Horizontally. He is essentially keeping the blade in a position to allow for a sweeping attack. It is being held close so that one end is sticking out rather far behind him, while the currently functional end is being held with the blade close to the body. If you need me to, i'll make an edit to my post to make that more clear. Like I said, it's been a while since I did all of this :P 

And the weapon is 7' long including the blades.