50 Fun Facts About Swords

Which colour lightsaber did Samuel L. Jackson request for Mace Windu so he would stand out in Star Wars battle scenes?

Purple made Mace Windu's blade unique among the Jedi on screen. Jackson asked the director for it while filming Attack of the Clones, so he could pick himself out in the crowded arena battle.

The suit of Swords in tarot and Italian card decks corresponds to which suit in a standard pack of playing cards?

Spades are the French-suited match for Swords. The English name itself probably comes from spada, a southern European word for a sword, while the French call the same suit pikes.

Which future American general, an Olympic pentathlete in Stockholm, designed the Model 1913 sword for US cavalry?

George S. Patton designed it as a young lieutenant and the Army's Master of the Sword, replacing a curved slashing blade with a straight thrusting one. It was obsolete before it was ever used as intended.

Sabrage is the showy ceremony of opening a bottle of which drink by sliding a sword along its neck?

Champagne is the drink, and the blade does not cut: it strikes the lip so the glass collar snaps off with the cork inside it. Legend credits the trick to Napoleon's cavalry.

In an ancient Greek tale retold by Cicero, a sword hangs by a single horsehair above which seated courtier?

Damocles had gushed about how lucky his king was, so the ruler of Syracuse let him sit on the throne for a day, with a blade dangling overhead to show what power really feels like.

In Arthurian legend, which enchantress gives King Arthur the sword Excalibur after his first blade breaks in a duel?

The Lady of the Lake hands over Excalibur together with a scabbard that stops its wearer's wounds from bleeding. Arthur's first blade had shattered in a fight with King Pellinore.

Aztec warriors fought with the macuahuitl, a wooden sword edged with razor-sharp blades of which material?

Obsidian, a volcanic glass, flakes to an edge sharper than a steel razor. Spanish conquistadors described macuahuitl blows that killed their horses outright.

Which long curved Japanese sword did samurai wear thrust through the sash with its cutting edge facing upward?

The katana rode edge-up in the sash so that a samurai could draw and strike in a single motion. Its older cousin the tachi hung from the belt with the edge facing down.

In The Princess Bride, the swordsman Inigo Montoya hunts his father's killer, a count marked by which feature?

An extra finger on his right hand gave Count Rugen away. He had ordered a sword built to fit that odd grip from Inigo's father, a great swordsmith, then killed him in a quarrel over it.

In Greek legend, which conqueror solved the puzzle of the Gordian Knot by slicing through it with his sword?

Alexander the Great met the knot at Gordium in 333 BC, where a prophecy promised rule over all of Asia to whoever could undo it. Everyone expected him to pick at it patiently.

Which slender thrusting sword began as a Spanish dress accessory and became Renaissance Europe's classic duelling blade?

The rapier was known in Spain as the espada ropera, the 'dress sword', because gentlemen carried it as part of an outfit. Its long, narrow blade was made to pierce, not to chop.

Which sword of Scottish clansmen takes its name from Gaelic words meaning 'great sword'?

Claymore is an anglicised claidheamh-mòr, a name stretched over two different weapons: the late-medieval two-handed sword and the later basket-hilted one.

Which short, broad slashing sword was the favourite weapon of sailors and pirates during the Age of Sail?

The cutlass was sturdy enough to hack through heavy ropes and canvas, yet short enough to swing in a boarding fight or below decks. In the Caribbean the word can also mean a machete.

Which short stabbing sword, a design borrowed from the tribes of Spain, armed the legionaries of ancient Rome?

The gladius gave gladiators their name, which simply means swordsmen. Rome copied the weapon from Celtiberian fighters it met during the Punic Wars against Carthage.

Which word for the curved swords of the Middle East also names a desert oryx with long, backswept horns?

Scimitar is a European catch-all, not one weapon: it covers the Persian shamshir, the Turkish kilij and the Indian talwar alike. The scimitar oryx of the Sahara is named for its sweeping horns.

Which huge sword of Germany's Landsknecht mercenaries was carried over the shoulder like a pike, not in a sheath?

The Zweihänder, literally the 'two-hander', was typically at least 1.4 metres long, far too much blade to draw from the hip. Its wielders fought both alongside and against pike formations.

Which sickle-shaped Egyptian sword, descended from the battle axe, was buried with Tutankhamun in two examples?

