{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1226",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1226,
    "subject": "Swords/axes",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-10-23T07:50:17+00:00",
    "last": "1998-10-23T19:17:30+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0020-0100@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Peter Stephenson",
        "address": "pws at ibmth.df.unipi.it"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-23T07:50:17+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Swords/axes",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "\"Mark Millman\" wrote:\nIn England (and in the Germanic countries generally,\nto a lesser extent) the axe was favored; on the Con-\ntinent (and especially in the Romance countries) the\nsword was preferred."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Just a PS: the long-standing tradition in England was that common\npeople were beheaded by the axe, nobles had the right to the sword.\nThus many of the more famous executions (such as Charles I) were by\nthe sword.  Traitors from William Wallace on, as is even more\nwell-known, were hung, drawn and quartered.\n\nNone of this seems to be relevant to Urth, were you can have any\nweapon as long as it's the sword the executioner happens to be\ncarrying --- except maybe it implies the sword is more pleasant.\nYeah, right. I think the executioner in question made more difference:\nan inexpert one took several blows to get the head off."
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Peter Stephenson <pws at ibmth.df.unipi.it>       Tel: +39 050 844536\nWWW:  http://www.ifh.de/~pws/\nDipartimento di Fisica, Via Buonarotti 2, 56100 Pisa, Italy"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0020-0101@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mark Millman",
        "address": "mark_millman at hmco.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-23T19:17:30+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Swords/axes",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0020-0100@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On 23 October 1998 at 7:50 am GMT,\nPeter Stephenson wrote:\n\"Mark Millman\" wrote:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "In England (and in the Germanic countries generally,\nto a lesser extent) the axe was favored; on the Con-\ntinent (and especially in the Romance countries) the\nsword was preferred."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Just a PS: the long-standing tradition in England was\nthat common people were beheaded by the axe,\nnobles had the right to the sword.  Thus many of the\nmore famous executions (such as Charles I) were by\nthe sword.  Traitors from William Wallace on, as is\neven more well-known, were hung, drawn and quartered.\n\nNone of this seems to be relevant to Urth, were you can\nhave any weapon as long as it's the sword the execu-\ntioner happens to be carrying --- except maybe it implies\nthe sword is more pleasant.  Yeah, right. I think the exe-\ncutioner in question made more difference:  an inexpert\none took several blows to get the head off.\n\n--\nPeter Stephenson <pws at ibmth.df.unipi.it>\nTel: +39 050 844536\nWWW:  http://www.ifh.de/~pws/\nDipartimento di Fisica, Via Buonarotti 2, 56100 Pisa, Italy"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Right you are, Peter.  The sword, of course, is the more\nnoble instrument, thus aristocrats and gentry \"get\" (oh,\nlucky folk) to have it used on them.\n\nPart of the reason that the sword was preferred on the\nContinent, I think, is that commoners typically didn't have\nthe right to be beheaded--they could, at best (and think\nof what those phrases imply), be hanged.  That was cer-\ntainly the case in France, and I believe it holds true for\nthe rest of continental Europe.  As Peter says, England\ndidn't pre-emptively prohibit commoners from being\nbeheaded.  Lucky sods.\n\nMark Millman"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}