Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword

"To an ogre, this greatsword is practically a toy."

— Flavor Text for the "Ogre Dagger" in Torchlight II

So the hero or their party has discovered or been bestowed a massive BFS with a mighty blade and even mightier weight, one that even The Big Guy struggles to use. Then they learn that this sword is in-fact classified as nothing more than a short-sword or even a dagger by the giant or the race of giants that forged it.

Sub-Trope of BFS, BFG, and many other great-weapon tropes that this can apply to, sharp, blunt, ranged, or melee. A Telephone Polearm may just be a standard wood or stone club to the giants. What might appear as a siege ballista is in actuality a handheld crank-bow for larger creatures. Same can apply with a BFG in a more futuristic setting where that's just the size of a sidearm for the race that created it, even better if said sidearm isn't even considered a Hand Cannon.

This trope can also be Inverted in a few ways. Sometimes the giant may need a knife and will settle for a human greatsword. Perhaps a dwarf, hobbit or other smaller character might need a human-sized dress sword to use as a longsword from their perspective, or the smaller character wields what their race considers a BFS but is only slightly larger than your average arming sword to a human.

See the analysis page for details on the type of Operator Incompatibility this tends to ignore.

The Trope Namer comes from the Giant's Knife in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in which you can buy a rather brittle "knife" made by a giant Goron while his brother is capable of forging a more durable sword.

Not to be confused with a giant knife which would just fall under BFS. One-Handed Zweihänder can be applied if the weapon in question would be considered two-handed for the character's size. For a similar, non-weapon trope, see Giant's Droplet, Human's Shower.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Naruto: When Gamabunta, a 100 meter tall frog, is incapacitated in a fight, Tsunade uses her Super-Strength to grab his tanto and pin the equally giant snake Manda to the ground through the mouth.

Fanfic

• The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf is seen with a knife said to be big enough to be used as a sword by a smaller person.
• The Life of the Legendaries: This trope is alluded to with Querc the Treecko's blade. The narration describes it as a "decent sized sword" to him, but to Breaker the Blastoise, the narration describes it as a "medium sized knife".

Film-Animation

• Quest for Camelot: After Excalibur is stolen by a griffin and dropped it in a forest, it is recovered by an ogre that uses it as a toothpick until the heroes recover it.

