Who is the best wielder of Martin's sword?

[Redwall Musician]

I always saw it as wood. How would it have broken if it wasn't on a wood hilt? I guess It could have, but still. Besides, some covers show made of WOOD:




This one is hard to see, but it is wood.

But now that I think of it, the sword could have been both, metal and wood together. It's hard to know for sure.


Is it just me, or does this look like metal and wood?

Anyways, cover are not always right. But still, Boar wouldn't do much to the hilt.

[James Gryphon]

Well, the sword shown on the Martin the Warrior cover wouldn't be his sword, would it? After all, Badrang held it for 99% of the book, and I doubt the scene the cover is portraying is after Badrang's death; Martin looks too exuberant for that.

In any case, there's an illustration of Martin's sword here, with the hilt in plain sight.

It's worth noting, though, that whether the hilt is wood or not, I'm not sure we would be able to see it. Mossflower notes that the hilt was "restrapped with hard black leather", which indicates it was covered with another kind of leather before. In real life, strapping the hilt with leather was apparently not uncommon, so I guess there's no way to know for sure what it was made out of.

[Nightfire]

Yeah, the sword on the cover of Martin the Warrior is actually Queen Amballa's 'sword' that was given to Martin for him to use as a dagger. It could have been a mix of wood and metal, such as the grip was wood overlaid with leather, and the crosspiece and pommel were metal.

[Muse]

If you notice, I said either weilder or owner. In that case, King Bull Sparra and Asmodeus both apply.
The hilt was definitel metal. It is described as leather wrapped metal, I believ, with a gem at the end. Wood just doesn't seem right.

[Plugg Firetail]

What I don't get is Asmodeaus(sorry for spelling)is a snake.How would he be able to hold the sword.

[Muse]

Exactly. he never used it, but kept it for a long time.

[Lily]

I think the hilt would have been both metal and wood. The unsharpened base of the blade, called the tang, would probably have been encased in wood and then that wood would have been bound in leather to make the hilt. Granted, I only know about Japanese sword making, but I assume the basic principle is the same.

I found a nice picture for you all:

[Muse]

Cool

[Captain Tammo]

Can you please put Arven on the list?

[Muse]

Done.

[Nightfire]

I still think that Martin is THE best weilder. And as for how Asmodeus could have held the sword, I think he held it by curling his tail around the hilt and gripping it that way.

[Muse]

Yeah, good point. originaly,I meant held as in owned it. Sorry for the confusion!

[Gulo]

I would have to say that Rakkety Tam and deyna the taggerung where better weilders of Martin's sword than he was. Reason I say this is that Rakkety managed to slay an armed wolverine without armour on whereas Martin sustained much more grievous injuries with armour and fighting an unarmed wildcat. Martin however would of probably had physical strenght similar to that of Rakkety Tam, the reason I say this is that Martin in one on one unarmed combat managed to defeat the leader of the Garr tribe of squirrels who was described as being a large squirrel. He also managed to support Felldoh a squirrel standing on him. Hence I think physically Martin and Rakkety were probably of similar strenght. Now if you compare Gulo and Tsarmina I would say that Gulo had a definite advantage over her in terms of unarmed combat. Wolverines were probably the only creatures that could fight a badger in unarmed combat and emerge victorious. Furthermore an unarmed Gulo didnt really manage to do much against Rakkety Tam who only had a shield and sword and hence asked for a claymore.

Deyna the Taggerung had a clear physical advantage over Martin and also was an extremely skilled swordbeast having spent 15 seasons of his life being trained to fight by Swaney.

[James Gryphon]

Reason I say this is that Rakkety managed to slay an armed wolverine without armour on whereas Martin sustained much more grievous injuries with armour and fighting an unarmed wildcat.

Firstly, I'd like to say that as a proud cat owner, domestic cats are never "unarmed", as long as they still have their claws intact. Even housecats are born killers, so a notably larger wildcat, like Tsarmina, would still be very lethal even without a sword.

In real life, it turns out that wolverines really aren't that fast. I once said that Tam didn't seem to have a massive speed advantage over Gulo, but it's possible that still might have played a certain factor in keeping him alive -- after all, if Gulo moved as fast as he did I don't think Tam could have survived.

On the other hand, we know that cats, of course, have amazingly quick reflexes when they're preying on things, so with that, and the "sidestep" quote I provided in the Matthias topic, I think it's safe to say that Tsarmina is as quick as Martin is -- which, considering her greater size, is definitely a point in her favor. Gulo obviously has a lot more physical resilience, but cats are possibly the most dangerous predators on Earth when it comes to killing small mammals, so the difference between her and Gulo, when it comes to killing smaller creatures, might be a little overrated. Martin's sword is capable of slicing either of them up equally well, so I suspect Gulo's toughness might not be as much of an advantage as Tsarmina's speed. I think his greater strength is almost a moot point, since both the wolverine and the wildcat are going to be much stronger than either the mouse or the squirrel. Comparing a wildcat and a wolverine over their ability to overpower prey mammals is just comparing "overkill" and "even more overkill."

With that in mind, although I agree a wildcat wouldn't fare well in a fight with a wolverine, Martin's sword negates the wolverine's physical toughness, so the wildcat might still be more lethal in a fight against a smaller mammal, because it's as agile as they are and the wolverine isn't.

All that said, I have to admit that I am very biased in favor of Martin and Tsarmina, so feel free to take this with a pound of salt.

[Blademaster]

YOU FORGOT THE CRAZED HARE MOTHER THAT KILLED ZWILT IN THE SABLE QUEEN TUT TUT