Fantasy Weapons Are Often Too Fantastic
The creation of fantasy weapons –or at least their naming—is largely based on psychological reasons. The purpose was to strengthen the confidence of the wielder in his weapon, or the weapon itself through different means. Thor, the Viking god of war, is distinctive only because of his hammer, Mjolnir. The sword Excalibur was King Arthur’s primary weapon and symbol of royalty. The sword actually proved his lineage to kingship after Uther Pendragon who was his father. The symbolic sword Kusanagi is one of Japan’s Imperial Regalia, symbols of the Emperor’s divine descent.
To make them supernatural and the wielder invincible, the weapons are endowed with magical or extraordinary powers either actually or in legends. Roland has the indestructible Durendal as his most cherished war companion. The Welsh legends has the sword Dyrnwyn, which was said to burst into flames on use and helps the user if the purpose is good, but burns the holder if he intends to use it for evil aims. The Irish legends have Fragarach, owned by the god of the seas, a sword that can smite medieval armour or any kind, no matter how impenetrable the armor is by any other sword or weapon.
In the more modern times, two fantasy world war weapons may be the Me262 ‘Schwalbe’ or the Me163 ‘Komet’, and the ‘Paris Gun’ which was often confused with the ‘Big Bertha’. The Messerschmitt 262 Swallow was the first jetfighter to see air combat and bring down an enemy plane around mid-1944 (in contrast to the British Gloster Meteor which was assigned combat roles only in late 1944). It was fielded for combat by Germany in appreciable quantities in mid-1944, and damaged a RAF Mosquito on July 26, 1944 as its first air combat victory. Meanwhile, the Meteor was first assigned an anti-V1 role, downing two rockets on August 4, 1944. The rocket-armed Komet, a jetplane faster than the Swallow, saw limited role in the air war and did not figure prominently in it.
Meantime, the Paris Gun (Paris-Geschütz) was a long-barrel siege gun used to pound Paris, 120 kilometers away, in World War 1. The primary purposes was to instill terror in the hearts of Parisiennes so French resistance to German advance would weaken. Maybe the objective was achieved, because the citizens of Paris first believed they were being hammered by a new kind of super airweapon because there was no noise before the shells fell. On the other hand, Paris was not evacuated by civilians, and the German Army failed to occupy the city.
So weapons may be termed fantasy weapons, they need to be –or believed to be--- fanciful items. They should be extraordinary or even supernatural enough to be exceptional over similar ordinary weapons. Legend, fictional or real, fantasy weapons serve to bolster the confidence of the wielder, inspire the nation or group, and create a hero figure which aspiring minds can identify with. In stories and books, heroes using such weapons are usually triumphant or come to a tragic, romantic end such as Roland, but in real life, fantastic weapons most times fail to achieve the lofty purposes they were made for.
