Unsheathing Long Swords
The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 06 Mar 2002
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3016

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Michael Straight — 06 Mar 2002, 17:48

As a little break from our more involved discussions, here's a
down-to-earth question that probably has a straightforward answer.

How does Severian quickly unsheath his sword when it's slung behind his
back?  I'm imagining it being long enough that he can't simply reach back
and pull it out (his arm not being long enough to get it all the way out
of the sheath).   And if its length is comparable to the span of
Severian's arms, I'm not sure how he gets it out at all.   Am I wrongly
imagining Terminus Est as much longer than it really is?

-Rostrum

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Andy Robertson — 06 Mar 2002, 17:20
  follows, by subject match Michael Straight

----- Original Message -----

> From: "Michael Straight" <straight at email.unc.edu>
> 
> How does Severian quickly unsheath his sword when it's slung behind his
> back?  I'm imagining it being long enough that he can't simply reach back
> and pull it out (his arm not being long enough to get it all the way out
> of the sheath).

In the bit in COTC where he is captive and riding on the back of the
balachutherium he refers to the correct way of drawing the sword being to
"grip the quillions in one hand and the throat of he sheath in the other and
by opening the arms to left and right to draw the blade clear " - by which I
assume he would have had to unsling it first.



    hartshorn

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Michael Andre-Driussi — 06 Mar 2002, 19:10
  follows, by subject match Andy Robertson

> Rostrum wrote:
> How does Severian quickly unsheath his sword when it's slung behind his
> back?  I'm imagining it being long enough that he can't simply reach back
> and pull it out (his arm not being long enough to get it all the way out
> of the sheath).   And if its length is comparable to the span of
> Severian's arms, I'm not sure how he gets it out at all.   Am I wrongly
> imagining Terminus Est as much longer than it really is?

Does he ever actually "draw it" from that position on his back?  (Offhand I
don't recall a case, but I could be forgetting something.) My sense of him
unsheathing it when it is in front of him is that he is pulling the sheath
in the opposite direction as he moves the sword: a two-hand operation,
though once it is begun the sheath can be flicked off by swinging the
partially sheathed sword.

=mantis=


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