The Swords of Night and Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (June 2007)

The Swords of Night and Day (ISBN 0-345-45834-6) is a fantasy novel by David Gemmell, as well as a pair of legendary swords within the book. They also appear in Gemmell's book White Wolf. The book is set 1000 years following the death of Olek Skilgannon.

The novel is an exploration of the future of the Drenai world, focussing heavily on Jiamads; Joinings of beast and men honed to fighting perfection. The story also contains a satisfactory ending to Skilganon's original life, including not only his first demise, but that of Jianna, the Witch Queen with whom he was deeply in love.

Both swords are mirror polished and extremely sharp, both having been enchanted by the Old Woman. The Sword of Day is golden in colour while the Sword of Night is silver. Intended as inferior copies of the legendary Swords of Blood and Fire, they had become infamous in the hands of Skilgannon.

The swords are frequently mentioned throughout the books as curved blades, and on the two UK hardback covers, are depicted as katanas. However, the swords are also described as being scabbarded in a single, curved sheath roughly two feet in length. This would suggest shorter weapons, such as short sabres.

The swords, as with all weapons made by the Old Woman, are possessed to a degree, in a similar manner to Snaga, the axe of Druss the Legend. However, rather than a tangible demon, the swords simply drive the wielder to blood lust.

The Swords of Blood and Fire are wielded by Decado in this novel.