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Swords of Narnia

The cultures, creatures, geography — anything about the books!

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Swords of Narnia

Postby Cleander » May 22, 2019 2:12 pm

I love swords!.... and chances are a lot of people reading this love swords as well. The Walden Narnia movies were very rich and detailed in their design of the characters' weapons, with different styles carried by different races. I'm hoping we get to see the same level of detail in the Netflix movies!
There are a lot of important swords to cover, so I'll give a list of them (just based on the characters in the books who carry swords):
- Rhindon, The Royal Sword of Narnia
-Edmund's Sword
-Reepicheep's Sword ;)
-Centaur Swords
-Puddleglum's Sword
-Eustace's Sword
-Jill's long knife (that would do for a sword, in a pinch)
-Rilian's Sword
- Calormen Swords
-Telmarine Swords
-Giant Swords? (Assuming the more refined ones up north carry swords, not just clubs. Though they'd need a LOT of steel! :-o )
So, how would you imagine these swords? Can you think of appropriate names for some of them? (I'd love it if Reep's sword was called Needle, but... looks like that's taken already. Maybe Catsbane ? :D )
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Re: Swords of Narnia

Postby DiGoRyKiRkE » May 22, 2019 4:40 pm

Catsbane?!?! :)) :)) :))

I love that! It's corny, and I think the estate would LOATHE it, but wow. . . that's great!

Some of the swords with which I'm most familiar come from Skyrim.

I'd like Puddleglum's sword to roughly resemble an orcish greatsword:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/eld ... 1013014518

Rillian's sword should be green like a Glass sword:
Image

The Centaurian swords (in my opinion) are golden in color with a very broad blade base, like the dwarven greatsword:
Image

Non-Skyrim, but the books say that the Calormenes use scimitars. I like the look of the Indian/Nepalese kukri:
Image

Catsbane ( :)) ) should be a rapier with an overly showy flair to the pommel:
https://www.outfit4events.com/runtime/c ... -01_01.JPG

Those are some ideas of mine ;)
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Re: Swords of Narnia

Postby Cleander » May 23, 2019 1:07 pm

Wow, those are extremely cool ideas!
Your image of Puddleglum's sword was similar to what I'd been thinking of, which is something in the neighborhood of a falchion (or a German Grosse Messer): https://www.google.ca/search?q=falchion ... 8640666831
Just something plain and peasant-ish, a heavy chopping tool that Marshwiggles might use like a machete to hack their way through the marshes.
I love the idea of having kukris used by Calormenes! (I have one myself, so yes I do love them). Using them would provide some cool possibilities for action sequences, with people throwing kukris like axes! (It's been done for real.)
As for giant swords, I'd been thinking about Viking svards. Something a bit rough with Northern vibes, and a somewhat shorter blade to sort of accommodate the steel shortage problem.
I know "Catsbane" (let's just keep going with that, OK? :D ) was likened to a rapier in the books, but if Narnia is late medieval, those fancy handguards might look slightly out of place. What about a sword breaker? : https://www.google.ca/search?q=sword+br ... 8641709259
They're light and slender like a rapier, but the hilt looks more consistent with the cruciform design on the the other Narnian swords. (After all, is a mouse really worried about people hitting his paw while swordfighting him?)
I'm wondering how you can come up with a design for Rhindon that doesn't end up too strongly resembling the Walden version or one of the various lion-themed swords from Game of Thrones. Perhaps if the entire handle was overlaid with gold?...
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Re: Swords of Narnia

Postby Varnafinde » Jun 05, 2019 1:27 pm

Catsbane should be an appropriate name for that sword. When Lewis was a little boy and he and his brother Warren were writing stories about Animal-land and India (and later combined them into their own country which they called Boxen), Jack wrote about mouse knights who rode out to battle cats who were attacking their country. So Catsbane should be right in the middle of this imagery. :ymapplause:
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Re: Swords of Narnia

Postby Cleander » Jun 11, 2019 12:46 pm

Varnafinde wrote: Jack wrote about mouse knights who rode out to battle cats who were attacking their country. So Catsbane should be right in the middle of this imagery. :ymapplause:


That's so cool! Makes me kinda wish we could have Reepicheep go up against a few cats in the series; too bad he wouldn't get to take on Ginger in the Last Battle.

I've been thinking a bit about new designs for Rhindon lately, and while it seems like you'd want to preserve a lion theme, it would probably not look very original to have a lion head pommel. Perhaps a solid gold disc pommel with the Narnian lion rampant engraved on its sides would look better.
Here's a question: what type of sword should Rhindon be? (I mean within the category of double-edged broadswords.) The Walden version was a Hand -and-a-Half Sword, with a little extra room on the handle two wield with both hands. Should the new version be a Longsword, with a large double-handed hilt, a short sword, or a good old-fashioned single handed sword (which I think is called an arming sword)?
Also, should Rhindon get passed down to Caspian and his heirs like it is in the Walden series? OR should it become like a state treasure, and get kept on display somewhere in Cair Paravel?
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Re: Swords of Narnia

Postby Cleander » Jun 18, 2019 4:33 pm

Ok, I'm rewatching Prince Caspian and thinking about Centaur swords and how they could be done in the new series.
First off, I wouldn't say that we need to see so much emphasis on Centaurs carrying swords, considering that bows would make them the best cavalry archers in any world!
But for the swords they do carry, I was wondering of maybe the design could be taken from the German zweihander: https://www.google.ca/search?q=zweihand ... 0900104309
Its shape retains a somewhat fantasy-esque look, and it's still two-handed. It's just distinct from the Walden centaur swords. Some version have wavy blades, which could also help with the fantasy look.
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