History Main / ThunderboltIron

* Parodied in [[http://www.xkcd.com/1114/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip.

** Also referenced in ''Literature/WyrdSisters''. "I have a spell for that. You take some Thunderbolt iron... [[spoiler:and make a sword out of it."]]

* The panserbjørne ([[BearsAreBadNews armored bears]]) from ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' are a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race]] that focus their whole culture around "sky-iron". Specifically, they beat massive suits of plate armor out of the metal without heating. Sky-iron is specifically needed because their claws can tear through normal steel like tissue paper. The armor then becomes a sort of iconic possession/"external soul" similar to the traditions around {{Samurai}}' weaponry.

* Roy Greenhilt of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has a sword that's made out of an alloy of starmetal. Originally, the blade was just an ordinary family heirloom, but early on in the story it was [[WreckedWeapon shattered]]. Misled into believing his sword was made of starmetal and couldn't be reforged without it, Roy led his party on a quest to obtain some and ended up with only a tiny nugget of the stuff. Later, he discovered the truth about his sword [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0297.html when speaking with a swordsmith]] in Azure City: Not only is it entirely normal steel, but actual starmetal is incredibly rare and heavy, and a blade entirely made of it would weigh 300 pounds and require all the starmetal that has ''ever'' fallen out of the sky. Reforging his blade with even the palm-sized amount that he'd found made his sword ''incredibly'' strong -- in D&D terms, it became a +5 sword with the ability to severely harm undead by emitting a green glow.

* ''Film/{{Outlander}}'': Human-looking alien Kainan lands on Earth during the time of the Vikings. He eventually has swords forged from pieces of his ship's hull. The new swords are harder and sharper than a typical steel blade.

* ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'' adapts the namesake game, and some of the content adapted includes the Star Fragments that fall from the sky during the night. Link finds out right outside of his home one night. [[spoiler:It ends up being the key for Impa to strengthen and upgrade Sheikah technology, including her anti-aging rune.]]

* Vibranium, a super metal capable of many feats, fell to Earth as a meteorite the size of a mountain. It's the source of all of Wakanda's technological superiority in ''ComicBook/BlackPanther''.
* Skywise's "magic" lodestone compass in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest''.
* The [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] ComicBook/GreenLantern had an actual lantern, forged originally in ancient China from a glowing meteorite. A piece of the lantern was made into a ring by Alan Scott, who needed to recharge it every 24 hours by touching it to the lantern. This was {{retcon}}ned in later stories as the magical energy of Earth-1 (home of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] [[Franchise/TheDCU DCU]]), thrust into Earth-2 (home of the Golden Age DCU) by Guardian fiat.
* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** The Black Knight's Ebony Blade is carved from meteoric metal, and is layered with many and potent enchantments by Merlin the magician, including a "blood curse".
** The Yashida Clan's "honor sword" is also made from meteorite iron, and forged by a demon. Both factors become pivotal when ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} is fighting a mystical assassin, the "Iron Monk", who boasts of being impervious to mortal and Earthly weapons. The Iron Monk repeats his boast (which was backed up repeatedly throughout the issue) when Wolverine draws the sword, only to have a brief OhCrap moment when its origins are explained to him. Brief because Wolverine isn't generally known for showing mercy to villains. Especially in his solo adventures.

* A variation of this occurred in a ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman'' story that had the two of them hopping around unstable timelines, when they landed in a Wild-West themed one, coming across ComicBook/JonahHex and a ton of cowboys shooting at them. When Hex heard Superman was an alien, he figured he should maybe load his gun with bullets made from meteorites. Which, of course, are kryptonite. Bonus for him not even knowing it was Superman's weakness.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the greatsword Dawn is thought to be forged from a fallen star. The blade is handed down to those rare knights of the noble House Dayne deemed worthy of wielding it—with such men always bearing the title "Sword of the Morning". The world of the series also features particularly sharp and strong blades believed to be forged by magic, but Dawn seems to be held in even greater respect. A previous Sword of the Morning once dueled a notorious bandit knight and hacked the bandit's first sword to bits, showing that Dawn is indeed something special.