Literature

• Aventures of Wishbone: Be a Wolf: In this adaptation of Beowulf, Beowulf — played by daydreaming canine bookworm Wishbone — learns that Grendel's Mother is invulnerable to any weapon forged by human hands. Fortunately, she has a giant-made greatsword — in the hands of its intended users a normal-sized sword — in her lair that does the trick.
• The BFG: When the Big Friendly Giant dines in Buckingham Palace, they have to bring out a massive broadsword for him to use as a butter knife.
• Discworld: Detritus the troll's weapon of choice is "The Piece-Maker", a siege ballista that he modified to be usable as a crossbow, and which launches giant bundles of arrows instead of a singular spear-sized projectile.
• The Hobbit: Sting is an elvish blade that Bilbo Baggins discovers in a troll-hoard, alongside Orcrist (which Thorin takes) and Glamdring (which Gandalf takes). For an elf or human, Sting is a large dagger; for the Hobbit Bilbo, it makes a decent shortsword.
  Balin: I wouldn't bother, lad. Swords are named for the great deeds they've done in battle.
  Bilbo: Are you saying my sword hasn't seen battle?
  Balin: Not sure it is a sword, to be honest. More of a letter-opener.
• The Iron Tower: When the characters are traveling through Drimmen-deeve, Gildor (an elf) gives his magic knife Bane to Tuck (a warrow) for his defense, the knife is long enough that Tuck uses it as a sword. Later on for the assault on the Iron Tower itself the other warrows on the infiltration team are given knives by some of the men present to use as swords.
• The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond: Part of the mystery around a certain filing clerk's murder is the enormous Oddly Shaped Sword found impaling him. Mr. Pond's "Eureka!" Moment comes when he realizes that the sword in question is actually a kitchen knife sized for use by a giant. Actual giants being in short supply in WWII-era England, this identifies the murderer as the actor playing a giant in a local pantomime.
• Ranger's Apprentice: Erak, a Skandian, picks up a massive broadsword. Him being a Skandian, it looks almost stubby.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons has gone back and forth on this issue.
  • In 3rd edition and earlier weapons had listed size categories and characters could use weapons that matched their own size category one-handed and weapons one category higher with two-hands. For instance a human (medium) could use a shortsword (small) or longsword (medium) one-handed but need both hands for a greatsword (large) while an ogre (large) could wield a greatsword one-handed and a halfling (small) would need both hands for a longsword and couldn't lift a greatsword.
  • The "Arms and Equipment Guide" for 3E introduced rules for smaller or larger versions of weapons that increase or decrease the damage dice accordingly. These rules were packaged in the core rulebooks for 3.5 and all weapon tables included small and medium damage dice.
  • Inverted in Module WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. The highly intelligent mountain giant Groog once found a -2 cursed bastard sword that had been created by humans. He considered using it as a dagger, but wisely decided to discard it because of its cursed nature.
  • Module G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
    • Inverted. In the Great Hall of the Steading, the hill giant chief Nosnra has a small ballista (made by smaller creatures) that he uses as a crossbow.
    • The Weapons Room has four giant swords that would be considered two-handed swords by human beings.
• Pathfinder: One of Galt's infamous soul-trapping guillotines was captured by a frost giant, who attached its blade to a haft and wielded it as a greataxe. Somehow, the crude jury-rigging made the blade's magic even stronger.
• In Warhammer 40,000, Space Marines are larger and stronger than baseline humans due to their Bio-Augmentation. This, combined with their power armor, means that their guns and melee weapons are much larger and heavier than the weapons used by the Imperial Guard and other armies made up of normal humans. For instance, an Astartes combat knife would be roughly the size of a broadsword to a Guardsman, and even if a Guardsman could lift an Astartes-issue boltgun, its recoil would break his arms if he tried to fire it. The one notable exception in the lore is the Catachan gunnery sergeant "Stonetooth" Harker, who is able to lift and wield a heavy bolter by himself (normally a tripod-mounted weapon used by a two-man heavy weapons team in the Guard).

