Joyeuse
Joyeuse, is the name traditionally attributed to Charlemagne's personal sword. The name translates as "joyous"; some legends claim. The 11th century Song of Roland describes the sword: Si ad vestut sun blanc osberc sasfret,Laciet sun elme, ki est a or gemmet, Ceinte Joiuse, unches ne fut sa per, Ki cascun jur muet. XXX. Clartez." was wearing his fine white coat of mail and his helmet with gold-studded stones. Some seven hundred years Bulfinch's Mythology described Charlemagne using Joyeuse to behead the Saracen commander Corsuble as well as to knight his comrade Ogier the Dane; the town of Joyeuse, in Ardèche, is named after the sword: Joyeuse was lost in a battle and retrieved by one of the knights of Charlemagne. Baligant, a general of the Saracens in The Song of Roland, named his sword Précieuse, in order not to seem inferior to Charlemagne. A sword identified with Charlemagne's Joyeuse was carried in front of the Coronation processionals for French kings, for the first time in 1270, for the last time in 1824.
The sword was kept in the Saint Denis Basilica since at least 1505, it was moved to the Louvre in 1793. This Joyeuse as preserved today is a composite of various parts added over the centuries of use as coronation sword, but at the core, it consists of a medieval blade of Oakeshott type XII dated to about the 10th century. Martin Conway argued the blade might date to the early 9th century, opening the possibility that it was indeed the sword of Charlemagne, while Guy Laking dated it to the early 13th century; some authors have argued that the medieval blade may have been replaced by a modern replica in 1804 when the sword was prepared for the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Louvre's official website dates the pommel to the 10th to 11th centuries, the crossguard to the 12th and the scabbard to the 13th century; the overall height of the sword is 105 cm with the blade portion making up 82.8 cm of that. It is 4.5 cm wide at the base, 2.2 cm thick. Total weight is 1630 g. Before the Miholjanec legend had been regarded, the so-called sword of Attila in Vienna was known as the sword of Charlemagne
Sword of Victory
The Sword of Victory or Phra Saeng Khan Chaiyasi is part of the royal regalia of the King of Thailand. The sword represents the military power of the king; the hilt has a length of 25.4 centimetres with the blade measuring 64.5 centimetres. When placed in the scabbard the sword has a total length of 101 centimetres and weighs 1.9 kilograms. The swords neck between the blade and the hilt is decorated with a gold inlaid miniature of Vishnu riding the Garuda; the sword's history has been shrouded in legend. In 1784, Chao Phraya Apai Pubet of Cambodia received the blade from a fisher who found in it in Tonle Sap when it was caught in his fishing net, he gave it to King Phutthayotfa Chulalok of Thailand, his suzerain at the time. According to legend, it was said that the moment the blade arrived in Bangkok, seven lightning strikes hit the city including the city gate, where the blade entered, over the main gate of the Grand Palace; the sword's name means'the wisdom of the king', as it was supposed to remind the king that he must rule over his people with wisdom.
King Rama I had the hilt and scabbard made of gold, inlaid with precious stones. During the coronation ceremony the king is handed the sword by a Brahmin straps it onto his belt himself; the sword features in the Oath of Allegiance Ceremony where the King ceremoniously dip the sword into a bowl of sacred water, drink the water as an example, followed by senior civil servants and military officers as a sign of allegiance to the institution of the monarchy. Coronation of the Thai monarch Siamese Jewels-Regalia
Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west of the Dniester River in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dniester, as well as the late Roman Empire or the early Byzantine Empire; the name Thervingi may mean "forest people". Evidence exists that geographic descriptors were used to distinguish people living north of the Black Sea both before and after Gothic settlement there, the Thervingi sometimes had forest-related names. History lacks evidence for the name pair Thervingi-Greuthungi earlier than the late 3rd century; the name "Thervingi" may have pre-Pontic, origins. The Thervingi first appeared in history as a distinct people in the year 268 when they invaded the Roman Empire; this invasion overran the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Illyricum and threatened Italia itself. However, the Thervingi were defeated in battle that summer near the modern Italian-Slovenian border and routed in the Battle of Naissus that September.