The khopesh doubled as a badge of royal power, and Egyptian art often shows kings holding one. Many surviving examples were never sharpened, which suggests they were made for ceremony.

Which of fencing's three weapons is the heaviest and lets a fencer score on any part of the opponent's body?

The épée counts a hit anywhere from mask to toe, while foil scores only on the torso and sabre only above the waist. Its name is simply the French word for sword.

Which straight, double-edged sword is revered in Chinese culture as the 'Gentleman of Weapons'?

The jian ranks beside the staff, the spear and the sabre as one of the four first-tier weapons of Chinese martial tradition. It had reached its modern length by about 500 BC.

In the Japanese martial art of kendo, the shinai practice sword is built from four slats of which material?

Bamboo replaced the hard wooden swords that had been seriously injuring students in practice. Being so light, a shinai can also be swung faster than a solid blade.

What is the name of the knob at the end of a sword's hilt, first added to stop the weapon slipping away?

Pommel comes from the Anglo-Norman word pomel, meaning 'little apple'. Along with the grip and the guard, it is one of the three parts that make up a hilt.

What is the correct name for the long groove down a sword blade, popularly known as a 'blood groove'?

A fuller has nothing to do with blood: it lightens the blade while keeping it stiff, working like the flanges and web of an I-beam.

Which city gives its name to the steel, patterned like flowing water, prized in medieval Near Eastern sword blades?

Damascus was where many of the blades were forged and sold, but the metal came from far away: ingots of wootz steel imported from southern India.

Which Spanish city has been famed for the steel of its sword blades since Roman times?

Toledo and its guild of swordsmiths rose to prominence under Moorish rule, and between the 15th and 17th centuries the city's steel came to be regarded as the best in Europe.

Which swordsmith of around 1300, widely acclaimed as Japan's greatest, has a prize for modern smiths named after him?

Masamune forged the Honjo Masamune, a blade handed from shogun to shogun as a symbol of Tokugawa rule. It was a National Treasure when it went missing in 1946.

In Le Morte d'Arthur, which knight throws Excalibur back into the water at the dying King Arthur's command?

Sir Bedivere inherited the scene from Griflet, a knight of the older French romances. In both versions the knight twice only pretends to obey, unable to throw away so fine a blade.

In the medieval epic The Song of Roland, which unbreakable sword does the dying hero hammer against a rock?

Durendal would not break, so the dying Roland hid it beneath his body to keep it from the enemy. One legend says he hurled it away instead and it came to rest in a cliff at Rocamadour.

Joyeuse, a sword in the Louvre once carried at French coronations, is said to have belonged to which emperor?

Charlemagne's legendary sword gave its name to the blade carried before French kings at their coronations from 1270 to 1825. It reached the Louvre from the treasury of Saint-Denis in 1793.

Zulfiqar, the fork-tipped sword often shown on Ottoman flags, belonged in tradition to which early caliph?

Ali ibn Abi Talib is a central figure of Shia Islam, and his sword is traditionally pictured with a double point. Middle Eastern smiths sometimes made blades with a split tip in its honour.

In Japanese myth, the storm god Susanoo finds the sword Kusanagi inside the body of which slain monster?

An eight-headed serpent, Yamata no Orochi, was lured with vats of sake before Susanoo hacked it apart and found the blade inside one of its tails. Kusanagi is one of Japan's three imperial treasures.

Tizona and Colada are the two swords carried in medieval legend by which Spanish hero?

El Cid, the eleventh-century warlord Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, wields both in the epic poem Cantar de Mio Cid. A blade said to be Tizona has been on show in the Museo de Burgos since 2007.

At British coronations, the sword Curtana is carried with its tip squared off to symbolise which royal virtue?

Mercy is why Curtana, one of the Crown Jewels, has about an inch of its point missing. The tip once had a jagged, broken look before it was squared off.

Found sharp and barely tarnished after 2,000 years in a flooded tomb, the Sword of Goujian is made of which metal?

Bronze rarely survives so well: the sword lay in a lacquered wooden scabbard with an almost airtight fit. Its inscription names the owner, Goujian, a king of Yue in the fifth century BC.

In Norse legend, the hero Sigurd kills which dragon with the reforged sword Gram, striking upward from a pit?

