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 may be of doubtful historicity.

• Sword of Attila – The sword of Attila the Hun, said to have been sent by the gods.
• Balmung – The sword of Siegfried, later used by Hagen, in the Nibelungenlied and the preceding legends.
• Colada – One of two swords owned by El Cid in 11th century Spain. While it now only exists in legend, the other, Tizona, is all but proven to remain at the Museum of Burgos (see below).
• Durandal – The sword of Charlemagne's paladin, Roland, in the 11th and 12th century, accounted in The Song of Roland.
• Grus – The sword of Boleslaw Krzywousty (Boleslaus the Wrymouthed), medieval prince of Poland.
• Excalibur – King Arthur's sword given to him by Merlin.
• 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 Britain.
• Sword of Laban – The sword acquired by the prophet Nephi in Jerusalem circa 600 B.C. According to Mormon scripture, it was then taken to the Americas.
• Legbiter – A gaddhjalt sword of the viking King Magnus Barelegs killed in battle at County Down in 1103.
• Skofnung – The sword of legendary Danish king Hrólf Kraki whose legend dates back to the 5th century and writings to the 13th century in Hrólfs saga kraka.
• Sword in the Stone – The sword King Arthur of Camelot legendarily drew from a stone, which sword may or may not be Excalibur, Durandal, and/or The Bishop's Sword (a.k.a. The "Sword of Saint Peter" which translated from Latin and Greek also means "Sword of the Rock", Peter being "The Rock").
• Zulfiqar – A scissor-like double bladed sword belonging to Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet Mohamad and Caliph from 656 to 661. (aka Dhu al-Fiqar)

Artifacts

These swords are preserved artifacts, though their attribution to historical characters may be doubtful.

The sword in the stone at Montesiepi Chapel

Pre-modern swords

Europeans

• 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, his other sword, only survives in legend (see above).
• 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.
• The Manx Sword of State – A ceremonial sword used by the parliament of the Isle of Man at the annual Tynwald ceremony. Originally attributed to Olaf the Black, the sword in current use is likely to date from the 15th-century.
• The Sword of Saint Galgano – A medieval sword embedded in a stone, located at the Montesiepi Chapel near the Abbey of San Galgano in Siena, Italy.

Asian swords

Far Eastern 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.

Near Eastern swords

• The Bishop's Sword – In folklore, supposedly the Sword of Saint Peter, used by him to cut the ear off a high priest while defending Jesus in Gethsemane, though of uncertain provenance. Pope John XIII sent it to Poland in 960 where it remains at the diocese in Poznań.
• 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.

Modern swords

• Curved saber of San Martín – The sword of General Don José de San Martín, one of the great libertadores of South America.^[1]
• 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