Sword Worlds

[More mail that was sent to traveller-request instead of traveller -- James]

>Does anyone know the origin of the Sword World's on the Spinward Marches map?
>They sortof *jump* out at you (Beater, Biter, Sting, Sacnoth, etc.) and I was
>wondering if anyone knew anything about their history.
>
>-- Fred Schiff ([email removed])

The Sword Worlds was a background created by H. Beam Piper for his space epics.
The only book in the series I recall that mentioned the Sword Worlds explicity
in _Space Viking_.  Pretty good story, actually.

The GDW Sword Worlds are not detailed anywhere, so I use stats based on H. Beam
Piper's work.  The names used on the Spinward Marches map correspond to most
famous named swords, ("Beater" and "Biter" being the orc names for "Orchrist,
the Goblin Cleaver" and "Glamdring, the Foe Hammer" from _The Hobbit_.  "Sting"
was Bilbo's name for his dagger/sword.  Other names mentioned on the map
include Excalibur and Durandal, I believe (or maybe they're from Piper and
I'm just confusing the two).  Durandal was the sword of Roland, I presume you've
heard of Excalibur.

Larry Smith    [email removed]
            or {mit-eddie,yale,uw-beaver}!apollo!lsmith