Fantasy tropes: fear of cold iron. A prejudice from Africa?

[fearn]

Originally Posted by G. McCormack

If anything steels will lose carbon from being worked in the forge.

To get iron to pick up carbon (carburise) you generally need the iron surrounded by carbon in a pretty airtight spot, under heat for time.

Mmm. Crow. Yummy.

You're right, of course. But the original idea about cold steel still, I think, stands: the more it's reworked, the worse it is as a weapon.

As for why iron might be impure, I'd suggest looking at it historically. The first form of iron humans used was ocher, which is various forms of iron oxide, aka rust in mineral form

That's been used as a pigment and sacred substance for well over 50,000 years. The red mineral=symbolic blood thing didn't escape anyone, and since red blood does effectively contain oxidized iron, it's not entirely symbolic.

Worked, metallic iron is reduced (lost it's oxygen), and it's gray, the color of ashes and death. Reduced gray iron also cuts much better than red iron, so not only is it symbolic of death and ashes, it's also much more dangerous when sharp.

That's my diagnosis of iron symbolism, off the top of my head. The true irony is, of course, that iron is much more necessary for life than copper is, so having copper-based alloys as symbols of life is a case where composition and symbolism are at odds.

Best,

F