Coolest weapon from literature?

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'd like to put in an honourable mention to Greywand, Scalpel and Cat's Claw, the weapons of those most notorious of thieves and adventurers - Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.

Not magical, but the characters certainly are great.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Re: Tolkein, bah, upstart!

If you want to talk the first modern fantasy
authors you need to go back to Lord Dunsany and William Morris.

But back on topic, I'll put a vote in
for Sacnoth. A blade carved from the
spine of a steel dragon which could
only be slain by _starvation_!

From Dunsany's "The Fortress Unvanquishable Save for Sacnoth"

Lord Dunsany is one of my favorite writers. His prose is perhaps the most beautiful that I've read.

William Morris' "The Well at the World's End" is a good book. It's very slow-moving, especially at first, but is actually a very satisfying read.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Regarding the question about what Stormbringer actually does - it has a mind of its own, it howls, it can dominate its wielder into doing what it wants (which is killing), and it devours the souls of all those it strikes. It also is one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse.

I voted stormbringer. I find it interesting that there is another blade out there that is supposed to be the twin and just as powerful, mournblade.

There seems to have been even more than that...


SPOILER BELOW


Arioch was destroyed by what seemed to be hundreds of swords like Stormbringer.

 

[jester47]

I'd like to put in an honourable mention to Greywand, Scalpel and Cat's Claw, the weapons of those most notorious of thieves and adventurers - Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.

Not magical, but the characters certainly are great.

The cool thing about these weapons is that they are not always the same blade. Fafhrd and the grey mouser constantly lost thier weapons. Whenever they obtained a new one, it was given the appropriate name. So the Greywand of Ill Met in Lhankmar is not the Greywand of The Prince of Pain Ease. It even says so in that last story. So the blades could have been magical or not depends on when you meet the two.

Aaron.

 

[Neowolf]

The sword was also Elric's addiction, it kepted him powerful and full of life but took away everything that was important to him. It drank souls and feed the energy to him.

Just to throw in my own bit of insight, the sword was also not only alive, but also intelligent. It manipulates Elric on several (if not many) occaisions and destroys nearly as many of his friends and loved ones as enemies. Also, I would argue that Elric would NOT have survived his adventures without it, since he was so weak from his anemia naturally that he couldn't even put on his ceremonial armor without help (for instance, the battle at the beginning of the first book).

 

[kenjib]

Understand that this, for me, is a raw nerve. I'm in college and most of my classes focus on english, either composition or literature... And I get so infernaly sick of literary elitism in that environment. All the time I'm being told to "not waste my time" with that "fantasy trash", that it isn't "true literature", that I will "never really get a true feel for the english language from that tripe" and other such nonsense.

Hehe. You're gonna hate me but my oral exam for getting my B.A. in English was based on fantasy, scifi, and horror literature. We got to create our own reading lists. Along with more canonical works like LotR, the stories of HP Lovecraft, Jules Verne, and Brahm Stoker's Dracula I included The Princess Bride, Star Wars, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dune, and a couple of others like that.



Anyways, I think part of what makes Tolkein really stand out is his place in the literary tradition. His books resonate more deeply with the classics than many other works. In that way, they are more connected to the literary tradition than the majority of fantasy authors. This doesn't make them better, but perhaps helps to explain why they are more canonically accepted.

I think more "pulpy" works, including cheap romance novels, actually do provide some very interesting insight into the human condition and the literary tradition as well as fascinating social commentary. You just need to look at them a different way.

 

[Wolvorine]

...

As far as favorite swords go, it wasn't the most powerful by a longshot, but I always liked Kincaid, the sword of Felimid Mac Fal (of the Bard series, by Keith Taylor). Just the curse on the blade alone is enough to win out for me in coolness factor.
Not that Golden Singer isn't equally cool, and practically a weapon...

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

OH! Kring, from The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. The world's most boring talking sword...

"...and about 150 years ago I was wielded against someone who was most unsportingly wearing an octiron collar, which is when I got this small nick about two-thirds of the way up my blade - am I boring you?"

 

[scadgrad]

Pulp vs Literature

I had to vote for Stormbringer since I'm such a fanboy of MM, though I was surprised to see both Cat's Claw & Scalpel absent from the list. Showing my age I guess...

Tolkien is w/out question CURRENTLY viewed as being more important in the literary field than either Moorcock, Howard or Lieber because his work is less episodic in nature, and follows the grand epic tradition of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Homer, etc more so than other early fantasy writers. Additionally he is w/out question the most imitated & influential author in the fantasy genre, due in large part to his being the chief progenitor of the genre itself (obviously there are others who came before, but none had the success nor spawned the legions of admirers that JRRT did).

At some point it is quite possible, even likely, that the literary field will take a more serious look at those in the latter group. Certainly Dickens, Poe and many others were accused of similar shortcomings before being elevated into the Canon.

ColonelH,

Your comments about MM vs REH are dead on, even though MM does admit that his creation of Elric was in response to both JRRT & REH. And agreed about the much overlooked Corum series. Still I prefer Elric because of the cast of characters & villains(including Stormbringer) that surround the Prince of Ruins.

For those looking to explore the Elric series, you've probably 2 options.

The best would be to snag one of White Wolf's omnibus hardbacks which reprint the originals. Elric: the Stealer of Souls is the one that I would recommend.

Barring that, the small silver paperback versions produced by Ace can still be found at most bookstores. Used bookstores occasionally have them in great supply also.

Looking in my copy of Stormbringer (Ace pb version) they go as follows:

Elric of Melnibone
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Weird of the White Wolf
The Vanishing Tower
The Bane of the Black Sword
Stormbringer

I think The Fortress of the Pearl was added later as a 7th book. The series itself is very episodic & like Brust's Vlad Taltos or Lieber's Fafrd & the Grey Mouser you can jump in anywhere. I would advice skipping Elric of Melnibone (a prequel) until later. The series concludes (or at least comes to a close) w/ Stormbringer.

Happy reading...

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Ah, no wonder I couldn't get into Elric as a kid. I'm really not into anti-heroes of that magnitude. Moorcock and Tolkien were probably the two most recommended authors to me when I was younger. I finally broke through the interminable first third of Fellowship while I was in college, and I've been considering revisiting Elric since then. Don't think I'll need to bother, now.