WEBVTT - The Way of the Sword 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.800 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.320 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglass. Julie, 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:18.560 I know I'm kind of beating a dead horse here, 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:22.440 but but I just I always feel like violence on 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.520 our public transportation systems would be a lot more tolerable 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.760 if these guys were fighting with swords. So if you 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:33.600 think that if we all had scabbard on, well, I'm 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.760 not arguing for everyone to have a sword necessarily. I'm 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.239 not saying sword toting populace is a is a safe populist, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:42.760 or anything to that extent. I'm just saying that, like 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.800 some dude shoots another dude at the train station, it's 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:48.239 it's this huge panic thing. But if two dudes are 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.840 sword fighting, I mean, you're gonna kind of take note, 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.280 You're gonna watch, You're gonna hopefully back up. But what 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.320 you're saying, there's something stylish, there's something classy, there's something 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.680 exhilarating about the about a good sword fight. Did you 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:03.920 make it sound like we live in Paris and someone 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:06.479 is going on, God, that's what I'm saying. It would 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:08.800 be I mean that's how I imagine, you know, how 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.680 it goes in Paris. It's just random duels breaking out 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.280 on the subways, some of refresh listeners. If you're out there, 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:16.160 just if you could confirm, that would be great. Yeah. 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:20.160 And you know, Europe is just lousy with immortals trying 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.759 to cut each other's heads off from watching the TV. 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.880 But and and of course having watched the TV, having 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.319 watched movies, occasionally we do get to see a great 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.440 sword fight. And there is, for my money, nothing better. 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.120 Did you have any mind? Is there is there sword 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:36.800 fight that sticks out to you? What? I have a couple, Um, 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.360 The first one is Princess Pride does have some good Yeah, 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.200 Nigo Montoya, he's just the whole thing, like, uh, he know, 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.520 my name is Nigo Montoya. You killed my father to die? Yes? 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.000 And then they actually have a great fight. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.400 that's some really good swordmanship. And he fights he can 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.080 fight both, but they both actually uh Wesley and and 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.120 you go both well it's kind of trickery right because 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.520 it was edited, but they use the right and left 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.120 hand so it looks really fancy. And then my all 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.080 time favorite though is Killed Bill Volume one, the last 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:12.200 fight scene in which I believe it is or n 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:17.280 Ishi played by uh Lucy Lou fights the bride Uma Thurman, 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:19.600 and it is I mean, I love the scene. It's 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.880 a gorgeous scene. I mean, she's just Uma Thurman's character 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.760 has just slaughtered the crazy eighty eight, this gang. She's 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.079 blood splattered. She goes out into this courtyard in Tokyo 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.799 where she meets her her enemy or In, and the 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.799 snow is falling, and it's just beautiful because the scene 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.720 is it's stark, and it's full of honor and um, 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.680 you know, there's some exchanges that are really great. And 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.400 then of course Lucy Lu's character gets completely decapitated. Well 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.760 I'm not completely take that back her the top of 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.000 her head gets decapitated. Yeah. Well it's it's like decapitation 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.280 is such a hallmark of of sword fights on cinema. 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.400 It's like, after a while they realized and we can't 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.120 just go for the it up neck cut. We need 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:02.640 to go for something a little more inventive. So you 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.800 see the top of the head like the brain cut. Yeah, 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.680 which is really disconcerting, I think, you know, but it 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.640 allows her to say this line, which I love. She 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.360 says that really was a ha Tori Hanzo sword, which 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:17.440 to me, that's what that scene is about, right, the 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.760 power of this sword. Yeah. Well, um, that also brings 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:23.520 to mind this was not one of my favorite sword 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.600 fight films. But um, there's that the film Equilibrium years back. 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.560 It was kind of a matrix seeing had Christian Bale 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.840 in it, Sean Bean and it's it's not the best film, 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:36.840 but the action, some of the action was pretty slick. 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.040 Uh and spoiler alert, but Tay Diggs gets his face 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:43.200 cut off, like not like people, but like that straight up, 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.480 we can't actually cut anybody's head off because it's not 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.600 exciting enough for modern cinema. So just like the front 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.360 of his head is cut off. But but if I 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.160 were to choose thinking about okay, I'm sure you can 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:56.360 find it on YouTube, it's like he could have been 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.520 in the Body's exhibit then, because there's like a slice 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:00.800 of his face. Yes exactly. It's kind of like like 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.120 the dudes who choreographed these and planned this out, they 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:07.560 were like the bodies exhibited their favorite place. Yeah. Um, 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.680 but but in terms of like just great sword fights, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.200 my my two favorites are probably the the in fight 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:17.680 scene between Macbeth and McDuff and Roman Polanski's adaptation, because 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.360 like that one, because it's just such a brutal, drag 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.640 out fight, Like there's nothing like fancy and swashbuckley about it. 