JugglerMan
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2022
- Messages
- 2
Hi, I'm looking for help to identify a book that I read about 30 years ago, of which I can only remember the story line and I'd like to know the title of the book and the author so that I can perhaps read the book again and perhaps other books by the same author. The story line that I remember goes like this:
A warrior (fighting in a war) has been separated from his companions and is wandering alone in the forest when he comes across an old man who turns out to be on same side as he is fighting for. The old man turns out to be a wizard who casts a spell on the warrior's sword which will help him to win any fight that he is in. The warrior eventually makes it back to his camp and the army wizards investigate the spell cast on the sword and (I think to the warrior's horror) discover that once it has killed 99 times the sword will turn on the warrior and kill him. It will then take a new "owner" and after 98 kills, will kill that owner, etc. until it has killed all the owners! The sword also needs to be sheathed and drawn again (only by the owner) for the magic to work and for the sword to help in killing the next victim. When the warrior hears that the sword will eventual kill him, he tries to get rid of the sword by burying it, throwing it in a river, etc., etc. but always the next morning, the sword it back at his side. I don't recall if the sword also grants the owner ever lasting life, until the sword kills the owner, or if the warrior, after rescuing a "damsel in distress", who turns out to be a witch, gets the witch to cast a spell on him, which gives him ever lasting life. I think he also spends some time with the witch. Eventually the war is over and the warrior becomes an inn owner with the sword hanging on the wall and there are competitions to see if someone else can draw the sword from it's sheath. No one ever does. At the end of the book, many, many years later, an old man comes into the inn and the warrior / inn keeper recognises the old man as the wizard who cast the spell on the sword. When the warrior introduces himself to thank the wizard (I think) the wizard then apologies and says that he accidentally used a bronze coin in the spell instead of a gold coin and that is why the sword will eventually turn on the owner and kill him!
A warrior (fighting in a war) has been separated from his companions and is wandering alone in the forest when he comes across an old man who turns out to be on same side as he is fighting for. The old man turns out to be a wizard who casts a spell on the warrior's sword which will help him to win any fight that he is in. The warrior eventually makes it back to his camp and the army wizards investigate the spell cast on the sword and (I think to the warrior's horror) discover that once it has killed 99 times the sword will turn on the warrior and kill him. It will then take a new "owner" and after 98 kills, will kill that owner, etc. until it has killed all the owners! The sword also needs to be sheathed and drawn again (only by the owner) for the magic to work and for the sword to help in killing the next victim. When the warrior hears that the sword will eventual kill him, he tries to get rid of the sword by burying it, throwing it in a river, etc., etc. but always the next morning, the sword it back at his side. I don't recall if the sword also grants the owner ever lasting life, until the sword kills the owner, or if the warrior, after rescuing a "damsel in distress", who turns out to be a witch, gets the witch to cast a spell on him, which gives him ever lasting life. I think he also spends some time with the witch. Eventually the war is over and the warrior becomes an inn owner with the sword hanging on the wall and there are competitions to see if someone else can draw the sword from it's sheath. No one ever does. At the end of the book, many, many years later, an old man comes into the inn and the warrior / inn keeper recognises the old man as the wizard who cast the spell on the sword. When the warrior introduces himself to thank the wizard (I think) the wizard then apologies and says that he accidentally used a bronze coin in the spell instead of a gold coin and that is why the sword will eventually turn on the owner and kill him!
