Mournblade

Mournblade is the twin of Elric of Melniboné's vampiric runeblade, Stormbringer. The swords are creatures of Chaos in Michael Moorcock's Elric book series and were found in an alternate dimension by Elric and his evil cousin Yyrkoon. Mournblade only made brief appearances in the series. Like Stormbringer, Mournblade is a great sentient black sword with runes carved into the blade, and possesses the ability to steal the souls of those it slays, in turn increasing the strength of its wielder.

In Elric of Melniboné, Elric and Yyrkoon find the runeblades in a realm of Limbo and commence battle. Elric and Stormbringer disarm Yyrkoon, and Mournblade disappears. Yyrkoon is defeated, and Elric and his cousin return to Imrryr. In The Weird of the White Wolf, Elric returns to Imrryr after a long journey and confronts Yyrkoon, who usurped the throne in his absence. Yyrkoon has regained Mournblade through unknown means and uses it to attack. Elric and Stormbringer kill Yyrkoon, and no further mention is made of Mournblade. All of Imrryr is destroyed by invading forces, so it seems that Mournblade shares the city's fate. In Stormbringer, Elric learns that the representatives of Fate, which serve neither Chaos or Law, recovered Mournblade from the netherworld. They present it to Elric and explain that the runeblades were designed to be wielded by those with Melnibonéan royal blood as a check against the might of the Dead Gods of Chaos. Elric gives Mournblade to his kinsman, Dyvim Slorm, and the two men become embroiled in a confrontation between the gods.

Other References

* The Italian metal band Domine have a number of songs based on the Elric saga. Mournblade is featured in the song The Song of the Swords from their Emperor of the Black Runes album.
* The song Sword's Lament by American metal band Cauldron Born references both Stormbringer and Mournblade, along with a host of other fantasy swords.
* Mournblade (as Mourneblade) is featured in Konami's video game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and possesses the ability to heal the player character whenever he strikes something with it(much like how Mournblade and Stormbringer grant their wielder health and vitality when used to slay a foe, though the game weapon can grant health even when striking non-living objects, such as candles). Mourneblade is widely regarded as one of the best weapons in the game, and is considered a "rare" weapon.
* Mournblade were a British NWOBHM band who made two albums in the 1980s: Time's Running Out and Live Fast Die Young. Several of their songs feature references to Michael Moorcock's work.

See also

* Anglachel/Gurthang, the black sword of Beleg and later Túrin Turambar; and its twin Anguirel, from The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.