Westeros

Here we have a closer look at Gregor’s sword, Ice, and what we’ve been told is Needle (it’s the sword with is hilt pointing towards Ice). Needle is very slim here, and seems to have a slender guard as well as what may be two small ring-shaped guards. It’s certainly inspired by early smallswords. Compare this to the officially approved replica made by Valyrian Steel.

GRRM has stated more than once that rapiers in particular are not the weapons he’s thinking of when he describes the bravos’ slender swords, and the smallsword is in fact an even later weapon design. For Needle, his brief to Valyrian Steel was that this was a sword made by Mikken, Winterfell’s blacksmith, based on a design of weapon he only had described to him and had perhaps never even personally seen. So VS’s version is much more traditional European, simply somewhat slim and sized down to a girl’s hand. The show has gone for a much more visually distinctive version of the weapon.

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