The text of the section is a sword in cinema, almost completely taken from the book Thomas Laible - "The Sword". I just edited some parts and added swords from films that appeared on the screen after the publication of Thomas Laible's book.
To many fans of the history of the sword, their affection has been nurtured by feature films about the times of the Vikings, knights or musketeers, as well as films in the fantasy genre, none of which is complete without this beautiful weapon. But most of the swords shown in the movies are "fantasy swords", ie. swords that did not have any similar historical prototypes. Their main difference from the real ones is that excessive decorations, incredible forms of blade and hilt. Thus, all the swords found in the cinema can be divided into two groups:
1. - Swords that, because of their decorations, as well as the design of the hilt and blade, are so bizarre (although at first glance they look rather menacing) that they can never, under any circumstances, be used in combat. Among sword lovers, such a weapon is called - Sword Like Object (SLO)
fantasy sword
This impressive sword-like object has nothing to do with a real combat weapon.
2. - Swords whose design, although fantastic, is theoretically well thought out, and with appropriate processing, such swords can be weapons suitable for combat.
Sword of Conan the Barbarian
The sword of the protagonist of the film "Conan the Barbarian" is one of the most remarkable swords in the history of cinema. The proportions of Conan's sword resemble the sword of justice.
Since our site is dedicated military weapons, then in this section we will also touch on swords and other bladed weapons, which can be attributed to the second group.
Swords from the movie "Highlander"
From the point of view of the sword, the film "Highlander", 1985, is really important. The story of an eternally fighting immortal quickly became a cult thanks to a mixture of an exciting plot, diluted with sword fights, to the music English group Queen.
In the film "Highlander" there are three swords highlighted in the plot that fall under our theme, without going beyond the basic concept of the site. These are the sword of the main character, which he uses before meeting with Ramirez, the sword of the immortal Fazil and the sword of the main villain Kargan (Kurgan).
Sword of Connor MacLeod
The sword has a rather unusual crosspiece, equipped with additional, vertically arranged shields, having the shape of a semicircle. Apart from this oddity, the shape of the blade, which has the shape of a flattened rhombus in cross section (there are no valleys on the blade), with a well-defined point and almost parallel blades, it can be described as a long sword of type XIIIa-T3-6, belonging to XV century.
Kurgan Sword
The blade tapers only slightly, in this respect we are dealing with a mixed form of the XIIa sword and the XIIIa sword. Something special - intimidating, gives the sword the design of the cross and pop-up spikes.
Toledo Salamanca
This magnificent late renaissance sword is featured only at the beginning of the film. And depending on the translation, it is defined either as a broadsword, or as an expensive and rare sword of Toledo Salamanca. Although, to be honest, I have never come across such a name outside the context of this film. This sword can be quite attributed to early forms rapiers of the 16th century.
Sword from the movie "Kingdom of Heaven"
The swords from the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" correspond in size and proportions to historical samples.
The sword of the protagonist - Balian II of Ibelin, is a mixture of various medieval swords. The 91 cm blade corresponds to a type XII sword, although the total length of the sword, 114 cm, is too large for this type (and the proportions are not suitable for type XIIa - the hilt is too short, which does not prevent the main character from fencing with it, taking it in both hands).
Sword of Balian II Ibelin
The proportions of this sword do not at all correspond to the historical specimens described in the Oakeshott typology, otherwise the Ibelin sword is a successful and rather beautiful reconstruction of historical weapons.
Sword from the movie "Robin Hood"
The sword of Robin Hood, or rather the knight Robert Loxley, is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of swords shown in the movie. According to the shape of the blade and the components of the hilt - crosses and pommel, this sword can be described as XII-I1-2.
Sword of Robert Loxley
Of particular interest is the hilt of the sword, as part of the plot of the film is tied to it. As you can remember, under the wire braid of the handle main character found a motto that seemed familiar to him from childhood - Rise And Rise Again Until Lambs Become Lions (Get up again and again until the lambs become lions, translated from English.) on the valleys of the blade, since the hilt during the entire life of the sword could change several times.
