BFS / Literature

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• Ado Edem from Kinoko Nasu's Angel Notes wields a weapon called Slash Emperor that is essentially a "sword." By consuming portions of the planet to form itself, Slash Emperor can span incredible lengths to match the size of its opponent, as demonstrated when it destroyed the massive, hostile being called The Black Aristoteles which was several tens of kilometers in size.
• The Adventures of Strong Vanya: Foma Drachensohn, the Stone Knight, wears three huge and heavy swords. The smallest of them weighs fourteen Russian Puds/Poods (aproximately 505,54 pounds/229,32 kilograms).
  Foma Drachensohn raised the first of his three swords, which weighed seven times seven Poods.
• Keira in An Outcast in Another World wields a massive greatsword to brutal effectiveness. She loves her choice of Class and weapon and gets touchy when people criticize it.
• Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World: Karan's sword is as long and wide as she is. As a Dragon Race, she has the strength to carry and wield it effortlessly.
• In Arabian Nights a gigantic cannibal appears in the story of Codadad. His scimitar is said to be so large that only a gigantic man like him could use it.
• David Eddings' The Belgariad
  • Belgarion inherits a huge sword halfway through the story. A basic gigantic greatsword forged from meteoric iron, it's got a MacGuffin (the Orb of Aldur) attached to the hilt, effectively turning it into an Empathic Weapon that will kill (almost) anyone else that touches it (putting it into the "only he can use it" category). Among other things, the Orb reduces the weight of the sword to enable Belgarion to easily wield it; in an amusing scene early in the sequel series, The Malloreon, Belgarion removes the Orb from the hilt with the sword still strapped across his back—and promptly hits his knees under the immense weight of the weapon. He barely manages to struggle out from underneath it, and throughout the rest of the series, he takes the sword off before removing the Orb. The sword was actually forged to be fairly normal-sized by its original wielder, Riva Iron-Grip. Only problem was he was about two or three feet taller than most people with even bigger hands (thus his name).
  • Not to be outdone, Belgariad Big Bad Torak also had a BFS of his own: Cthrek Goru, a sword about as big as Belgarion's sword. Then again, Torak normally appears somewhat taller than humans, so the sword fits his hands more naturally than Belgarion's.
  • Thanks to Garion blessing it with magic, Emperor 'Zakath is also able to use one of these, though in relative terms it's not all that special: just the kind of massive broadsword typically only used by Mimbrate Arends: archetypal Knights in Armor. Mimbrates would be used to the weight while Zakath wasn't; Garion's spell simply lightened the sword to a weight which he was more accustomed.
• In Simon Green's "Blue Moon Rising" there are some big-ass magic swords referred to as Infernal Devices, which make their wielders almost impossible to kill and capable of slaughtering whole armies. The characters spend a lot of time arguing about using them against the invading demon army, because anybody who does will more than likely be taken over by the swords and keep killing until they run out of people to kill. Anywhere. Later we see that this is an entirely justified fear.
• In Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series, torturer Severian is given a huge and ancient executioner's sword by his guild-master when he is exiled, named Terminus Est. The quillons are terminated by male and female heads, designating one edge for executing men and the other for women; the sword is blunt-tipped and only a cutting weapon, and sharp enough for Severian to shave with it. A channel down the blade is hollow, and contains mercury; it runs toward the hilt when the sword is held up, and flows toward the tip when swung, increasing the force of the blow.
• Fredric in The Castle of Otranto comes into possession of a sword so large a hundred men grow close to fainting under its immense weight.
• In The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen Mordalayn, the Emerald Queen's bodyguard, fights with a 3 bladed sword so large he wears it on his back. It’s also booby trapped and takes off the hand of an enemy who tries to pull it out the scabbard. It's also capable of becoming a Weapon of Mass Destruction where the two outer blades detach and form a magical force field.
• City of No End features the Men of Iron, cybernetic Super Soldiers of the Church of Ascension. Significantly stronger than an unaugmented human, they carry massive broadswords that weigh more than thirty pounds.
• In Codex Alera, Knights Terra carry enormous swords, mauls, or waraxes that would be impossible for ordinary soldiers to use, but they can thanks to the fact that Earthcrafting gives Super-Strength. They are usually organized into a moderate sized group that Legions can uses as a battering ram or stopgap. Even Canim elites and Vord warriors have to give way under that kind of assault. And they become real terrors if they're metalcrafters to boot.
