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| Other Romaic weapons | Frankish swords | an islamic sword |
One type of combat spathion in use in the tenth century, based upon those carried by warrior saints on an ivory triptych in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
A hypothetical reconstruction on the regalia spathion of a Constantinopolitan courtier or higher officer eleventh or twelfth centuries.
The Book of Ceremonies makes extensive mention of which courtiers should carry gold-hilted swords on which occasions, with that of the Emperor and Kaisar also being encrusted with pearls and gems.
Sources: Fittings copied from an eleventh century fresco in the church of Daphni. The decoration is derived from generic patternings commonly found on diverse types of metalwork and other minor arts.
The less common form of the Roman sword, the paramerion. Despite the associations of later curved swords, the parameron was not particularly associated with cavalry. Nor was it hung from a waist-belt as some academic literature has theorised, but from a baldric, as was done with the straight spathion.
Other eleventh century Roman weapons from the Serçe Limani shipwreck may be see via this off site link.
As early as Viking times there are accounts of warriors grasping the pommel of their swords in their left hands in order to strike with greater force. In the twelfth century this had become a definite trend. The weapon was lengthened in both blade and handle in order to facilitate this technique, while being maintained at the same weight in order to allow it to still be used in one hand. This sword is an example of such a “hand-and-a-half” or “bastard” sword. It has a sheaf of grain inlaid into the pommel as a badge of the type that begins the process that created heraldry by the late thirteenth century.
It is a common misconception that swords of this type were heavy. In fact, surviving examples are in the range of 1.15 to 1.25 kilograms (2.5-2.75 pounds), a weight that allows very dexterous use.
Vikings treasured highly ornate swords. Their Norman descendants, who influenced the culture of France and large swathes of the Mediterranean almost as much as England, were not quite as vain about their armament, but still valued beauty as well as functionality. This sword mixes that preference with piety by having a Jerusalem cross inlaid in silver into the blued steel of the pommel.
A conspicuous exception to the light and dexterous type of sword described above was the falchion, a large, machete-like weapon. One example survives, the so-called “Conyers Falchion” of the thirteenth century, and they are illustrated in the thirteenth century “Maciejowski Bible” and later sources.
Simple swords like this are illustrated in early Islamic sources. This example has the form which survives in traditional use to this day in Arabia.