Endemic
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2012
- Messages
- 4,327
To make a typical counterexample, even if the "death-dealing sword" is well-present in Homeric Epic, the primary weapon is the "long-reaching" "gleaming in bronze" spear, and rightly so. Poetically then, usually it's the shield who gets the focus, both for the Homeric archetype of Achilles' shield and the Latin copycat (Aeneas' shield). We simply aren't used to think of the spear as a "heroic weapon", but that's cultural. I bet my pants, I dunno, maybe the Chinks or someone considered the bow the essential noble weapon or something (I don't know a thing about Eastern literature).
Celtic mythology has a few notable spears. Lúin Celtchair and Gáe Bulg, for example.
Anyway, excuse the off-topic. You should try another playthrough of this when you have time