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.480 It's it's uh, it's just two dudes going at it 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.040 with this this air of on one side vengeance and 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.760 then the other side, uh, just you know, backed against 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:38.680 the wall with nothing to lose. And uh. And then 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.040 the movie Rob Roy has a great scene between Archie 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.479 Bald Cunningham played by Tim Roth and Rob Roy played 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.320 by Nicon. So those are those are two great ones. Really, 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.840 Scott's the duelist. Also, it's generally right up there on 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.360 the top of everyone's list is having just a fantastic 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.200 cinematic sword fight. So in case you guys are wondering, 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.560 you know, what do you think we're talking about today? Swords? Um, 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:02.960 how we romanticize them, how they're a huge part of 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.440 our culture, Um, what they're made of, and the craftsmanship. Um, 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.160 you know, just all sorts of different aspects of how 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.360 this tool really um entered our society and forever changed 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:17.640 the world and of course the world right and uh, 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.440 and the word tool is is essential here. Uh, And 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:22.920 I aroge anyone to go back and listen to our 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:25.440 podcast that we did on tool use and the evolution 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:27.279 of tool used, because a lot of what we say, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.120 they're really sums up um or really gets to the 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.760 heart of of what's amazing about the sword. The idea 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.560 that the sword, I mean, it's kind of a cliche 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.440 from anything where any kind of film reverred a master's 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:42.200 swordsman instructing the uh, the young apprentice, Uh, you know, 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.720 telling them about the sword is then extension of the 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:46.880 human body, that the sword is part of your arm 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.599 and it studies have shown neurologically, this is the way 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.680 um humans and other animals conceptualize their tool use. That's 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.000 how it ends up making sense inside the human mind. 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.520 And it is uh and it's very basis. It is 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.200 the intation of the human body with with something to 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:08.240 perform a task, in this case a death dealing device. Right. 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.520 We've talked about this before too, Like you know you've 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:13.520 brought it up. Okay, if you wear contacts, then are 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.919 you still human? Right, because you're augmenting yourself and so 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:17.800 you think about the sword and when we think about 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.960 it now, I think it's completely antiquated. It's been out 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.000 of general use for at least two hundred years. Um. 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.359 You know it's just in a very in in a 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.559 sportsman's like way. Um. And yet here is this, um, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.040 this augmenting of ourselves back in the day because at 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.279 one point, really is especially in the Middle Ages, almost 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.520 all men had a sword, right, this was this was 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.440 very common to possess. Yeah, if you could afford it, 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.039 for sure. Yeah. But although at some point it really 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:47.880 you know, is affordable to a degree. I mean maybe 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.880 your sword would break and you would be killed. But um, 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.800 you know it's very possible that a peasant could have it, 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.320 and certainly a kink. So this was something that that 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.479 at one point history unified a great many people. So 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:01.080 the origin of the sword is as another one of 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.720 those things that just kind of vanishes into prehistory when 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:05.440 you try and you know, nail it down. Like the 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.800 already earliest blades were likely made out of bone, bits 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:13.400 of stone. Eventually they're creating things out of bronze. Um. 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.000 We found some really amazing not when I say we, 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:21.840 I mean humans archaeologist not last week have found arsenic 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:28.000 copper alloy soy swords inlaid with silver from roughly uhtree BC. 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:30.559 So we've been really into it for a while. And 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:32.400 as far as the creation of the modern sword goes, 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.600 it generally comes down to heat treatment. You can't make 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.160 steel at room temperature. You have to get iron glowing 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.360 with heat. You have to infuse it with carbon, then 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.360 quench the resulting material and cooling liquid. Where you get 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.880 you know, the very cinematic scene of somebody thrusting the 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.400 newly forged sword into the into the water or into 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.160 the snow or something. Um. And then there's you know, 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.600 there's layering. It's it's a very complicated craft to create 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.280 a a fine sword, and some of these techniques have 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:03.280 been lost over time or or certainly the appreciation for 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:07.640 it is often uh forgotten as as human warfare moves 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:12.160 on to different technologies. Yeah, there's one Scottish sword from 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:14.920 Middle Ages that I think is it's fascinating. Um. It 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.240 is in the movie Reclaiming the Blade. They feature it 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.560 there and um, this sword was forged by by weaving 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.400 six strands of iron together and then the edge was 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.640 made up steel and it made it incredibly strong. But 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:35.160 the steel made it really like very uh I mean lethal, right, 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.680 because it could cut very well. But they were saying 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.360 that forging this blade would have taken thousands of hammer 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.120 blows struck just right in order to both strengthen the 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.680 steel edge and maintain the degree of flexibility in the blade. 