My favorite fantasy swords

Excalibur and Stormbringer

Excalibur,

From Albion Swords,

From the movie Excalibur.

Excalibur from 2004, King Arthur.

Though the Celtic based sword is more akin to this:

Or a late Roman cavalry Spatha.

Stormbringer

From Raven Armories.

The “official” sword authorized by Michael Moorcock.

I believe it would be impossible to conceive of two more diametrically opposed elements.

The yin and yang of swords.

Stormbringer,

The Chaos demon-god sword,

Soul drinker, god slayer, universe devouring avatar of evil.

A being manifest as a great sword, that moans with pleasure as it devours souls, and systematically devours all that Elric loves and battles to protect.

What can be said in description beyond that?

Michael Moorcock created Stormbringer for his iconic Elric of Melnibone'.

The pre-eminent paragon of Evil chaos. The supreme antithesis of Excalibur.

Excalibur;

the sword forged by the gods, the sword of kings, that will bring victory to righteous causes, that will turn in the hand in any unrighteous use.

Excalibur, the symbol of Right, Goodness, Chivalry, Honor, Integrity. Defender of the weak, protector of order, the paragon of law. Excalibur, the antithesis of chaos.

What more can be said?

Elric, final wielder of Stormbringer, battles against the evil sentience of the sword as he wields the sword in service to the balance of Law and Chaos.

I the end, Stormbringer devours all.

Telling Elric, ” farewell my old friend, I was far more evil than thou”

From the very beginning, from before Elric took up Stormbringer, Elric Knew what his ultimate fate would be.

The similarities of Elric, to Roland are never mentioned. The Sword, the Horn, the service to greater order, knowingly walking into his fate, death from betrayal in a final battle created from betrayal.

With Stormbringer the final act of betrayal, devouring Elric, and the Universe itself.

Excalibur,

Wielded by Arthur, in defense of Britain against the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

Bringing victory, until Arthur, and his knights fell into complacency and corrupted their honor.

In the end, Excalibur failed to uphold Arthur. Excalibur did not betray Arthur, Arthur betrayed Excalibur.

So Arthur at Camlan falls in battle with his son Mordred, slaying Mordred, the living example of Arthur's corruption.

In the film Excalibur, I love how Arthur in truth, Allows his son, his “sin” to slay him. A purely Biblical expression of “ The wages of Sin, are death.” There are so many levels to unpack there.

Two Iconic swords that are to my mind, central players of the respective stories. All aspects in both tales revolve around these swords.

Paragons of tragedy.