Josephine's Sword

Summer 768

"My lady, may I have an audience with you?" came a rough voice from the garden gate.

The Queen turned from where she had been thinning herbs in a small rich patch to see the castle blacksmith, Master Gwallawc, standing before her, sooty cap in his sooty hands, his leather apron scorched in many places as were his arms and face. "Good Master, of course. Will you step into the garden?

The man looked about uncomfortably. "I should not like to, my lady. I should not like to disturb anything." He looked at her imploringly, so Josephine just stood with her hands clasped in front of her and smiled an invitation for the man to go on.

"My lady," the man went on nervously, "I have heard that the master armorer was unsure whether you, begging your leave, my lady, had a strong enough wrist to use a sword."

Josephine nodded. "Aye, though he thought perhaps if I wore a leather wrist brace, I might."

Gwallawc seemed to be pleased, making Josephine more anxious to hear what he had to say. "My lady, I am happy to tell you that I have discovered how to make a sword just as strong and deadly, but much lighter." He looked around as if making sure no one had heard.

Josephine brought her clasped hands up to her breast. "You have? That is marvelous! Can you tell me how?"

Bowing slightly, Gwallawc answered, "If my lady would permit me, I should like to show you how."

Josephine's face lit up with excitement. "Truly? And how does it come to pass you should know I would enjoy that?"

The man smiled, then said cryptically, " Begging your leave, my lady, but a little bird told me. I shall tell you if you command me, but the person asked me not to offer the information."

The Queen was mystified, but did not want to burden the man with her curiosity. "That is all right.. and I accept your invitation with great enthusiasm. When?"

At Gwallawc's recommendation, the Queen wore her oldest and simplest dress the next morning, the time of their appointment. She told the wondering Lawrence, "Our blacksmith wants me to watch him use the forge." She could tell by his reaction that while he thought this was an interesting idea, it was unlikely that he had been the one to suggest it.

She found the smith with Stepan, his apprentice, already hard at work in the smithy in the castle courtyard. Stepan was operating a bellows that was blowing air into a furnace, while Gwallawc's attention was on some iron rods he had on the table in front of him. He nodded his greeting to the Queen, and both he and Stepan bowed.

Gwallawc spoke to Stepan, "Tell her ladyship what you are doing, boy."

Stepan was a young man, no more than 20, with the pale coloring and high cheekbones of his Anglian heritage, unlike the smaller, darker Celtic features of his master. He smiled at Josephine as she came over and examined the bellows. "Your grace, I am making the furnace hotter by blowing air in.. so the iron we have in the furnace will melt and mix with just enough of the carbon in the charcoal to become steel. "

"So that is how steel is made.. is it very difficult?" Josephine asked, looking about at the scraps of metal to see if she could identify the steel. "I think it must be, since so little is made compared to the iron."

Stepan nodded, offered the Queen a turn at the bellows, which she gladly accepted and traded places with him. Gwallawc chided, "Now boy, do not be giving the lady too much of your work."

The Queen was struggling with the bellows, which required more strength than she had expected, but she insisted on continuing.

Stepan answered her question, "Aye, it is hard to make. My master says that steel can only be made when the furnace reaches a particular temperature. Too little or to high and you just have iron. You also need to have charcoal. Master says that is just the truth of it. No one knows why it is so that the charcoal and the iron exchange their spirits."

The master shook his head. "Not spirits, boy, spirit. The spirit of the iron and the spirit of the charcoal.. their character."

Josephine's brow was moistening with sweat, but she was not ready to give up the bellows yet. "I have seen the charcoal burners in the woods."

The Master nodded, "We could not do our work without them." He told Stepan, "Take the bellows, man, I want to show her ladyship something."

Josephine followed Gwallawc into the small tent behind the forge. When the man spoke, it was in a whisper. "If he continues to work well, I shall of course, teach Stepan about this, but for now, my lady, the secret will be yours and mine alone, with your permission."

Josephine was astonished. "The King does not even know?"