Sword from the movie "Arn Knight Templar"
Although the film "Arn. Knight Templar" was not as advertised as "Kingdom of Heaven" or "Robin Hood", but in terms of historical reliability, in my opinion, it is head and shoulders above these two films, and better conveys the general content of the era of the end of XII century.
In the hands of Arn Magnusen, the protagonist of the film, we see a magnificent knight's sword, presented to Arn by his mentor, brother Gilbert, a former Knight Templar.
Arn and his sword
Arn's sword, can be described as type XII-G-1. Despite the rather simple pommel and crosspiece, this is a very beautiful weapon. Actually, this simplicity is the elegance of the sword - nothing superfluous, an ideal tool for a Templar knight. On the crosspiece of the sword, on the one hand, the motto is applied - In Hoc Signo Vinces (Sim you will win lat.). Heraldic crosses are engraved on the pommel and blade.
Sword of William Wallace
Speaking of swords in cinema, one cannot fail to mention the film " Brave heart", which tells about the life of the Scottish knight William Wallace (born 1270 - 1305), and his struggle for the independence of Scotland. In the hands of the protagonist, we can often observe a huge two-handed sword. This weapon is a reconstruction of a real-life sword.
William Wallace's sword from the movie "Braveheart"
The so-called Wallace Sword is currently kept in the British historical museum. It was forged about 300 years after the death of the real historical Wallace and is a two-handed sword. XVII century, similar to those used by the Highlanders back in the Battle of Culloden in 1746. At the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th century, such swords were not yet known to the Scots, as were the Lochaber axes, which are also visible in the movie Braveheart.
Swords from The Lord of the Rings
The swords from the above films are a welcome exception to the usual array of frilly and unreal movie swords. Another exception is the swords from The Lord of the Rings. Some sword lovers claim that these are the finest fantasy swords ever made.
When developing the design of swords for the film, scientific evidence from the history of weapons was used. In addition, you can see in the film what creative details were developed by the production designers from the often poor basis of the novel in this respect. Unlike "ordinary" movie swords, the details here are displayed so modestly that they are almost not perceived in the film, but despite this, they create great impression. The swords from The Lord of the Rings have earned great respect among sword lovers around the world and have given impetus to the development of new designs. All this makes them so interesting that we will pay more attention to their description.
The Lord of the Rings swords were designed by the Weta Workshop design team (Ben Wooton, David Falconer, Warren Mahy, and others). Along with the Weta group (Ben Bouton, David Falconer, Warren Mahy and others), production designer John Howe, who, along with colleague Alan Lee, was responsible for the entire artistic concept of the film, and gunsmith Peter Lyon, had a notable influence on the weapon. Along with the Hildebrandt brothers, Howe is perhaps the most famous illustrator Tolkien. In addition to his artistic talent for the development of swords, one more quality was important: Howe was a reenactor, a mercenary of the Swiss "company of St. George." In this regard, he is well acquainted with the conduct of medieval warfare, weapons and swords. He is the co-author of various illustrated books on the subject (for example, The Life of a Mercenary in the Middle Ages). The blacksmith Peter Lyon, had similar baggage - through fantasy role-playing games he came to the reconstruction and at the same time to the forging of medieval swords. Not surprisingly, the work of this team was influenced by reality from the very beginning.
Lord of the Rings sword design
The starting point of the design, of course, was Tolkien's ideas. However, Tolkien himself wrote too little about how the swords looked. He paid more attention to the magical qualities, symbolic or historical value of weapons. When it comes to appearance, he presents them most often as magnificently decorated luxurious swords. Thus, the designers were given a huge field for their imagination. However, they decided to forego the lavish Tolkien decorations and opted for functionality.
Howe stated: "Swords in the movies are almost always huge, ugly and crude objects that are impossible to lift if they are really made of metal. The sword must be harmonious, elegant and beautiful."
Although the weapons were still decorated, they were much more modest than Tolkien wrote about. And this is precisely what some "fighters for the purity of Tolkien" criticized. In their opinion, for the film instead of swords late Middle Ages specimens of the ornate, sumptuous Migration-era spathas had to be made, as Tolkien drew much of his inspiration from the heroic epics of the time. Despite such criticism, most sword enthusiasts and Tolkienists were pleased with the relatively modest, combat-oriented design of Howe and his colleagues.