Over the next three years they were driven back over the Danube River in a series of campaigns by the emperors Claudius II Gothicus and Aurelian. Vandals Van of the Vanir Jervanni aka Jermanni, from First Man aka Van against Odin of the Assir, of Asia "Land of the Gods/Goths'; the division of the Goths is first attested in 291. The Thervingi are first attested around that same date, their mention occurs in a eulogy of the emperor Maximian, delivered in or shortly after 291 and traditionally ascribed to Claudius Mamertinus, which said that the "Thervingi, another division of the Goths" joined with the Taifali to attack the Vandals and Gepidae. The term "Vandals" may have been erroneous for "Victohali" because around 360 the historian Eutropius reports that Dacia was inhabited by Taifali and Thervingi. Gothic ruler Ariaric was forced to sign a treaty with Constantine the Great in 332 after his son Constantine II decisively defeated the Goths. After that time, substantial number of valuable Roman gold medallions was distributed in Gothic territories from Netherlands to Ukraine, have been discovered by archaeologists.
They demonstrate the Roman influence among the Goths. In 367, the Roman Emperor Valens attacked the Thervingi north of the Danube river. However, he was unable to hit them directly, because the bulk of the Goths retreated to the Montes Serrorum. Ammianus Marcellinus says that Valens could not find anyone to fight with and implies that all of them fled, horror-struck, to the mountains. In the following year, the flooding of the Danube prevented the Romans from crossing the river. In 369, Valens penetrated deep into the Gothic territory, winning a series of skirmishes with Greuthungi. A peace was concluded afterwards; the Thervingi remained in western Scythia until 376, when one of their leaders, appealed to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube. The vision that there, they hoped to find refuge from the Huns, is today contested by historians, it is more that they settled because of peace negotiations following the first Gothic War. Valens permitted this.
However, a famine broke out and Rome was unwilling to supply them with the food they were promised nor the land. The Battle of Adrianople in 378 was the decisive moment of the war; the Roman forces were slaughtered. In time and geographical area, the Thervingi and their neighbors the Greuthungi correspond to the archaeological Sîntana de Mureş-Chernyakhov Culture. Chernyakhov settlements cluster in open ground in river valleys; the houses include sunken-floored dwellings, surface dwellings, stall-houses. The largest known settlement is 35 hectares. Most settlements are unfortified. Sîntana de Mureş cemeteries are better known than Sîntana de Mureş settlements. Sîntana de Mureş cemeteries show the same basic characteristics as other Chernyakhov cemeteries; these include both inhumation burials. Some graves were left empty. Grave goods include pottery, bone combs, iron tools, but never any weapons; the original religion of the Thervingi is Wodinism, though Saba or Sava's martyrology and Wulfila's bible translation may provide clues.
Some months and days were holy. Roman prisoners brought Christianity to the Thervingi; this spread fast enough that several Therving kings and their supporters persecuted the Christian Thervingi, as attested by the story of Wereka and Batwin, many of whom fled to Moesia in the Roman Empire. Wulfila translated the Bible into Gothic during this exile. Settled in Dacia, the Thervingi adopted Arianism, at the time in power in the Eastern Empire, a branch of Christianity that believed that Jesus was not an aspect of God in the Trinity, but a demigod; this belief was in opposition to the
Svafrlami
Svafrlami was in the H and U version of the Hervarar saga the son of Sigrlami, the son of Odin. In the R version, Svafrlami is called Sigrlami and his parentage is not given. Svafrlami was the first owner of the magic sword Tyrfing. One day, he discovered two dwarves near a large stone, he bound them by swinging his sword above them. The dwarves, who were named Dvalinn and Durin, asked if they could buy themselves free and undertook to make a magic sword; the sword would neither break nor rust and it would cut through iron and stone as as through cloth and would always give victory. When Svafrlami acquired the sword, he saw that it was an exquisite and beautiful weapon and it was named Tyrfing. However, before disappearing into the rock, the dwarves cursed the weapon so that it would never be unsheathed without killing a man, would be the undoing of Svafrlami and cause three evil deeds. One day, Svafrlami met the Berserker Arngrim. According to the H and U versions, they started to fight. Tyrfing cut through Arngrim's shield and down into the soil, whereupon Arngrim cut off Svafrlami's hand, took Tyrfing and slew him.
