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Dragonsteel, Valyrian Steel, and Lightbringer.


Lord Fauntleroy

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Primitive people have crafted knives, spear points, and arrowheads from things like obsidian and flint sine long before recorded history.  Obsidian is volcanic, and might be found either on Dragonstone or anywhere there's geothermal activity, like a geyser or hot spring. Since we know Winterfell is built on a hot spring, it would be unsurprising to find obsidian close by. The CotF no doubt found some and learned to craft with it, it's useful aside from any properties against ice zombies.

I believe there's a so spake Martin where he explains that obsidian is not an ingredient, but magic and sacrifice is.

IRL, it would be possible to use the components of obsidian in a steel alloy, some of which would be either only contributing color or would simply sluff off as slag. The steel that results has improved electrical conductivity but is inherently so brittle as to make a sword that is at the very best a wall decoration. I can accept that magic might make possible something effectively impossible given the technological level in the story, but magic making what we know will be a crappy sword into the finest of swords is just a way to break suspension of disbelief.

 

Seems likely for Hardhome to have some obsidian. Whatever went down there sounded volcanic. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Found the quote I was recalling, and it's not as specific as I'd thought.

Quote:

Q: A brief question about Valyrian steel - is it the metal that makes the sword so special (provenance, age, etc), or is it the forging (spells, techniques)

A:Forging techniques and spells, actually. There is magic involved in the making of Valyrian steel. -- March 11, 2001 "Producing Valyrian Steel"

So while obsidian is not specifically excluded as a component, neither is it specifically called out, and speculation that it is an ingredient is exactly that: speculation.

Here's another quote from the SSM archives:

November 06, 2002
The Process of Making Valyrian Steel

Q: I was just wondering if you could settle something for me in relation to Valyrian steel and just wondering if I have taken you up correctly on the matter. I believe I'm right in saying it differs from say Mithril (from LOTR) in that it is not a material which in itself bears advantageous properties but rather ordinary steel which has been subjected to a process (the physical manipulation of the steel combined with spells) which embues it with the desired elements.

A: Yes, that is correct. You don't mine Valyrian steel (actually, you don't mine any steel), you make it.

Q: What I'm less sure of is whether Valyrian steel ever exists as a raw material.

A: It does not.

Q: I believe it doesn't but only as a finished blade, what I mean is that it is the actual process of making the sword from run of the mill steel which gives us a Valyrian weapon rather than Valyrian steel being made beforehand and then this product being used to make an item.

A: The closest real life analog is Damascus steel, but Valyrian steel is a fantasy metal. Which means it has magical characteristics, and magic plays a role in its forging.

End of Quote

So Damascus is the inspiration. Damascus steel does not have different input materials from regular steel. Hematite ore and graphite are still the preferred raw materials, and the difference lies in the smelting and further processing.

At one point while posting on these boards I believed the obsidian+steel=valyrian steel theory as well, but it just doesn't hang together with either known facts about metallurgy or Martin's own assertions.

And while the dragonsteel=valyrian steel idea is proposed by Sam and Jon in Feast and Dance, it's also speculation without proof. Could be something completely different. GRRM's narrators are known to be wrong, even spectacularly so. Neither is capable of making a sword of any sort, much less one forged in a process involving spells.

 

 

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