Names for Swords!

[Bagpuss]

I played a halfing fighter name of Bonecrusher Hogan in a D&D tournament, with an intelligent sword with an ego greater than his. So obviously I decided the sword is called Bonecrusher and demanded top billing.

Bonecrusher
Leech
Swiftstrike and Surestrike (pair of sort swords)
any monster/animal with bane at the end (eg: "hamsterbane" toastfork +1)
pigsticker (more suited to spears)

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

Hmm, okay, got me on Mournblade. But I'll be frelled if I haven't seen Blackrazor in print other than a D&D book... hmmm....

Sure, it was in Paul Kidd's White Plume Mountain Novel.

Oh wait, you mean something unrelated to D&D?

Sorry can't help you there.

 

[Sinistar]

I can't believe that I am the only one that reads Tad Williams. The best names I have ever seen are from his book.
Memory
Sorrow
Thorn

I especially want to run a bard with a sword named "Memory"...

 

[s/LaSH]

Here's a couple gleaned Egil's Saga in a (rather expensive) tome of Icelandic sagas that I've barely started penetrating; I'm certain there are more within. I've used a capital D to represent the funny hard 'th' sound that they use a special character for in the tome:

NaDr - Adder, a sword used by Egil Skallagrimsson in a battle between King Athelstan of England and the Scots.

Dragvandil - Slicer, a sword given to Egil by Arinbjorn, a man in the service of Kind Eirik (in exile in York from Norway at the time). (Egil was out of favour with Eirik, and had the misfortune to be shipwrecked on the coast near York when he should have been near Iceland; Arinbjorn was a nicer chap.) Dragvandil had belonged to Thorolf Skallagrimsson before Arinbjorn; Thorolf and Egil's father Skallagrim had recieved it from his brother Thorolf Kveld-Ulfsson, who had recieved it from Grim LoDinkinni, the son of Ketil Haeng, who used in in duels; the saga says it was the sharpes of weapons.

There's a whole lot of history behind these people, incidentally. Swords aren't just about powers, they're about lineage. Looking at Dragvandil's lineage, in particular, I see some interesting correlations between the Kings of Norway and their feud with Kveld-Ulf's sons (Kveld-Ulf means Nightwolf; he was a proud warrior that the sagas attribute with shapechanging abilities, distinct from the ironproof skins of berserkers).

Anyway, if I can find more I'll put them up. And I'll endeavour not to transcribe too much saga in the process.

 

[Agback]

G'day

According to some early versions, King Arthur's sword was not Excalibur but Caliburn or Clayburn. I guess that the first element in this name is cognate with that in the Scots Gaelic Claigh mór (the source of English claymore).

According to the Chansons de Geste, Charlemagne's sword was Joyeuse.

Volsung's sword, given by Odin and inherited by Siegmund and Siegfried, was Gram.

The ceremonial sword of the Kings of England, part of the Crown Jewels, and handed to the king during the coronation ceremony, is Curtana.

The only famous Japanese sword I can recall (what with all my references packed up for my imminent move) is the "Grass-Mowing Sword", which is a possession of the Emperor of Japan.

Named swords in Tolkien include not only Glamdring ("Forehammer") and Orcrist ("Goblin-Cleaver"), but also Aranrúth ("King's Ire"), Narsil ("Moonfire"), Anduril ("Flame of the West"), and others I can't remember. Théoden's sword was named in the chapter set in Edoras in which Gandalf healed him; and the pair of black, iron-cleaving swords made by Éol are named in his chapter--one is renamed by Turin after he kills Mablung with it.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Enkhidu]

...and the pair of black, iron-cleaving swords made by Éol are named in his chapter--one is renamed by Turin after he kills Mablung with it.

That would be the sword Anglechel, afterward name Gurthang (Iron of Death). The other of the iron-cleaving swords wasn't named, as far as I know.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Toothbite and Acid Claw, a pair of short swords wielded by pretty much any important wererat that shows up in my games-- Toothbite is a +2 keen wounder and Acid Claw is a +1 corrosive.

Any discussion of named katanas should include Snickersnee.

My epic character's longsword is Wraithweaver, a weapon he forged and enchanted himself. It'd have to be scaled down for normal play, since it's a +7 icy burst ghost touch keen wrathful healing longsword of speed.

The Mercy of Baal is a nasty, evil greatsword, every bit as ironic as it sounds like it should be.

 

[SteelDraco]

Let's see here. These are all from games I've participated in, either as a GM or player.

Mistreaver (a rapier designed to fight illusionists and such)
Oathbreaker (well, a greathammer, actually, but I still liked the name)
Death-of-Kings (a CN anti-monarchist greatsword)
The Morning's Glory (holy sword dedicated to the god of healing and the sun)
Judgement of the Sultan (a LE vorpal scimitar that was used in executions... very fun weapon, it caused a lot of strife when the fighter/rogue/assassin got ahold of it)
Ferrum Voti ('iron oath', the sword that my Catholic paladin uses in my 1760s CoC/historical fantasy game)

 

[Ace]

I can't believe that I am the only one that reads Tad Williams. The best names I have ever seen are from his book.
Memory
Sorrow
Thorn

I especially want to run a bard with a sword named "Memory"...

I kind of like Brightnail from the same series as a sword name too

Swords IMC include

Cloud Ripper
Harbinger
Spellbinder
Ice Thorn
Fortunes Friend
Woe (its sister blades are Mourn, Grief and Dirge)
Cleave Heart

 

[The Fifth Elephant]

If you want item names, you might want to check out the unique item names in Diablo 2. They have some good ones; Doombringer, Titan's Revenge, Hellslayer, Messerschmidt's Reaver, for example. There's a ton of them. www.diabloii.net has them all.