Quote Originally Posted by Oldgamer
Sorry for the long delay in answering you. BTW, I love your screen name!

A three-pound sword sounds more like a ceremonial or theatrical weapon. The swords used by northern European barbarians were long and quite heavy. Their purpose was to shatter shields, crush helms, and break bones under body armor. They had a secondary ability to thrust, but this was not their primary purpose. For these purposes, they needed strong, highly-conditioned men.
Thanks, the name comes from one of the Saxon heros in VI.

As far as swords go I'm afraid you are sadly mistaken. No sword has ever been used to crush helms, it simply isn't possible, I've seen men try and barbarian swords were cutting weapons not crushing weapons. They rarely exceeded 3.5 pounds in weight and were really quite wieldly. All swords in Europe have a common ancestor in the Naue II, the cut-and-thrust weapon developed in the late bronze and then used From Greece to Egypt to Denmark.

I'm sorry but you're simply wrong, think about it objectively, no "barbarian" was significantly larger than a modern European, they weren't larger than Germans or Danes, a 12 pound weapon would be unuseable in a battl lasting several hours.

Just incase that doesn't convince you a Roman Gladius would mass around 1.2-1.6 Kg, or about 3 pounds, with a blade around 24" long and 2.5" wide its a fairly heavy weapon, by comparison a Barbarian sword would usually have blade around 28-32" tops and would probably taper towards the point.

Work it out, the barbarian sword would only be 4 pounds, tops. Probably less because a Roman sword has parralel sides or a leaf-blade.