Swords, Symbolism, Comparative Mythology

Vlijmscherp verleden
Vlijmscherp verleden vertelt het verhaal over de geschiedenis van het zwaard en de rituele en symbolische betekenis ervan. U ziet bijna tweehonderd bijzondere zwaarden, afkomstig uit de prehistorie tot de twintigste eeuw. De pronkzwaarden, slagzwaarden en steekzwaarden komen uit bijna alle werelddelen. Blikvangers zijn de 'magische' bronzen zwaarden uit de prehistorie, Vikingzwaarden uit de omgeving van Dorestad, een Frans koningszwaard uit de Merovingische tijd en het Nederlandse Rijkszwaard, dat met de overige regalia een tastbaar symbool is van het koninklijk gezag.

Meer dan slechts een wapen

Het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden bezit de grootste collectie archeologische zwaarden van Nederland. Bruiklenen uit binnen- en buitenland verrijken de tentoonstelling en vullen het verhaal aan tot de twintigste eeuw. De zwaarden uit de verschillende perioden en landen geven u een beeld van de grote verscheidenheid in vorm, materiaal en versiering. U ontdekt hoe ze de afgelopen drieduizend jaar zijn gemaakt en u maakt kennis met hun (vaak) rituele en symbolische betekenis. Niet voor niets zijn zwaarden van oudsher een teken van macht, gerechtigheid en krijgskunst.

Zwaarden met persoonlijkheid

Een zwaard is niet alleen een wapen, het is veel meer dan dat. Al eeuwenlang staan zwaarden symbool voor macht, gerechtigheid en krijgskunst. Ze hebben vaak een aparte status en worden gezien als objecten met een eigen 'persoonlijkheid'. Zwaarden spreken nog steeds tot de verbeelding, net als degenen die ze droegen: strijders, ridders en soldaten.

The study is focussed on a (then) innovative intercultural and interdisciplinary comparison between sword-culture in Europe and Japan. It contains the first published  results of a direct comparison between blade surfaces on medieval Japanese and Merovingian Period European sword-blades polished in the traditional Japanese manner. In this context the crucial role of surface-technology by grinding and polishing for functional sword-blades is highlighted in detail for the first time. There is an English and a Japanese summary contained.

Internally-generated light sensations ("phosphenes," "entoptic images") play an important role in many myth-systems, including myths of the world's major religious traditions. References relating to these light visions are often encoded in symbolic form and include descriptions of the following: the
behaviors known to induce light visions, the characteristics of light images a practitioner can expect to see, the links between specific light images and particular spirits or deities, the kinds of extraordinary powers bestowed on someone who induces light visions, and the metaphysical significance assigned to cultivation of light visions. Light visions are easily induced, even without instruction, which means this capability could have been discovered independently in many different contexts. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the role that light visions play in the creation and reinforcement of myth systems. Here I focus on two kinds of visions - visions of "green receding rings"
and "white flashes" - to examine how these images have been incorporated in selected myth-systems. Some examples will be drawn from cultures in which light visions appear to fit Witzel's hypothesis of an early, out-of-Africa "Gondwanan" myth-family (e.g., San Bushman of South Africa, the Dani of New Guinea and Australian Aborigines); other examples will show light visions
embedded in more complex storylines characteristic of the "Laurasian" myth family (e.g., the Indo-Aryan Rig Veda, the Shangqing "Highest Clarity" School of early Chinese Daoism, Tibetan Buddhist "Highest Yoga Tantra," the classical
Maya myths of Mesoamerica, and the Tukano Indians of Amazonia). This analysis suggests that light visions need myths (to explain why light visions appear and what they mean) and that, conversely, myths need light visions (to restore or reinforce belief in the continued potency of the myth).

L’esilio di Tristano e Isotta nella selva interrompe le vicissitudini dell’adulterio consumato alla corte di re Marco in Cornovaglia e prelude alla definitiva separazione e alla morte degli amanti.
L’interpretazione che Gottfried von Straßburg dà della vicenda innesta nel plot romanzesco un intermezzo lirico: musica e poesia sottraggono temporaneamente gli amanti ai morsi delle privazioni e della colpa (e Tristano musico e maestro agli obblighi di Tristano cavaliere, cacciatore e trickster). Il passo ridefinisce il significato degli elementi narrativi di repertorio, il bando, la foresta, la grotta, la caccia, l’arpa, il talamo, la spada. L’esibizione della lama snudata tra i corpi vestiti degli amanti - motivo ricorrente e opaco - fa la parodia di celeberrimi luoghi letterari (dalla leggenda giudaico-cristiana di re David e da Amicus et Amelius, dove la spada è pegno di astinenza e castità), finendo per dire altro: la spada è quella donata da Marco a Tristano durante l’investitura e ne è poi morto Moroldo, sporcando irreparabilmente le relazioni fra i protagonisti del triangolo.
Il passo della Minnegrotte di Gottfried viene qui proposto da una delle redazioni manoscritte più antiche, Monaco, BSB, Cgm 51 (intitolato da una rubrica moderna Herr Tristrant). I codici di Heidelberg (Cpg 360) e Monaco, che trasmettono il romanzo incompiuto di Gottfried con la ‘continuazione’ di Ulrich von Türheim, divergono nell’estensione del lungo episodio. Alcune sequenze presenti nel manoscritto di Heidelberg (con la stilizzazione ovidiana, le allegorie e la disillusa autobiografia sentimentale del poeta) sono assenti in quello di Monaco. Il codice monacense, un Tristano ‘istoriato’, ne offre una versione ridotta, un testo talora banalizzato e un interessante layout. Gruppi di miniature a tutta pagina ne riproducono le scene salienti con l’accompagnamento di didascalie, aggiunte nel tempo da svariate mani. L’illustrazione al f. 90r, nei tre registri include l’azione completa dell’episodio riletto in questo volume: il bando dalla corte; la spada nel talamo; la riammissione a corte di Tristrant e Isot.

