So, any serious fantasy writers out there come up with some good weapons? I notice people like to invent new methods for mayhem and so forth. Narsil is still my favorite, but I always thought it a great shame we never get much on Gil-Galad's spear, or on that final confrontation with Sauron in general, it must have been intense. I'm not great with inventing weapons, but there is this pickle jar... Never mind. You had to be there. My fantasy writing just does not run in ordinary channels.
Now, if you're the contrarian anti-heroic type of fantasy writer, if, for example, you applaud the non-use of the One Ring because you worry about the dangers of power and you identify with the hobbits as representatives of the common man, how about prosaic, unromantic gear? Sam's pots, for example. You never think about Sam's pots, with which he keeps Frodo alive, on which that great, warm funny scene with the stewed coney depends-- the only meeting of the minds Sam and Smeagol have (well... almost). I note the movie turned Sam's frypan into a blunt intrument for battle with orcs, but the book is much purer: those pans mean Sam's pride, Sam's craft in cooking and caretaking and Sam's love for his master. One of the saddest moments in the book for me is when Sam throws his pots down a fissure to lighten their load-- they're the only thing left that's pure Sam and not Sam-for-master or Sam-for-mission. Anything in your stories that's small, humble, prosaic, but somehow sums up one of your characters better than anything else?
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