Chaste Separating Sword

16th century German woodcut:
"Tristan, Iseult and the separating sword"

"Lay a naked sword between us, keep us chaste."

—The Duchess, The Duchess of Malfi

There Is Only One Bed. What are Alice and Bob to do? One traditional stock answer is to share the bed but lay a sword between them to demonstrate that they're sharing it chastely and will not touch each other.

The sword is removed from its scabbard and laid with its sharp edges bared. Such a sword is often referred to as a "naked sword." Ignore the Double Entendre of a man whipping out his naked sword in bed — this is chaste!

This trope runs on a heavy dose of Rule of Symbolism. Logistically, this is far from a substantial barrier; a sword can be moved away just as easily as it was put in place.

Sub-Trope of There Is Only One Bed. It's mostly a Forgotten Trope now, and it's infeasible in a setting where people don't have swords on hand. It sometimes gets nods in stories with medieval or medieval-inspired settings.

Also see Sleeping Single. Not to be confused with Chastity Dagger, which involves attacking a would-be sexual assailant.

In Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, this is known as "T351, sword of chastity".

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Examples:

Fairy Tales & Folklore

• Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: tale type 303, "The Twins or Blood Brothers," is a category of very similar stories. There are twins or triplets. One does the Standard Hero Reward thing, rescuing and marrying a princess. One night, he goes to a forbidden place and is petrified by a witch. Sensing the danger, his twin/triplet goes to his kingdom and is mistaken as his brother even by his sister-in-law. Refusing to Bed Trick his brother's wife, he lays a sword between them at night so she won't try anything. Then he goes and rescues his brother from the witch.
  • The Two Brothers (The Brothers Grimm): At the end, after rescuing his brother, he starts to explain that he spent the night with his wife. The married brother is so mad that he kills him in a fit of Crazy Jealous Guy before he can explain about the sword. After he comes home, his wife asks, "Why did you put a sword between us last night?" He realizes what happened and is horrified. The end.
  • The Twin Brothers (Greece): The same as above, but the regretful husband, with his wife's help, manages to resurrect his brother.
  • The Twin Brothers (Czech Republic): In this version, the issue is cleared up before any fratricide can ensue.
• Aladdin: The princess whom Aladdin wants to be with has been married instead to the son of the grand vizier. To prevent them from consummating their marriage, Aladdin uses his genie to abduct the couple. He leaves the groom to the genie and shares the bed with the princess. He lays a sword between them to show her he won't assault her.
• Amis and Amiloun: The eponymous Amis and Amiloun are Sworn Brothers and Inexplicably Identical Individuals. At one point they switch places. Amis lives in Amiloun's house as him and sleeps beside his wife. Amis refuses to Bed Trick her, and he ensures his chastity by placing a sword between them in bed. She asks him why he's doing this, and he says it's because he's sick so she shouldn't come near him.
• Arabian Nights, "Story of Prince Sayf Al-Muluk and the Princess Badi'a Al-Jamal": While searching for his beloved, Sayf rescues her foster-sister Daulat Khatun. The two escape together on a raft. On the raft, Sayf sleeps with his back to her and a sword between them.
• Daredevils of Sassoun, the Fourth Cycle: Little Mher and Gohar are married. Gohar does a Lysistrata Gambit on her new husband: she won't have sex with him until he puts an end to the unfair taxation of the Armenians by the King of the West. As part of this, she lays a sword between them in bed at night.
• Gesta Danorum, book 9: Gorm and Thyra get married. Thyra requests three days of chastity before the marriage is consummated. Gorm agrees. To show that he's on board and committed, he lays his drawn sword between them in bed.
• Göngu-Hrólfs saga: Engaged but not yet married, Hrólfr and Ingigerðr sleep side by side with a sword between them.
• Romance De Gerineldo: There is a Secret Relationship between Gerineldo (the favorite page of the King of Spain) and the princess. The king catches them asleep together and places his sword between them without waking either. When the princess wakes, she takes this as an Inverted Trope: a signal that he saw them, he knows, and plans to kill them in the morning. In some versions, he really does mean that, and they run away; in others, the king forgives them and lets them be together.
• Tristan and Iseult: Iseult is married to King Mark, but she's run away with her Star Crossed Lover Tristan into the Forest of Morrois. They are suspected — rightfully — of an affair, and they have been having sex. But when they're about to go to sleep and there's a chance they may be found during the night, Tristan Invokes this: He lays his sword between them so they appear chaste.
  King Mark: For all the time they have lived together in this wood, these two lovers, yet is the sword here between them, and throughout Christendom men know that sign. Therefore I will not slay, for that would be treason and wrong.
  • In some versions of the tale, it's their first night after the Love Potion's effects expire, meaning it's the first time in three years when they actually can be chaste.
• Prose Edda's "Skaldskaparmal" and Völsunga saga both describe Brynhild's wedding with this detail. Gunnar cannot pass Brynhild's Engagement Challenge, but Sigurd can. Serving as Romantic Wingman, Sigurd shapeshifts as Gunnar and they switch places. Sigurd passes the challenge and marries Brynhild in Gunnar's stead. To refrain from consummating the marriage, Sigurd lays his sword Gram between him and Brynhild at night until he and Gunnar can switch back.