• A Dearth of Choice: The second floor boss is created by forcibly combining an evil wraith and a self-wielding Blessed Sword (much to the displeasure of both sides) and upgrading them as one unit. The sword takes on a dual nature, one side black with red highlights and dealing necrotic damage, while the other is silver with a golden glow and deals holy damage.
• Discworld seems surprisingly lacking in these, but the Klatchian enforcer 71-Hours Ahmed in Jingo has a very large scimitar.
  Vimes: He's practically a concealed owner!
• In the Dragaera series:
  • Aliera e'Kieron wields her ancestor Kieron's greatsword for several books. It's taller than she is.^note While she implied to be shorter than the standard Dragaeran height of 7-8 feet, she's still explicitly taller than any Easterner. But then, she's an elf by any other name, and her mother is a goddess, so at least there's a reason she can lift it. This trope is also lampshaded by Vlad on seeing Telnan with Nightslayer. He wonders if some Dzur strap hilts on with no sword underneath.
• Michael, the Knight of the Cross of The Dresden Files fame, wields a sword — Amorrachius — five feet long.
• The Elric Saga: One of the oldest examples in Fantasy literature (popular in the 1970s and 1980s, although Stealer of Souls was published in 1961): bad-ass Anti-Hero Elric of Melnibone his evil sentient soulsucking black rune-sword Stormbringer, one of two demonic runeblades (the other being Mournblade). Although Stormbringer was not as ridiculously big as many anime swords, it was still on the large side, and could only be touched safely by Elric or occasionally by his sidekick. Elric himself, being of a sickly constitution, could only lift the sword when he was filled by the blade's stolen soul energies; powered-up he could swing it with ease for hours, slaughtering whole armies, but without the stolen strength, he would collapse and be unable to even lift the heavy blade, let alone fight with it.
• In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the titular hero and his buddy Enkidu carry bladed weapons that might be heavier than themselves, the blades alone weighing 120 pounds each. Now these weapons aren't double-handed swords. They're daggers. Gilgamesh and Enkidu throw them. All in all, each of them carries 600 pounds worth of daggers.
• In the first edition of Eragon, the protagonist had a five-foot-long sword. It was retconned to three-and-a-half in later editions.
• In Grent's Fall, Turbert the Bladecleaver's sword definitely counts.
• Downplayed with Rhona's massive Zweihänder in A Harvest of War. The sword is huge, the wielder is HUGE.
• The Heroes: Whirrun of Bligh wields the Father of Swords, a massive, legendary weapon carried by a long line of famous heroes. It's said to look absurdly, impractically large, the kind of thing that a person who'd never seen a real sword would imagine that heroes carry. In spite of that, Whirrun uses it with deadly efficiency.
• The sarcastic, somewhat jerkish sixteen-year old Anti-Hero in How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse wields no less than a pencil three-quarters her size. It sounds useless in a zombie apocalypse, but then again...
• In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong takes an impressively large BFS from an enemy and ends up demanding a better weapon from a dragon. He inspects and rejects a series of larger and larger weapons until he notices Ruyi Jingu Bang, an 8-tons pillar originally used as a measuring stick to test the water's depth during the worst flood of Chinese history. It changes size at will, so it's only as ridiculously large as the Monkey King wants it to be. Due to its weight, the novel describes it as gibbing some of the people it hits.
• Obould Many-Arrows from The Legend of Drizzt wields one; notably, it's also on fire. Obould himself as an orc chieftain was strong enough to intimidate into obedience stronger-than human orc warriors — before he was magically enhanced.
• The Locked Tomb: Downplayed. Gideon's two-hander is a standard-issue Cohort longsword, but it's significantly larger than the rapiers that cavaliers are normally seen with. Harrowhark struggles to lift it after she absorbs Gideon's soul, needing to strap it to her back to haul it around.
• In Nick Perumov's Keeper of the Swords cycle, Sylvia gets to wield a Flammberg that has magic that in Sylvia's hands gives it a properties of a Laser Blade, including near-zero wielding weight (but not for the ones hit).
• In Keys to the Kingdom, Sir Thursday wielded a massive, dual-handed longsword with one hand. Justified in that he's a nearly immortal, demi-god-like being. This is later subverted when the blade transforms into a slender rapier for Arthur. Don't think that made it any less badass: the blade's signature power was that it killed any living creature with even the slightest touch.
• The Lightlark Saga: During a duel to show off the rulers' combat skills, Grim wields a massive broadsword that Isla describes as "thicker than her thigh" (it's implied but not specified that she's referring to the blade).
