{"id":33385,"date":"2016-10-10T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T17:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=33385"},"modified":"2016-10-09T19:56:53","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T06:56:53","slug":"having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-from-elves-with-soul-sucking-swords-to-artifacts-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/10\/10\/having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-from-elves-with-soul-sucking-swords-to-artifacts-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Having Fun with Epic Fantasy: From “Elves” with Soul-Sucking Swords to Artifacts of Power"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The-Chaos-Gate-The-Wall-Of-Night-Book-Four\"<\/a>

Yup, she’s a gal with a sword of power…<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the past few months I\u2019ve been having some fun with epic fantasy, first \u201cMaking the Grand Tour<\/a>\u201d (aka the quest-journey) and secondly looking at the importance of the \u201cBand of Brothers<\/a>\u201d when embarking on that quest. Today it’s the turn of that perennial Fantasy favourite, \u201celves\u201d with soul-sucking swords, and I’ll also morph a little into artifacts of power more generally.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d you may object, \u201celves with soul-sucking swords aren\u2019t an epic fantasy trope…\u201d<\/p>\n

\"elrico\"<\/a>\u201cSure they are,\u201d I say. \u201cI can even give you specific examples: Michael Moorcock\u2019s Elric of Melnibon\u00e9 and Stormbringer; CJ Cherryh\u2019s Morgaine and Changeling; Steven Erikson\u2019s Anomander Rake and Dragnipur. And although neither of Drizzt\u2019s swords, in RA Salvatore\u2019s \u201cForgotten Realms<\/u>\u201d novels may be soul-sucking, his arch-enemy Artemis Entreri possesses a distinctive, soul-sucking \u201cjewelled dagger\u201d, which is practically<\/em> the same thing. Just a little, you know, shorter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d you (may continue to) protest, \u201cDrizzt and Artemis are the only elves–even if they are Dark–in that lot. And Elric of Melnibone is meant to be the archetypal anti-hero, not a Tolkien-style elf.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Morgaine\"<\/a>To which I reply: \u201cOf course they\u2019re \u201celves.\u201d Or\u2014in the spirit of willingness to make concessions–\u201celf\u201d archetypes. Elric, Morgaine, and Anomander Rake are all wielders or manipulators of great power; they are all distinctively inhuman looking in appearance and \u201cremote\u201d in disposition. And<\/em>–the cinching argument–bearers of (say it with me) <\/em>soul-sucking swords!\u201d<\/p>\n

In my view, both the \u201celf\u201d (aka elf analogue) and the \u201csoul-sucking sword\u201d are<\/u> a distinctive feature of fantastic storytelling. In combination they are readily recognizable, although I am willing (still in the spirit of magnanimity) to agree that I am also using the soul-sucking sword as an example of an even more deeply entrenched element of the genre\u2014the artifact of power.<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/a>Like the soul-sucking sword and Tolkien\u2019s \u201cone ring\u201d, artifacts of power are frequently of mysterious if not downright dubious provenance, and ambivalent benefit to the wielder. The demon-imbued Stormbringer, for example, ends by achieving its long-standing goal of subsuming Elric, while even Robin McKinley\u2019s (far) more benign Blue Sword has an ambivalent sense of humor. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of artifacts of power is that in almost all cases they tend to possess self-will and frequently be pursuing an agenda of their own.<\/p>\n

\"aragorn-anduril\"<\/a>

Aragorn with Anduril<\/p><\/div>\n

In some cases the artifact may be essentially neutral and turned to good or evil purpose depending upon how it is used, like the \u201cStone\u201d in Barbara Hambly\u2019s Dragonsbane<\/em>. In many cases, using artifacts at all can be dangerous. In all cases, it is unwise to depend on them\u2014as with the three elven rings in The Lord of the Rings<\/em>:\u00a0 although made and used for good, their ultimate subservience to the One Ring meant that when it was destroyed everything brought about through the elven rings\u2019 agency would also pass away.<\/p>\n

Objectively, I suspect that the artifact of power in epic reflects a mistrust of both human motivation and technology, a counterpart to the dystopian tradition that exists in science fiction. Like swords, soul-sucking or otherwise, artifacts of power always come with a double edge. But subjectively–spending time with them, from Stormbringer to the Blue Sword, sure can be a lot of fun!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Previous \u201cHaving Fun With\u201d Posts:<\/h4>\n

Having Fun with Epic Fantasy: The Band of Brothers<\/a><\/p>\n

Having Fun with Epic Fantasy: Making the Grand Tour<\/a><\/p>\n

Having Fun With Epic Fantasy: My Love Affair with Long Names, Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Having Fun With Epic Fantasy: My Love Affair with Long Names, Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"sfsignalLogov4\"<\/a>The original version of this post first appeared on the former \u2014 and sadly missed \u2014 SF Signal in 2011. (Where did those 5 years go?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few months I\u2019ve been having some fun with epic fantasy, first \u201cMaking the Grand Tour\u201d (aka the quest-journey) and secondly looking at the importance of the \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d when embarking on that quest. Today it’s the turn of that perennial Fantasy favourite, \u201celves\u201d with soul-sucking swords, and I’ll also morph a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epicfantasy","category-funstuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33385"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33389,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33385\/revisions\/33389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}