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A Cultural History of the Medieval Sword
Power, Piety and Play
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2023
About this book
The sword is an important and multi-faceted symbol of military power, royal and communal authority, religion and mysticism. This study takes the sword beyond its functional role as a tool for killing, considering it as a cultural artefact, and the broader meaning and significance it had to its bearer.
It should be on the bookshelf of anybody who claims to be interested in the importance of the sword in medieval life and thought and their cultural significance in the past - and present. Robert Woosnam-Savage, Royal Armouries.
We see the sword as an object of nobility and status, a mystical artefact, imbued with power and symbolism. It is Roland's Durendal, Arthur's Excalibur, Aragorn's Narsil. A thing of beauty, its blade flashes in the sun, and its hilt gleams with opulent decoration. Yet this beauty belies a bloody function, for it is also a weapon that appears crude and brutal, requiring great strength to wield: cleaving armour, flesh, and bone.
This wide-ranging book uncovers the breadth of the sword's place within the culture of high medieval Europe. Encompassing swords both real and imagined, physical, and in art and literature, it shows them as a powerful symbol of authority and legitimacy. It looks at the practicalities of the sword, including its production, as well as challenging our preconceptions about when and where it was used. In doing so, it reveals a far less familiar culture of swordsmanship, beyond the elite, in which swordplay was an entertainment, taught in the fencing school by masters such as Lichtenauer, Talhoffer, and Fiore, and codified in fencing manuals, or fechtbücher. The book also considers how our modern attempts to reconstruct medieval swordsmanship on screen, and in re-enactment and Historical European Martial Arts (or HEMA), shape, and have been shaped by, our preconceptions of the sword. As a whole, the weapon is shown to be at once far more mundane, and yet just as special, as we imagine it.
It should be on the bookshelf of anybody who claims to be interested in the importance of the sword in medieval life and thought and their cultural significance in the past - and present. Robert Woosnam-Savage, Royal Armouries.
We see the sword as an object of nobility and status, a mystical artefact, imbued with power and symbolism. It is Roland's Durendal, Arthur's Excalibur, Aragorn's Narsil. A thing of beauty, its blade flashes in the sun, and its hilt gleams with opulent decoration. Yet this beauty belies a bloody function, for it is also a weapon that appears crude and brutal, requiring great strength to wield: cleaving armour, flesh, and bone.
This wide-ranging book uncovers the breadth of the sword's place within the culture of high medieval Europe. Encompassing swords both real and imagined, physical, and in art and literature, it shows them as a powerful symbol of authority and legitimacy. It looks at the practicalities of the sword, including its production, as well as challenging our preconceptions about when and where it was used. In doing so, it reveals a far less familiar culture of swordsmanship, beyond the elite, in which swordplay was an entertainment, taught in the fencing school by masters such as Lichtenauer, Talhoffer, and Fiore, and codified in fencing manuals, or fechtbücher. The book also considers how our modern attempts to reconstruct medieval swordsmanship on screen, and in re-enactment and Historical European Martial Arts (or HEMA), shape, and have been shaped by, our preconceptions of the sword. As a whole, the weapon is shown to be at once far more mundane, and yet just as special, as we imagine it.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Robert W Jones
Robert W. Jones is Alumni Association Coordinator and tutor at Advanced Studies in England, an independent study abroad programme based in Bath, England. He is also a Visiting Scholar in History at Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Reviews
It should be on the bookshelf of anybody who claims to be interested in the importance of the sword in medieval life and thought and their cultural significance in the past - and present.
---
A fascinating and excellent study, full of wide-ranging historical, literary, and historiographical depth. A Cultural History of the Sword is a worthy text for any appropriate college or graduate classes that wish to see the Middle Ages with more clarity and enjoyment.
---
This reviewer came away feeling as though he was Jamie Lannister after a thorough and fun training session
with Bronn. There is so much in this book that it will be worth returning to again and again. Jones has shown
us that truly the sword is mightier than the pen. --- Jones' research does not rely on ostentatious statements but instead provides usually well-developed ideas that will be useful to sword scholars for years to come, making this book a great read for those with an interest in martial culture, swords, and European martial arts. A love letter to swords from a pioneering scholar that approaches them as a multifaceted subject and carries the reader with enthusiasm to explore and understand them even more. --- This is an excellent, thought-provoking book, which not only is a valuable contribution to the literature on the cultural history of the Middle Ages but also convincingly dispels modern myths and misconceptions about the sword in this era.
with Bronn. There is so much in this book that it will be worth returning to again and again. Jones has shown
us that truly the sword is mightier than the pen. --- Jones' research does not rely on ostentatious statements but instead provides usually well-developed ideas that will be useful to sword scholars for years to come, making this book a great read for those with an interest in martial culture, swords, and European martial arts. A love letter to swords from a pioneering scholar that approaches them as a multifaceted subject and carries the reader with enthusiasm to explore and understand them even more. --- This is an excellent, thought-provoking book, which not only is a valuable contribution to the literature on the cultural history of the Middle Ages but also convincingly dispels modern myths and misconceptions about the sword in this era.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
v -
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List of Illustrations
vii -
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Acknowledgements
xi -
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Introduction
1 -
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1. The Mystical Blade
9 -
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2. The Powerful Sword
37 -
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3. The Falchion: A Case Study of Form, Function, and Symbolism
75 -
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4. The Civilian Sword
91 -
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5. Learning the Sword
117 -
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6. Using the Sword
141 -
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7. Recreating ‘Medieval’ Swordsmanship
163 -
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Conclusion
183 -
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Glossary
187 -
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Bibliography
193 -
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Index
217
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 11, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781787448353
Original publisher:
Boydell Press
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781787448353
Keywords for this book
Durendal; Excalibur; Narsil; Medieval Europe; swordsmanship; Lichtenauer; Talhoffer; Fiore; fechtbücher; Historical European Martial Arts
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