• A Mage's Power: Culmus carries around a metal sword that's as tall as he is, and just as wide. It was designed to kill orcs, who have infamously tough skin and thick muscles. He also insists that carrying it is weight training and that its great length allows him to add more magic enchancement runes than a smaller sword would allow.
• La Pucelle from Magical Girl Raising Project has the ability to change the mass and size of her sword. This means she can potentially make both her sword and its sheath as big as she wants, such as making it large enough to bridge a giant whole in the ground.
• Kamahl, the protagonist in the Torment Cycle of Magic: The Gathering wields a BFS.
• In the Malazan Book of the Fallen pretty much any famous sword is a BFS:
  • Dragnipur is a Famed In-Story Cool Sword that was forged by Elder God Draconus and is so huge it needs to be carried on the back by its current owner and Magic Knight Anomander Rake, who himself is already seven feet tall. The blade is entirely black and kills with one stroke by sucking in the soul of the its victim und chaining it inside a pocket realm.
  • Karsa Orlong, a seven-foot-tall Barbarian Hero, has a sword that looks tall for even his size and which is made of magically reinforced flint. And that's actually his second BFS. The first one was made of wood and imbued with a special oil known as blood oil which made the edge particularly strong and sharp.
• Subverted in Masques: Everyone assumes a specific mythical sword must be really, really big. Turns out, no, it is the protagonist's sword, which is unusually small. It was under their noses the whole time, but they quickly dismissed it as "too small, must be just an ordinary sword"
• The books Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn have the sword Thorn, a blade about two meters/six and a half feet long, forged from Thunderbolt Iron, that weighs so much it can't be lifted. (To everyone except its chosen user. For whom it's still so heavy it takes insane strength to use.) Did I mention it's black? Not just regular black, but black that seems to suck in light. If not for the silver wrapping on the grip, it would be impossible to see at night (or hidden deep in a frozen cave, where the hero found it). There are only two men known to be able to lift it: Simon Snowlock, the Dragon Slayer; and Sir Camaris, the one who is strong enough to use it in battle.
• In Mistborn, the Koloss wield BFSs which are proportionate to their immense bodies. It becomes relevant here when Vin a (small) human takes one and starts fighting with it. Especially awesome when Vin comes screaming down out of the sky with one to cut Straff Venture and his horse in half.
• In the John Silke novel Prisoner of the Horned Helmet, the main character uses a large axe named the elephant killer, which is described as being heavier than an average breastplate. Later, two giant mooks appear. one of them uses a scimitar which is almost as long as the other man, while the other uses an axe which is described as being "big enough to be his brother".
• Quantum Gravity had the weapon of intent, more accurately a shapeshifter weapon, that Lila Black brought back in the third book, and used all through the fourth. It does however, fit the trope perfectly, as the only two forms it took more than once were a pen (for concealment and easy carrying, but still usable as a weapon by simply writing threats?!) and a huge Zweihander. It is mentioned that even with Lila's Steel-Rending cyborg strength it would be too large and heavy for her to use effectively, except that it somehow balanced itself in an impossible way around her hand.
• Shows up, surprisingly, in the Sufficiently Analyzed Magic setting of Ra. Abstract Weapon first appears as a colossal executioner's sword, unique among most BFSes in that it's crude, chipped, rusted, and generally ugly, and not particularly impressive other than its size. Ultimately subverted, however, when Abstract Weapon is revealed to actually be an infinitely versatile Swiss-Army Weapon that merely has a BFS as its default form.
• Downplayed in Reign of the Seven Spellblades. Nanao's sword is a normal katana, where Union mages generally prefer smaller one-handed swords as "athames": Oliver's resembles a messer. At first glance he thinks the weapon would be far too large and slow to make an effective athame, not knowing that that Nanao is a war veteran whom a Wizarding School instructor plucked directly from her Last Stand on a battlefield, and sword arts instructor Luther Garland mentions he'll have to modify his curriculum a bit to teach her properly.
• In The Riftwar Cycle, Prince Arutha gets some visitors from the Empire of Great Kesh. One of them carries a flasher, which is apparently to a scimitar what a greatsword is to a broadsword.
• Rob Roy: Subverted. Frank is attacked by a Highlander wielding a huge broadsword; but Frank is not afraid because he is certain that his smaller but quicker and lighter rapier is the superior weapon.
• Sharpe takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, where it was common for officers to fight with sword and pistol. The standard sword was a light cavalry saber but some characters employ this trope.
