and repeated orders to hand over the keys. 

Miriam, however, had a different idea. 

"‘I suppose I just went into crazy mode." She explained to the paper After running to the bedroom, she grabbed the weapon, held it, and ran back to confront the three men. "I held the blade towards him to stop him moving and then the silly idiot, who was wearing gloves, grabbed the blade with both hands. I then pulled it back towards me and that is when it has sliced through his hands."

The damage to the man's hand was so severe that a doctor later said that he was close to death from blood loss by the time he and his two co-conspirators got him to help. His attorney would later state that the man had completely lost feeling in several fingers, and that the cut was through several tendons and into the bones. 

Miriam and Martin were exonerated of any wrong doing, and the intruders have been charged with multiple counts of criminal conduct for their attack that night. 

See the full article in the Daily Mail.

The situation in Australia for actor  Blake Davis, however, is less clear. 

What is known is that an intruder broke into the actor's home while Blake's girlfriend was with him. In the ensuing confrontation, Blake delivered a single blow with a Katana that struck the intruder on the head. The single hit, delivered with an blade that was also razor sharp, would prove fatal, and the home intruder would later die of the resulting injury. 

This is where the facts stop and the disputes begin. 

Davis said that the attacked pointed a weapon at him, and then his girlfriend, a statement that the police said they were not able to cooperate with other people in the home.

Also, Davis admitted to chasing the fleeing attacker after the fatal blow was delivered, for almost 80 yards  

For the prosecutors, this was evidence of criminal intent. Final arguments for the case were heard this week. Davis' defense attorneys have leaned hard on the emotions of the situation, pointing Blake's fear for the safety of his girlfriend, and the fact that he only delivered one blow with the weapon. 

Prosecutors, however have argued that the Davis understood the weapon's capabilities, and that his aggressive actions, including chasing the attacker for three quarters the length of a soccer field constitutes and attack, and is not self defense. 

A Judge has already ruled that the Murder accusation against Davis could not go forward, leaving the remaining charges as the Australian equivalent to manslaughter. 

None the less, the Jury is still considering if Davi's actions rise to the level of criminal assault, or are, in fact truly self defense. 

Se the full article in the Islander.

Analysis.

One of the interesting aspects of these two stories is the name of the weapon. Both article, written for different publications, literally half the globe apart, describe the weapon as "Samurai Swords". The reality is that the actual Samurai class used a number of weapons during their nearly millennium long existence, including multiple blades ranging from 8 inches, all the way to 50 or more. 

However, no blade has more come to personify Japan than the katana sword. This is due to a number of factors, some external, some internal.   After the second world war, stories of Japanese officers with katanas leading infantry charges were some of the most vivid tales to come out of the pacific theater, and were part of the reason that sword ownership, or instruction were banned outright by the american occupational government on the island for multiple years after the war.

The Second aspect of this is a cultural one that started during feudal japan, but shaped the modern nation and some of its art. To varying degrees, Japanese marshal arts have taught that the weapon was an extension of the person holding it, and that part of its purpose was to express the warrior spirit of the person. This philosophy extended into world war two, and included the institutional practice of some models of machine guns being fitted with bayonets as it was 'appropriate' for the weapon to properly express the role of the man holding it. This was the same philosophy that encouraged and reinforced the idea that officers had to hold  swords (and pistols) rather than rifles for most of the war. 

Following the war, however, as the shattered entertainment industry worked to rebuild itself under a newly pacified national government, the national pride and history would find a safe venue tof expression in movies, manga (comic books) and later on, TV shows. As the Japanese culture already gravitated towards more fantastical expressions of cinema than western audiences preferred, Japnese media, both live action and animated (and manga) would leave a dramatic (and somewhat inflated) impression of the classic Katana on non-Japanese consumers.

In Japan, traditionally, the swords were used as a way to express the prowess and power of the character. The weapon was capable of its many feats because of the skill of the person holding it. 

However, for American, British and Canadian audiences, with a more secular worldview at the time, the message was that the characters were made powerful because of the strength and sharpness of the blade. 

