What is the Sword?
Why should Rudi try to get it?
Why do his enemies try to prevent him from getting it?
Two beneficial consequences of the Quest:
en route, Rudi makes new friends and allies;
the Sword, if acquired, might be a potent symbol to unite the new kingdom that must be built.
But there must be more to it than that. Why was there a vision of the Sword? What do the Cutters know about it that makes them want to kill Rudi?
"'You-cannot-stand-against-us-without-It.'" (Chapter Nine, p. 240)
That sounds serious. We have contemplated Magic Swords before and this is clearly another.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't want to say too much about the Sword of the Lady till you actually see it in the story. But your speculations are hitting close to the mark!
And besides the swords of power you listed, Poul Anderson shows us Cortana, the sword of Ogier/Holger Dansk, in THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS. Another powerful, evocative, and mystically symbolic weapon.
And Charlemagne's sword, Joyeuse, still exists! It's one of the surviving pieces of the regalia of the Kings of France. What happened to Joyeuse after the Change? And what of the Spear of Destiny, which is allegedly the lance which pierced the side of Christ? That was included in the coronation regalia of the Holy Roman Emperors and is still preserved in Vienna to this day. Will either of these be seen in the Changed world?
Sean
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