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From "William's Sword"
Those who had hoisted it said it was not only the most
beautiful sword ever made, but the most comfortable in the hand.
The unusually deep fuller reduced the weight added by its length,
and the balance was said to be impeccable. Thus it was, after the
chaotic dance of Anglish succession that played out across Europe
for all of 1066, 9,000 pairs of Norman eyes looked up to
Telham Hill to watch William lift the magnificent sword high
into the morning air, its gold catching the first ray of sun arching
over the vast European continent and reflecting it back, like a
minute and iridescent meteor foretelling some great event, into
the heart of the Dark Ages. Resting a moment, the sword
suddenly relinquished the light it had not yet earned, and swept
back down into the dark broth of the morning, setting fifteen
thousand feet and ten thousand hoofs into a slow, measured,
march toward Senlac Hill and, over the next millennium, the New
World beyond it.
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