[396] Swords!

Uhh.

I think drive-by poster syzygy had a dead-on analysis of Annie's preferred swordfighting style. (Namely: none.)

I don't have any problems with the "I think swords are cool" line being a representation of the Internet; that level of discourse seems sadly rife on the Web. Most of the time, it's "Parley-level"; it's a pity that it doesn't rise to "Smith-level" or "Annie-level" more often.

(By "Parley-level", "Smith-level", and "Annie-level", I'm referring to the scene in Chapter Seventeen where Jones asks them for their observations on the events in Chapter Fourteen. Parley gave the obvious - Ysengrin's hostile tone - while Smith and Annie gave more in-depth answers that showed they were taking a more analytical approach to what took place in the meeting.)

Much as Tea's cheery horror fascinates me, I disagree with her and with one of the previous posts.

Swords were/are not merely a revered symbol of humanity's savage nature.

Allow me to illustrate with the example of the katana : while part of its appeal is indeed the stylish and stylised murder of one's opponent, the actual history of the katana shows there's more to this sword than meets the eye. A samurai had to forge his own sword. This test, literally of vital importance for the rest of his carreer as a samurai, meant that he'd been practising "the way of the warrior" long enough. In formal training, a samurai learnt about many subjects : the warrior's art of fighting and weapons, obviously, but also the blacksmith's art of welding and maintaining those weapons. Ideally he would also master the courtier's arts like tea ceremony decorum, classic colour combinations in silk kimono's and timeless lines of poetry.
The creation of a katana was a lengthy process of itself : the metal had to be treated in a special way, which took ages and ages.

I think the clearest comparison is the black belt in judo or karate : originally, one was not allowed to wash one's belt. The belt started as white, but during practice (think of all the sweat from the exercises and the grim from falling down) it gradually changed colour. That way if you met someone in a ki, you just had to look at his or her belt and you could guess how many hours of practice he or she had... and run away if necessary *wink*

You don't get a black belt just like that, you don't get a katana just like that. Likewise the medieval shield-bearer had to go on a quest (either in real life or spiritually) in order to be knighted. Think of the boy Arthur proving that he's fit to be the king by pulling the sword out of the stone *grin*

Well, I personally like symbols a LOT. So I think it's only natural that I've always seen the sword as a symbol of humanity : there's a horizontal line and a vertical line. In several mystic traditions, that's a reference to humanity : we're at the cross roads of heaven and hell and we must fight to make the right choices...

I wonder if that's an element in alchemy too? Does anyone know?

I disagree that it was the worst example possible - well, I would, wouldn't I ? *grins*

Think of Antimony stepping onto the bridge when Robot and Shadow2 return. She faces the unknown, even though the school's alarm goes off and Reynardine tries to stop her.

Likewise, Arthur had to face the unknown : he was unaware of his heritage and the magic so as fas as he knew, failure was entirely possible.
The knighting process does not depend on circumstances, but on what happens inside the knight to be. For Arthur, the most important moment is stepping up to the stone and =trying=

That's one of the big plotholes in the story, incidentally. The reason why the tournament that Kay's to compete in (and needs a sword for) is being held is to attract as many knights to London as possible for the Sword in the Stone test - which raises the question as to why Arthur was unaware of it.

(The Disney animated version provided one of the better solutions for that problem. In it, the Sword in the Stone had been abandoned years before when nobody could pull it out; the tournament was being held as a way of deciding the succession by having the winner being crowned king. Thus, Arthur's ignorance becomes more believable.)

Interesting read. Personally, as opposed to loving to hate it, I prefer rolling in it while laughing maniacally, but that's just me.

a shiver went up my spine as I read that.

So Mr. Siddell was even more right than we knew.

Faced with this bleak post, I'm stealing Kat's famous words when confronted with the horrid void in Zimmy's eyes : EEP!

While I don't care about judo or black belts, it turns out that the only time I saw black on white that a samurai forges his own katana was in a "graphic novel"... Van der Meij's drawings do seem well researched, but that's no guarantee, eh?

From what I've been able to find online, it would appear that only old old hermits at the end of their carreer would move on from active fighting to forging. Those swords appear to have been revered both for their quality and their minute innovations.

As for the ore in Japan being low quality, I've not found anything to either prove or disprove that. Their smithing process was very labour intensive, but that's due to their demands for quality. The Vikings had (independently) discovered and used the same process for their double bladed axes, even after they plundered half of europe...

seems like my enthousiasm for myths and stories ran away with my interest in truth again *wink*

I still think swords are neat, so all's well ;-)