Long sword dance

Hilt-and-point sword dances, of which English long sword dance is an example, have been found across northern, western, and central Europe, with records dating from at least the fifteenth and possibly the fourteenth century. It is unclear to what extent the existing continental European sword dance traditions influenced the English long sword dance. In England there is little evidence about the history of sword dancing before the mid-eighteenth century. The first reference to the characteristic "lock" in England comes from 1777, and the earliest references to sword dancing in Yorkshire come from the early nineteenth century. Cecil Sharp and other 20th Century folklorists believed that the dances originated from a religious or magical ceremony that was performed around Plough Monday to promote fertile soil; later researchers have cast doubt on such findings. The long sword dance is related to the rapper sword dance of Northumbria, but the character is fundamentally different as it uses rigid metal or wooden swords, rather than the flexible spring steel rappers used by its northern relation. Long sword dances are most commonly found in Yorkshire and the southern part of County Durham, with particular concentrations of dances in East Cleveland, the northern part of the North York Moors and around Sheffield. Outliers were also recorded in the East Midlands and elsewhere in Northeastern England.