Shields in fantasy

The first memorable shield I ever read about was Athena’s, which bore the head of the Gorgon Medusa. Continuing the Greek motif, the movie Troy had the Greeks using shields in a testudo formation, plus Brad Pitt Achilles made good use of his during fights.

But there weren’t too many famous shields in fantasy, which is understandable. Swords are offensive weapons; shields are defensive. You can barely read classic or heroic fantasy without tripping over a sword that’s special in some way; not so for shields. When I started thinking of shields, though, numerous ideas came to mind.

Design

On a battlefield where combatants had their faces covered, shields could be used as an identifying device, hence the practice of painting them with a knight’s coat of arms. Of course, they don’t necessarily have to sport such a crest. They might simply be designed in such a way as to strike fear into their opponents – worked with a snarling face, for instance, or constructed of human bones.

That being said, keep the environment and the technological level of the society in mind. Not to mention the strength of whoever’s lifting the shield; a slab of granite studded with diamonds may turn aside any weapon, but it’s also completely impractical.

Purpose

Highly polished shields could be mirrors. Prince Oberyn Martell makes good use of such a shield in a climactic battle in George R. R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords. Although he had to wait for the sun to emerge. Maybe someone with a spelled shield might be able to make it glow so fiercely that opponents would be forced to look away – if the shield bore the image of a sun, perhaps?

A shield could also have a design that produces the opposite effect. Say, a hypnotic swirl that mesmerizes opponents, or at least gives them a splitting headache. Or what if it’s a featureless blank that takes on the image of whatever most affected an enemy?

Enchantments

This is the best part, because almost anything can be done to make shields dangerous. Maybe they attract the enemy’s weapon as if it’s magnetized – meaning it’s all but yanked out of his hand. Or they could repel weapons instead.

They could be enchanted so that their wielder can see them, but the enemy can’t. They could suddenly (and scarily) sprout long clawed tendrils or chains when an enemy is within arm’s-length, trying to grab him.

They might be the portals to abysses that are terrifying and yet compelling at the same time. You can’t look away from the black nothingness before you, and yet you know that whatever goes into it – whether it’s your weapon or your arm – won’t be coming out again.

That was fun to write.



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Swords in fantasy

Wow, where to start?

Swords can be a sign of office or status.

The first one I ever read about was the Sword in the Stone, which showed Arthur was the rightful King of England, and then there are all the ancestral swords in A Song of Ice and Fire - each one corresponding to a different family. They also have lovely names – Red Rain, Lady Forlorn, Needle, Lion’s Tooth, Heartsbane and so on.

In Rosemary Edghill’s The Sword of Maiden's Tears, the titular weapon was the heirloom of the elven House Rohannon, but there was a curse on it – any human who wielded it would be changed into a monstrous creature.

Swords can be magic.

That would be the second such sword I read about, Sting from The Hobbit, which glowed blue when there were Orcs around. Though as Diana Wynne Jones pointed out in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, that’s only an advantage if 1. the sword won’t give you away by such a warning 2. all Orcs are evil and out to kill you.

Otherwise, all you need is for a Good- or Neutral-aligned Orc to join the party and the sword is permanently glowing, or permanently on fire, etc.

The Twelve Swords of Power in Fritz Saberhagen’s novels are some of my favorite magic weapons. Not only are their powers varied, but they have real weaknesses, to the point where some of them can’t even be drawn. The Sword of Despair, for instance, causes instant misery and depression to fall in a battlefield-wide area around it, meaning that no one has the will to fight. That would be great, except that it also affects whoever draws it, and that person loses all inclination to sheathe it again.

Woundhealer, the Sword of Mercy, is incapable of killing. Coinspinner, the Sword of Chance, brings good luck but has a habit of leaving its wielder when it’s most needed. Farslayer can literally fly across the world to kill an enemy, and nothing will stop it – except that once it’s buried in that enemy’s heart, it’s not coming back. The enemy’s bereft friends and relatives can then get to use it.

The Blood Sword role-playing gamebooks, a series of five that are sadly out of print, featured the titular weapon, which was “forged by the Archangel Abdiel and tempered in the Savior’s blood”. Blood tempering seems to be a way to ensure the sword will have magic powers – as in the tale of Lightbringer, King Stannis’s sword in A Clash of Kings.

Swords can be sentient.

I especially liked the evil sword Stormbringer, carried – but not owned – by the doomed Elric of Melnibone in Michael Moorcock’s novels. Stormbringer ended up murdering Elric, just as Turin Turambar in The Silmarillion was killed by his sword Gurthang.

"Hail Gurthang! No lord or loyalty dost thou know, save the hand that wieldeth thee. From no blood wilt thou shrink. Wilt thou therefore take Túrin Turambar, wilt thou slay me swiftly?"

And from the blade rang a cold voice in answer: "Yes, I will drink thy blood gladly, that so I may forget the blood of Beleg my master, and the blood of Brandir slain unjustly. I will slay thee swiftly."

There’s also Wirikidor, the Mankiller, in Lawrence Watt-Evans’s novel The Misenchanted Sword. Wirikidor fights with superhuman skill and always defeats its opponent… but has certain possibly lethal weaknesses as well, hence the title of the novel.

I’m sure there are swords which are a little less eager to stick them with the pointy end, perhaps wanting the victim to have a fair trial first. Just haven’t come across any yet.

Swords can be matched.

They can be a pair or an entire set (for serious collectors only). I especially like this when the two swords are half of a whole, and something unforeseen or terrible happens when they come together. Usually, one will be in the hero’s hands and one in the villain’s.

Back in 2000, I joined a discussion board but wanted a handle that sounded cooler than my first name. So I picked “Queen of Swords”, after the Tarot card. The Swords suit represents freedom, strength and power – but also the responsibility and negative consequences, such as violence, that can result.