Most of the swords in the film were modeled after historical weapons, and there were no exact copies. Howe brought as visual material most your own collection of weapons. After the project was finally approved, Lyon took over the production. “My task was to make the weapon as good as possible - functional, despite the blunt blade. All blades were made from heat-treated spring steel, if they were sharp, then these weapons could be trusted with their lives. Lyon said.
Sword Narsil
The sword Narsil or Anduril is apparently the most famous weapon in the entire ring trilogy.
Tolkien himself describes Anduril as follows: "[...] on his blade, as a symbol, seven stars were engraved between the crescent of the month and the radiant sun, and besides, there were many runes. Elsewhere Anduril (in comparison with the sword of Boromir) is described as a long sword. But this, of course, is not very expressive: the film version of Narsil (total length 134 centimeters), in general, corresponds to a combat sword.
Sword Narsil
In profile, with long fullers, Narsil resembles a sword of type XIIa, but the concave blades resemble, rather, a sword of type XVIIIa or XVIIIb. The silver-plated mount at the bottom is covered in leather and is supposed to resemble stems and leaves. The openwork pommel of the sword has an inscription in the language of the elves invented by Tolkien - Quenya, as well as overlays made of 24 carat gold.
Sword Anduril
The newly forged Anduril, except for the engraving, is an exact copy of Narzil. Here it was possible to embody Tolkien's plan somewhat more accurately: the sun is engraved on the base of the blade, a runic inscription is engraved on the share, interrupted by seven stars and ending with the symbol of the month.
Sword of Gandalf Glamdring
For the film version of Glamdring, designer Ben Bouton explicitly changed Tolkien's description: from the luxurious decoration of the hilt precious stones two small semi-precious stones were left, placed at the base of the cross. However, the mentioned runic inscription was applied.
Glamdring sword
In the hilt of Gandalf's sword, one can recognize a kindred affinity with Gothic bastard swords. At first glance, the arches of the cross, which are strongly bent down, seem atypical for bastard swords, which were dominated by a more or less straight cross. However, there is small group Gothic swords-bastards, in which there are arches of the cross that are strongly bent down. They belong to the middle of the 16th century and served, although absolutely suitable for combat, for representative purposes. All swords have characteristic mounts which, apart from numerous engravings, are very reminiscent of Glamdring.
Handle of Glamdring
Glamdring (total length 121 centimeters) is an interesting mixture of a Celtic sword and a medieval bastard sword. Swords with leaf-shaped blades appeared in history only in the Gallic period. From 650 to 500 BC, we see Celtic steel swords, which were still oriented towards bronze designs in design. The length of the blade of one of these swords is 94.8 centimeters and almost corresponds to the length of the Glamdring blade (91 centimeters). However, there are two differences: the point of the Celtic sword is beveled, while that of Glamdring converges evenly. Celtic swords dole is usually absent (it appears only in early Middle Ages).
The specific design, as Peter Lyon said, turned out to be very difficult: “Glamdring was especially difficult because of the long leaf-shaped blade. It could turn out that they would be difficult to fence, so in the widest part of the blade I polished a strong distal taper. The resulting sword was well balanced by the large head."
Sword Sting
Short swords with leaf-shaped blades are known in antiquity, during the Bronze Age from 1500 to 500 BC they were widely used everywhere. But in the Middle Ages they did not appear at all. So here we see a lot of artistic freedom.
Sword Sting
As a film version of the Sting, designer David Falkoper created an extremely elegant weapon with harmonious proportions (total length 56 centimeters). The arms of the cross and the blades are decorated with Quenya inscription.
Sword of Boromir
A sharp contrast to the graceful, ornate elven weapons creates the humble, purely practical sword of Boromir. Here we are talking about a sword, which in a museum showcase could be mistaken for a historical one. The 77 cm blade belongs to a type XIV sword with elements of type XVI: a wide blade with a fuller turning into a thin point.