Video Games

• Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea: Homura is a homunculus, who in this setting are short Ridiculously Cute Critters. His weapon is a curved, wide-bladed sword, which qualifies as a BFS by his standards, though considering how he's only about waist-high to most of the other characters if you count his huge platform shoes and long, fluffy, rabbit-like ears, it'd be quite small in anyone else's hands.
• Dark Souls: Downplayed. The Black Knight enemies tower over the PC and wield distinctive weapons. While the size doesn't change too much, for the player their sword, greatsword and axe count as if they were of a size bigger (for example, the standard Black Knight Sword is used as a standard sword by them, but is classified as Greatsword for the player).
• Inverted in Baldur's Gate II: The Pixie Prick is a dagger that was originally made to be a greatsword for a pixie knight.
• Dwarf Fortress: Size determines whether a creature can wield a weapon one-handed, needs both, or just cannot use it. Large creatures can swing two-handed armaments like mauls, greatswords and halberds in one hand with very little problem, while some creatures are small enough even a shortsword needs both.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • The Xivilai are a race of Giant Mooks who fight with weapons it would take a typical human two hands to wield, such as claymores and war-hammers. Because of their size and strength, they wield them one-handed in the same manner a human would wield a longsword or mace.
  • Minotaurs favor large battle axes and war-hammers and are large and strong enough to use the normally two-handed weapons with one hand, sometimes even Dual Wielding them.
  • Rieklings are a race of small, goblin-like humanoids native to Solstheim. Their main weapons are spears which they use as both melee weapons and javelins, but archers of larger races find that reikling spears make passable makeshift arrows in a pinch.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: The "Shivering Isles" Expansion Pack adds a boss fight against Jygallag the Daedric Prince of Order, and lets you loot his sword after he is defeated. Jygallag wields the sword during the fight as a one-handed longsword, while your character must wield it as a two-handed claymore.
• Final Fantasy XIV
  • The Gigas Greatsword (previously a Valentione's Day event reward, now available on the Online Store) is a two-handed weapon for Dark Knights. As its name implies, it shares its model with the sword wielded by some Gigas enemies, who carry the blade one-handed.
  • At the tail end of Stormblood, Raubahn gives his adopted son Pipin one of his signature twin swords after losing an arm and thus no longer being able to hold both. Raubahn is a hulking Hyur Highlander around 6 feet tall while Pipin is a Dunesfolk Lalafell in the ballpark of 4 feet. Unsurprisingly, Pipin uses the blade in a two-handed Dark Knight style.
• Hollow Knight: The nails the protagonist and a few other characters wield like swords might count, if it isn't an euphemism or an inherited name. Hornet wields a more definite example in her sewing needle, used like a rapier or spear. With the characters being insects, one presumes a much larger race left them around.
• Icewind Dale has a weapon called Joril's Dagger. It used to be a dagger... for the eponymous Frost Giant. Once it ended up in human hands after his death, they reforged it into a two-handed sword.
• Larry and the Gnomes: Both Larry and his opponents are much smaller than the average human, and use weapons of appropriate size (the "sword" that Larry starts with is actually a fruit knife). The game lets you equip certain "heavy" weapons that deal a lot of damage but are slow to swing, but these weapons are typically ordinary one-handed swords that look like Zweihänders when wielded by someone of Larry's height.
• The Last Remnant has greatswords that are long and narrow-bladed, except for the Yama greatswords which only they can wield thanks to being ten feet tall. Some of them invoke this trope with examples like the Slaughterknife, remember that the size of this "knife" is "Huge", the largest of the four sizes for weapons.
• The Legend of Zelda
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time features the Trope Namer, the Giant's Knife. The first time you visit Goron City, you can bomb your way to Medigoron, who says he's developing a knife but it won't be done for at least seven years. What a coincidence that the Sword of Plot Advancement seals you for seven years, allowing you to see just what he's made. You can pay a rather hefty 200 Rupees to buy it but the blade shears off after just a few swings. His brother, Biggoron, can forge a sword that's much more durable after you complete a Chain of Deals.
  • Hyrule Warriors has the Giant's Knife serve as the first tier of the default weapon for the Impa of the War Across the Ages. This one is even bigger than the Hero of Time's option.
  • The Darknuts in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker are jackal-like knights that are double Link's height and build, and swing large serrated swords one-handed. Link can take them after disarming or killing a Darknut, but has to use both hands.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild:
    • Goron melee weapons — Cobble Crushers, Stone Smashers, and Daruk's unique Boulder Breaker — work as claymore-like greatswords that Link needs both hands to wield, preventing him from using a shield while holding them. The Gorons themselves, though, being much larger than Hylians, can easily swing these weapons around in a single hand.
    • Outside of the human-sized Bokoblins, all enemies who use weapons are much larger than Link — Lizalfos are a little under twice his height even while constantly bent over, Moblins are several times taller and Lynels would stand at eye level with most elephants. All of them can hold two-handed weapons such as claymores and spears in a single hand.
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker: The Barbarian Hero Amiri wields the "Ginormous Sword", a frost-giant sized bastard sword.
• Pokémon: Pokémon Sword and Shield:
  • Sirfetch'd provides an inversion of this trope who wields a BFS leek. Farfetch'd itself only stands 2' 7" on average, meaning that the sword is somewhere between a claymore and a Zweihander which is reasonable for a human (as far as using a sharpened leek as a sword is concerned).
  • Zacian, in their Crowned Sword forme, wields their sword by the mouth and it's moderately sized compared to them. However, Zacian stands at a height of 9' 07" which would make their sword massive by human comparison.
• Small Saga: Very common in the Mouse World of Rodentia, with quite a few characters wielding human-made objects as what they call "God Weapons." Verm's "Titan Cleaver" is just an ordinary pocket-knife, Gwen's glaive is a scalpel, Blademaster Leo uses a needle as a sword, Diego uses a gavel as a massive warhammer, the scissor-sisters each use one-half of a broken pair of scissors as longswords, and so on.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: One of the Bounty Hunter's companions is the Jawa Blizz. Blizz can only equip blaster pistols, which are so large for him that they look like rifles.
• Super Robot Wars DD: One Inter Continuity Crossover event allows the Bilbine (Aura Battler Dunbine) to be piloted by Masaki Andoh (Super Robot Wars Gaiden), who normally operates the much-larger Dunbine Expy Cybuster. His Finishing Move has Bilbine wield Cybuster's broadsword, Discutter... but it needs to be swung with both hands as it's longer than Bilbine is tall.
• Torchlight II: Three of the unique greatswords have names and Flavor Text regarding them as small and appear to be Crafted from Animals, those being the Ogre Dagger, the Valgang Toothpick, and the Dragonfang Skewer.
• Tyranny: Hulking beast woman Kills-in-Shadow uses human two-handed weapons as single-handed weapons, and trains her one-handed skill instead of two-handed skill while doing so.
• Vagrant Story: Ogres are some of the largest humanoid enemies in the game, and are able to wield weapons like greatsword and mauls, which Ashley needs two hands to wield, as though they were one-handed. At the other end of the scale, quicksilvers and shriekers are Creepy Dolls that are about the size of human children, and are only able to wield daggers that they must hold in both hands to use effectively.
• Vindictus: One of the playable characters is Delia, a former princess who took more interest in sword fighting than learning to run a kingdom. After she left her kingdom, she started training in a nearby village of Giants. They were impressed with her dedication, so they gave her the smallest sword the village smith had forged as a parting gift before she traveled on. It's still a BFS by human standards that stands at four feet long.
• Warlords Battlecry III: One of the weapons available to heroes is a spear with the description "once used by a dragon as a toothpick".

