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Intriguing mystery swords


Seams

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20 hours ago, Cridefea said:

And that reminds me the broken longsword at LF's ancestral home you quoted in other threads.

Yes, that should be in the broken sword collection. Even in a ramshackle keep where the Lord is rarely present, why would a broken sword be on display?

16 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

You know, Seams, I've been locked out of this place for 2 months.  I haven't been able to post or reply or read or have any fun at all.   I need a focused study of the swords.  How do we do this, Sister?   I am particularly interested in the gems and stones of the pommels.  We need to bone up on this stuff before we see this black armor of Euron's.   Do we still have the search for the SSMs?   

Did I miss something or did you not bring up the Hound's new old sword?  

Locked out? Was this your punishment for helping Arianne with the Myrcella kidnapping? Or did you fail to cross the bridge when Cersei hid the rest of us in Maegor's Holdfast? Let it be a lesson to you. (Glad you're back.)

The searching I did on hilts, pommels and grips indicated that pommels are the place to look for the most interesting details about individual characters. The gems and carved pommels were what really intrigued me, too.

Hilts and grips (or the act of gripping) might lead to insights about swords as a group and their function as symbols, but usually won't reflect unique details about the individuals carrying those swords. (Gared and Jon's "ugly" homemade hilts may be exceptions.)

I had thought that the search site would help me to identify the chapters where armor appears, and that an analytical re-read could progress through the chapters that way. But maybe that's not the way to do it. Pommels are closely related to sigils (as are brooches). In the world book, there are illustrations of the shields of major bannermen organized around the shield of each warden or leading house. Maybe that's a way to examine pommels: divide the weapons into groups by liege lord?

Or maybe we just work out a list here, and people can volunteer, claim a topic and use the search site to dig up the excerpts or other background material to present to the forum. What I would hope for is posts that offer ideas, make connections, look for underlying meaning and insight. Not so much a "Which is your favorite?" or "Who would win in single combat?" or other opinion-based posts. A first draft of the list could include:

pommels

  • head-shaped pommels with notable eyes
  • head-shaped pommels with notable mouths
  • heart-shaped pommels
  • other pommels
  • stone
  • precious stones (jewels)
  • precious metals
  • when and why do people touch pommels?

hilts

  • when and why do people touch hilts of their own swords?
  • when and why do people hand swords "hilt first"? (In other words, why does GRRM bother to specify this - I realize that handing someone a sword "blade first" could be dangerous or appear to be hostile.)
  • hilts and shoulders.
  • Who makes hilts?

Blades

  • obsidian
  • silver
  • wooden swords (Stark kids use them for training at Winterfell, Arya uses one with Syrio and makes one out of a broomstick at Harrenhal.)
  • Valyrian steel (Already pretty well covered, but maybe people can come up with some fresh things to say.)
  • waves of night and blood
  • great swords, bastard blades
  • daggers
  • arakhs
  • leaf-shaped blade (Tommen uses one and some of the obsidian Jon finds at the Fist is leaf-shaped.)
  • cleaver-shaped (Ramsay has one, and Roose says he fights like a butcher.)
  • swords without hilts (the Dalla quote and follow-up references to it)
  • blades that catch the light
  • blades that cast shadows
  • flaming swords
  • edges
  • pointy ends

Scabbards

Armor

  • Mail
  • roundels
  • helmets
  • breastplates
  • nipples on a breastplate

Other weapons

  • axes
  • hammers
  • spears
  • bows / arrows
  • crossbows - quarrels and bolts
  • morningstars

Swords with complex, known stories or presence in the books

  • Ice
  • Longclaw
  • Oathkeeper

Swords and daggers carried in belts (Messages are also carried in belts.)

Broken swords - Aside from Ser Waymar's sword in the AGoT prologue, the nature of the broken swords is usually not described.

The meteor as a flaming sword

Swords in legends

Swords remember (Tobho Mott quote)

Smiths

Forges

whetstones

Swords named after women

Swords named after phases of the sun

Swords named after other things

sword theft

inheritance of swords

Sellswords

Sworn swords

Wounds / Injuries inflicted by swords

  • through armor or mail
  • through mouth
  • beheading
  • belly cut open
  • arm cut off
  • ear cut off
  • nose cut off

This is the "everything plus the kitchen sink" list, and I bet I've missed a number of important topics. If people wanted to focus on pommels first, that would be fine with me. But interested people could just start posting about any topic from this list or from their own interests in swords.

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2 hours ago, Seams said:

Yes, that should be in the broken sword collection. Even in a ramshackle keep where the Lord is rarely present, why would a broken sword be on display?

heirloom, trophy or famous sword/relic/collector's item?

2 hours ago, Seams said:

A first draft of the list could include

great list! There are a lot of topics that I like: swords in legends, oathkeeper, swords remember, Valyrian Steel, obsidian etc.

I think it's also interesting how swords change hands. But it's not so easy trace all the stories.

 

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