[MR] BBC: Famous Swords in Literature

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today BBC is offering a piece on famous swords in literature. The story
makes the point that such swords are almost as important to the stories as
the heroes that swing them. Much of the discussion is about the named
swords in GAME OF THRONES.

This is a fun piece:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190403-the-enduring-fascination-with-legendary-swords
.

Strangely, named swords seem to be fairly rare in the SCA world. Way back
in the 1970s a friend in what would become Caid had a real steel sword (for
costume purposes only) named "Crom", after Conan the Barbarian's blade.
That's the only one of which I've ever heard. I have never named any of my
own swords, but a number of my personal bows have names--the ones made of
fiberglass and wood have macho names like "Lord or the Firth" and "Monarch
of Cardross", while the all-wood period bows all have feminine names such
as "Lady of Kilmahew" and "Queen of Strathclyde". All Scottish, of course.

Maybe the scarcity of named weapons in the SCA is because this really
wasn't common in the real medieval world. Swords tended to get boring names
like "The Sword of El Cid" or "The Sword of William Wallace" (a real blade
displayed in Scotland, but the ownership is fake).

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