(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Over the last half century, blacksmithery has rebounded from a trade on the verge of extinction to become a vast and thriving international artisan community, and in that rebirth, countless lost methods and techniques of the bladesmith have been rediscovered, or reinvented. Putting these formerly lost elements of the craft back into practice, particularly when considered in the context of a modern understanding of metallurgy, suggests that many characteristics of mythological weapons may be well-grounded in reality. Back when the formulation of iron and steel varied tremendously and unpredictably, even within a single batch made from a single source of ore, and working that steel was as largely an art that was cloaked in secrets and the inexplicable knacks and tricks that practitioners had developed through trial and error, legendary weapons may simply have been the product of occasional convergences of the right trace elements in the steel with the techniques that happened to maximise the qualities of that base material. Similarly, many aspects of fantastical weapons that is often ascribed to magic, such as an unnatural gleam or even a blue ‘glow,’ may reflect common, natural variations in trace amounts of nickel, cobalt, chromium or other alloying metals. Other ‘magical’ characteristics of weapons, such as the belief that a blade had an ego of its own, may simply reflect the challenges inherent in producing a long, thin blade. One of the more common impressions that inevitably arises in process of hand-forging a long blade is that the steel itself will seem to have a mind of its own. It is almost as if the blade is determined to take on a certain shape. These and other possibilities are explored by reflecting anecdotes and insights gleaned from forge upon the common tropes of fantasy and myth.