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.320 So obviously the person who is creating this, the blacksmith, 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.800 is highly skilled at this. And in fact, we'll talk 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.920 about this and a little bit. Some swords we can't 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:01.320 even quite figure out how to replicate to right and 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.560 uh and like you alluded to, their these things have 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:05.720 to take a lot of stress. It's not just hacking 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.680 into uh, you know, unarmed peasants with these things. It's 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.360 uh that they're gonna hit wood, they're gonna hit armor, 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.480 they're going to hit bone, they're going to there's gonna 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.680 be stress ricocheting through the material or reverberating through the 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:22.640 material itself. So you have to make it. Anyone could 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:24.839 could potentially make something and call it a sword. You 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.200 could carve one out of kindling. But to to make 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.000 an instrument like this that is going to last, uh 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.320 in many cases for centuries and centuries, um, it requires 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:36.719 a great deal of skill. Just another quick note, though 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.480 particularly interesting weapon I ran across and researching this. There's 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.040 a Danish blade called a seek u s e a 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.160 x um or perhaps it's a sex I don't I 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.280 may have the pronunciation there wrong, but I just can't 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.400 bring myself. I just can't bring myself to talk about 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.400 baio wolf slang Grendel with his sex um. Yes you can, yeah, 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.000 I probably can, but but anywa rate uh baio Wolf 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:02.840 supposedly had one of these, it or would have. It's 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.720 a very old blade and the handle was actually made 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:12.480 of something called usk or usk, which is mineralized walrus penis. 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.440 Of course, yeah, because the thing is you don't want 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:17.920 the handle to get slippery and all the blood that 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.000 and the Grendl blood that's going everywhere, so so you 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.800 want something that's it's gonna hold tighten your hand. Well, 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.200 and I can't help thinking too that although I don't 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:30.240 think of as walruss is like overly masculine one with 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.319 the big tusks. Yeah, but I don't think of them 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:34.480 as being like, hey, I'm gonna take you down, not 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:36.120 like a tiger. Yeah. I guess you don't see a 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.760 lot of walrus tattoos, right exactly. It would be amazing. 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:41.840 So you know, my first thought was, Okay, you're just 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.640 transferring the power of the walrus to the to the handle. 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.640 But perhaps that was just what was available. Yeah, just 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:50.880 in aside, there's an amazing bit of street art in 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.559 San Francisco Walrus laser beam, giant walrus laser beams coming 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.800 out of his eyes. It's great if you Okay, there 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:58.800 there's a tattoo. If you guys see it, take a 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.400 gaze at it. But the style of swords varies just 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.520 throughout the world. Um, like every culture has the sort 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.320 of slightly different take on the blade. Uh. And you 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:11.120 know it depends on the time too. As warfare evolves, 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.520 so does the sword. And we could devote a whole 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.360 podcast to to just discussing that. But but just to 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.360 briefly mention some some other models. Um, there's of course 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.440 the rapier, the slender, sharply pointed sword that you see. 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.200 I think of that more of like a gentleman's sword. Yeah, 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.719 the gentleman's sword early modern Europe during the sixteen seventeen centuries, 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.160 um used for thrusting and uh and yeah, there's yeah 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.560 kind of a musketeer type thing, you know. Um, the 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.439 Samurai swords of Japan, which are highly revered for their craftsmanship. 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.960 Those things are still around. The handles will often be 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:46.040 replaced over time, but the blade itself often really holds up. Well. Yeah, 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.240 I actually read somewhere too that um, somewhere in England 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.840 the samurai's swords fights have become somewhat common. Actually, say, 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.880 isn't the UK? Yeah? Said one. One member of Parliaments 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.640 says they happen every week in her home city. Um. 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.080 And the government actually moved to ban the manufacturer, sale 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.200 or import of Japanese style swords in two thousand and eight. 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:07.960 This is in the UK. This is in the UK. 