Arngrim forced Svafrlami's daughter Eyfura to marry him. According to the R version, Arngrim became the war-chief of the aged king and was given both Tyrfing and Eyfura as rewards. For the continued legend of the sword Tyrfing, see Arngrim. Henrikson, Alf. Stora mytologiska uppslagsboken
Ballinderry Sword
The Ballinderry Sword is an iron Viking-style weapon found in a bog on the site of a crannog in Ballinderry, near Moate, County Westmeath, Ireland in 1928. It is no. 36 in A History of Ireland in 100 Objects. It was found along with other Viking objects: a longbow, two spearheads, an axe head and a gaming board; the settlement dates from between the late 9th and early 11th century and the collection of artifacts uncovered appears to fit the profile of a wealthy Irish farmer or of a local ruler. The sword's pommel is coated in a sheet of silver and consists of five distinct sections that rise to a rounded tip in the middle. Below these sections is a band of silver decorated with a recessed pattern of swirls that loop around the pommel; the hilt of the sword is coated in silver and bears the same swirl pattern as the band on the pommel. There is little doubt but that this was a high-status object; the blade on the sword is wide, typical of Viking swords. The blade is 79 centimeters long; the blade has an inscription of a Rhineland manufacturer.
About 200 of these blades have been discovered as far away as Russia, suggesting that this was the early equivalent of an ‘international brand’. While the blade was imported, the hilt and pommel were made by Vikings; the upper side bears the name HILTIPREHT, which seems to connect it to a Norwegian craftsman of that name. The find shows. Viking-style weapons like this sword gave local Irish warriors superiority in combat against other native Irish warriors. More broadly, the object and its story offers a unique glimpse into the impact that the Vikings had in transforming Irish society; the sword, on display at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin is in much better condition compared to many other similar finds internationally
Sword of Osman
The Sword of Osman was an important sword of state used during the enthronement ceremony of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. The sword was named after founder of the Ottoman Dynasty; the girding of the sword of Osman was a vital ceremony which took place within two weeks of a sultan's ascension to the throne. The practice started when Osman I was girt with the sword of Islam by his mentor and father-in-law Sheikh Edebali; the girding was held at the tomb complex at Eyüp, on the Golden Horn waterway in the capital Constantinople. Though the journey from Topkapı Palace to the Golden Horn was short, the sultan would board a boat amid much pomp to go there; the Eyüp tomb complex was built by Mehmed II in honour of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, a companion of Muhammad who had died during the first Muslim siege of Constantinople in the 7th century. The sword girding thus occurred on what was regarded as sacred grounds, linked the newly enthroned sultan both to his 13th-century ancestors and to Muhammad himself.
The fact that the emblem by which a sultan was enthroned consisted of a sword was symbolic: it showed that the office with which he was invested was first and foremost that of a warrior. The Sword of Osman was girded on to the new sultan by the Sharif of Konya, a Mevlevi dervish, summoned to Constantinople for that purpose; such a privilege was reserved to the men of this Sufi order from the time Osman I had established his residence in Konya in 1299, before the capital was moved to Bursa and to Constantinople. Until the late 19th century, non-Muslims were banned from entering the Eyüp Mosque and witnessing the girding ceremony; the first to depart from this tradition was Mehmed V, whose girding ceremony was open to people of different faiths. Held on 10 May 1909, it was attended by representatives of all the religious communities present in the empire, notably the Sheikh ul-Islam, Greek Patriarch, the chief rabbi and a representative of the Armenian Church; the fact that non-Muslims were allowed to see the ceremony enabled The New York Times to write an detailed account of it.
Mehmed V's brother and successor, Mehmed VI, went further by allowing his girding ceremony to be filmed. Since he was the last reigning Ottoman sultan, this is the only such ceremony, put on film. Bagley, Frank R. C.. The Last Great Muslim Empires. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-02104-4. OCLC 310742207. Retrieved 2009-04-19. Hasluck, Frederick William. "XLVI. The Girding of the Sultan". In Hasluck, Margaret. Christianity and Islam Under the Sultans. II. READ BOOKS. Pp. 604–622. ISBN 978-1-4067-5887-0. Retrieved 2009-05-02. Quataert, Donald; the Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83910-5. OCLC 59280221. Retrieved 2009-04-18
Grunwald Swords
The Grunwald Swords were a gift presented by Ulrich von Jungingen, the Grand Master of the Order of Teutonic Knights, to King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland and Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania on 15 July 1410, just before the Battle of Grunwald. The gift, a pair of simple bare swords, was a formal invitation to the battle. After the Polish-Lithuanian victory, both swords were taken as a war trophy by King Władysław II to Kraków, Poland's capital at the time, placed in the treasury of the Royal Wawel Castle. With time, the two swords became treated as royal insignia, symbolising the monarch's reign over two nations, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, they were used in coronations of most Polish kings from the 16th to the 18th centuries. In private hands after the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the 18th century, they were lost without a trace in 1853, they have remained, however, a symbol of victory and Poland's and Lithuania's past, an important part of national identity of the two nations.
