Choose Your Weapon - The Sword

The Netflix Witcher based on novels by Andrezej Sapkowski

Welcome to the third instalment in the series Choose Your Weapon. Today we are talking about the mighty sword, an implement used in human history for thousands of years. But no matter how long the blade has been with us, it can't compare to the glorification it receives in novels, films, graphics and the gaming industry. 

There is nothing like it in real life!

From the mythos of Excaliber to the wonders of Sting, Glamdring and even the Witcher's Zireael,  Fantasy swords are often written with an elaborate history and purpose. They are literally characters themselves. 

Consider Andúril, the Flame of the West. This is the broken sword that Aragorn carries, the very one that is eventually reforged from the shards of Narsil in Rivendell. Andúril, even when broken, is the mark of the heir of Isildur, but isn't it interesting we know more about it than the history of hobbits?

Why the Popularity in Fantasy?

The Fantasy genre, especially the subclass of Swords and Sorcery, initially derived from life in the Middle Ages, a time when carrying a sword was a sign of power and command. This holds true in Eastern stories of the samurai, depicted in Anime for their prowess, skill, grace and mastery in sword fighting.

Jin and Mugen from Samurai Champloo - CBR 2022

We can say that writers like David Eddings, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Anne McCaffery, C L Moore, Tanith Lee, Terry Goodkind, Marsaru Gotsubo, Kazuo Koike and our own Helen Lowe and yours truly, helped to and continue to help fix this weapon firmly in the Fantasy genre. But why this weapon in particular?

The Archetype of Truth

As said, the sword symbolizes power, protection, authority, strength, and courage. The connection is obvious, but metaphysically, it also represents truth, discrimination and the penetrating power of the intellect. Take the Suit of Swords in the Tarot (Tarocchi) deck, a metaphorical card 'game' with us since the 15th century.

Keywords for the suit of swords from http://learntarot.com/less3.htm -  

The Swords are the suit of intellect, thought and reason. They are concerned with justice, truth and ethical principles. Swords are associated with the element Air. A cloudless sky, open and light-filled, is a symbol of the mental clarity that is the sword's ideal. This suit is also associated with states that lead to disharmony and unhappiness. Our intellect is a valuable asset, but as an agent of ego, it can lead us astray if it is not infused with the wisdom of our Inner Guide...

Writing Sword Scenes Successfully

I've shared my struggles with sword fighting scenes early on in my career, but will summarize again here, especially for writers just starting out.

From The Way of the Sword – Voyager Blog.

... (twenty-five) years ago, I showed my first manuscript (The Spell of Rosette), to an author friend who was also a weapons black belt. She came back a week later saying Brilliant story Kim but you don’t know shit about the sword.

Oh boy... as if form-rejection letters weren't demoralizing enough.

But hang on! I thought I knew plenty about the sword. I’d watched ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ at least ten times and saw Kill Bill on the big screen twice. Could my sword scenes really be that bad? 

She assured me they were. She also invited me to join her Iaido (ee-eye-doh) classes and learn the ancient Japanese art of the samurai. 

Over years of training, I became fluent with techniques against single and multiple attackers, against spears and armour, and horsed riders. Sure enough, my fight scenes improved as I choreographed each one from scratch and when I finally found a publisher for the series (Stephnie Smith as HarperCollins Voyager), her first comment was "Great sword fighting scenes, Kim."

Truth is, it's one thing to slip poison into a cup, or even brew a magical spell to control the weather, but you just can't fake a sword fight.

Do you have a favorite Fantasy story that includes a swordfight or two? We'd love to hear about it in the comments.

Happy reading and writing!

xxKim

Choose Your Weapon Series

Poison

The Perfect Storm

The Sword

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About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

 

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From The Backlist: “Inspired by Evil” by Amanda Arista

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It’s backlist time – and what better feature, since Helen Lowe’s post theme for 2024 is the Year of the Villain, than the great Amanda Arista’s “Inspired by Evil”, in which she lists some of her favorite villains!

Amanda Arista

Not all are drawn from the ranks of Fantasy, but they’re all suitably evile and/or villainous – so rock on up, folks, and read on!

Inspired by Evil

by Amanda Arista

...I have to admit. I’m pro-villain. My favorite characters in literature seem to the antagonists, because they usually get the best lines. Good villains are strong, driven, have their own moral codes and usually more motivated than the heroes at the beginning of the stories. They are on their own journeys and, frankly, sometimes I’m routing for them because the heroes just can’t seem to get their acts together faster enough.

So some of my favorites are:

1. Maleficent. Probably the first villain to really institute the adage “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” Powerful woman and sexy as hell. She is the reigning queen of villains in my book, because she almost got exactly what she wanted. In the end, remember, she was just out-manned, not out smarted (those three meddling fairies). Really looking forward to Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of her next summer.

