The Swords of Night and Day is a fantasy novel by David Gemmell, as well as a pair of legendary swords within the book. They also appear in Gemmell's book White Wolf. The book is set 1000 years following the death of Olek Skilgannon.
Synopsis[]
The novel is an exploration of the future of the Drenai world, focussing heavily on Jiamads (joinings of beast and men honed to fighting perfection). The story also contains a satisfactory ending to Skilganon's original life, including not only his first demise, but that of Jianna, the Witch Queen with whom he was deeply in love.
Both swords are mirror polished and extremely sharp, both having been enchanted by The Old Woman. The Sword of Day is golden in colour while the Sword of Night is silver. Intended as inferior copies of the legendary Swords of Blood and Fire, they had become infamous in the hands of Skilgannon.
Trivia[]
- The Swords of Night and Day features clones of Skilgannon, Druss, and Decado.
- The Swords of Blood and Fire are wielded by Decado in this novel.
- The Swords of Night and Day, as with all weapons made by the Old Woman, are possessed to a degree, in a similar manner to Snaga, the axe of Druss the Legend. Unlike Snaga, the resident demon is never seen to manifest and the swords simply drive the wielder to blood lust and a form of addiction to their presence and employment.
- The swords are frequently mentioned throughout the books as curved blades, and on the two UK hardback covers, are depicted as katanas. However, the swords are also described as being scabbarded in a single, curved sheath roughly five feet in length. This would suggest shorter weapons, such as shortsabres or maybe as they are being depicted as katana they could be kodachi.
- The Raven Armoury interpretation of these blades looks like a couple of Yatagans, which would tend towards the "short sabres", especially since Skilgannon's culture is shown to use the sabre as a preferred weapon.
Warning: Default sort key "Swords of Night and Day" overrides earlier default sort key "Swords of Night and Day, The".