In this cultural mistranslation sits the roots of the Katana's near mythical status with western audiences, and why it is now almost exclusively associated with the Samurai, and why a Katana (often called a Samurai  sword) is one of the first things casual students of Japanese history go for when they pull out their wallet. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"

Sword Sunday # 50 - 2020 is turning out to be an interesting year to find things

When we talk about old swords in the modern day, we also need to understand the circumstances in which they were found, and that includes political, legal, and contextual. While this article isn't about swords, per se, it does inform us about how absolutely insane 2020 is in nearly all aspects of life, including when we talk about swords. 

In England, there has been a law in effect since 1997 that defines certain things founds in the ground as possible "treasure". For a country that has roots back to the height of the Roman empire, even simple things like tool handles, metal blades, and minted coins can be invaluable, not only for their raw monetary value, but for the historical information they provide as well. Anything found that is, or looks to be over 300 years old is required to be reported. Each county has an office who's job it is to review finds, and assess if they are national, and/or histrionically significant. Items found to have that value are taken into custody of the state (the government of the UK), and usually turned over to a museum or research institute. 

Currently, the law in question is being looked at for expansion, after several significant finds were deemed to not meet the age and value specifications that had been set, and critically important items were lost to the private market, and in many cases locked away from researchers eyes.

Still, even with what it does cover, the offices are hardly inactive.

In 2017, 1,267 pieces went through the process in which a committee determines whether an item should be considered a treasure, up from 79 pieces in 1997. - From the article by Jenny Gross

By those metrics, the committee in question would have reviewed about 3 items per day. 

2020, however, is another animal entirely. Even with a strong aversion to instituting a lock-down, England has resorted to that several times now, and, like much of the industrialized world, also seen an explosive surge in work-from-home employment situations. 

The end result to all of this? 

Well, sociologists will no doubt debate and evaluate the full effects well into the 2030s, but one thing that is also happening a lot more is a surge in home gardening, and yard improvements. 

And that means digging.

And that can get interesting in a country with a cultural history dating back over 2000 years.

One spectacular example was where gardeners in Hampshire found 63 gold coins minted during the reign of Henry VIII, 4 inscribed with the names of his wives. 

Another discovery in Milton Keynes were a stash of apartheid era South African Gold coins.Their presence alone on the island nation hints at an interesting story. 

As of the beginning of December, over 47,000 items (including some swords) have been reported to the authorities in England, a rate of over 120 finds a day, forty two times the previous rate of reporting. 

Whatever comes of COVID, and the consequences there in, one of the byproducts of the event (and the likely continued lock-downs into 2021), will probably include an improved gimps into the nation's long, and diverse history. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"

Sword Sunday #49 - The Greek Xiphos

When you talk about the Greek military, the cornerstone image of the early, pre-roman armies is that of spear-armed, bronze-breastplated soldiers marching in their characteristic block, or Phalanx formations. The image is not altogether wrong,  like nearly every army that existed before the rise of the firearm, the Greeks learned that the pike or spear was the king of the battlefield, able to deflect almost any charge.

That being said, they were not blind to the question of what to do when the blocks of soldiers were broken, or individual troops were caught alone, or when the fight did close to hand-to-hand range. When that did happen, the Greeks had their own answer to the eventuality. 

Modern reconstruction of a Greek xiphos and scabbard.

The Xiphos was one of a handful of swords in history who's existence actually bridged the bronze (3200–600 BCE)   and iron ages (1100–700 BCE) extensively.  The exact age of the weapon is somewhat nebulous, but its association with the ancient Greek militarizes is strong enough to stipulate that it likely was part of the military arsenal from the 8th century BCE to the 1st century BCE. 

The sword itself is a simple, clean blade, with a flat grip and a small hilt. The blade was generally regarded at between 18 to 24 inches long, though Spartans were reported as using a 12" version. It was a 'leaf bladed' design, with the fullest part of the blade about a third of the way down its length, and it was probably equally good at both chopping or thrusting, though both iron and bronze are noted for being bad at holding an edge (bronze, of course more so). The weapon would have been originally been cast, and then shaped by stoning, since bronze can not be hardened. Iron swords however, may have been either cast, or forged, and examples exist to suggest both methods were used.

Its worth noting that the Xiphos is nearly identical in design and construction to the Celtic  

La Tène people. As to which sword came first, of they are event connected, or if both are an example of form following function is still something of a talked about debate among historians. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"