The Sword & Its Cultural Significance

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If one object stands out as synonymous with the Medieval period, it's probably the sword.

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis talks to Dr. Robert W. Jones, author of A Cultural History of the Medieval Sword: Power, Piety and Play, in which he takes the sword beyond its functional role as a tool for killing, considering it as a cultural artefact, and the broader meaning and significance it had to its bearer.

This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit. To listen to all of our episodes,
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0:37.7	on the 28th of September. Pre-order from your favourite bookshop or visit historyhit.com forward slash
0:43.9	book. Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval, I'm Matt Lewis. If one thing stands out as
0:53.5	somehow synonymous with the medieval period, it's probably the sword. Symbols of violence,
0:58.8	they also represented status, power and control. Dr Rob Jones is a tutor at advanced studies in England,
1:05.6	a study abroad programme for US students based in Bath. He's a visiting scholar in history at
1:11.1	Franklin & Marshall College, and you can also find him on his website at historianinhanis.co.uk.
1:17.7	Rob's joining us today to talk about his book, A Cultural History of the Medieval Sword,
1:22.7	Power, Piety and Play, which is available to buy now. Welcome to Gone Medieval Rob.
1:27.6	Hi, thank you. Yeah, good to meet you. It's great to have you. I'm very excited to talk about
1:31.6	swords. I mean, who doesn't want to talk about swords all day? My first question would be who
1:36.9	in the medieval world might have a sword? Because I think we get stuck between this idea that it was
1:42.8	just a knight that would have a sword or a competing vision of everybody in the medieval world
1:48.7	carrying a sword and hitting each other. Yeah, it is that typical thing, isn't it? We do have this
1:53.5	image of I suppose it mixes from fantasy stories and things like that. It also depends a bit on when
	...

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