The three swords made by Ivaldi the Ancient (who was, for the record, a dwarf) for the sons of Borr all have had many names in their long and adventurous histories, but the inscription on the one Utena now holds tells the original names Ivaldi gave to all three:

My name is Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durandal.

Cortana originally belonged to Vili, Joyeuse to Vé, and Durandal to Odin. Durandal was later adapted into the key to Yggdrasil; both Cortana and Joyeuse were lost when Odin's brothers perished. Joyeuse has still not been found.

It should be noted that the Æsir Cortana is not the same sword as Curtana, Edward the Confessor's Sword of Mercy, which is blunt at the tip to symbolize the monarch's mercy and is one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The latter was almost certainly named after the former, but Ivaldi's Cortana quite definitely has a point. In Earth mythology, it is probably the one reputed to have been wielded by Holger the Dane in the Matter of France, though how all three of Ivaldi's Æs blades found their way to Carolingian Europe is a bit of a mystery.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.