2. Hannibal Lector- I don’t know if you guys have been watching NBC’s Hannibal, but there is something both eerie and alluring about Mads Mikkelsen’s portrayal of the psychiatrist. You know that he’s eating people, but somehow, you’re a little okay with that because you just want to know what he’s going to say next.  

3. The Nothing from The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. Though the Nothing is really a phenomenon that is happening to Fantastica, is still was a powerful source of fear for the main characters, Atreyu and Bastian. And it was creepy, because there was no getting away from it and it drove creatures insane by just looking into it. And, it had the best emissary in the world!

4. Tyler Durden from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Now, technically I don’t know if you can count Tyler Durden as a villain, but I was routing for Project Mayhem the entire time. And I tote a lot of Tyler-isms in my life. There was a surprising amount of truth spoken by that character and yet, he is still the antagonistic force for the narrator.

5. The Joker, all his incarnations ever. Probably the best villain and hero relationship that has ever hit the page or the screen. The perfect juxtaposition of Joker’s love of chaos and Batman’s need for logic defines how heroes and villains are supposed to work together, their harmony are what make the stories good and tension-filled and keep us watching and turning the page.

There are so many more..."

~*~

To read the full post and the comments, click here.

And to discover more about Amanda and her writing, visit her on: AmandaArista

The Year of the Villain #3: “Tigana” & Brandin of Ygrath

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Tis April 1 – but rather than April foolery, I shall continue the Year of the Villain with a closer look at the far-from black-and white narrative of Brandin of Ygrath, the primary antagonist in Guy Gravriel Kay’s Tigana.

 

To recap on the series-to-date, I kicked off with the pantheon of villains in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, then moved on to the first Earthsea trilogy of Ursula Le Guin.

In The Lord of the Rings, we largely encounter villains as an external force, with the fate of the world at stake. By contrast, the villainy of Earthsea frequently arises out of natural forces and works its will through the human frailties (i.e. internal forces) of the characters. 

Which brings us to post #3 and Returning to Tigana – where the keen-eyed among you may have noted that I introduced Brandin of Ygrath as an “antagonist” rather than villain. The distinction is deliberate, and also the reason why he, and Tigana, are the third case study (if you will) in this year’s exploration of villains in Fantasy fiction. (Although only some of them, I hasten to add!)

I don’t believe it’s a spoiler to outline why Brandin is the prime antagonist, since it’s set out early in the book. He is both the expansionist emperor of Ygrath and possibly the world’s most powerful wizard. Yet his armies suffer an unexpected defeat in Tigana, one that also results in the death of their commander, Brandin’s favourite son.

In revenge for his son’s death, Brandin sets out to annihilate Tigana completely, not only by defeating its armies and putting the populace to the sword, but by stripping all knowledge of the country’s name, culture, and history from everyone not born to Tigana. And even those born to Tigana that still live, cannot say their country’s name aloud or speak of it to others.

If the spell cannot be lifted before everyone born before Tigana’s defeat has died, then the last memory of their country will die with them. This obliteration is the vengeance that Brandin is determined to bring about, and which the story’s heroes are equally committed to undoing. 

So to the band of heroes (yes, they are a “band of brothers” in the spirit of last year’s post series J ) Brandin is the archvillain whose evil spell must be undone. What makes Tigana and Brandin interesting, is that Guy Gavriel Kay does not tell the story solely from the band-of-heroes’ perspective. Instead, he makes the antagonist real for us by means of another Tiganan, Dianora, who is a concubine in Brandin’s seraglio.

Dianora’s intention, in engineering her way into the seraglio, is to find a way to end Brandin and undo the spell. Instead, she falls in love with him and he with her, enabling readers to perceive Brandin as a person, as well as the story’s prime antagonist. Throughout, he remains deeply committed to the annihilation of Tigana in revenge for his son’s death. Nothing, including his deep love for Dianora, can sway him.

As readers, we understand Brandin’s s motivation and even feel empathy for it – but he and his obliteration spell remain the evil that must be overcome in order to restore Tigana and ensure its survival. 

This nuanced treatment raises the question as to whether Brandin’s an antihero, rather than a villain – but antiheroes, however flawed, save the day in the end. Whereas Brandin remains committed to his vengeance throughout, which means that for the story’s heroes, he remains the primary antagonist to be overcome.

The power of the storytelling, though, is that as readers, we find ourselves wanting the heroes to succeed, but also wanting Brandin (and Dianora) to somehow find a way through. Nothing, as I said at the outset, is black and white – but to find out what actually happens, and experience the nuances to all of that, you really must read the book. J

~*~

About the Author

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final instalment in The Wall Of Night series.
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Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.

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Previous “Year of the Villain” Posts:

January:      Ushering in 2024 -- & the Year of the Villain

February:    The Year of the Villain #1: The Lord of The Rings Pantheon

March: The Year of the Villain #2: Ursula Le Guin & “Earthsea”