Making the swords for ARN

Designing the Arn Swords

The producers of the Arn films wanted to be as historically accurate as possible in their choice of weapons for the films, so Søren Niedziella of Albion Europe brought them together with Peter Johnsson, the well-known author, researcher and designer for Albion Swords.

Since Albion would need to produce __ hundred swords, daggers and scabbards for the film in a matter of a few months, the designs needed to be developed and approved quickly. Typically, it takes at least a year to design a new Albion sword model, put it into production, and offer it to the public for sale.

The demands of filming also required that each “hero” sword have multiple “stunt” versions available - the sword design had to be flexible enough to allow for both a sharp steel blade for close-ups and a believable-looking, but safe, aluminum counterpart for combat scenes. “This was the first time that Albion has produced aluminum fight props,” says Amy Waddell, President and CEO of Albion Swords. “The advice of swordmaker Jody Samson was invaluable, as he had made many hero and aluminum stunt swords for films prior to joining Albion.”.

In order to secure the work, Albion made a sample “stunt” aluminum sword to send for review. “We made it the same way that we made the subsequent stunt swords – like a sharp sword in all respects, save for the special alloy aluminum blade with combat-safe 2mm rounded edges,” added Howard Waddell, Vice President of Albion Swords. “It was reported that the director of the film said, when seeing the aluminum sword for the first time: “This is very nice. What would the stunt swords look like?””

Once Peter and the producers agreed on the basics of the design, the rest of the task was fairly straightforward, though still very demanding. Peter had already documented quite a few swords from the period and we routinely make many similar swords in the NextGen line.

“To begin designing Arn’s sword,” says Peter, “I re-read the Arn series of books. The sword in the Arn books is very strongly associated with the character – carrying it is his duty rather than right – and the sword brings with it certain responsibilities. Accepting these responsibilities it demands gives Arn a slightly different attitude than you usually find – Arn is a very skilled swordsman, but he is reluctant to use the sword unless it is absolutely necessary.” All of this heavily influenced Peter’s design decisions.

On one of the Arn book covers is the well-known sword that is part of the Hapsburg regalia – known as the Sword of Saint Maurice (Vienna), once used as the coronation sword of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperors. “Though the author does not spell it out, it was clear from his description of Arn’s Crusader sword that it was based at least in part on the Sword of Saint Maurice (Vienna).” Peter added. “This gave me a clear starting point.”

“In the books, the Arn sword is described as having a sweet and agile balance with long slim blade.” Knowing that the author had apparently chosen the sword of Saint Maurice (Vienna) as the sword he described, Peter knew which existing Albion blade on which to base the design. “The Saint Maurice (Vienna) blade is very close to our Gaddhjalt model,” said Peter, “and we could set that as our starting point in order to save precious time.”

“The filmmakers were very interested in having the hilt of the Arn sword in bronze, for a more rich look and to set it apart from the other swords in the film. Bronze is slightly heavier than steel and this has to be taken into account in shaping the hilt, making sure that the weight of the pommel brings out the best properties of the blade.”

Peter chose a straight guard, similar to the Sword of Saint Maurice (Vienna), but chose to use a disc pommel, rather than the “tea cozy” shape on the Vienna sword. The “tea cozy” is more common on earlier swords, whereas the disc pommel was a very common feature in this time period. “The disc also is a sign of unity and harmony (and it also happened to be the favorite design of director and prop people),” Peter added.

The sword had to be “typical” of the period to be believable, but it also had to have elements that set it apart and make it stand out on film. One way to stress the “Crusader” aspect of the sword, other than the basic “cruciform” design, is through symbols and lettering on the blade and hilt. Here again, the Sword of Saint Maurice (Vienna) was used, as well as another contemporary sword dedicated to the same saint -- the Sword of Saint Maurice (Turin). “This was important in order to give any decorative elements the type of shape and character that accurately reflects artwork of the period,” Peter stressed.

The pommel is decorated with a simple “Templar” cross, and the guard incised with lettering in the same style as the lettering on the guard of the Sword of Saint Maurice (Vienna). On the Arn sword the lettering spells out the famous Latin quotation: “In Hoc Signo Vinces” or “In This Sign You Shall Conquer,” (referring to the Emperor Constantine’s vision of the Cross.). Each of these details were deeply carved into the original hilt waxes by Peter prior to molding and casting. Another change from the Sword of Saint Maurice (Vienna) – the lettering on the guard is meant to be read with the blade (point) held upwards – for the Arn sword, it made more visual sense to have the inscription read with the blade (point) held downwards, especially for scenes where the character holds the sword upright, like a cross, in an attitude of prayer.

