Swords are more complicated than they look. Despite the simplicity of their appearance, throughout most of history it took considerable effort and skill to make a sword. Using a sword is no walk in the park, either. Again, despite the simplicity of its appearance or how easy Hollywood makes it look with swashbuckling sword fights, it takes a lot of work to become proficient with a sword.
Swords Are Not That Easy to Master
A lot of work and training is required in order for somebody to learn how to use a sword effectively. A swordsman not only needs to learn the necessary techniques to use the weapon. He must also condition and strengthen his wrist, and develop his forearm muscles. A sword might seem light when held for only a minute. However, it starts to feel quite heavy when gripped for hours in training or in battle. Without the necessary conditioning and muscle memory, a novice swordsman would be quite vulnerable.
If a swordsman is not well conditioned, fatigue would set in quickly, and trembling muscles would fail to react in time to make the sword do what it needs to do in order to keep its wielder alive. Swords evolved from daggers during the Bronze Age. The precise definition of what constitutes a sword varies, but the general rule of thumb is that a sword is a weapon with a blade longer than a dagger or knife, that is attached to a hilt, and used to cut or stab.
The Wide Variety of Swords Over the Millennia and Around the World
The earliest known swords date to roughly the seventeenth century BC. For most of history, swords were designed and used mainly to deliver cutting wounds. A notable exception occurred with the Romans, whose legions were armed with the gladius, a relatively short sword that was used mainly to thrust at the enemy and deliver stab wounds. Over the centuries, and across different cultures, a wide variety of swords appeared and disappeared, and their appearance has ranged from leaf shaped, to curved, to straight.
Some swords had hilts designed for one-handed use, and others were intended to be used with two hands. Some blades were short, and others were long. There were swords optimized for use on horseback, and others were at their deadliest in the hands of those who fought with them on foot. Many sword designs emerged, dominated battlefields for a period, then were replaced by other swords because of changes in tactics and technologies. Over the coming weeks, we will post a series of articles about various historic swords used by different cultures around the world. Be sure to check them out.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Burton, Sir Richard Francis – The Book of the Sword (1884)
Evangelista, Nick – The Encyclopedia of the Sword (1995)
History Halls – The Ancient Greek Xiphos: The Spartans’ Favorite Sword