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.720 This is from an article from Slate dot com Without 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.800 swords and nerds. Well, I mean, on one hand, maybe 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.520 that's just a shun, the sign that the gathering is occurring, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.920 right and well yeah, but but the other I mean, 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.000 these are not trained samurai. These are really just like 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:23.600 kids going out in hack and they might as well 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.240 be using clean on blades, which sometimes they do. But 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.480 but but back to actual weapons. There's also the conda, 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.600 which is an Indian double edged straight sword that it 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.200 comes to a point really abruptly, especially if you're more 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.200 familiar with looking at Western and Eastern more traditional Western 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.680 and Eastern models of the sword. This one is particularly 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.040 interesting to look up, and it was used just throughout 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.240 the region a by like the Sikhs, the Maratha's, the 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.400 jots Um. And then of course there's a sword that 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.040 I've found particularly interesting to to look into. And then 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.200 of course it's like the great two handed great sword, 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:01.640 which you'll recognize from medieval iconography. This just sort of 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.160 that with a really long handle that you would have 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.160 to grip in two hands, and and it's just a 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:08.240 really long blade so that if the thing was standing 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.600 next to the man wielding it, it would be about 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.960 his height. And uh, you see this, Uh, this sort 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.679 of myth emerges over time that this weapon is not 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.280 a skilled weapon that it or or even if it 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:23.280 is a skilled weapon, that it is a weapon of 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.760 brute strength and brute power. And then there's not a 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.320 martial art to it, like obviously, like anyone can can 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:31.200 look at a Samurai sword and then look at some 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:32.680 of the images of it and you're like, yeah, there's 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:34.880 there's definitely a martial art to that well, and it's 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:38.600 better documented to right right right, whereas yeah, it's it's 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.360 to a certain extent, it's less documented in um, you're 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:43.960 talking about European martial arts, right right. These were used 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.680 fourteen fifteen, sixteenth century. And even if this war began 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.800 to gravitate more towards the smaller weapons and thinner weapons 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.520 and change. I mean, initially, these these new soldiers that 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.920 they didn't have the resources at their their fingertips, so 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.440 they weren't historians, so it was easy to say, oh, well, 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.000 you know, today we use this more skillful blade. And 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.640 then and in the old days are they just lumbered 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.160 around with these giant pieces of steel? And then even 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.840 today I've read some some interesting criticism pointing out that 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.320 that a lot of this a you have like historians 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.120 looking into blades, and like, if the historian picks up 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.200 even an authentic sword, they're not they're not gonna necessarily 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:20.800 know what to do with it. If they say it's heavy, 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.280 what does that mean? This is like some eighty year 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.160 old British dude, right right, And especially the ones from 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.960 the or the Middle Ages, which they're kind of rusted 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.720 out looking. They look very crude. So if you if 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:35.800 you don't have an understanding of how they were using 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.920 you could sort of jump to the conclusion that you know, 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.120 this is one step away from barbary, right, and then 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.160 if you're if you're dealing we like, so you can't 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.360 use the you can't actually mess around with the real things, 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.760 so you're looking at a replica. The problem with replicas 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:49.680 is that a lot of times they are they're trying 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.400 to capture the look of the of the weapon, but 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.960 they end up getting the weight all wrong and the 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:56.600 balance and the weapon all wrong. And the balance and 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:58.880 a sword is key, like even like in a rapier. 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.920 The idea is is that the hilt is heavier than 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.200 the sword because it gives you balance. And these great 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.680 two handed swords you you see you often see a 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.360 big ball on the end pommel and that is a 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:14.440 counterweight that helps in leveraging the weapon. Yeah. Yeah, So 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.280 there's a whole there's a whole system of weights to 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.320 keep in mind. And when you really look back up 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.160 at the text from that agent, people were writing books 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.160 about how to fight with these things. It wasn't just 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.680 like here is a big sword, go out and kill 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.240 people with it. Now, they were they they showed different techniques, 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:29.920 there were different ways of doing it. There is a 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.800 particular move with the with the long sword called the 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.040 and this is in um in the German school of swordsmanship, 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.520 the mord strike or the mordor slag, which is the 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.520 murder strike and the murder blow. And this would occur 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.000 when you would you would actually turn the sword around 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.240 and then bash somebody in the face with that weighted pommel. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.880 Oh man, Yeah, And there's not enough of that in 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:52.760 movies like I don't know and see. You know. One 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:54.880 of the reasons that this is the sort of information 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.560 isn't sort of widespread and we don't when we think 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.680 of swords, we don't automatically start thinking about your p 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.920 mars arts is because these texts have been sitting around 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:06.880 in musty libraries and um sort of lost their way, 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:11.240 particularly in the UH in Europe, when you know, gunpowder 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.800 came into play, people began to use less and less swords, 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.840 and then it was taken up as a gentleman's sports. 