(The Cutlass, Pirate Swords, Sabers, Scimitars and that Drizzt Do'Urden Guy)
The exact origin of curved swords is something that has been debated for years. It is generally acceptedthat the majority of curved swords came from the East.
Curved swords most likely manifested somewhere around Egypt, with the appearance of the khopesh (a weaponsomewhere between sickle and sword).
Since then, a number of curved swords began appearing in the East and westerners took to calling such curvedswords "Scimitars". Technically, there isn't one sword that is called a scimitar; the term refers to theentire group of curved swords that came from East (excluding the Japanese curved swords). The term may bea derivative of Shamshirwhich was a thin curved sword from Persia, although the shamshir wasn't really popularized until the 1500s.Other scimitars include the kilij(thinkof the massive cleaver swords from Aladin and you have a fairly accurate picture), and the Indian Tulwar(somewhere between a >shamshirand a kilij). Some smaller curved weaponsfrom the east include the Kopis (a knifelike curved blade that probablywas the predecessor of the Khopesh), the Nepalese kukri and the hook-handledfalcata of ancient Spain. Fantasy hashad it's share of Scimitars. Most notably, perhaps, is the Dark Elf Drizzt Do'Urden, of the Forgotten Realms bookseries by R.A. Salvatore. Drizzt used two flashy scimitars when he fought, one in each hand, filleting his foeswhenever he drew them. More recently, the Lord of the Rings movies show many of the elven characters weildingswords similar to scimitars.
Curved swords weren't confined to the east (or to fantasy), of course. As the scimitars developedin the east, the west was catching on to the trend. Sabersand cutlasseswere slowly conceptualized and developed in Europe.The curved blades were ideal for charging horsem*n who tended to lose their straight blades in the bodies of theirhaplessly impaled foes. The curved sabers could slash opponents and slide off as the horsem*n rode by. Another advantagewas that curved blades were more compact than straight ones, so horsem*n were also able to slash from side to side withoutworrying about trimming the ears off their horses.
Sailors also liked this compact size, since ship-board combat was often in very close quarters,with a vexing amount of wooden obstacles for swords to get embedded in. This explains thestereotypical image of the pirate holding a cutlass,reinforced by Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Kierra Knightley in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.
Here are a few examples of arming swords sold by Strongblade. Please visit our Arming Sword page to see a more complete list.