  • Sharpe himself is stated to be an abnormally large man (six feet tall) and opts for a heavy cavalry sword. Unlike the elegant curved blades of his peers, Sharpe's sword is straight, several inches longer, and about double the weight. Most characters on this trope page wouldn't consider it a particularly large weapon, but everyone who notices it in-universe comments on its unusual size.
  • Major-General Baird in the prequel trilogy employs a traditional Scottish claymore. It's not described in detail, but a claymore would be a full two feet longer than Sharpe's cavalry sword and half again as heavy. He vents some of him his anger with the city of Seringapatam in the battle at the climax of Sharpe's Tiger, opting to lead from the front just for the opportunity.
• In Rogue Sorcerer, Ayre uses magic to create a massive stone sword which he uses in battle.
• In Sienkiewicz's Trilogy Longinus's hereditary sword made a Running Gag: most people he acquaints starts with asking him why he carries an "executioner's sword" and then are shocked when he shows he can fence with it. Their family legend — backed up by coat of arms — says one of his forebears beheaded 3 enemies with one swing and Longinus vowed to repeat this feat. Also, see below (claymore).
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Greatswords are not uncommon. Ned Stark carries a greatsword called Ice, which contains enough Valyrian steel to make two swords. There's also Gregor Clegane, who is so large that he wields a greatsword in one hand.
• The Spirit Thief has Josef's sword, Heart of War. It's so huge and wide, most people mistake it for a metal fence post when they see it for the first time.
• Star Wars Legends features lightsabers designed to be inordinately long. They disappeared more or less immediately when it was considered swinging one inside a ship would cause explosive decompression. They reappeared when someone came up with a way to put it on a switch, so it would be a regular lightsaber until the user needed a blade that could cut a small spaceship in half. Luke Skywalker said "Dual-phase lightsabers seem to have been a fad among Jedi at certain points." His father utilized such a variant as Darth Vader.
  • The earliest versions of lightsabers (not counting their Forcesaber precursor) were so energy-intensive and unwieldy that they were essentially relegated to rarely-used siege weapons.
• Shardblades in The Stormlight Archive normally fit; the ones described in detail are about 6 feet long. They are also incredibly light, even ignoring the fact that they are usually wielded by people in Magitek Powered Armor. They can be summoned and dismissed at will, and sever the soul from the body without actually damaging the flesh, as well as effortlessly cutting through almost any inorganic material. The BFSness is mostly for show, although the increased reach helps when your weapon can kill a whole crown in one swing as well. The oversized blades were more necessary when they were originally created, since they were made primarily to fight monsters made of stone roughly the size of small buildings. Brandon Sanderson has confirmed that he was deliberately invoking (and justifying) this trope. BFSs being a staple of the fantasy literature he grew up with, he decided to make a world where such weapons were actually practical — and then answer the question of what sort of enemy was so terrible it needed weapons like this to fight...
  • Later books reveal that the Shardblades are actually the spren — or corpses of spren — who were bonded to the ancient Knights Radiant, and a spren in blade form in the hands of their Knight can transform into various weapons, including shields, daggers, staves, or spears (or forks) as the Knight needs. Their shape as Swords does seem to be the default, however.
• Most of the Dragon Fangs in The Traveler's Gate are seven-foot single edged curved swords that require Super-Strength to even pick up. Travelers of the House of Blades do have super strength though, so they tend to wield them in one hand. They make up for their awkward size by being absurdly sharp and durable, and can be summoned and dismissed at will by the wielder.
• The War Gods series frequently points out that Bahzell wields a five-foot long greatsword. It also points out that, being wielded by a Big F'n Hradani, it's "merely" a hand-and-a-half sword for him.
• Warhammer 40,000 novels:
  • Duke Venalitor from the Grey Knights novel Hammer of Daemons is introduced with a blade as long as he is tall.
  • Malfallax from the Blood Angels novel Deus Sanguinius brings to bear a warpblade explicitly said to be ten metres long. He is a giant Eldritch Abomination, though.
  • In Watchers of the Throne, Aleya picks up a massive greatsword from her ruined convent and makes it her weapon. In the second book, she receives her own Executioner Greatblade, a Cool Sword that's almost as tall as her.
• Subverted in one Chinese wuxia novel, where one character has a massive sword that he rarely unsheathes. When he does reach for the hilt, the enemy he's fighting steps in so he won't be able to swing it... and it turns out that while the scabbard is several feet long, the sword is somewhere between a dagger and a shortsword in length, which allows him to surprise the enemy by stabbing him.

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