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:20.960 So all of a sudden you have the sword changing 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.680 from maybe a heavy instrument or a super long blade 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.720 becoming very uniform and light um so that you could, 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.640 you know, have some sort of duel which really wasn't 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.040 meant to end in death right that was just about 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:38.040 defending your honor. Sometimes there was there was definitely some 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.520 death involved. Certainly there there are many instances, but mainly 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.360 you just want that that that snansy scar on your face. Right. 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.400 You can be like, man, h, yeah, that's right, I 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.440 got a duel um. But the point is there is 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.600 that there's some information that was that just didn't transition 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.200 from the Middle Ages from the fourteenth century to eighteenth 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.880 century UM, and so we began to think of swords 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:02.240 and a very different way. One last note on the 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:04.240 weight of medieval swords. I have a quote here from 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:08.000 the late Awart oaks Halt, who was a w wrote 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.240 the book Sword in Hand, and he was a leading 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.400 expert on medieval swords. He said, medieval swords are neither 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:18.240 unwieldablely heavy, nor all alike. The average weight of any 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.840 one of normal size is between two point five pounds 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.280 and three point five Even the big hands and a 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.000 half war swords rarely weighed more than four point five pounds. Uh. 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:29.800 Such weights too. Men who were trained to use the 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:31.840 sword from the age of seven, and who had been 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.720 tough specimens to survive that age, were by no means 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.280 too great to be too practical. So okay, so that's 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.080 like the way I use my step aerobics class. If 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.399 I went to a step aerobics class, right, yeah, I 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.919 mean you know, in one hand. So yeah, thankfully they 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:46.879 do not let you bring swords to the y. Right. 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:49.800 Oh well, I did tell you about the belly dancing class. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.720 Actually she never brought a sword. She just would talk 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:55.920 about when she was belly dancer. Because the belly dancwers 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:57.920 will do that thing where they have the sword balanced 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.280 on their head and yeah, and they bound set on 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.440 their stomach. It's it's pretty exciting stuff. So if you 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:04.360 would always say to the classes, if we all had, 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:06.199 you know, swords at home. Okay, so this is a 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.040 part where you just kind of jut up your hip 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.960 and so on and so forth. Um. One of the 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.879 things I did want to mention too, is this the 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.560 skill that you needed in order to wield this instrument? Um, 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.320 Because think about it. In this case, you are attacking 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.600 and defending yourself at the same time. And to me, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.000 it's like this physical game of chess because you have 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:27.760 to try to figure out what your opponent is doing. 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.280 So every attack contains a defense, and every defense contains 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:34.600 a counter attack because you attack, you open shoot yourself 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.360 up potentially for an attack from either the person you're 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.880 dealing with or some other individual on the field of battle. Yeah, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:42.800 and that's why there were so many manuals that were 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.199 instructing people. And it was I kind of think of 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.880 it now too. If you get a Samsung I don't know, 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.280 some sort of electrical device and then you get a 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:52.840 user's manual with it, I'd like to imagine that. You know, 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:54.920 back in the day, you got your sword and little 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:59.520 users manuals say this is the best use of um 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:03.880 of UH the sword, given how it's weighted and how 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.040 your body should be an extension of it. You know, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.680 this is how you should lunch. UM. I will try, 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:10.720 if I will try and make sure that I mentioned 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.320 this on a blog post or just on the Facebook 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.720 page for stuff to blow your mind. But if anyone 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.000 wants to see some images of like the long sword 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.080 UM user manual, if you will UM. There's an excellent 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:24.840 resource called and it was written in fourteen fifty nine 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:29.000 by hands tal Haafa called Alta Amatea und ring Kunst 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.439 and Uh and the whole text is available online and 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.359 you can you can browse through it and see how 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.119 to use a long sword, a dagger, a spear, a poleaxe, 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:41.440 and even wrestle. So unarmed and armed combat. So very cool, 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.560 Old hands, has you covered? Um? I did want to 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.600 mention to uh in skill in in a cultural use 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:51.200 of swords kendo. Japanese swordsmanship very cool. They follow a 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.600 very rigid rules that are meant to instill as much 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.359 integrity into dueling as possible. For instance, when you're about 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.160 to attack your opponent, you actually make a thumping down 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.280 with your foot to to sort of signify like, hey, 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.240