Unsheathing Long Swords

Michael Andre-Driussi · 06 Mar 2002, 19:10 · from urth-v0203.mbox · original

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From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Unsheathing Long Swords
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 11:10:40 -0800
Message-ID: <urth-v0203-300 at digest.urth.net>
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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.

=3Dmantis=3D

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