Sword of Boromir
Twisted crossguards can also be seen on the historical sword, although they are not bent there. The down-turned cross and the flattened pear-shaped head are the only details of the 99-centimeter sword that puzzle and cast doubt on historical authenticity.
Wanderer's Sword
Perhaps the most beautiful sword of the film trilogy is the wanderer's sword. In Tolkien's novel, Aragorn carries a piece of Narzsil in a sheath on his belt. About how Aragorn with a broken sword withstands battles, Tolkien is silent. We are talking about a fabulously romantic motif, which, of course, makes absolutely no sense from a military-historical and tactical point of view. Therefore, it is quite reasonable at this point that Jackson's script deviates from the original source: in the film, the wreckage of Narsil is stored in Elrond's house in the valley. Before Aragorn can go into battle against the hordes of Sauron with the new Anduril, he uses his own sword.
Wanderer's Sword
The wanderer's sword (length 120 centimeters) is an unadorned bastard sword, this is a typical target weapon of a simple mercenary leader. A characteristic detail is, among other things, a simple additional knife in a sheath, familiar to us from the swords of the late Middle Ages. The 91 cm blade is a narrower version of the XIIa type, but the mount has typical late medieval details - an iron reinforcing ring on the hilt and a pear-shaped head.
This unadorned yet beautiful weapon is more than any of the Lord of the Rings swords. historical prototypes. The clear proportions and lines accurately convey the timeless elegance of medieval swords.
Sword of the Witch King
In every heroic saga, of course, there must be villains. Their swords, of course, look completely different from those of the heroes, and here we will be interested in the sword of the sorcerer-king of Angmar. Since he is the leader of the Nazgul, his sword is significantly different from those that other spirits of the ring are armed with.
Sword of the Witch King
In proportion (total length - 139 centimeters, blade - 101 centimeters), the sword of the sorcerer-king corresponds to the fighting swords of the late Middle Ages. Both the very long hilt and the blade with a long, unsharpened base are typical of this kind of sword. The shape of the blade is similar to the blade of Sture's sword.
There are other great swords in The Lord of the Rings, like the ones wielded by the elves or the riders of the Rohirrim. But unfortunately they do not fit the main theme of the armory - European bladed weapons. If you are interested, you can find a complete description of the swords from The Lord of the Rings in Thomas Laible's wonderful book - The Sword.
Knife- the oldest man-made human tools which played an important role in the development of man as a species. It has gone through a long history, during which it has changed only aesthetically - many craftsmen have made and are making blades of amazing beauty ... well, it has become sharper than stone and metal tools primitive people.
It is not surprising that various kinds of blades remain companions of many real and fictional heroes, whose "exploits" we learn from books, movies and other media sources. Italian multimedia designer Federico Mauro created several graphic series showing household items of cult characters (for example:,), including all kinds of knives and blades of many famous media heroes:
01. Ghostface (Ghostface) - the character of the film series "Scream"
02. Chevalier Charles-Henri Sanson de Lonval (Charles-Henri Sanson) - hereditary executioner from the Sanson dynasty
03. Frank Dodd - deputy sheriff of Castle Rock, character in Stephen King's book "The Dead Zone" and the film of the same name
04. Eastern Promises - a feature film directed by David Cronenberg
05. Sweeney Todd is a character in a series of short stories, musicals and films.
06. Joker (Joker) - a character in comics and films about Batman.
07. John "Ace" Merrill (Ace Merrill) - the character of several works of Stephen King ("Stay with me", "Necessary things" and others)
