h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The sword variety of weapon doesn't stop at the reasonable, extending into the range commonly known as 'huge and cumbersome'. The Bastard Sword was a weapon with a wide blade around the same length as a Broadsword. As well as being a marvellous sweeping weapon it's wide blade make smacking your opponent into submission a real possibility.

Then there was the Great Sword, a weapon with a long, thin blade some five or six feet in length. It's length meant that it was cumbersome and very difficult to transport without a horse or a handy squire. It was, without doubt, a two-handed weapon and could, if handled by an expert, deliver enormous damage.

I always wondered what great swords were designed to kill - obviously for unarmored or lightly armored people it was vast overkill - for chainmail wearers you'd be preferring a rapier or some other thruster, and for full platemail knights a mace is the only way forward.

Only thing I can think of is a way of destroying seige weaponry and wooden fortifications - oh - and against people with shields, I guess.

I used the term 'sweeping' because it appeared in the article, but I'd prefer to use 'cleaving', which is far more appropriate. The Great Sword, at full swing with a trained user, could easily cleave through a shield or sheet metal armour.

While comedic in slant, the 'Black Knight' sketch from Monty Python and the Holy Grail isn't TOO far off the mark in terms of the damage possible with a big sword and limited armour.

Now, if you want to talk about cleavers, look at the Falchion. It's like a cross between meat cleaver and a nightmare. With a blade some 4 inches wide, up to 2 feet (.66m) long, single edged and blunt pointed, it is a weapon to be respected and feared. They're also a lot of fun at Watermelon Festivals !!

The utterly unoriginal and uncelebrated yet still curiously strong
-Deuce