Sword As A Work of Art, a Teacher and The Reminder of Who We Are
The saying "You Live By The Sword -- You Die By The Sword" may have different meanings.
Sword can be both a work of art and also a reminder of who we are.
You breath and eat because your mom and dad exchanged DNA, as did their parents, and parents before them, for thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands of years.
If you hail from the Old World, your ancestors fought for lands, for their lords. Not much was different for those hailing from the New World.
It's been an eternal war ever since Homo Sapiens got rid of Neanderthals, and long before that.
Men that came back from battles, as heroes or cowards, were the ones that had the capacity to have families. Those that were successful at their craft could provide food, cloth and medicine for the survival of their family.
Imagine how many generations of people lived, how much blood was spilled, how many died of disease, hunger, natural disasters, wild animals... And here we are, alive, breathing, thinking. Most of us hardly even know these days who were our great-great-great parents. Yet they were, and they were successful as human species, otherwise we wouldn't exist today.
Sword is a refined weapon. It's not a wooden club, a long stick, spear or an axe. It requires the most training to be effective with among all non-firearm weapons. Though spears also can be intricately made, have names and be passed from generation to generation. In Norse Mythology, spear was the preferred weapon of Odin, the head of Aesir, gods of Midgard. Sword is made out of more iron, usually, or preferably — steel and/or iron and steel(s) combination. Steel was the strongest material a blacksmith could create during the Iron Age. Axes and spears were easier to make in large numbers and quick, while making a worthy sword could take months. A concept of a sword went through a refinement process over many millennia by various cultures.
Swords that are practical also have the innate beauty to them. It’s different from having golden fittings or intricately carved horn handle. A simply decked out sword in steel, wood, unadorned horn or leather, if it has the right balance, the right structural integrity, the right length and sharpness -- has that special beauty about it regardless of the intricacies of materials used to fit it with, but the quality of steel and forging methods matter the most.
You likely watched Conan, the movie adaptation based on the stories of Robert Erwin Howard, and remember the "Riddle of Steel." It's not the steel but the hand that wields it (not verbatim). Ideally, you want a good steel and a good hand, training, understanding of the circle of life and death — to really make sense out of what is a sword.
Guns are effective, so are the missiles and other forms of modern warfare. Press of a button and hundreds, or even thousands miles away — the target is found and no longer exists, including any and all lives within the proximity of the weapon's kill-zone.
With a sword, or in a hand-to-hand combat, you have to face your opponent. Look them in the eyes. Smell them, smell the iron-rich blood if you walk out alive from the fight to the death. Warfare was different back then and before guns were invented, a sword was the most refined dealer of death known to a man. Light, so that even a teenager or a young woman could be deadly with it, yet capable of good reach with a potential to cut wooden shields and wooden parts of spears, and axes. Well-made sword was a weapon of someone who had the means to purchase it, make it, or the means to defeat their opponent and take it from them.
Whether it's a Japanese-made blade with a beautiful tempering line and grains of folded steel, each pattern having its own name, or a modern monosteel blade made from highly-alloyed steel, only possible through complicated industrial processes -- if it's done well, you can feel it in your hand.
There's something about a sword that has been fascinating people, kids and adults, it is still being featured in popular video-games and in cinematography. It's still given to officers of various military forces, good, practical blades, that are not just meant for parades. It's hard to truly understand it. Perhaps, in part, it's due to the genetic memory we have, that also makes a good bow and arrow in your hands feel like something long forgotten, and yet so native, almost like a natural extension of the body.
I happen to collect swords. I never meant to become a collector. It always starts with one sword, and then it becomes two, and so on. All different, all have something special to offer. But the feeling one has unleashing the blade from he scabbard, seeing it shine in the sun or the moonlight, feeling its balance and quickness innate by the design -- that feeling is magical, is the best way I can describe it. It brings bits and pieces of memories that are hard to make anything out of, it makes the blood rush in the ears, it focuses the mind, it gives the ability to take a life with an easy stroke, become a painter of death. It's terrifying and yet there's a feeling of longing while holding it.
It always interested me why I am engaging in this hobby. Why I take so much pleasure in gently polishing a blade with a clean cotton rug and oil. Why it feels good knowing that each blade is well protected from elements, and each blade is functional and not just a wall-hanger. I really don't know. I suppose it's a similar reason for why some collect stamps or prehistoric arrowheads. But I believe our memory buried deep within the strands of the DNA has something to do with it. A sword to me feels like a silent friend, a teacher, and yet it has no feelings towards me. It sings when it slices the air. It sings when it cuts through targets. It almost as it enjoys being a sword, while it is an inanimate object. Perhaps it's what our imagination does, and it has nothing to do with what this object truly is. Perhaps there's so much history and struggle, defeat and victory that are represented by a sword, that there's some life in it after all. Japanese believe that a properly made sword contains a soul of a samurai. Perhaps every real sword contains a soul of a warrior, and fighting men were in-numerous during our history. And as soon as first blades were made from adamantine, bronze, iron and then steel -- they carried something special within them.
It's hard for me to imagine a better object that symbolizes human civilization. But a sword is not only a taker of lives. Sometimes by taking one life it gives life to thousands of other lives. This idea has been explored by Shinto and Buddhist monks long time ago. And from a sword that kills (The Sword of Death, Satsujinken), people started adapting the idea of a sword that preserves or gives life (The Sword of Life, Katsujinken).
It's an amazingly deep and fascinating rabbit-hole to go down into. I am only familiar with the Japanese sources but most likely similar thoughts were discussed and put into writing by many cultures around the world.
Having a sword in my hand can focus me and clear my mind to where it's just me and the sword. And also a sword in my hands can give life to my imagination and make me reflect and contemplate on humanity and our history. I never felt anything like it holding a Colt 1911 or a rife, or a shotgun of one type or another. They felt cold, made me appreciate the ingenuity of designers. They also made me feel fear, but there was nothing spiritual about those items. They were cold death-givers. And while the concept of Satsujinken and Katsujinken may come to life when I contemplate while holding a sword, somehow a similar concept applied to a firearm doesn't exist in my mind. Perhaps because firearms are impersonal. They can be effective at long distances and human lives taken by them don't make people that use them feel as much as how personal a sword fight can be. The same applies to knives that to me are just shortened and lightened versions of swords. Likely it's the other way around, swords are elongated, more complex knives, but they are clearly distinct, yet at times the distinction is not very strong.
Perhaps I just read too many historical fiction and fantasy novels, and watched too many movies when I was growing up, so that the concept of a sword left such an impression on me. Either way, I very much enjoy researching and practicing swordsmanship, and read any literature about the designing, making and application of this weapon. And I know I am not the only one, as there are entire chanels on YouTube dedicated to the discussion of swords and swordsmanship, and new books and hitorical papers focusing on swords are still being written and published. Perhaps we, Swordfriends, are just a different kind of crazy. But it's important to note that not for a second ever I wanted to become aggressive or malicious in any way holding a sharp blade. A sword is a way to protect myself, my loved ones, first and foremost. Not an item that awakens a desire to cut the thin threads of lives off, but an item that makes me want to be a better person, an item that wants me to grow and develop, physically and spiritually.
The saying "You Live By The Sword -- You Die By The Sword" then has a different meaning. You live training and learning, and you die training and learning. That seems to be the true path of the sword.