The Greenwood Backsword
- Mar 4
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 5
This ornate, folklore-inspired backsword was created as a custom order for a friend. It features extensive hand-engraving, copperwork and patina over a durable, hardened-steel hilt. While it is a thing of beauty, it is first and foremost a training tool, and has been meticulously designed to be robust, safe, and a delight to handle.
The shape of the hilt is based on an Elizabethan backsword housed in the Palazzo de Venezia. Its wide, flat barwork provides an ideal base for engraved decoration, as well as ample hand protection when used at the correct angles.
Its hollow pommel and single-edged tapering blade lend it a complex balance, combining some sabre dynamics with bind-centric elements, and making it a versatile cut-and-thrust companion.
The sword is named for the fantastical woodland-themed decoration, namely the Green Man on the pommel. Alternatively known as the Lord of the Greenwood, this folkloric figure can be seen carved into sacred and secular buildings across Britain from the early 12th Century.
Please see our pricing structure for an idea of what a similar sword would cost.
∴ Specs ∴
Total length: 111cm
Blade length: 94cm from cross
Blade width at widest: 3cm
Grip length: 9.5cm
Grip and pommel: 15.5cm
Grip to guard: 5cm
Quillon span: 20cm
Weight: 1173g
Point of Balance: 12cm from cross
Right-handed
Blunt edges & rounded tip
Fencing safe flex
∴ Notes ∴
The hand-forged and heat-treated guard and hollow pommel are antiqued to a dark grey finish. The guard is formed of wide, flat ribbon bars, and includes two front rings, vertically S-shaped quillons and a knuckleguard, all with copper acorn finials. The bars and rings to the front of the guard are completely hand-engraved with oak leaf, vine and wind motifs.
The oak grip is wrapped with twisted copper wire and single steel wires for contrast, interspersed with flat copper ribbon. The latter is stamped with oak leaf motifs, then patinated to bring out a rich verdigris. Copper coronets cover the top and bottom of the grip.
The hollow flattened-pear pommel is the crowning glory of the piece, featuring a copper medallion with a hand-engraved green man motif, surrounded by a wreath of carved oak leaves.
∴ Gallery ∴
∴ An OAKEN RITE ∴
Rise, O Knight of the Greenwood,
And go about your way.
Think nothing of your anointing,
For you were mine since your bare feet
First touched my loamy soil.
And did not the earth rise to meet you
As you staggered and tried again?
Did you not leave stubborn footprints
In the moss that carpets my hall?
I have marked you in return.
The grass stain at your knees agrees:
Green was always your colour.
I know the number of your rings,
The direction of your grain,
And I will mark you again, you know,
Black soil pressed into lips and lids,
As the patient oak lowers binding roots
Like fingers through your ribs,
And you feel your Lordship’s feral embrace
Of root and tooth and silt-rich stench:
The rot that makes renewal.
But before then, let there be laughter.
Let your sword dance light in your hand: Winter’s branch made bright by spring,
Oak-willed and stubborn as heartwood,
Quenched in the forest’s own blood.
May it clear the wild path that lies before you,
Strike true as a green shoot grasping for light.
Rise, O Knight of the Greenwood,
And turn through my seasons with grace,
Knowing that even the mightiest oak
Must one day lie down with the leaves.