* In one of the most ungodly expensive examples of this trope, we have Cabot Guns' [[http://cabotguns.com/oak-collection/the-big-bang-pistol-set/#1 Big Bang Pistol Set,]] a pair of [[CoolGuns 1911 pistols]] constructed primarily from meteorite iron. Asking price? ''$4.5 million''

* ''WesternAnimation/BlueEyeSamurai''. The protagonist Mizu meets the swordmaker who raises her when a meteorite falls from the sky (conveniently stopping her from being beaten to death) and she helps the swordmaker load it onto his cart. He's unable to break down the metal in the rock despite years of trying and eventually gives up and puts the rock away, but when Mizu leaves as an adult on her RoaringRampageOfRevenge, she reveals that [[SurpassedTheTeacher she's made her own sword, and he realises the meteor has disappeared from where he left it.]] Subverted when the sword later breaks when Mizu tries to do a BulletParry; she goes to the swordmaker to get it reforged and he points out that she didn't strengthen the metal with normal steel, so it had become brittle.

* ''WesternAnimation/BlueEyeSamurai''. The protagonist Mizu meets the swordmaker who raises her when a meteorite falls from the sky (conveniently stopping her from being beaten to death) and she helps the swordmaker load it onto his cart. He's unable to break down the metal in the rock despite years of trying and eventually gives up and puts the rock away, but when Mizu leaves as an adult on her RoaringRampageOfRevenge, she reveals that [[SurpassedTheTeacher she's made her own sword, and he realises the meteor has disappeared from where he left it.]]

* In one of the most ungodly expensive examples of this trope, we have Cabot Guns' [[http://cabotgun.com/oak-collection/the-big-bang-pistol-set/#1 Big Bang Pistol Set,]] a pair of [[CoolGuns 1911 pistols]] constructed primarily from meteorite iron. Asking price? ''$4.5 million''

* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' has Meteorite Ore, which can be forged into bars and used in the construction of various high-tier items. [[Franchise/StarWars Most notably,]] [[LaserBlade Phaseblades]].

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': The seven classical alchemical metals can be "perfected" by a magical process that consumes 90% of their mass and leaves them as FantasyMetals. Meteoric iron has the advantage of already being halfway perfected, reducing the effort needed to complete the process -- the effort of [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome obtaining a metallic meteorite]] notwithstanding.

* Literature/{{Discworld}} is the TropeNamer. Discworld's ThunderboltIron is strongly magnetized, and even more useful than normal iron for keeping away [[TheFairFolk elves]]; people put chunks of it in circles around places where the Faerie realm gets too close.

* UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}'s dagger was long suspected, and recently confirmed, to be made from meteoric iron. Though what makes it so valuable is the fact that it's a rare iron artefact from the Bronze Age. The fact that it's meteoritic is merely what allowed people who hadn't mastered smelting to make an iron dagger.

* In ''Fanfic/RobbReturns'', Dawn is this, as per canon, but it turns out it's not the only sky-metal weapon around. A lot of the other houses of the First Men had their own {{Ancestral Weapon}}s, from the [[CarryABigStick The Fist of Winter]] of the Starks and [[CoolSword Stormbreaker]] of the Durrandons, to [[BladeOnAStick Otherbane]] of the Gardener Kings and Rocktooth and [[DualWielding The Warnings]] of the Casterlys/Lannisters.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' has two such materials, Mithrildite (overlapping with {{Mithril}}) and Force Core. Mithrildite is an extremely durable metal that can be stored in {{Hammerspace}}, while Force Core is a type of stone that can be used as a power source. Both are used to construct [[MiniMecha Drag-Rides]].

* In ''Literature/TheGodEngines'' by Creator/JohnScalzi, weapons tipped with "single-made" iron (''meteoroidic'' iron collected from deep space) are capable of killing [[WizardsFromOuterSpace the lesser gods used by the humans to power their starships]]. Second-made iron (single-made iron reforged by a smithy, or meteoric iron found on the ground) wounds them, while third-made iron items (meteoric iron reshaped in a forge) can only restrain them. One of [[TheCaptain the protagonist's]] crewmen finds out [[TheDogBitesBack in a most unpleasant manner]] that the quartermaster who provided the pikes used to discipline the ship's power source skimped on the second-made. After he is taken away to the healers, the captain brings out a whip studded with single-made iron[[note]][[{{Squick}} and made from another god's skin and bones]][[/note]] and proceeds to ''[[WhipItGood lay down the law]]''.

* In ''Anime/SakuraWarsTV'', when Sakura Shinguji's sword, ''Arataka'', is damaged in her first fight against series BigBad Aoi Satan, she returns home to Sendai to have it reforged ... and it's mentioned in passing that the sword is made of metal from a meteorite.