illustration by John Tenniel. Note the character in the bottom right of the picture: the blade he holds is presumably the vorpal blade, used to slay the Jabberwock.]] Vorpal is a word (almost invariably an adjective) coined by Lewis Carroll for the poem "Jabberwocky," used first in the line "He took his vorpal sword in hand" and "One, two! One, two! And through and through / The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! / He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back." Vorpal is commonly assumed to mean "deadly" or "sharp", and may imply that the blade has magical properties. Many role-playing games (beginning with Dungeons & Dragons) have taken the latter interpretation and, since the hero brings the dead Jabberwock's head home in triumph, have used "vorpal" to identify weapons with a magically enhanced ability to behead enemies. It is also occasionally interpreted as meaning the blade is warped. Appearances in Popul

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