I received this question in an e-mail:

Quote:

I wonder if you could kindly help my poor mother in law who is battling with the Last clue on a cross word. The clue is “Round ended coronation sword”. We have the following letters: C – R – ANA.

Any ideas?

Curtana Sword

The pointless sword carried before English monarchs at their coronation, and emblematically considered as the sword of mercy. The sword of Edward the Confessor.

Form Wiki: Curtana or Cortana or Courtain, was the sword of King Edward the Confessor. Today, the sword is carried in procession before the British sovereign at his or her coronation. The sword has no point and is an emblem of mercy. It bears an inscription which reads "My name is Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durendal."

Patrick,

That would be:

Curtana

\Cur*ta"na\ , n. The pointless sword carried before English monarchs at their coronation, and emblematically considered as the sword of mercy; -- also called the sword of Edward the Confessor.


From Dictionary.com

Beaten to the puch again :lol: . NIce work, Nathan!

It's also called the 'Sword of Mercy', which is why the broken (or rounded point) is significant. Found this picture.

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Dayum, continuously learning in here!

Bob

Cool. That's a new one for me, too. Anybody know if this was really the sword of Edward the Confessor? Or, how/why did the point get broken?

No, this is not the sword of Edward the Confessor. I don't know anything in particular about the sword other than that it was probably made for Charles II in 1661; that's all I could find from Google searching. From what I read, the point is broken to symbolize mercy, which tempers justice. It was a fun few minutes of detective work to find out what I did.