List of historical swords
This is a list of notable individual swords, known either from historical record or from surviving artifacts.
Legendary swords
These swords do not survive as artifacts and their description (or indeed existence) may be of doubtful historicity.
- Sword of Attila – The sword of Attila the Hun, said to have been sent by the gods.
- Legbiter – A gaddhjalt sword of the viking King Magnus Barelegs killed in battle at County Down in 1103.
- Dhu al-Fiqar, the sword of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Islamic prophet Muhammad.
- Grus – The sword of Boleslaw Krzywousty (Boleslaus the Wrymouthed), medieval prince of Poland.
- Joyeuse – The sword of Charlemagne (Charles the Great), the famed medieval king of the Franks and first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
- Kusanagi-no-tsurugi (草薙の剣) / Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi (天叢雲剣 lit. Sword of the heaven of the clustering clouds) / Kusanagi ("Grasscutter" or more probably "sword of snake"). It may also be called Tsumugari no Tachi (都牟刈の太刀) – Both a mythical and real sword of equivalent importance to Japan as Excalibur is to England.
Artifacts
These swords are preserved artifacts, and their attribution to historical characters may be doubtful.
- European medieval swords
- Sword of Mercy – A symbolically broken sword that is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The sword has a blade cut off short and square, indicating thereby the quality of the mercy of the sovereign.
- Joyeuse - The coronation sword of the kings of France, made up with pieces of different swords (9th-19th centuries).
- Tizona – El Cid's personal sword, purported to exist in Spain as a national treasure.
- Colada – The other sword of El Cid.
- Lobera – The sword of the king Saint Ferdinand III of Castile
- Szczerbiec – The coronation sword of the kings of Poland
- The Wallace Sword – A large Scottish Claymore alleged to have been used by famous Scottish patriot and knight William Wallace, when leading the resistance against England in the late 13th century.
- Near Eastern swords
- Sword of Osman (Ottoman Turkish: Taklide-Seif) – The sword of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, used as a sword of state by all later sultans of the Empire in their coronation ceremonies.
- Asian swords
- Sword of Goujian – A historical artifact from the Spring and Autumn Period.
- Honjo Masamune – represented the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal military dictatorship of Japan during most of the Edo period. It was passed down from one Shogun to the next. It is one of the best known of the swords created by Masamune and is believed to be one of the finest Japanese swords ever made.
- Seven-Branched Sword, which Wa received from Baekje.
- Empress Jitō was handed the Sugari no Ontachi (須賀利御太刀) as part of the regalia.
- Modern swords
- Battle sword: Curved saber of San Martín – The sword of General Don José de San Martín, one of the great libertadores of South America.[1]
- Religious sword: Vatican Broadsword – Ceremonial sword carried by members of Vatican City's Papal Swiss Guard.[2]
- State sword: Jewelled Sword of Offering, made for the coronation of George IV (1821) – The sword presented to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom during the Coronation, and part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.
See also
- List of mythical objects
- List of fictional swords
References
- ↑ "El sable corvo de San Martín", Epoca, AF Pombo, Difusora de Informacion Periodica, July 28, 2005
- ↑ Uniform of the Swiss Guards, The Roman Curia, undated (retrieved January 30, 2012)
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