Tell me. Do you know why it is that the sword, above all else, be celebrated as the weapon of the warrior?
The bow is better for striking down a foe at range, and the dagger if they be overly close. The hammer is better for crushing mail and bone, and the axe for hewing limbs and striking with might. The spear and the halberd and all such polearms are better for ranks of soldiery, and the fist be best of all for subduing an enemy without causing overmuch hurt.
Why, then, be the sword beloved beyond all?
There be two answers to this riddle. The first be also the practical answer - the sword be ever useful no matter the lay of a battle. If you be armed with a sword, and skilful in its craft, never will you regret having one by your side. The axeman fears a narrow space, the spearman an open field, and the bowman a foe a pace away. Never will a swordsman be found wholly wanting no matter his situation, if he be keen of thought, clever of eye and swift with arm. The good swordsman knows ever how to read a battle, and how to turn it to best suit their weapon, and ever will a skilful swordsman know the weakness of his enemy and turn it to his own strength. If the sword, when measured against some other weapon, be less in the fulfilling of a single task on the field of battle, it be the better at five others.
But this be not the answer I seek today, for though it be an easy answer to hear, to truly learn this answer be long and hard, that be why we must train with the blade! Nay, there be a second answer also.
For the sword, beyond any other weapon, be a promise, an oath, a pledge to battle and violence. Here, allow me to explain.
The sword, above all other weapons, be not more than a tool of war. The bow and the spear be tools for hunting, the axe and the hammer be tools for craft and building. Even the halberd be a tool, for guarding and protecting.
The sword, though. The sword has no use outside of battle. If a hope beyond hope should strike and all wars cease evermore, then will every sword be wholly worthless, the making of them would be least of all the crafts of Man. The sword be a tool only useful for battle and war, and thus it be singular among all weapons.
Do you understand it yet? Nay, perhaps not.
For, if the sword be valuable solely for the doing of violence, then also be it so that, every time the warrior draws his sword, he does so with the intent of doing violence. There be no other reason to reach for a sword, none at all. And so it be that every time one draws a sword, they be swearing an oath as they do so. An oath that, now that their sword be drawn, they will do violence with it.
Now, the craven and vicious brute cares not for this pledge. To such an ill-favoured person, it matters not what tool they reach for, only that it be able to do violence. A sword in the hands of such a person be merely an extension for their evil will, to maim and slay as they wish.
But what of the good person? What of the valiant and noble, what of those who seek war not for war’s sake, but to bring about its ceasing? For such a person, the drawing of a sword be a powerful oath indeed. For such a person, they do not draw a sword lightly. Nay, it be other indeed. For such a person, the sword be drawn only when it must be so. When all other chance of peace has been exhausted, when it would be a greater evil not to fight, then, and only then, does the warrior take up their blade. And so it must be so that, when a true warrior draws sword, it be a powerful promise indeed. A promise that there was no other way. And a promise that they will use their sword now as it should be used, as a tool, and the warrior will either accomplish their task and sheathe the sword once more, or will be slain in the attempt.
So it be so. A foolish killer will love their sword, for the harm it can wreak. But the noble warrior loves not their sword, though they should care for it! Nor does the noble warrior love the thrill of battle and seek it, though they may take joy in it! Nay, the noble warrior knows that ever it be better not to draw their sword. And further does the warrior know that it be a terrible promise to draw a sword - terrible, and only ever should it be done to avoid a greater evil.
Do you understand now, child, why the sword be the weapon of the warrior?
I think so, grandfather.
I be pleased. Now come! These dishes will not clean themselves. But hurry along, lad, if you are swift, then maybe there will be time for us to try a little footwork again, before your parents catch us….
