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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Galloglaich" data-source="post: 4762447" data-attributes="member: 77019"><img src="http://www.jabberwocky.com/pics/jabberwocky.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!"  He took his vorpal sword in hand:Long time the manxome foe he sought --So rested he by the Tumtum tree,And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood,The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and throughThe vorpal blade went snicker-snack!He left it dead, and with its headHe went galumphing back."And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?Come to my arms, my beamish boy!O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'He chortled in his joy. `Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe." -Lewis Caroll Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872  Before the spiked chain, there was a far more elegant and less random weapon available to Twinks the world wide. The Vorpal Blade. Many people know the origins of the most famous and beloved uber-weapons of AD&D, which still exists in later versions, albiet in somewhat less formidable format. It was lifted from this 1872 poem by Lewis Caroll. Some might say, Galloglaich, surely this classic DnD weapon is the kind of fun nonesense we love in fantasy RPGs which has no Historical roots at all. Needless to say, I would go to my library and crack a few books before answering that question, but I wouldn't be surprised to end up finding something surprising and interesting.  <img src="http://homepages.tesco.net/~tinyclanger/fitzgreyve/weapons_conyers.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Turns out, this rather odd looking Falchion may be the real historical inspiration of the Vorpal blade. Not a pretty sword, as swords go, but a formidable head-lopper by the look of it. It's one of the oldest relatively pristine European swords in the world, and it has quite a history. It's known as the Conyers Falchion, and according to English legal records, it was used to slay a dragon. <img src="http://www.geograph.org.uk/photos/22/63/226356_c773607e.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Lewis Caroll happened to grow up in <a href="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.11272" target="_blank">Durham, England</a>, a place swarming with legends. One of the most famous of these was that of the Sockburn Wyrm. Prose and poems far older than Lewis Caroll described the legend, the beast, and it's ultimate demise at the hands of Sir John Conyers. "Sr Jo Conyers of Storkburn Knt who slew ye monstrous venoms and poysons wiverms Ask or worme which overthrew and Devourd many people in fight, for the scent of poyson was soo strong, that no person was able to abide it, yet he by the providence of god overthrew it and lyes buried at Storkburn before the Conquest, but before he did enterprise it (having but one sonne) he went to the Church in compleat armour and offered up his sonne to the holy ghost, which monument is yet to see, and the place where the serpent lay is called Graystone." (From British Museum MS Harleian No. 2118, fo. 39, circa 1625-49)<img src="http://ww2.durham.gov.uk/nd/smr/m/100_0439.JPG" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Sockburn Hall, a crumbling 19th Century ediface built upon an earlier 13th Century Church. Can anyone say, Adventure HooK?  After he slayed the beast in 1063 AD, Sir John gave his trusty falchion to the local Prince Bishop as proof of his fealty, and was awarded lands which have remained in his family to this day. From that day on each new Prince-Bishop of Durham was presented with the sword that killed the worm upon entering their new office, with the following speach: "My Lord Bishop. I hereby present you with the falchion wherewith the champion Conyers slew the worm, dragon or fiery flying serpent which destroyed man, woman and child; in memory of which the king then reigning gave him the manor of Sockburn, to hold by this tenure, that upon the first entrance of every bishop into the county the falchion should be presented."  Lewis Caroll knew this legend, had probably seen the Falchion, and was living right next to where it was stored when he originally wrote that poem in his youth. To read more about the Conyers Falchion: <a href="http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/h_conyers_eng.htm" target="_blank">The Conyers Falchion</a> Next time, a famous Viking tangles with a notorious pair of Wyrms, earning his curious nickname. G.</blockquote>

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