I thought it might be worth asking if the Thorn was in any way inspired by the sword Alithiel, owned by Arithon of the series of novels by Janny Wurtz known collectively as the Wars of Light and Shadow. I was recently talked into reading the first novel, Curse of the Mistwraith, and the description of Alithiel immediately reminded me of the Thorn. After seeing the cover illustration of the most recent novel (I'll post a link in a follow-up so everyone can judge for themselves) I'm more than just reminded. They're very similiar, in color, design, and even the rune inscriptions, the differences being the lack of the rose motif and the runes running silver rather than red on Alithiel. I figure Gryph prolly would've stated it proudly on the Imagery page if the Thorn -was- related to Alithiel in any way, but even if there's no connection, it's a neat coincidence.

TRB

"When will then, be now?"
"Soon!"

>I thought it might be worth asking if the Thorn was in any way
>inspired by the sword Alithiel, owned by Arithon of the series of
>novels by Janny Wurtz known collectively as the Wars of Light and
>Shadow.

Sorry - never heard of it.

--G.
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>After seeing the cover illustration of the most recent novel
>(I'll post a link in a follow-up so everyone can judge for themselves)
>I'm more than just reminded. They're very similiar, in color, design,
>and even the rune inscriptions, the differences being the lack of the
>rose motif and the runes running silver rather than red on Alithiel.

I'll save you the trouble. (Well, provided that I found the right book. :) I was curious, so I went digging and found this image:

It doesn't resemble the Thorn as much as you think. The Thorn's hilt is much more intricate, and the Thorn's blade lacks the silver edges of Alithiel. (Unless those were added to the Alithiel illustration, despite being off-model, so that you could actually see the sword. :)

That said, Alithiel is quite nifty-looking.

(Huh. According to this, Janny Wurts draws her own cover art. I guess we can assume that's a pretty accurate representation, then. :)

--truss.

Thanks for the pic, Truss B-) Not the cover I was going by, that, but it gets the job done.

http://www.paravia.com/JannyWurts/index2.html

That address has the one I was going by. The silver edging is much less emphasized in that pic, so, and it wasn't mentioned in the prose description that originally made the connection in my head.

TRB

"Meow? What?"