Peter felt that adding three engraved cross fourchee on the blade would be fitting for the period and a visual reminder of the sacred nature of the sword. A similar repeated design appears on the Sword of Saint Maurice (Turin). “In this way,” Peter explained, “as Arn draws his sword, these crosses would show on screen, a simple symbol that carries through clearly even in difficult lighting - like a triple prayer repeated as it slides from scabbard - creating a nice visual effect.”

Peter traveled to Morocco and spent two days watching the filming of those segments. While there, he solicited feedback on the swords from the producers, actors and stuntmen for the next round of Viking-style designs for the Swedish segment of filming. Peter later spent a day on the Swedish set as well.

In addition to the Arn sword, Peter designed 3 different Arabian swords, 3 Arabian daggers, and a “Templar” Dagger for the initial filming.

For the Swedish segment, Peter designed a new sword for Ulvsbane, Arn’s "Viking" foe in the film, inspired by a fascinating Finnish sword find from Suontaka, Tyrväntö, Tavastland. Though the original sword is actually from a woman's grave and is a somewhat small sword, the Ulvsbane sword is scaled up considerably in size. In addition to the numerous Viking style swords produced for the Swedish segment of the film, Peter designed three “seaxes” or single-edged knives for various characters to carry in the film.

Swords for other main characters and combatants in the films were based on swords from that time period that are currently in the Albion NextGen family, though some changes were made in hilt components to provide more variety.

When it came to making historically accurate scabbards for the film, even more challenges presented themselves.

Scabbardmaker Aaron Schnatterly had just joined the Albion team a few months before the Arn project came along.

“This project was initially exciting – making film props for a historically accurate film was a totally new experience for me,” Aaron recalls. “It presented a lot of challenges, especially with the volume of work and the tight deadlines. I knew that we could not do it all they way we had usually made scabbards, so we had to develop new techniques and approaches to give a good appearance on film and reasonable accuracy within filmmakers’ timeline.”

In the midst of the project, Aaron was hit with a severe gall bladder problem, making it difficult to work, or even stand, for long periods of time. He had to delay surgery until after the project was complete and in the meantime “play through the pain.”

Added to the challenges: Aaron married Shan-Aan Northrop in October, just as the project started. “The Arn project was our honeymoon,” Aaron jokes. “But seriously, there’s no way it could have been done without Shan-Aan’s help. It was great to work so closely with her, and through it all, we never really got upset with each other (a real tribute to her). It was a great bonding experience for a newlywed couple, working as a team.”

One nagging difficulty was communicating by email and telephone with Peter and the filmmakers - getting decisions and clarification, and learning curve because it was the first time. Lessons learned from the first film were applied to the second film’s projects, which made the process faster and easier on everyone.

Aaron struggled with trying to develop scabbards that would be accurate, last through filming and yet be fast to make – this led to groundbreaking techniques for future Albion scabbard work. In discussions with Peter, it was decided that, rather than making scabbard cores the usual way by hollowing out planks of basswood or poplar and shaping the outsides by hand – we would use another authentic Medieval process – building the scabbard up with laminated layers of hardwood.

This required some specially engineered jigs to form the laminations to a blade in the core:  Steve Fisher, our Cad Designer and CNC machinist designed the jig, using the blade program as a base.

It wasn’t all stress for Aaron – there were fun parts – designing and making special pieces for each main character and trying to find evidence in period appropriate designs from effigies and period art. Oakshott’s "Records of the Medieval Sword", "The Sword in the Age of Chivalry" were two main resources. Aaron spent a lot of time examining images from the Bayeux tapestry and had many discussions with Peter. One of the designs was very closely based on the Sancho IV sword scabbard.

Aaron made 10 new scabbard designs for the first film, and 8 more for the second film. Overall, he and Shan-Aan made 175 individual pieces in the three and a half months of the project.

“This was a big growing experience me as an artist,” Aaron says. “It was a thrill to see some of the production stills that had actors wearing the pieces. It may sound funny, but it is remarkable how honesty little they stood out – which to me meant that they did what they were supposed to do – look right and fit in with the nicely executed costuming.”