Broadsword

Broadsword opens the second side of The Broadsword and the Beast, the side named after it. Anderson was then living part of each year on the Isle of Skye, facing the sea, and he pictured Dun Ringill, a stone hill fort where villagers could shut themselves in against the Vikings, and someone spotting a dark sail on the horizon. In the band's 1982 press release he described it as a song set in historical times, about a man's responsibility to protect his family. Louder has called it something of a sequel to Dun Ringill from Stormwatch (1979), and the runes around the edge of the album sleeve spell out its opening lines.

It was recorded at Maison Rouge in Fulham with Paul Samwell-Smith producing: Anderson on vocals and synthesizer, Martin Barre on electric guitar, Dave Pegg on bass, Gerry Conway on drums and Peter-John Vettese on keyboards. Louder singled out its synthesised brass and windswept Celtic atmosphere, and Prog's Jerry Ewing called it "the strident title track". Chrysalis released it as a British single in May 1982, backed with Fallen on Hard Times. In Germany it was edited to 3:39, and the American single was Fallen on Hard Times instead.

Live

It was a regular in the 1982 set, from the tour opener in Drammen, Norway, through the North American dates that autumn, played in front of a stage set built as a longship while Anderson wielded an eight-foot broadsword. He later admitted the staging was one step too far. A performance from the 1982 German shows is on In Germany 1982, part of the 2023 Monster Edition. The upload in the hypersongs web is the full album version, from the 2005 remaster of The Broadsword and the Beast.