The Shape of the Sword
E622063
"The Shape of the Sword" is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, included in his collection *Ficciones*, that explores themes of identity, betrayal, and narrative unreliability through a framed tale of a mysterious scarred man.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| La forma de la espada | 1 |
| The Form of the Sword | 1 |
| The Shape of the Sword canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6827615 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Shape of the Sword Context triple: [Ficciones, hasPart, The Shape of the Sword]
-
A.
Sword of State
The Sword of State is an ornate ceremonial sword symbolizing royal authority and the monarch’s power to govern, prominently carried during the State Opening of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
-
B.
Sword of Mercy
Sword of Mercy is a ceremonial British coronation sword, traditionally associated with the legend of Tristan and used as one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.
-
C.
The Magic Sword
The Magic Sword is a 1962 fantasy film directed by Bert I. Gordon, loosely based on the Saint George and the Dragon legend and known for its campy special effects and fairy-tale adventure plot.
-
D.
This Is Your Sword
"This Is Your Sword" is a folk-influenced rock song by Bruce Springsteen from his 2014 album *High Hopes*.
-
E.
The Sharping Stone
The Sharping Stone is a poem by Seamus Heaney included in his collection *The Spirit Level*, reflecting his characteristic blend of memory, landscape, and finely honed language.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Shape of the Sword Target entity description: "The Shape of the Sword" is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, included in his collection *Ficciones*, that explores themes of identity, betrayal, and narrative unreliability through a framed tale of a mysterious scarred man.
-
A.
Sword of State
The Sword of State is an ornate ceremonial sword symbolizing royal authority and the monarch’s power to govern, prominently carried during the State Opening of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
-
B.
Sword of Mercy
Sword of Mercy is a ceremonial British coronation sword, traditionally associated with the legend of Tristan and used as one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.
-
C.
The Magic Sword
The Magic Sword is a 1962 fantasy film directed by Bert I. Gordon, loosely based on the Saint George and the Dragon legend and known for its campy special effects and fairy-tale adventure plot.
-
D.
This Is Your Sword
"This Is Your Sword" is a folk-influenced rock song by Bruce Springsteen from his 2014 album *High Hopes*.
-
E.
The Sharping Stone
The Sharping Stone is a poem by Seamus Heaney included in his collection *The Spirit Level*, reflecting his characteristic blend of memory, landscape, and finely honed language.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (38)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
short story
ⓘ
work of fiction ⓘ |
| author | Jorge Luis Borges ⓘ |
| authorNationality | Argentine ⓘ |
| character |
the Englishman with the crescent-shaped scar
ⓘ
the unnamed first-person narrator ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Argentina ⓘ |
| genre |
fantastic literature
ⓘ
metafiction ⓘ short story ⓘ |
| hasForm | prose ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn | Borgesian studies of identity and self ⓘ |
| hasTranslation |
English
ⓘ
multiple other languages ⓘ |
| includedInCollection | Ficciones ⓘ |
| isPartOfAuthorOeuvre | Borges’s explorations of paradox and selfhood ⓘ |
| language | Spanish ⓘ |
| literaryMovement |
Latin American literature
ⓘ
modernist literature ⓘ |
| motif |
betrayal of a comrade
ⓘ
duel ⓘ scar ⓘ |
| narrativeTechnique |
first-person narration
ⓘ
frame narrative ⓘ unreliable narrator ⓘ |
| originalTitle |
La forma de la espada
ⓘ
linked to:
The Shape of the Sword
|
| partOf | the second section of Ficciones in some editions ⓘ |
| publication | first published in Spanish ⓘ |
| setting |
Uruguay
ⓘ
a ranch in Tacuarembó ⓘ |
| theme |
betrayal
ⓘ
cowardice ⓘ guilt ⓘ identity ⓘ memory ⓘ narrative unreliability ⓘ self-deception ⓘ |
| workPeriod | 20th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Shape of the Sword Description of subject: "The Shape of the Sword" is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, included in his collection *Ficciones*, that explores themes of identity, betrayal, and narrative unreliability through a framed tale of a mysterious scarred man.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: The Shape of the Sword