The Name
The ward shield is the work of the wood, and the wood is the one that was named before it was cut. It is the shape of a round shield grown from Named Wood — the tree that carries a name in its grain, the name that was spoken at the planting or at the first spring, and the name is not a decoration. The name goes into the grain, and the grain holds the name. A ward shield is sturdy before the working, the way a named tree is sturdy before the axe — the name is the reason the wood does not split at the blow, because the wood is the one that was promised something, and the wood is keeping the promise.
A journeyman ward shield is one named board, cut round, dressed in Hide, and bound with a rim of Iron. The maker's mark goes on the back, under the strap, because the maker's mark is the maker's word and the maker's word is kept where the hand can feel it. A master ward shield is two named boards, and the two names have to agree — the maker finds the two trees that were named in the same season, and the season is the whole of the making. A masterwork ward shield is a story event, and the story has written one: the shield is the one that was named, and the named is the one that holds.
In the Hand
The ward shield is the third stance, made wood that remembers: brace. It does not ring. It does not click. It takes the blow into the grain, and the grain takes it into the name, and the name keeps it. The fighter behind it learns to stand the way the tree stood, because the shield is the tree's argument, and the tree's argument is the one that held the ground.
"A named tree does not break at the blow. The blow is where the promise ends, and the promise does not end at the blow." — Smackage