08. Secret agent MacGyver is the protagonist of the American television series of the same name.
09. Riddick (Riddick) - the character of a series of feature and animated films
10. Jack Burton (Jack Burton) - the character of the movie "Big Trouble in Little China"
11. Knight Slasher's knife - the character of the movie "Cobra" (Cobra)
12. Jason Voorhees - character from the Friday the 13th film series
13. Bilbo Baggins - a character in a series of works by J. R. R. Tolkien
14. Beatrix Kiddo (Beatrix Kiddo) - a character from the series of films "Kill Bill"
15. Goemon Ishikawa XIII is a character from the Lupin III manga comic series
16. The sword of the characters from the Star Wars film series (Star Wars)
17. The weapon of the main character of the film "Ultraviolet" (Ultraviolet)
18. Weapons of the characters from the Machete movie series
19. Computer game and the movie "Prince of Persia" (Prince of Persia)
20. Computer game and TV series "Game of Thrones" (Game of Thrones)
21. Uruk-hai (Uruk-Hai) - a character in the series of novels and films "Lord of the Rings"
22. He-Man (He Man) - the main character of several animated series and the feature film "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe"
23. "The Legend of Zelda" - a video game series and an animated series
24. Excalibur - the legendary sword of King Arthur
25. "300 Spartans" (300) - a feature film based on the comic book of the same name
26. D "Artagnan - a character in the cycle of works by Alexandre Dumas
27. "Highlander" (Highlander) - cycle feature films
28. Zorro (Zorro) - the character of a series of comics, cartoons and feature films
29. "War of the Gods: Immortals" (Immortals) - a feature film based on ancient Greek myths
30. Jack Sparrow is the protagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean feature film series.
31. Blade (Blade) - the main character of the film and comic book series of the same name
32. William Wallace - the legendary Scottish knight and military leader, the protagonist of the feature film "Braveheart"
33.Final Fantasy VII- computer game
34. Conan (Conan) - the main character of a series of comics and feature films of the same name
35. Jack Torrance is the protagonist of Stephen King's novel The Shining and films of the same name.
36. Blood Red (Profondo Rosso) - a feature film directed by Dario Argento
37. "Old Boy" (Old Boy) - a feature film directed by Park Chang-wook, the second part of the "trilogy of revenge"
38. Captain Hook (Hook) - the character of the book " Peter Pan”, as well as a series of feature and animated films
39. "Children of the Corn" - a story by Stephen King, which became the basis for a series of feature films
40. The Grim Reaper
41. "V is for vendetta" (V for Vendetta) - a feature film based on the comic book of the same name
42. "Elektra" (Elektra) - a feature film based on the comic book of the same name
43. "The Expendables" - a series of feature films
44. "Crocodile" Dundee (Crocodile Dundee) - the protagonist of a series of feature films of the same name
45. Norman Bates (Norman Bates) - the character of the thriller Alfred Hitchcock "Psycho" and its sequels
46. Gordon Ramsay - British chef, known as the first Scot to be awarded three Michelin stars; culinary TV show host
47. Michael Myers (Michael Myers) - the character of the series of feature films "Halloween"
48. "Predator" (Predator) - a series of feature films
49. John Rambo (John Rambo) - the character of a series of feature films of the same name
50. Gustavo "Gus" Fring (Gus Fring) - the character of the television series Breaking Bad (Breaking Bad)
In almost every interesting and exciting film, there are colorful characters armed with something unusual and extremely effective. It's about this movie weapons and interesting stories related to it, and this article will be.
Men in Black
Everyone remembers the episode where Will Smith's character is handed a little fart called "Lady's Cricket"? And the effect of a shot that knocks back the negligent agent Jay? The episode is rather comical, symbolizing that there is a banal hazing in the organization for the control of aliens. However, this movie weapons not as easy as it seems. The fact is that he has a power regulator that allows you to minimize the return to the point of complete absence, which we perfectly see in the second film, when the "Lady's Cricket" was issued, as a small place, to the former partner of agent Jay. Which, despite the amnesia, realized about the possible return and adjusted it in advance. And don't accuse me of being racist, but this very typically shows the difference in mindset between whites and blacks. The former basically think first, while the latter act first.
Predator 2
Remember the finale of the film, when the protagonist, pursuing a wounded predator, discovered either ancient ruins near Los Angeles, or spaceship, where it effectively finishes off the unfortunate hunter. And then harsh "brothers" appear and instead of finishing off the presumptuous "prey" with shoulder cannons, they give him a trophy - an old nominal flintlock pistol? So here it is movie weapons was supposed to be a link between the new films of the franchise, in which they wanted to show that predators have been regularly preying on people for centuries. A pirate-themed film was planned, something about knights, and who the hell knows what other ideas the writers had in their heads. Unfortunately, this idea did not find support and was not implemented. It's a pity.
