A Boy and His Sword

Last night, Hubby and I were watching Auction Kings, and they had somebody bring them an interesting little sword to sell in their next auction.

If you haven't seen the show before, basically, it's a reality show that follows a group who work at an auction house. People bring in interesting things for them to sell at auction. And before the auction, they have experts come in and tell them the history of the item and value. Basically, it's kind of like Pawn Stars, but set in the South and you actually get to see the items sold at auction.

OK, so back to my story... we were watching them bring in an expert to tell them about the sword. The expert first pointed out that it was a three-edged sword. He said, "They made it that way because if you get stabbed with a three-edged sword, the wound doesn't heal." Interesting... and brutal. He examined how extremely sharp the sword was and how beautifully made it was. The owner of the auction asked about the size of the sword. And this is where things got interesting...

The expert said that swords like that were often given to princes (basically a smaller version of what dad carried around). We're not talking about full-grown princes like William or Henry, but children! Then he said that this sword was made around the time of the Civil War and would still have been given to a child.

WHAT?!?

The expert explained that kids back then grew up in a different world and were used to seeing stuff like that every day. The gallery owner asked more and the expert said that kids would have probably played with it!

OK, so this is where my mind goes... I'm thinking about my own 4-yr-old and how he can make anything into a sword - a stick, a drinking straw, even a stuffed animal! He likes to have pretend duels with us. You would have thought that we raised him on Errol Flynn movies.

But now I'm thinking about that same 4-yr-old with an actual sword! Yikes! The damage he could inflict would keep an ER busy!!!

Oh, but wait... don't forget the part about it being a three-edged sword! That's right. So not only did some child have the capability to wound others, but the ability to inflict a wound that would not heal.

No wonder children didn't live as long in those days!

I know that times are different, and that they probably weren't handing out swords to 4-yr-olds back then. But I'm definitely glad that today's kids get to play with swords and toys made out of foam. And I am glad to live in a time where we have safety features and medicines (you know... like Tetanus shots) available. And I'm also glad my son won't be playing with a real sword anytime soon!