The battle of Grunwald was part of the Great War fought during 1409–1411 between a Polish-Lithuanian coalition led by King Władysław II and Grand Duke Vytautas on one side and the Teutonic Order aided by West European knights and led by Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen on the other side. It was one of the largest in medieval Europe; as both sides were preparing for the battle in the morning of 15 July 1410, two heralds carrying two unsheathed swords were announced to King Władysław II. According to Jan Długosz's chronicle, they bore the coats of arms of their respective masters: a black eagle in a golden field of King Sigismund of the Romans, a red griffin in a silver field of Duke Casimir V of Pomerania; the heralds had been sent by the grand master to Władysław II and Vytautas, but since the latter was busy making his troops ready for the battle, it was only the king, accompanied by his closest aides, who received the envoys. The heralds spoke in German while the royal secretary, Jan Mężyk of Dąbrowa, served as an interpreter.
They delivered, according to Długosz, the following message: Your Majesty! The Grand Master Ulryk sends you and your brother through us, the deputies standing here, two swords for help so that you, with him and his army, may delay less and may fight more boldly than you have shown, that you will not continue hiding and staying in the forest and groves, will not postpone the battle, and if you believe that you have too little space to form your ranks, the Prussian master Ulryk, to entice you to battle, will withdraw from the plain which he took for his army, as far as you want, or you may instead choose any field of battle so that you do not postpone the battle any longer. As they spoke, Teutonic forces did, in fact, withdraw from occupied positions; the king accepted the swords and, according to the letter he wrote to his wife, responded with the following words: We accept the swords you send us, in the name of Christ, before whom all stiff-necked pride must bow, we shall do battle. While sending swords as a formal gesture challenging the enemy to battle was customary at that time, adding insults was not.
Hence the envoys' speech was considered grossly boastful and impudent, as can be seen from a letter sent by Jan Hus to King Władysław II where the Bohemian religious reformer praised the Polish-Lithuanian victory at Grunwald as a triumph of humility over pride. Where are the two swords of the enemies? They were indeed cut down with those swords with which they tried to terrify the humble! Behold, they sent you two swords, the swords of violence and of pride, have lost many thousands of them, having been utterly defeated; the king sent the two swords to Kraków and deposited them, together with Teutonic army banners and other war trophies, in the treasure vault of the Royal Wawel Castle. The "two Prussian swords", as they were described in a treasury inventory in 1633, became treated as part of Polish-Lithuanian crown jewels, they were used in royal coronations throughout the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and also earlier, during the dynastic union of the two nations under the House of Jagiellon.
Since the pair of swords had been given to two rulers – of Poland and Lithuania – each of the weapons was associated with one of the two constituent nations of the Commonwealth. During a coronation ceremony, the king-elect made a sign of the Cross three times with Szczerbiec, or the principal coronation sword. Afterwards, one of the bishops assisting in the ceremony handed the Grunwald Swords to the king who in turn passed them on to the Crown and Lithuanian sword-bearers. After the coronation, the king returned from the cathedral where the ceremony had taken place to the royal castle, among others, by the two sword-bearers carrying the Grunwald Swords as symbols of the king's reign in the two nations. Unlike Szczerbiec and other ceremonial swords stored in the royal treasury, the Grunwald Swords were simple battle swords that would have been typical for armament of early 15th-century European knights. At some point in time they were embellished with hilts made from gilded silver. Additionally a little shield with the coat of arms of Poland, the White Eagle, was attached to the blade of one sword and, analogically, a similar shield with the Lithuanian Pursuer was fastened to the other one.
Two of the elective kings of Poland–Lithuania were crowned without the use of the Grunwald Swords. King Stanislaus I Leszczyński was crowned in Warsaw in 1705 with a makeshift set of royal insignia given to him by King Charles XII of Sweden and destroyed