Harry Potter
What is the main weapon of wizards, according to this children's and at the same time absolutely not children's saga? Magic wand. But we are not talking about any wand, but about the exceptional one, which was one of the three legendary artifacts of the Deathly Hallows - about the Elder Balochka. The essence of the magic of her magic was that it could only be obtained from the dead (or incapacitated) hands of the previous owner. Otherwise, she refused to work effectively. So, the noseless Dark Lord was in the holy confidence that this wand would give him invulnerability in battle, so he devastated the grave of its former owner, Professor Dumbledore, safely stole it, tested it by releasing a couple of special effects and decided that now he was in chocolate. But what's the whole point - Dumbledore was nailed by the blond metrosexual Draco Malfoy, so formally the wand should have passed to him. And Malfoy, in turn, kicked Harry Potter, thereby taking over the right to control. So when a dark lover little boys and his main fetish came together in a duel, the Elder Wand began to obey Potter. Such is the turn. Interestingly, initially, when the design of the Elder Wand was developed, its role in the plot was not yet known, so the artists acted on a hunch. And yet, they managed to make a thing that looked impressive and unique, fully consistent with its purpose.
Star Wars
Lightsabers are perhaps the most memorable movie weapons. Seriously, so cool, narrowly functional, powerful, archaic and at the same time ultra-modern, that it's no wonder that every boy raved about it as a child. Almost every sword in the saga had its own story, but of course we will not talk about all this. But about the most interesting cases let's talk. The first thing I want to remember is the double-sided sword of Darth Maul from the first part of the saga. For those who do not remember the names, this is the red-horned dancer who first hacked to death the elder Jedi, and then was cut in half and thrown into the reactor well. And, what only the fans know, who mastered tons of handwritten text on the franchise, survived in the process. Truth went mad, he collected mechanical spider legs from garbage from the dump, then fought Obi-Wan again, attacked Palpatine, captured planets, was revived in the form of a semi-intelligent hologram, in a word he lived an extremely eventful life. But back to the sword. According to the plot, the Sith created a double-sided sword at the beginning of his career, when he was instructed to brush off a tough Jedi, and with a standard sword he was piled on, and they also began to teach. And so - he started the battle with one beam turned on, and at the most inopportune moment he turned on the second one and killed the enemy with the element of surprise. In reality, martial artist Ray Park, who played Darth Maul, was extremely dissatisfied with the original design of the hilt, so it had to be significantly lengthened so that a professional stuntman could demonstrate his impressive acrobatic skills.
By the way, if you remember, before the premiere last episode Star Wars, this comrade was handed the sword of the "eared Sith" Kylo Ren right on the stage. But the man did not lose his head and demonstrated a good fighting technique, even despite the disgusting design of the sword, which, by the way, was not chosen by chance. The fact is that the energy crystal, which according to the plot serves as a generator in lightsabers, was unstable in the case of the eared one and produced too much excess energy, which had to be bled through the rays in the guard. So the ridiculous and bulky appearance of the sword is fully justified - it, like its owner, is defective.
terminator 2
Whatever you say, but the Terminator - best role current governor of sunny California. This is harsh brutality, this imperturbable muzzle with a brick, this is a deft possession of a shotgun and pathos reloading it by spinning around its axis ... Which, by the way, almost broke Iron Arnie's fingers. Schwarzenegger spent several hours in the hospital when he tried to pull off such a trick with a standard Winchester model, so for further filming, the weapon from the film had to be slightly modified - to make it heavier and change the shape of the handle.
Robocop
The futurism of the eighties now evokes in most of them a slight nostalgia for youth, and in later generations a slight bewilderment and cries of naivety and primitiveness. Nevertheless, for its time, the robot policeman in shiny armor looked very impressive. But he needed a weapon to match. At first they wanted to use the model Desert Eagle, which, in principle, looked good, but alas, against the background of RoboCop, this weapon from the films looked faded. Therefore, we decided to take the Beretta 93R and slightly improve it - add pads on the handle, increase the forearm and other small things. It turned out to be a massive and weighty gun, to match the harsh half-dead cop. But bad luck, the Beretta is formally not an ordinary pistol, but a submachine gun, the use of which is prohibited by civilians in the United States. This also applied to weapon models, so film crew I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and get official permission from local authorities.
