The sword is not just a weapon, it is a faithful amulet, the strength and glory of which is forged in battles. History knew a lot of swords, among them legendary swords occupy a special place, raising the morale of entire nations.
Excalibur
Probably everyone has heard about the legendary Excalibur of King Arthur. It could not be broken, and the scabbard gave the owner invulnerability.
Excalibur's name probably comes from the Welsh "Caledwulh", which can be translated as "hard hitting." He is first mentioned in the Welsh epic Mabinogion (11th century). According to one version, the name came from the Latin "chalybs" - steel, and the prefix "exc" meant enhanced properties.
According to one legend, Arthur took Excalibur out of the stone, which proved his right to be a king, but in most texts, he received it from the fairy of the lake, after breaking his first sword. Before his death, he ordered to return it to its rightful owner, throwing it into the water.
There is definitely a historical prototype behind the Excalibur myth, as well as the figure of King Arthur. Only this is not a specific weapon, but a tradition. For example, the custom of dumping weapons in Northern and Western Europe. Strabo describes such a ritual among the Celts in the vicinity of Toulouse, archaeological excavations at Torsbjerg testify to the existence of such a tradition in Jutland (weapons date back to 60-200 AD).
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Durendal
The sword of Charlemagne's nephew, which terrified enemies, repeated the fate of Excalibur. According to the saga of Charlemagne, he was thrown into the lake after the death of his master Roland during the Battle of Ronseval (778). In the later knightly poem "Raging Roland" it is said that part of it is still kept in the wall of the French sanctuary of Rocamadour.
Its legendary properties were almost the same as that of Excalibur - it was unusually strong, and did not break even when Roland tried to smash it against the rock before his death. Its very name comes from the adjective "dur" - hard. Judging by the frequent mentions in sources about the breakage of swords, the quality of steel was generally the weak point of medieval warriors.
If Excalibur had a scabbard with special properties, then Durendal had a handle, where, according to the saga of Charlemagne, the holy relics were kept.
Shcherbets
The coronation sword of Polish monarchs - Shcherbets, according to legend, was given to Prince Borislav the Brave (995-1025) by an angel. And Borislav almost immediately managed to put a notch on it, hitting the Golden Gate of Kiev. Hence the name "Shcherbets" came from. True, this event is unlikely, since Borislav's campaign against Russia took place before the actual construction of the Golden Gate in 1037. If only he managed to put a notch, encroaching on the wooden gate of the Tsar City.
In general, the “Shcherbets” that has survived to our days, according to experts, was made in the XII-XIII centuries. Perhaps the original sword disappeared along with the rest of Poland's treasures - the spear of St. Mauritius and the gold diadem of the German emperor Otto III.
Historical sources claim that the sword was used during the coronation from 1320 to 1764, when the last Polish king, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, was crowned with it. After long wanderings from collector to collector, Shcherbets returned to Poland in 1959. Today it can be seen in the Krakow Museum.
Saint Peter's Sword
The weapon of the Apostle Peter, with which he chopped off the ear of the high priest's servant Malchus in the Garden of Gethsemane, is today another ancient relic of Poland. In 968, Pope John XIII presented it to the Polish bishop Jordan. Today the legendary blade, or its later version, is kept in the Archdiocese Museum in Poznan.
Naturally, there is no single time among historians about the dating of the sword. Researchers at the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw claim that the sword could have been made in the 1st century AD, but most scholars consider the blade in Poznan to be a late forgery. Experts Martin Glosek and Leszek Kaiser identify it as a copy of the first quarter of the 14th century. This hypothesis coincides with the fact that swords of a similar shape - falchions (a blade expanding to the bottom with a one-sided sharpening) were common in the 14th century as an additional weapon of English archers.
Dovmont sword
A relic of Pskov is the sword of the holy Pskov prince Dovmont (? -1299) - "a man of valor and impeccable honor." It was under him that the city gained de facto independence from its elder "brother" Novgorod. The prince waged a successful struggle with his original homeland Lithuania and the Livonian Order, more than once saving Pskov from the raids of the crusaders.
Dovmont's sword, with which he allegedly struck the master of the Livonian Order in the face, hung for a long time in the Pskov Cathedral over the prince's shrine. It was engraved with the inscription "I will not give my honor to anyone." For the inhabitants of the city, it became a real shrine, with which they blessed all new princes who entered the service of Pskov; Dovmont's sword was minted on Pskov coins.
The sword has survived to this day in good condition. Even a wooden scabbard, covered with green velvet and bound by a third in silver, has survived. The length of the sword itself is about 0.9 m, the width of the crosshair is 25 cm. In shape, it is a thrust-cutting triangular blade with a rib protruding in the middle. At the top of it, a stamp has been preserved, which indicates that it was made in the German city of Passau. Obviously, it belonged to Dovmont even during his life in Lithuania.
Dovmont's sword dates from the XIII century. Today it is the only medieval sword in Russia, whose "biography" is well known and is confirmed by chronicle reports.
Kusanagi no tsurugi
The Japanese katana "Kusanagi no tsurugi" or "the sword that mows the grass", according to legend, helped the first Japanese emperor, Jimmu, to conquer Japan. Not surprising, because she originally belonged to the wind god Susanno, brother of the sun goddess Amateratsu. He found it in the body of the monstrous dragon Yamata no Orochi, which he had killed, and presented it to his sister. She, in turn, presented it to people as a sacred symbol.
Kusanagi has long been the shrine of the Isonokami-jingu shrine, where Emperor Sujin transferred it. Currently, an iron sword is fixed in the temple. In 1878, during excavations, a large sword blade with a total length of 120 cm was found. It is assumed that this is the legendary Kusanagi no tsurugi.
Seven Tooth Sword
Another national treasure of Japan is the seven-toothed sword Nanatsusaya-no-tachi. It differs from the usual weapon of the land of the rising sun, first of all, in its shape - it has six branches, and the seventh, obviously, was the tip of the blade.
It is not known for certain when it was made, but the main version dates it to the 4th century AD. According to the analysis, the sword was forged in the kingdom of Baekje or Silla (the territory of modern Korea). He got to Japan, judging by the inscriptions on the blade, through China - he was presented as a gift to one of the Chinese emperors. The Japanese epic says that it belonged to the semi-mythical Empress Jingu, who lived from about 201-269.
