WTF is "cold iron", and why's it so special?

[PsyzhranV2]

Why has there been so much thread necromancy in the past few days???

 

[Panda-s1]

I guess while we're here, anyone else know about that whole fey being afraid of modern tech thing? like cold iron is not what they're afraid of anymore, apparently some fantasy thing does this.

 

[Weiley31]

Why has there been so much thread necromancy in the past few days???

Well when you roll up a necromancer.....

 

[Bohandas]

It's folklore. Britons used to believe fairies had a weakness against cold iron.

They had a weakness to iron in general.

For the game, they had to change it to iron that was forged a certain way because otherwise they'd just be vulnerable to all the default weapons except clubs and quarterstaffs

 

[Umbran]

They had a weakness to iron in general.

For the game, they had to change it to iron that was forged a certain way because otherwise they'd just be vulnerable to all the default weapons except clubs and quarterstaffs

The term "cold iron" is far, far older than D&D. The term appears in Francis Grose's 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. It appears in Kipling's poem "Cold Iron", which is in his 1910 collection Rewards and Fairies. So, it isn't like "cold iron" is a change for the game, specifically. There's nothing in their texts that indicate Grose or Kipling meant anything other than poetry by it, though.

There is another line of discussion (I don't reacall if it was mentioned upthread) in which "cold iron" refers to the iron used by Romans to crucify people - the spikes so used for death being imbued with import...

 

[Zhaleskra]

As Changeling has been mentioned: Either Fey never made a contract with Iron, or they broke they one they made.

 

[Len]

The term "cold iron" is far, far older than D&D. The term appears in Francis Grose's 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. It appears in Kipling's poem "Cold Iron", which is in his 1910 collection Rewards and Fairies.

But those usages have nothing to do with fey or a special form of iron.

Grose's definition of "cold iron" is "A sword, or any other weapon for cutting or
stabbing." An ordinary steel blade, in other words.

Kipling uses variations on the phrase "But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all" to mean military weapons and power. Again, nothing about fey or any material different from regular iron or steel.

I'm no philologist, but as far as I can tell, the use of "cold iron" to mean a special material with properties different from regular iron is a D&D thing.

 

[Umbran]

I'm no philologist, but as far as I can tell, the use of "cold iron" to mean a special material with properties different from regular iron is a D&D thing.

The idea that magically powerufl iron is someting specifically different form other iron goes back at least to L. Sprague de Camp, in The Tritonian Ring, in 1968.

 

[Tony Vargas]

My favorite post of the thread, from the first page, 15 years ago:

My favorite fact about iron, as learned in astronomy class in college, back in the day: the atomic fusion process starts with 2 hydrogen atoms fusing into helium, and continues upward through the elemental table until you get to iron. The atomic fission process starts with uranium and move downward, splitting off atoms...until you get to iron.

And iron is anathema to fey. Freaky.

I had the exact same experience, myself, sitting in a junior college planetarium, listening to a lecture about the processes in stars. It's an amusing coincidence that a mystically significant metal (variously anti-magical, or useful in working magic) is also a chemical element with a unique place in those processes.

Of course, gold, silver, and even tin, have been mystically significant metals, along with lost alloys and probably-imaginary metals.

 

[Bohandas]

Allotropic (pure) iron is soft and weak, compared to most alloys. It is the hardest and strongest of the pure metals.

What about Uranium? And Iridium?