Developed by a group of designers from the manufacturing company Weta Workshop (Ben Wooton, David Falconer, Warren Mahy, etc.). Along with the Weta group (Ben Bouton, David Falconer, Warren Mahy and others), production designer John Howe, who, along with colleague Alan Lee, was responsible for the entire artistic concept of the film, and gunsmith Peter Lyon, had a notable influence on the weapon. Along with the Hildebrandt brothers, Howe is perhaps Tolkien's most famous illustrator. In addition to his artistic talent for the development of swords, one more quality was important: Howe was a reenactor, a mercenary of the Swiss "company of St. George." In this regard, he is well acquainted with the conduct of medieval warfare, weapons and swords. He is the co-author of various illustrated books on the subject (for example, The Life of a Mercenary in the Middle Ages). The blacksmith Peter Lyon, had a similar background - through fantasy role-playing games, he came to the reconstruction and at the same time to the forging of medieval swords. Not surprisingly, the work of this team was influenced by reality from the very beginning.
Lord of the Rings sword design
The starting point of the design, of course, was Tolkien's ideas. However, Tolkien himself wrote too little about what the swords looked like. He paid more attention to the magical qualities, symbolic or historical value of weapons. When it comes to appearance, he most often presents them as lavishly decorated, luxurious swords. Thus, the designers were given a huge field for their imagination. However, they decided to forego the lavish Tolkien decorations and opted for functionality. Howe stated: Swords in movies are almost always huge, ugly and crude objects that would be impossible to lift if they were really made of metal. The sword should be harmonious, elegant and beautiful".
Although the weapons were still decorated, they were much more modest than Tolkien wrote about. And this is precisely what some "fighters for the purity of Tolkien" criticized. In their opinion, for the film, instead of swords of the late Middle Ages, it was necessary to make samples of richly decorated, luxurious spathas of the Migration era, since Tolkien drew much of his inspiration from the heroic epic of that time. Despite such criticism, most sword enthusiasts and Tolkienists were pleased with the relatively modest, combat-oriented design of Howe and his colleagues.
Most of the swords in the film were modeled after historical weapons, and there were no exact copies. Howe brought most of his own weapons collection as visual material. After the project was finally approved, Lyon took over the production. " My task was to make the weapon as good as possible - functional, despite the blunt blade. All blades were made from heat-treated spring steel, if they were sharp, then these weapons could be trusted with their lives.', Lyon said.
Or Anduril, apparently the most famous weapon in the entire ring trilogy.
Tolkien himself describes Anduril as follows: [ ... ] on his blade, as a symbol, seven stars were engraved between the crescent of the month and the radiant sun, and besides, there were many runes". Elsewhere, Anduril is (in comparison to the sword of Boromir) described as a longsword. But this, of course, is not very expressive: the film version of Narsil (total length 134 centimeters), in general, corresponds to a combat sword.
In profile, with long fullers, Narsil resembles a sword of type XIIa, but the concave blades resemble, rather, a sword of type XVIIIa or XVIIIb. The silver-plated mount at the bottom is covered in leather and is supposed to resemble stems and leaves. The openwork pommel of the sword has an inscription in the language of the elves invented by Tolkien - Quenya, as well as overlays made of 24 carat gold.
The newly forged Anduril, except for the engraving, is an exact copy of Narzil. Here it was possible to embody Tolkien's plan somewhat more accurately: the sun is engraved on the base of the blade, a runic inscription is engraved on the share, interrupted by seven stars and ending with the symbol of the month.
Sword of Gandalf Glamdring
For the film version of Glamdring, designer Ben Bouton explicitly changed Tolkien's description: two small semi-precious stones were left from the luxurious gem decoration of the hilt, set at the base of the cross. However, the mentioned runic inscription was applied.
