Daughter of the Willow @nighean-willow - Tumblr Blog

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ubercharge

look. look at this beautiful sword meme. i’m going to cry

literallybyronic

@petermorwood

petermorwood

I saw and reblogged this one a while back, but it’s always worth repeating, and this time I’m adding a bit of background info comparing common fantasy sword features to the Real Thing (with pictures, of course.)

Leaf-bladed swords are a very popular fantasy style and were real, though unlike modern hand-and-a-half longsword versions, the real things were mostly if not always shortswords.

Here are Celtic bronze swords…

…Ancient Greek Xiphoi…

… and a Roman “Mainz-pattern” gladius…

Saw or downright jagged edges, either full-length or as small sections (often where they serve no discernible purpose) are a frequent part of fantasy blades, especially at the more, er, imaginatively unrestrained end of the market.

Real swords also had saw edges, such as these two 19th century shortswords, but not to make them cool or interesting. They’re weapons if necessary…

…but since they were carried by Pioneer Corps who needed them for cutting branches and other construction-type tasks, their principal use was as brush cutters and saws.

This dussack (cutlass) in the Wallace Collection is also a fighting weapon, like the one beside it…

…but may also have had the secondary function of being a saw.

A couple of internet captions say it’s for “cutting ropes” which makes sense - heavy ropes and hawsers on board a ship were so soaked with tar that they were often more like lengths of wood, and a Hollywood-style slice from the Hero’s rapier (!!) wouldn’t be anything like enough to sever them. However swords like this are extremely rare, which suggests they didn’t work as well as intended for any purpose.

I photographed these in Basel, Switzerland, about 20 years ago. Look at the one on the bottom (I prefer the basket-hilt schiavona in the middle).

A lot of “flamberge” (wavy-edge) swords actually started out with conventional blades which then had the edges ground to shape - the dussack, that Basel broadsword and this Zweihander were all made that way.

The giveaway is the centreline: if it’s straight, the entire blade probably started out straight.

Increased use of water power for bellows, hammers and of course grinders made shaping blades easier than when it had to be done by hand. This flamberge Zweihander, however, was forged that way.

Again, the clue is the centre-line.

Incidentally those Parierhaken (parrying hooks - a secondary crossguard) are among the only real-life examples of another common fantasy feature - hooks and spikes sticking out from the blade.

Here are some rapiers and a couple of daggers showing the same difference between forged to shape and ground to shape. The top and bottom rapiers in the first picture started as straights, and only the middle rapier came from the forge with a flamberge blade.

There’s no doubt about this one either.

The reason - though that was a part of it - wasn’t just to look cool and show off what the owner could afford (any and all extra or unusual work added to the price) but may actually have had a function: a parry would have been juddery and unsettling for someone not used to it, and any advantage is worth having.

However, like the saw-edged dussack, flamberge blades are unusual - which suggests the advantage wasn’t that much of an advantage after all.

Here’s a Circassian kindjal, forged wiggly…

…and an Italian parrying dagger forged straight then ground wiggly…

There were also parrying daggers with another fantasy-blade feature, deep notches and serrations which in fantasy versions often resemble fangs or thorns.

These more practical historical versions are usually called “sword-breakers” but I prefer “sword-catcher”, since a steel blade isn’t that easy to break. Taking the opponent’s blade out of play for just long enough to nail him works fine.

NB - the curvature on the top one in this next image is AFAIK because of the book-page it was copied from, not the blade itself.

The missing tooth on that second dagger, and the crack halfway down this next one’s blade, shows what happens when design features cause weak spots.

So there you go: a quick overview of fantasy sword features in real life.

Here’s a real-life weapon that looks like it belongs in a fantasy story or film - and this doesn’t even have an odd-shaped blade…

Just a very flexible one…

If you want more odd blades, Moghul India is a good place to start…

ubercharge

i could not ask for a better addition to my meme post than blade education thank you so much

frayedcobweb

I love this more than I love my left foot. (Seriously, fuck you left foot, why aren’t you a freaking wiggly sword? Huh?).

arson-yeehaw

@deadcatwithaflamethrower i feel like you would like this

deadcatwithaflamethrower

Bless you for the lovely post reminding others that those “fantasy” blade designs actually did come from somewhere, because we’ve been Doing Weird Shit To Iron for a very long time now.

Update!