Film — Live-Action

• Beyond the Sea: When Bobby and Sandra move in together after their marriage, she is reluctant to share the bed with him. Bobby pulls down a decorative sword wall-hanging (scaring the hell out of poor Sandra) and recounts a story of Courtly Love, before laying it down between them as a promise that he won't touch her until she initiates. His chivalry wins Sandra over, and she crosses the boundary moments later.
  Bobby: My momma used to tell me a story when I was a kid that in the Middle Ages, one of the knights in King Arthur's court, he laid down his sword between himself and Guinevere, and he promised that he would never cross over to the other side.
  Sandra: Really?
  Bobby: I am laying down this sword between us. That's my side of the bed, and that's yours, and I will never cross over. Ever. I don't care if we don't touch for a thousand nights. Only you can cross over to my side. Only you.
• Excalibur: Arthur finds his unfaithful wife Guinevere asleep with her lover Lancelot. Devastated, he Sword Plants his sword Excalibur into the ground between their sleeping bodies. It's an Inverted Trope, the meaning flipped from a symbol of chastity to infidelity.

Literature

• The Mark of the Horse Lord: When Phaedrus and Murna are forced into marriage for political reasons against their wills, Murna insists on this. She changes her mind when he admits that he isn't really Midir, the man he's impersonating (as Midir was a Jerkass to her in the past).
• Morgaine Cycle: Morgaine and Vanye have a Lady and Knight relationship. In the past, Morgaine has offered to share a bed with Vanye but he's insisted on sleeping on the hearth. In Well of Shiuan, the two finally share a bed with her sword Changeling lying between them. It's played for Unresolved Sexual Tension.
  She laid it atop the coverlet, a thing fell and dangerous, in the valley that would be between them. Vanye rested very still, felt the mattress give as she settled beside him and drew the covers over her, heard the gentle sigh of her breath.
  And felt the weight of Changeling, that rested between.
  He held no more urge to sleep, his heart still beating rapidly. [...] He listened to her breathing, felt the small movements that she made, and tried to distract his mind to other thoughts, staring at the dark rafters. He cursed silently, half a pious prayer, wondering how she would understand it if he did withdraw to the hearthside.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: A Discussed Trope, although never played straight.
  • A Storm of Swords: While Jon is trying to ward off Ygritte's advances, he uses his pet direwolf Ghost as a barrier between them. He thinks of it as a variation of this trope:
    Old Nan used to tell stories about knights and their ladies who would sleep in a single bed with a blade between them for honor's sake, but he thought this must be the first time where a direwolf took the place of the sword.
  • A Feast for Crows: Nimble Dick suggests such an arrangement to Brienne while they're traveling, but she refuses.
    Nimble Dick: Cheaper if we all shared the same bed, m'lady. You could lay your sword between us. Old Dick's a harmless fellow.

Religion

• Hinduism: Asidhārā-vrata literally means "vow of walking on the edge of a sword." The evidence is dubious, but — according to the 16th-century commentator Dinakara, remarking on the 5th-century epic Raghuvamsa verse 13.67 — there was an actual practice of putting a sword between a couple who was practicing celibacy as self-discipline.
• The Talmud, Sanhedrin 19b:19: Michal is the daughter of Saul. She's married to David. During a dispute between Saul and David, Saul tries to remarry her to another man, Palti. Since Michal isn't actually single and available, Palti lays a sword between them each night. This is the Ur-Example, written in the 3rd century.
  God saved him from the sin, by giving him the insight that he may not touch Michal, understanding that she was still David's wife and therefore forbidden to him. What did he do? He embedded a sword in the bed between him and her, and said: Anyone who engages in this matter, i.e., sexual intercourse, should be stabbed by this sword.

Theatre

• The Duchess of Malfi: Discussed Trope. The Duchess suggests this to her lover, Antonio. She refers to it by way of a Shout-Out to Alexander and Lodowick (a variation of the Amis and Amiloun story).
  Duchess: We'll only lie and talk together, and plot
  To appease my humorous kindred; and if you please,
  Like the old tale in Alexander and Lodowick,
  Lay a naked sword between us, keep us chaste.

It could also be considered a Subverted Trope — at first you might take her words at face value, but when it's revealed in the very next scene that she's pregnant, it becomes very clear that she was only joking.

• The Ring of the Nibelung: In Götterdämmerung, Siegfried is to have spent one night with Brünnhilde before delivering her to Gunther, to whom she is now betrothed. In accordance with this custom, he placed his sword Nothung between himself and her as "between East and West [lies] the North."

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