Fafnir murdered his own father for a hoard of treasure, then took a dragon's shape to guard it. It was his brother Regin who forged the sword and urged Sigurd to the kill.

Who presented the jewelled Sword of Stalingrad, a gift from Britain's king, to Joseph Stalin at the Tehran Conference?

Winston Churchill handed it over in 1943 as Britain's tribute to the city's defenders. Stalin kissed the scabbard, then passed the sword to Marshal Voroshilov, who let it slide out and fall.

Which medieval commander had a sword fetched from under the altar of the church at Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois?

Joan of Arc had the sword brought to her as she armed for her first campaign, and designed her own banner too. Carrying a sword later featured among the accusations at her trial.

Which country's green flag shows a white sword lying beneath the Islamic declaration of faith?

Saudi Arabia never lowers its flag to half-mast, because doing so to the sacred text would be considered blasphemous.

In a Spanish bullfight, which performer enters the ring alone for the final act carrying a red cape and a sword?

The matador's sword, the estoque, is meant for a single thrust known as the estocada. Each one also employs a mozo de espada, a 'lad of the swords', among his assistants.

Statues personifying Justice traditionally hold a sword in one hand and which object in the other?

A set of scales is the older emblem, traced back to ancient Egypt before the Greeks and Romans adopted it. The blindfold only became common from the 16th century, at first as satire.

What is the traditional name for the tap of a sword on the shoulder that makes a person a knight?

The accolade takes its name from the Latin for neck: the word first meant an embrace, and an older French rite used a rough blow to the neck. The Church may have softened that into a sword's light touch.

Which Elvish blade does the hobbit Bilbo Baggins name after using it to fight off giant spiders in Mirkwood?

Sting is really a large Elvish dagger, but for a hobbit it works well as a sword. It glows blue when orcs are close, and Bilbo later hands it on to Frodo for the quest to destroy the Ring.

In The Lord of the Rings, Elvish smiths reforge the broken sword Narsil as Andúril for which character?

Aragorn inherited the two shards as the heir of Isildur, who had used the broken hilt to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand. The new name, Andúril, means Flame of the West.

In Game of Thrones, which sword does Jon Snow give Arya Stark as a parting gift before leaving for the Night's Watch?

Needle got its name from the embroidery lessons Arya dreaded. Forged by Winterfell's blacksmith, the slim blade suits the quick, thrusting 'water dance' style of fencing she goes on to learn.

In Nintendo's long-running fantasy series, the evil-repelling Master Sword is the signature weapon of which hero?

Link first drew the Master Sword in A Link to the Past in 1991, and it has returned in most of the games since. Zelda is the princess of the title, not the swordsman.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry pulls the Sword of Gryffindor out of which object?

The Sorting Hat is delivered by Fawkes the phoenix, who also blinds the Basilisk so that Harry can kill it. The venom the blade soaks up later lets it destroy Horcruxes.

In The Three Musketeers, which young swordsman travels to Paris hoping to join the king's guard?

D'Artagnan is not one of the three musketeers of the title. Dumas based him loosely on a real soldier, Charles de Batz, who rose to captain the Musketeers of the Guard under Louis XIV.

Which cartoon hero of the planet Eternia wields the Power Sword, whose other half was first held by his foe Skeletor?

He-Man is the alter ego of Prince Adam, who transforms by raising the sword. In one early illustrated story, hero and villain joined their two halves to form the true Power Sword.

In Kill Bill, which retired swordsmith in Okinawa breaks his vow never to forge again to arm the Bride?

Hattori Hanzō is played by Sonny Chiba, and the name is a tribute: Chiba had played the historical ninja of that name in a 1980s Japanese TV series. In the film he works as a sushi chef.

Which warrior class of Ottoman Egypt gives its name to the curved dress sword worn by US Marine Corps officers?

Mamelukes carried sabres of this pattern, and Marine tradition says one was presented to Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon in 1805 for his men's part in the Battle of Derna, in the First Barbary War.

Which Japanese swordsman, said to be undefeated in 62 duels, wrote The Book of Five Rings late in life?

Miyamoto Musashi was renowned for fighting with two blades at once, the basis of the school he founded. He wrote the book in his final years, setting out his own practical approach to combat.