Mr. City

#mr city was my father please call me owl

notreewaits-deactivated20200806

Toddlers are so pure. She doesn’t understand that we help her with certain things because she’s little. She thinks that everyone just helps each other like that. So she tries to blow on my food and cut it up for me and tries to help me put on my shoes.

pussysoupforthesoul-deactivated

i was giving little wagon rides to a baby around the backyard one day and all of a sudden she hops off and slaps the seat of the wagon telling me to get on because it was my turn and i was like no it’s ok im too heavy and she was like NO ITS UR TURN and kept tugging on my hand so i would sit down. eventually i got on and it was just a little 2 year old trying so hard to push me around on a wagon not understanding why it wouldn’t budge but still so determined to let me have my turn lol

psychedelic-spacecadet

Awww

outdoorspastelnature

everythingfox

Sky puppies

socialistexan

ainaraoftime-deactivated2025020

one of my favourite linguistic phenomena/in-jokes is spanish potato chips being “ham-flavored, probably”

ainaraoftime-deactivated2025020

y’see because spain and portugal are so close, labels in stuff like food, shampoo, etc often come in portuguese as well as spanish

this brand of chips, Lay’s, displays the flavor in spanish and portuguese, resulting in ham-flavored chips looking like this:

with “jamón” being spanish and “presunto” being portuguese

however, “presunto” is also a spanish adjective, meaning “presumed” (or suspected)

so you have this in-joke going where spanish chips taste like ham, presumably

fluffmugger

thefingerfuckingfemalefury

You’ve heard of “I can’t believe it’s not butter!” now get ready for “It’s questionable whether or not this is ham”

quiet-nymph

𝙏𝘼𝙆𝘼𝙊 kyoto/japan on Instagram

philosoverted-deactivated202006

Do you ever lie awake wondering how the heck Gimli knows what a nervous system is

systlin

Clearly dwarves have medical knowledge far more advanced than that of the other races.

gallusrostromegalus

His Majesty Dr. Gimli, son of Gloin, Neurosurgeon, M.D.

filthyprotozoan

gimli trying to explain his studies to legolas, a flat-earther

hubris-i

#*scroll down* #*remember that middle earth is canonically flat for elves and round for everyone else* #*scroll back up & smash that reblog button"

fridge246

tired: legolas took gimli to valinor with him because they were bffs/in love/etc.

wired: legolas took gimli to valinor to prove the world was flat after arguing with him about it for decades

jemthecrystalgem

Sorry it’s what to elves

dvandom

So, in Tolkein lore, the world was originally flat, with most of the land in the middle (hence Middle Earth). But the Numenorians (men who were rewarded with their own Atlantis-equivalent island for service in the first big war against Melkor, but eventually Power Corrupts etc) tried to invade the uttermost west which was basically Elf Heaven. To put an end to that sort of thing, the creator of the world Bent The World and made it a sphere…but left elves able to treat it like a flat disk. So elves can sail west and reach Elf Heaven, but a man or dwarf or hobbit who sails west will eventually wrap around to the east coast of Middle Earth.

moomoobooboo-deactivated2020102

This is why Legolas can see for such great, almost impossible distances. The Earth does not curve for him.

90377

milky way furka by Andy Lehner

julieterbang

a.rmy

femaleshits

10/10 https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtWPnRl7aMQ_Dl68nwLVZpgQjJ1tZfOsVarAw0/?igshid=18z7eokah6hgn

If you like nature and doing surveys, please click this link!

I am conducting a survey for my Psychology Masters, looking at how people’s relationships with nature affect their relationships with their bodies. It should only take 10 minutes to complete and I’d be grateful if you would take the survey and reblog so others can too!

#studyblr #mother nature #landscape #nottingham #colwick #forest #woodlands #woodlovers #treehugger

darkmacademia

'cherry wine' by hozier but it's springtime

Visit Original Link

‘cherry wine’ by hozier but played on a radio during springtime and you’re outside in the grass by a gentle stream. (headphones recommended) (youtube)

arcusxx

art by mary syring

nature-punks

Instead of endless wastelands of mowed grass lawns, consider:

sophist-sophia

😍

dvar-trek

this only works in places with lots of rain, a temperate summer, and a nice cold winter. like England. or Michigan.

star-anise

True! Unless you can find an economical way to irrigate, more appropriate lawn alternatives in hotter, more arid places might lean more to prairie meadows using local grasses and wildflowers:

Or, they might mean doing classic landscaping, but with rocks and xeriscape plants:

Or having a cactus garden:

There are lots of exciting possibilities once you throw the classic turf lawn out the window!

4gifs

socially-awkward-supervillian

Fun fact: Cheetahs only attack prey that runs

youwinagainmoffat-blog

jesus that is good to know.

chandra75-deactivated20180905

Yup, that’s the point you just stay still and let it do whatever the fuck it wants that doesn’t involved you getting eaten.

magehenry-moved-blog

REALLY FUN FACT for big cats cheetahs are fucking docile as shit

my grandfather ran a cheetah sanctuary in south africa and he’d just lie with them and sleep among them and they’d rub against him and chirp at him they’re big fucking babies

pkmnbreederbrianna

Another Fun Fact: Cheetahs are incredibly nervous animals. One of the (many) reason’s they’re going extinct is that cheetahs are so sensitive and nervous, some of them are literally too nervous to breed. Others will breed, but stress themselves out so much, they’ll lose their cubs. So zoos with breeding programs had to figure out how to make cheetahs comfortable enough to first of all, get laid and secondly - not spazz themselves into miscarrying. So what’d they do? They gave the cheetah’s their very own Service Dogs! The dogs make them feel safe, protected and secure!