History Main / LegendaryWeapon

* ''TheRiftwarCycle'': The Hammer of Tholin is an ancient weapon that belonged to the last king of the dwarves, believed to be lost to the ages. The lore attached to it is so strong that its recovery allows [[spoiler: Dolgan]] to become the first king of the dwarves since its loss.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': [[SwordInTheStone The Master Sword]], aka, "The Blade of Evil's Bane", is as legendary as the Triforce itself. It is inscribed in Hyrule's lore that evil ones cannot touch it, nor can anyone, save for the [[TheChosenOne Chosen Hero]] draw it from the Pedestal of Time.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' has the hat-trick. The three Swords of the Cross are named Amoracchius, Esperacchius, and Fidelacchius. Or, as they've been called in the past, [[spoiler:Excalibur, Durendal, and Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, respectively]].

* In the arcade ''DungeonsAndDragons'' games from Capcom, at the end of Shadow of Mystara, if a player kills the final boss with a magical sword (i.e. any sword that they did not start with), the epilogue states that the weapon is renamed "The Sword of (Player Name)". On subsequent playthroughs, the sword is ''actually called that'' for anyone that picks it up. At least, until the cabinet is reset.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': [[SwordInTheStone The Master Sword]], aka, "The Sword of Evil's Bane", is as legendary as the Triforce itself. It is inscribed in Hyrule's lore that evil ones cannot touch it, nor can anyone, save for the [[TheChosenOne Chosen Hero]] draw it from the Pedestal of Time.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' gives us the χ-Blade (pronounced [[JustForPun key-blade]] or kye-blade), of which other Keyblades were made to mimic its shape. Unlike the Keyblade, which was originally made to overcome Kingdom Hearts, the χ-Blade existed alongside it and protected it as well. It was over this that the Keyblade War was fought, which resulted in its destruction into 7 Lights, which became the [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Princesses of Heart]] and 13 Darknesses, as well plunging Kingdom Hearts into darkness and forcing The Worlds to reorganize. There is a way to reforge it and bring back the lost Kingdom Hearts; by having a powerful Light and equally powerful Darkness clash, but they have to be in partitions of 7 and 13 respectively for it to be successful. [[spoiler: [[BigBad Xehanort]], who has [[BackFromTheDead reformed]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' aims to start a second Keyblade War by doing exactly that, the 7 lights being either the Princesses of Heart or the various heroes of the series, while the 13 darknesses who are multiple splintered versions of himself gathered [[TimeTravel across time]].]]

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' gives us the χ-Blade (pronounced [[Pun key-blade]] or kye-blade), of which other Keyblades were made to mimic its shape. Unlike the Keyblade, which was originally made to overcome Kingdom Hearts, the χ-Blade existed alongside it and protected it as well. It was over this that the Keyblade War was fought, which resulted in its destruction into 7 Lights, which became the [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Princesses of Heart]] and 13 Darknesses, as well plunging Kingdom Hearts into darkness and forcing The Worlds to reorganize. There is a way to reforge it and bring back the lost Kingdom Hearts; by having a powerful Light and equally powerful Darkness clash, but they have to be in partitions of 7 and 13 respectively for it to be successful. [[spoiler: [[BigBad Xehanort]], who has [[BackFromTheDead reformed]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' aims to start a second Keyblade War by doing exactly that, the 7 lights being either the Princesses of Heart or the various heroes of the series, while the 13 darknesses who are multiple splintered versions of himself gathered [[TimeTravel across time]].]]

* The [[CoolKey key]][[CoolSword blade]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts''.

* Early in ''Literature/TheHobbit'', the party recovers a small treasure hoard from some trolls. Among the hoard are a pair of legendary elvish blades, Orcrist the Goblin-Cleaver and Glamdring the Foe-Hammer, two legendary swords forged millennia earlier by the elves of Gondolin. Thorin Oakenshield takes Orcrist [[spoiler:and it's eventually buried with him]], while Gandalf takes Glamdring and uses it several decades later to kill the balrog in ''The Fellowship of the Ring''.

* In ''TitanQuest'' the most powerful weapons and items are the "Legendary" or "Mythological" ones.

* ''{{Warcraft}}'': Frostmourne (among others).

* The Sword of Shannara from the ''{{Shannara}}'' series is the legendary sword which the Elven King Jerle Shannara used to defeat the Warlock Lord and end the Second War of the Races. Five hundred years later, the entire plot of TheSwordOfShannara is a quest for said sword.

* The Vampire Killer Whip in ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' is considered the ultimate undead-killing holy weapon.

