Overview

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 fechtbucher. 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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Robert W Jones
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   The Boydell Press
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9781837650361

ISBN 10:   1837650365
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   23 May 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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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. -- Robert Woosnam-Savage

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. * ARMS AND ARMOUR * 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. * MEDIEVAL WORLD * 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. * STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING (SMART) * 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

Author Information

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.

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