Webcomics

• Girl Genius: In a fictional story on the origin of the Storm King as told by Klaus, a child is being raised in secret by a giantess and will be allowed to leave and fulfill its destiny once he manages to steal the copper hair pin she wears, which ends up being a sword for him.
• Homestuck: The Telescoping Sassacrusher is an immense hammer whose heads are each as tall as one of the kids, and John needs to use strength-enhancing remote-controlled gauntlets to even lift it. When a giclops steals it, it easily carries it around in one hand.

Web Original

• Codex Inversus: Giants were so absurdly huge that their tools are artifacts are essentially landscape features for human-sized beings, but can be used for improvised purposes by larger beings. Trolls, for instance, are tall and strong enough to be able to use a giant's table knife as a two-handed sword.

Web Video

• Corridor Digital: The channel's "Tiny Guns" series is an inversion, with the actors wielding extremely small guns made by equally tiny people in over the top firefights.

Western Animation

• Bravestarr: The Hammer of Justice is a Legendary Weapon from the old warrior age of the Priarie people, who would hold it like a large, one-handed warhammer. In the hands of a human, it's only a little larger than a judge's gavel. Fitting that the Pairie people would gift the weapon to J.B. McBride, the new human judge of New Texas.
• Steven Universe: Proportionally, Rose's sword is a bit big for her, but it doesn't look too strange for her to use it even one-handed. However, Rose is eight feet tall, and the sword is later used by Connie, a short twelve year old about as tall as the weapon itself.

---