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We all know this common trope in fantasy that expert swordmen and heroes wear their swords sheathed on their backs.

Question is: how?!

I do own a longsword, blade length about 30 inches. The typical Katana blade seems to be about the same length. The average man's arm is 25 inches, probably used to be shorter back in the days as people used to be shorter.

Thus, no chance that it is feasible to draw or even resheath a longsword (European or Asian or whatever make) which is strapped to our backs and people seem to agree that this was used for carrying it, if at all, not for fighting....or am missing something here?

Philip Klöcking
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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EWi2DnDoaI – Macaco Branco Dec 08 '21 at 13:50
  • @MacacoBranco I should have specified closed sheath, but good find for sure! – Philip Klöcking Dec 08 '21 at 13:57
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    Interestingly, swords were rarely (if ever) worn on the back, but shields frequently were! Look at medieval house carls: they are frequently depicted (in period sources) as wearing a shield on their back with a big dane axe in their hands. – PipperChip Dec 08 '21 at 20:00

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The short answer is that, for a closed sheath, it is not very feasible to draw anything longer than your arm from your back for the mechanical reasons you mention. As per the Shadiversity link I provided, it is feasible if you provide an opening on the side, although as others have leveled as a criticism to his video, it partially defeats one of the primary purposes of a scabbard, protecting the sword from the elements. A similar method is sometimes seen for Scottish greatswords where only the bottom part of the sword is sheathed with some of the same drawbacks. As you note, a sheath might have been slung across the back for carrying in a situation where you did not expect have to unsheathe the sword in combat (although the contemporary artwork seems to depict that most warriors would just lean the flat of the blade against their shoulder for shorter distances, and would resort to a cart or strapping the blade to a horse for longer distances).

Macaco Branco
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    This! Very this! The fantasy trope is commonly attributed to the difficulties of animations and communicating what someone had equipped. Additionally, programmers are a lazy bunch and thought "well, we can take this back-sheathe system and apply it to ALL weapons!" – PipperChip Dec 08 '21 at 19:48
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    Just adding a minor point: there are historical scabbards with slits in them, but they existed for reasons not related to back wear. They mainly existed for extra curvy swords like shamshirs and scimitars for easy sheathing/drawing: http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/shamshir/saif1s.jpg The criticism that the scabbard wouldn't protect the sword from the elements is a bit moot if most of the blade is covered and the user maintains the blade properly. Doesn't make Shad's scabbard historical tho... :P – JZBai Jul 05 '22 at 13:16