* ''Series/{{Tracker}}'s'' Strada Brac. [[hottip:*:note that as the series ended just after its discovery, we still have no idea how it's spelled for certain. This spelling is a fan consensus]] It was the subject of Vardian and Cirronian legends about how it was made during an ancient war and then stolen by the Migar council and hidden on Earth to keep it away from the Vardians. By the modern era, most of their peoples believed it was simply a myth. Cole and Mel obviously proved them wrong.

A character in a work finds a weapon, and discovers that it is the same weapon from one of the [[OralTradition legends]] of their world. Most of the time, legendary weapons are a pretty big deal - they don't call them "legendary" for nothing, after all - and instead of being a ''very'' [[ExcaliburInTheRust old, rusty piece of scrap]] that's been in a display case for the last millennium, are actually extremely powerful and useful. They might even have the spirit of an ancient hero trapped in them, have immense magical properties, or be made with [[LostTechnology a technique that has been lost to the ages]]. Occasionally, when the protagonist is TheChosenOne of a Fantasy setting, they'll just happen to be a descendant of the last great hero to use that weapon, and the weapon's true power will only be unlocked when in the hands of will unlock its true power only in their hands.

SuperTrope to AncestralWeapon. Contrast PenultimateWeapon and DayOldLegend. See also InfinityPlusOneSword, InfinityMinusOneSword, ExcaliburInTheRust, CoolSword, and SwordOfPlotAdvancement. If the work's setting is based on real world, it may overlap with PublicDomainArtifact.

* The Sword of Godric Gryffindor and the Elder Wand in ''HarryPotter''.

* The Sword of Godric Gryffindor in ''HarryPotter''.

* The Daedric Artifacts (at least those that are weapons) are the most legendary weapons in ''TheElderScrolls'' universe. Each is associated with a particular Daedric (daemonic, more or less) deity and passes from owner to owner according to the wishes of those deities. Famous ones include the hammer Volendrung, the dagger Mehrunes' Razor, the Mace of Molag Bal, the sword Dawnbreaker and the staff Wabbajack.

* In ''TitanQuest'' the most powerful weapons and items are the "Legendary" or "Myhtological" ones.

** ''Mask of the Betrayer'' has the longsword Sivlem, a weapon that has been attached to many glorious deeds. Its FlavorText has a weird {{Invoked|Trope}} DoubleSubversion when the mage enchanting it intended to give it [[TalkingWeapon an intelligence]] that would [[InvokedTrope drive its wielder to yet greater acts of heroism]], but applied said intelligence to a more mundane blade by mistake.

* Any weapon (or, indeed, any item) that unlocks a [[EncyclopediaExposita Codex]] entry in the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series.
** If you acquired the weapon Vigilance in ''Awakening'', the epilogue mentions that it went on to become one of these.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'' has the sword of Asbel's father, Aston, which was a legendary eleth sword. When Asbel was in training as a knight, he sold the old, rusted sword for cheap to a traveling merchant called a "Turtlez" (one of many in the game), not realizing its history or potential. Much later in the game, the player can buy it back for hefty premium and take it to the Amarcian Enclave and it turns out to be the extremely powerful Excalibur.

* Any weapon (or, indeed, any item) that unlocks a [[EncyclopediaExposita Codex]] entry in the ''Videogame/DragonAge'' series.

A character in a work finds a weapon, and discovers that it is the same weapon from one of the [[OralTradition legends]] of their world. Most of the time, legendary weapons are a pretty big deal - they don't call them "legendary" for nothing, after all - and instead of being a ''very'' old, rusty piece of scrap that's been in a display case for the last millennium, are actually extremely powerful and useful. They might even have the spirit of an ancient hero trapped in them, have immense magical properties, or be made with [[LostTechnology a technique that has been lost to the ages]]. Occasionally, when the protagonist is TheChosenOne of a Fantasy setting, they'll just happen to be a descendant of the last great hero to use that weapon, and the weapon's true power will only be unlocked when in the hands of will unlock its true power only in their hands.

Please note that this is for ''legendary'' weapons, meaning that the weapon has to be part of the legends and history of the work. This is not a trope for just any ancient weapon or CoolSword the protagonists find, or weapons in a work that happen to share a name with a PublicDomainArtifact.

SuperTrope to AncestralWeapon, ExcaliburInTheRust and DayOldLegend, See also InfinityPlusOneSword, InfinityMinusOneSword, PenultimateWeapon, CoolSword, and SwordOfPlotAdvancement. If the work's setting is based on real world, it may overlap with PublicDomainArtifact.