robertmathiesen ([personal profile] robertmathiesen) wrote in [personal profile] ecosophia 2025-02-03 08:17 pm (UTC)

All smithcrafts -- blacksmith, whitesmith, locksmith -- have been regarded as (usually beneficial) magical crafts for thousands of years. St Clement, the third Roman Pope after Peter, was a blacksmith by tradition, and in England St Dunstan the blacksmith was legendarily able to overcome and banish Satan by seizing him by his nose with heated blacksmith's tongs.

Tongs are foremost among all the blacksmith's tools. A smith can make all other needed tools once he has a pair of tongs, but blacksmith tradition says that the first smith's tongs were given to the first smith by an angel. Without those tongs, the first smith would have been able to make nothing.

Of course, it takes smithcraft to make a metal knife or sword. There is quite a lot of lore about magical knives and swords, of course, and several good books on this lore and legends. Peter Jennings published Blacksmith Gods in 2013. Frederick W. Robins' book, The Smith: The Traditions and Lore of an Ancient Craft (1953) was hard to find, last I looked, but quite readable. There are also a number of articles on the subject in various folklore journals.

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