[K. Robert]

Hello, I am going to make a presentation in my school about swords trying to ,I'll focus on 4 main points:

Swords in Literature (both east and west)

Swords as status symbols (both eastern and western)

Swords in the "modern" (19th century onward) era

Swords "back then" (Antiquity and middle ages)

Could someone please give me some sources that I could base my work on? I'll bring some swords into the classroom for show too. And of course any tips as to what should I talk about or what topics to avoid are welcome.
Thanks

[Mark Moore]

I would put strong emphasis on the fact that almost everything they see in *sword movies* is Hollywood fantasy, and stress the difference....without going into -extreme- detail that might get over their heads. That would be a big point for me, if I were in your place. .....McM

[Craig Peters]

Unless you are doing a really long presentation (say half an hour), I wouldn't try to cover so many topics. You cannot really do justice to them in so short a time. Maybe stick to points three and four, and leave out one and two.

[K. Robert]

That is the point of this presentation, even the idea orignally came from the fact that my polish teacher said that swords were over 30kg... no kidding, and she belived it too. I want to erase this horrible misinformation and get some good marks while doing it

[K. Robert]

[Craig Peters]

You know, it will probably be more interesting for your classmates if you leave out the "swords in literature" and "sword symbolism" stuff and talk about how swords are used, assuming that you have some knowledge of their usage.

Remember that most people don’t really care that much about swords. This means that topics like “sword symbolism” and “swords in literature” will probably come off as dry and academic, or more bluntly, extremely boring. By contrast, if you do “Sword Mythbusting”—showing what ideas about swords are wrong and having good evidence to prove it—and if you let people have a good look at a few replica swords—the experience will probably be memorable and enjoyable. Most people are also at least curious enough that I can hold their attention for a bit by explaining how real swords are used in a way that’s so much different from in the movies; talk about stuff like light saber fighting in Star Wars versus the real sword fighting, and you’ll have engaged a good proportion of the class already. Assuming that you do not need to talk about literary swords and symbolism, you will have a much more enjoyable and engaging presentation if you focus on common misconceptions.

[Fisher Lobdell]

I agree with Craig, debunk some common misconceptions about weight, handling, and usage, and show them the reproductions.
I think it is a great idea to do this presentation, and it's something that I would/should do.

Actually I did something similar in my high school biology class a few months ago. My teacher was talking about how organisms can change slightly do to their environments, and she brought up how medieval people were short, which is not true. But I would not correct her in the middle of class, so I went to her after class, and informed her that it was a myth and she should look into it. She looked into it, and explained to the class that people think that because the armours are displayed on stands that make it look like it's for a smaller person than it was, and so on.

Anyway... Good luck on your presentation!

[K. Robert]

Thanks haha. But sadly the "swords in literature" and "swords as status symobls" were requested by the teacher herself, so i can't really leave them out :/

[Craig Peters]

Can you possibly explain to her why sword mythbusting and sword usage will be more engaging and rewarding for the students? It will require tact; after all, you are essentially saying her topics are not that interesting. However, if you think about your target audience and how to best persuade her (remember all those stupid persuasive essays you had to write? ;-) then you could pull it off. Honestly, it seems like such a good chance to open up your classmates' eyes; the way the teacher has asked you to present, you'd think she wants all your classmates' eyes closed during the presentation!

[Matthew Amt]

I try to stick to what I know and, importantly, what I can show, when I'm giving a talk. I always thought doing one just on swords would be fascinating. But I would probably add in literary references as I went along, quoting descriptions of swords similar to whatever I was displaying at the moment.

For the weight myth-busting, it should be easy enough to show photos of original swords, then show your replicas, pointing out that the sizes are extremely similar so that the weight must be, as well. You might also find a bar of steel that actually weighs 30 or 40 pounds, and take that along, to show how large a sword would have to be in order to weigh that much. It might be handy to look up the densities/specific gravities of steel versus wrought iron, which are nearly identical, to counter the crowd that believes "Iron is HEAVIER than steel!"

If you can let the audience hold the swords, they will love you forever. IF. Only do that if you can have a very controlled situation, and make sure each person knows that they can *hold* the sword, not wave, swing, thrust, chop, cut, slice, slash, wield, brandish, flourish, nor otherwise swashbuckle it. If 2 people are holding swords at once, they WILL clash them together, edge-to-edge...

Oh, and they'll grab the BLADES, too, *then* ask, "Is this sharp?" Sigh...

But have fun!

Matthew

[J.D. Crawford]