Brunning Susan E. The ‘Living’ Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe: An Interdisciplinary Study

Institute of Archaeology, University College London. — 406 p.
Swords inspire endless fascination. They are prominent in the mythology and history of many cultures, from King Arthur’s Excalibur in the west, to Japanese Samurai katana in the east, via the weapons described by Islamic philosopher al-Kindi in his ninth-century treatise on sword-making (Hoyland and Gilmour 2006). Despite being long out of general use on the battlefield, swords still fire the imagination. In the past decade, two major UK museums have presented exhibitions about swords – The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe at The Wallace Collection (2012) and Cutting Edge: Japanese Swords in the British Museum at The British Museum (2004-5); while Stirling Council’s decision to lend the Claymore sword popularly associated with Scottish hero William Wallace to a New York exhibition made national news in 2005 (Seenan 2005). Swords also occupy a pivotal role in modern popular culture, be it the fragmentary weapon Narsil in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings; the Atlantean sword wielded by Robert E. Howard’s fantasy hero Conan; the sword Green Destiny which fuels the plot of Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; or The Bride’s quest to obtain a katana forged by legendary sword-smith Hattori Hanzō in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill film series.