In the hilt of the sword of Gandalf, one can recognize a kinship with the Gothic bastard swords. At first glance, the arches of the crosspiece, which are strongly bent down, seem atypical for bastard swords, in which a more or less straight crosspiece dominated. However, there is a small group of Gothic bastard swords, in which there are arches of the cross that are strongly bent down. They belong to the middle of the 16th century and served, although absolutely suitable for combat, for representative purposes. All swords have characteristic mounts which, apart from numerous engravings, are very reminiscent of Glamdring.
Glamdring (total length 121 centimeters) is an interesting mixture of a Celtic sword and a medieval bastard sword. Swords with leaf-shaped blades appeared in history only in the Gallic period. From 650 to 500 BC, we see Celtic steel swords, which were still oriented towards bronze designs in design. The length of the blade of one of these swords is 94.8 centimeters and almost corresponds to the length of the Glamdring blade (91 centimeters). However, there are two differences: the point of the Celtic sword is beveled, while that of Glamdring converges evenly. Celtic swords usually do not have a fuller (it appears only in the early Middle Ages).
The specific design, as Peter Lyon said, turned out to be very difficult: “ Glamdring, because of the long leaf-shaped blade, was particularly difficult. It could turn out that they would be difficult to fence, so in the widest part of the blade I polished a strong distal taper. The resulting sword was well balanced by the large head.».
Short swords with leaf-shaped blades are known in antiquity, during the Bronze Age from 1500 to 500 BC they were widely used everywhere. But in the Middle Ages they did not appear at all. So here we see a lot of artistic freedom.
As a film version of the Sting, designer David Falkoper created an extremely elegant weapon with harmonious proportions (total length 56 centimeters). The arms of the cross and the blades are decorated with Quenya inscription.
A sharp contrast to the graceful, ornate elven weapons creates the humble, purely practical sword of Boromir. Here we are talking about a sword, which in a museum showcase could be mistaken for a historical one. The 77 cm blade belongs to a type XIV sword with elements of type XVI: a wide blade with a fuller turning into a thin point.
Twisted crossguards can also be seen on the historical sword, although they are not bent there. The downturned cross and the flattened pear-shaped head are the only details of the 99-centimeter sword that puzzle and cast doubt on historical authenticity.
Perhaps the most beautiful sword of the film trilogy is wanderer's sword. In Tolkien's novel, Aragorn carries a piece of Narzsil in a sheath on his belt. About how Aragorn with a broken sword withstands battles, Tolkien is silent. We are talking about a fabulously romantic motif, which, of course, makes absolutely no sense from a military-historical and tactical point of view. Therefore, it is quite reasonable at this point that Jackson's script deviates from the original source: in the film, the wreckage of Narsil is stored in Elrond's house in the valley. Before Aragorn can go into battle against the hordes of Sauron with the new Anduril, he uses his own sword.
The wanderer's sword (length 120 centimeters) is an unadorned bastard sword, this is a typical target weapon of a simple mercenary leader. A characteristic detail is, among other things, a simple additional knife in a sheath, familiar to us from the swords of the late Middle Ages. The 91 cm blade is a narrower version of the XIIa type, but the mount has typical late medieval details - an iron reinforcing ring on the hilt and a pear-shaped head.
Sword of the Witch King
In every heroic saga, of course, there must be villains. Their swords, of course, look completely different from those of the heroes, and here we will be interested in sorcerer king's sword from Angmar. Since he is the leader of the Nazgul, his sword is significantly different from those that other spirits of the ring are armed with.
Sword of the Witch King
In proportion (total length - 139 centimeters, blade - 101 centimeters), the sword of the sorcerer-king corresponds to the fighting swords of the late Middle Ages. Both the very long hilt and the blade with a long, unsharpened base are typical of this kind of sword. The shape of the blade is similar to the blade of Sture's sword.
There are other great swords in The Lord of the Rings, like the ones wielded by the elves or the riders of the Rohirrim. But unfortunately they do not fit the main theme of the armory -. If you are interested, you can find a complete description of the swords from The Lord of the Rings in Thomas Laible's wonderful book - The Sword.