Gwallawc smiled conspiratorially. "Nay, my lady, he does not. I was hoping that you would help me share it with him when it is ready." He reached into a chest and pulled out a bundle wrapped in cloth. He untied the cords, and unrolled the thing, which turned out to be a dagger. It was a good sized dagger but not ornate.

"'Tis beautifully made, Master. What is the secret?" He handed the dagger to her, hilt first, and she instantly understood. "'Tis like a feather in my hand! But can so light a dagger withstand use?"

Gwallawc's satisfaction was obvious. He grinned, "Aye, my lady.. and that is the secret. If you could try it now you would see.. that 'tis as strong and as sharp as any dagger made in the usual manner." He looked back at the tent flap. "We cannot try it here.. with your leave, your grace, I wish to keep this very secret until I can show his majesty my next work.. a sword."

The Master carefully took the dagger from Josephine and wrapped it again in the cloth and tied it. He put it in the chest and shut it firmly.

"Good Master Gwallawc, you may count on my discretion. But.. why have you chosen me to help you?" Josephine was fascinated.

The blacksmith smiled again. "When I heard that you wanted to learn to use a sword from.. my friend.. it struck me that having you receive the first of these swords.. the first in the world, my lady… would be a wonderful way to demonstrate it to his majesty. I hope you can help me, lady."

"With pleasure, Master!" Josephine gave him a delighted look.

He led her back out to the forge and over to where he had been examining the two iron rods. He whispered, "Now this is part of the secret." The sound of the bellows covered his words so Stepan did not hear. "We must heat these.. then I shall show you."

"Will you not need the furnace?" Josephine asked as the man took the rods to the open forge.

"Nay, iron needs not be so hot to soften." He laid one of the rods on the hot charcoal fire. The Queen waved away an ember that flew past her face. "My lady, I am forgetting myself. Stepan, fetch her grace a leather apron!"

In no time the Queen had a heavy leather apron over her gown. She tied back her hair with a leather thong Gwallawc offered her.

She watched intently as the iron rod slowly heated, then began to change color and grow red. When the Master judged the rod to be at the right temperature, he lifted it from the fire with tongs. He carefully took it over to the table again. Gripping one end in a vise, he beckoned for the Queen to stand near him. "Not too near, my lady, as this is wondrous hot." She moved forward and saw the man rest the other end, some short distance from the tip, of the rod in a U-shaped metal bracket. Then he took another tool and gripped the overage with it. He closed the pincers of the tool onto the rod and then made it fast.

"What are you going to do?" Josephine asked.

Gwallawc picked up a hammer and nodded to the pinching tool. "You will see, my lady." He started to hammer the free end of the tool. It was hard to see why and what effect the hammer in had. But he continued. At last he explained, "With every blow of this hammer the hot iron rod twists ever so slightly. So long as it remains hot enough, it will give. In the end, it will be shorter than it is now, but it will be twisted into a spiral of slightly greater girth than the iron rod."

Josephine thought a few moments and then said, "And that will make the rod much stronger than it is now!"

Gwallawc beamed. "Exactly., my lady!"

Josephine spent part of several days in a row watching and even occasionally helping with the twisting of the rods. The Master smiled at her patience and persistence.

They had visitors. Rory and Shannon stopped by to watch what they were doing. This made Josephine anxious for she found herself waiting for Shannon to suddenly move and knock something down. But he comported himself and there were no accidents. Likewise her brother Lorin came by , asked many questions, a few of which the Queen answered herself.

Finally the King himself stopped by. He examined the work.. she was not at that moment hammering the rods herself, though he had seen that she was from his chamber window earlier. He made out to be stern and critical, but his merry eyes gave the ruse away. She could tell he was both bemused and rather proud of her. He asked, "Why this sudden interest in smithing?" She just smiled at him and shrugged.

When the two iron rods were completely twisted, Gwallawc heated them again, then one by one took them to his anvil where he hammered them flat. Then he sent Stepan on an errand into the town. "Now for the next secret," he announced. The two had grown so familiar that he was no longer calling her "my lady" with every utterance.

This time he pulled out from a shelf under the table a long flat piece of burnished steel. "This will be the spine of the sword."

"Is it not too long for a sword such as I may heft?" Josephine asked.