La spada, compagna fedele del Cavaliere, ha finito per sostituirsi a lui e sintetizzare simbolicamente tutto ciò; cioè metodo, strumento e fine di un lavoro di perfezionamento di quella particolare tipologia di persona che per natura, per caratteristiche interiori costitutive, ha trovato nella Via Guerriera il proprio campo di espressione, le proprie affinità.

This research assesses the archaeological and literary evidence regarding the significance of the early Medieval sword in Anglo-Saxon England. A dataset of 534 unique examples gathered from the Portable Antiquities Scheme and online Museum databases forms the basis of this analysis. Beginning with observing sword find locations within larger Anglo-Saxon England. An attempt is made to analyse where these examples are found in regards to known important settlements and battle locations with the aim of providing contemporary context and what these finds can say about the nature of early Medieval England. The second section deals with the perceived ‘other-worldly’ properties of the sword, as well as artistic design alongside function, providing a detailed analysis of art-styles found on fittings and average measurements for each type and component.

It’s no secret that since Man had the ability to shape stone and metal starting thousands of years ago, they’ve also been slashing, stabbing, hitting and basically wreaking havoc on each other ever since. When did the first knife fight break out? When the second blade was created. Over the centuries, the longer version, swords have become the best option for the battlefield and many have a fearsome reputation.

Medieval writers who 'translated' Latin texts into Germanic vernaculars not only transmitted their originals, but, driven by individualistic impulses and cultural conventions, also transformed them. This process of domesticating texts was fundamentally creative and might more accurately be described as 'reconstruction'. The essays in Germanic Texts and Latin Models: Medieval Reconstructions explore the ways in which Latin texts and traditions were reconstructed in Old English, Old Icelandic and Old High German and cover a range of genres: legal texts, genealogies, histories, and poetry. They examine how medieval Germanic authors negotiated the need to transmit their models while at the same time fulfilling their own political, artistic and didactic objectives in the creation of vernacular texts. These new studies demonstrate the variety of ways in which medieval Germanic texts were indebted to their Latin exemplars, while reflecting their new culturally specific circumstances in the complex nexus of Latin learning and Germanic lore.

Vanaf 1 april t/m 2 oktober 2016 is in het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden de tentoonstelling  ‘Vlijmscherp Verleden’ te zien, waarin het zwaard centraal staat. Dat voorwerp blijkt vele kanten te hebben: naast ons eerste echte wapen is het zwaard ook een symbool van identiteit en status. Het uitlichten van zo’n onderwerp laat de veelzijdigheid van voorwerpen zien en hun raakvlakken met thema’s in onze samenleving.

The Samurai Game is a transformative role-playing game invented by George Leonard, a fourth dan black belt and Aikido sensei in Northern California. The game takes participants into 17th century samurai consciousness and is intended to allow players the opportunity to face their own death—and thereby, the patterns of their life.  Leonard is co-founder with Michael Murphy (Esalen Institute) of Integral Transformative Practice (ITP), an experiment in personal and collective transformation of consciousness..

As a result of the research of different traditions of Scythians and Turkic peoples the similarities of the burial traditions of the Scythians, Asiatic Huns, European Huns, Turks (T’u-chüe) and others are sown in the paper. It was shown that these peoples had an identical cult of the god of War. The author also shows the identity of the anti-assimilation phycology of these peoples.

Анализ статьи построен на основе имеющихся исторических свидетельств и этнографических записей о специфических обстоятельствах применения удара и укола кинжалом  в кавказских обществах 19-20х веков. Автор предпринимает попытку выделить связь между клинковой морфологией Мингрельского кинжала колющего типа,  Кавказкими общественными правовыми нормами внутреобщинных конфликтов, и социально-экономическими аспектами практики конокрадства. Исторически, укол и удар кинжалом строго регламентировался Кавказкими обществами в зависиности от характера конфликта, а также связью поединщиков. Между членами одного рода, общества, или клана,  укол кинжалом, как часто приводящий к летальному исходу, был запрещен, разрешались только рубящие удары. Вместе с тем, как показывают источники, табу не действовало в условиях боя с внешним противником или при защите жизни в экстремальной обстановке.  На основании анализа имеющейся информации мингрельский колющий кинжал атрибутируется как оружие выбора среди тех представителей мингрельского общества начала 19 века, которые были вовлечены в распространенное тогда ремесло конокрадства. Специфика их рода занятий, связанного со смертельной угрозой в результате  обнаружения и обусловила адаптацию Кавказкого кинжала преимущественно колющего типа.