A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed tip. A slashing sword is more likely to be curved and to have a sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade. Many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing. The precise definition of a sword varies by historical epoch and geographic region.
The hilt is the handle of a knife, dagger, sword, or bayonet, consisting of a guard, grip, and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel.
A longsword is a type of European sword characterized as having a cruciform hilt with a grip for primarily two-handed use, a straight double-edged blade of around 80 to 110 cm, and weighing approximately 2 to 3 kg.
A hersir was a local Viking military commander of a hundred, of about 100 men, and owed allegiance to a jarl or king. They were also aspiring landowners, and, like the middle class in many feudal societies, supported the kings in their centralization of power. Originally, the term Hersir referred to a wealthy farmer who owned land and had the status of a leader. Throughout the Viking Age, Hersir was eventually redefined as someone who organized and led raids. In the 10th century, the influence of Hersirs began to decrease due to the development of effective national monarchies in Scandinavia. Hersir was again redefined later on to mean a local leader or representative. The independence of the Hersir as a military leader eventually vanished, to be replaced only by the title of a royal representative. The "Hávamál", which was the mythical advice of the supreme creator Odin to humankind, contains a number of verses emphasizing the virtue of cautious consideration and strategical attack. This theme, in its oral form, was one of the major influences on the mind of the Viking Hersir.
The spatha was a type of straight and long sword, measuring between 0.5 and 1 metre, with a handle length of between 18 and 20 centimetres, in use in the territory of the Roman Empire during the 1st to 6th centuries AD. Later swords, from the 7th to 10th centuries, like the Viking swords, are recognizable derivatives and sometimes subsumed under the term spatha.
The kampilan is a type of single-edged sword, traditionally used by various ethnic groups in the Philippine archipelago. It has a distinct profile, with the tapered blade being much broader and thinner at the point than at its base, sometimes with a protruding spikelet along the flat side of the tip. The design of the pommel varies between ethnic groups, but it usually depicts either a buaya (crocodile), a bakunawa, a kalaw (hornbill), or a kakatua (cockatoo)..
Knowledge about military technology of the Viking Age is based on relatively sparse archaeological finds, pictorial representations, and to some extent on the accounts in the Norse sagas and laws recorded in the 12th–14th centuries.
The talwar, also spelled talwaar and tulwar, is a type of curved sword or sabre from the Indian subcontinent.
A seax is a small sword, fighting knife or dagger typical of the Germanic peoples of the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages, especially the Saxons. The name comes from an Old English word for "knife".
The Viking Age sword or Carolingian sword is the type of sword prevalent in Western and Northern Europe during the Early Middle Ages.
The shashka or shasqua is a kind of North Caucasian sabre; a single-edged, single-handed, and guardless sabre. The comparatively gentle curve of a shashka blade puts the weapon midway between a typically curved sabre and a straight sword, effective for both cutting and thrusting.
A kalis is a type of Philippine sword. The kalis has a double-edged blade, which is commonly straight from the tip but wavy near the handle. Kalis exists in several variants, either with a fully straight or fully wavy blade. It is similar to the Javanese keris, but differs in that the kalis is a sword, not a dagger. It is much larger than the keris and has a straight or slightly curved hilt, making it a primarily heavy slashing weapon.
The Migration Period sword was a type of sword popular during the Migration Period and the Merovingian period of European history, particularly among the Germanic peoples. It later gave rise to the Carolingian or Viking sword type of the 8th to 11th centuries AD.
Swords made of iron appear from the Early Iron Age, but do not become widespread before the 8th century BC.
The barong is a thick, leaf-shaped, single-edged blade sword. It is a weapon used by Muslim Filipino ethnolinguistic groups like the Tausug, Sama-Bajau, or Yakan in the Southern Philippines.
A claymore is either the Scottish variant of the late medieval two-handed sword or the Scottish variant of the basket-hilted sword. The former is characterised as having a cross hilt of forward-sloping quillons with quatrefoil terminations and was in use from the 15th to 17th centuries.
A kastane or kasthane is a short traditional ceremonial or decorative single-edged Sri Lankan sword. The sword is featured in the Flag of Sri Lanka.
In the European High Middle Ages, the typical sword was a straight, double-edged weapon with a single-handed, cruciform hilt and a blade length of about 70 to 80 centimetres. This type is frequently depicted in period artwork, and numerous examples have been preserved archaeologically.
The Turco-Mongol sabre, alternatively known as the Eurasian sabre or nomadic sabre, was a type of sword used by a variety of nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes, including Turkic and Mongolic groups, primarily between the 8th and 14th centuries. One of the earliest recorded sabres of this type was recovered from an Avar grave in Romania dating to the mid-7th century.
Ratings of the Royal Navy have used cutlasses, short, wide bladed swords, since the early 18th century. These were originally of non-uniform design but the 1804 Pattern, the first Navy-issue standard cutlass, was introduced at the start of the 19th century. This was a bluntish weapon that was perhaps intended for cutting away canvas and ropes rather than as a thrusting combat weapon. The 1845 Pattern cutlass introduced a bowl-style hand guard which provided greater protection, with a longer and more curved blade. Its sharper point made it more useful for thrusting attacks, which were now emphasised in the drill manual. The 1845 Pattern was modified several times including shortening and straightening the blades, which weakened them. The 1889 Pattern had a straight, spear-pointed blade with a hilt that curved outwards to catch and redirect an opponent's sword point. The 1900 Pattern, the last navy-issue cutlass, was similar to its predecessor with the introduction of a fuller and a hilt insert that cushioned the user's little finger. The cutlass was withdrawn from service in 1936 but remains in use for ceremonial purposes. It is thought that it was last used in combat in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion.
