The Greatsword or grete Swerd is referenced today mostly as an extremely large or powerful weapon, like the
Zweihänder, in comparison with less sizable weapons like the
falchion. In history, the sword had the same relative use as a comparative term between one smaller weapon and another considerably larger. In this case, the comparison was not between longswords and the even longer bihänder as is the modern one, but between the smaller single handed variants of the
spatha, the so-called "transition swords", and larger variants thereof, with longer blades and hilts. For comparison, single handed transitional swords of Type XII have a grip about 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) in length, while the larger subtype XIIIa sword has a grip approximately 6.5 to 9 inches (16.5 to 22.8 cm) long. A similarly long grip is found on the XIIa, another early great sword. The XIIa was originally a part of the XIIIa classification, but was decided to "taper too strongly" and to be "too acutely pointed" to fit appropriately.
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