By way of answer he handed her the steel. It was heavy, but not nearly as heavy as she had thought it would be. "I see!" she affirmed. "The steel spine will make the sword stronger than if 'twere iron, but it shall also be lighter."

The next step was to heat the iron edges of the sword which she had helped twist and to join them to either side of the steel. She watched as Gwallawc hammered and hammered the pieces, then heated all and hammered again. Some of the steel extended past the iron to make the tang that would attach to the guard, hilt and pommel. When this part was done, the Queen observed, "I know you are from finished, for there should be sharp edges and a good point. Shall we sharpen the iron edges?"

That was when Gwallawc brought out the broad but thin pieces of steel that he had had Stepan working on all the while they were working on the rods. "You saw that I made him hammer these thin, then fold and hammer again, and then again? We shall cover and seal these to the edges with this steel now, and then sharpen the edges and the point.

The Master allowed the Queen to hammer the steel onto the iron sides but took over when it was time to hone and edge. The sword itself was coming into shape.. it was nearly done.

Some days later the Queen invited her husband and other courtiers to visit the smithy. She was now dressed as she might be any day, and she wore a pair of leather gloves with intricate embroidery on the wrist. When Lawrence was standing before her and others had gathered around, Gwallawc brought out a long thin parcel wrapped in cloth. "My lord, I ask you to step back a few paces the Queen asked her husband. He smiled a little uncomfortably and did as he was asked.

With no fanfare, Gwallawc held up the parcel and pulled away the cloth. He was shown to be holding a beautiful sword, bright and shining in the morning sun, of usual length and sturdiness. Then he held it out to the Queen.

Josephine took the sword by its hilt. She held it up, point heavenward, and then swept it around in a graceful arc. She made some moves with it to one side, and then to the other, and then to everyone's surprise took the hilt in both hands and turned towards the anvil and brought the sword down hard onto it. There was a mighty clang, but when she turned and held out the sword to the King, it was unmarred.

A gasp of surprise had issued from the crowd when she had brought the sword down on the anvil. Now the King stood with his mouth open as he reached for the sword that his wife offered him. He took it, tried its heft in his own right hand, twisting his wrist, swinging the sword and then holding it close to his face to examine its edge. "Amazing," he breathed. He went over to the anvil himself, and this blow was twice as hard and loud as Josephine's had been. Yet the sword was no worse for it.

Lawrence came back to Josephine and Gwallawc. "Master, this is a miraculous sword. It is light and easy to use, yet it is hard as a stone.. harder. What is the secret.

The blacksmith smiled at the Queen, who answered, "My lord, I am sorry, but some things must remain the secret of the smithy."

"And you know it? This secret?" he asked her.

"I do, my lord, at least in part." Josephine looked into her husband's eyes proudly.

He too was smiling. He held the sword so he could look at the end of the pommel. "I take it, my lady, that the sun design here means this is your sword?"

"It is, my lord," she answered. Then she looked at Gwallawc. The blacksmith reached for another parcel, this one slightly larger than the first, and he opened the cloth to reveal another magnificent sword. "Here is yours, my darling," Josephine said.

She took her own sword from him while he took the new one, his face full of awe. He held it as if it was made of glass, that is, until he banged it down hard on the anvil too. His face was almost split in half with his smile.

The King came over to the master and beamed his pleasure and thanks. Master Gwallawc, you have outdone even yourself.. I cannot thank you enough for this.. you shall be richly rewarded. And thank you for giving my dear wife her fond wish. Her happiness is very precious to me." He looked at the swords again for several moments, then looked back at the smith. "How soon can you make several dozen more for the army?"

Gwallawc laughed. "I am glad there is no war impending, my liege.. but I shall get started this very minute."

Lawrence shook his head, "Nay, this very minute you shall attend my lady and myself to the Great Hall for our noon meal… and sit in the place of honour."

When the King and Queen were in his chamber later admiring their swords, he said to her, "We shall have to find names for these beauties."

Josephine smiled and nodded, "I shall give that task a great deal of thought, my lord."

Next: Queen of the Angles