Item from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
The Valyrian steel greatsword of House Tarly — stolen by Samwell Tarly from his cruel father, an act of quiet defiance that put one of the rarest weapons in the world into the hands of the least likely warrior.
Heartsbane's significance is less about what it can do than who took it and why. Randyll Tarly told Sam he was unworthy of the family name, let alone the family sword — so Sam stole it and walked out the door, the single bravest thing he'd done up to that point. The sword ended up at the Citadel, then at Winterfell, where its Valyrian steel proved essential against the dead. In Sam's hands, Heartsbane is a story about the gap between the people society values and the people who actually save it — a warrior's weapon wielded by a scholar who changed the course of the war by reading books and refusing to let his father define him.
A broad greatsword of Valyrian steel, its blade etched with a faint huntsman motif. The hilt is wrapped in red leather with a pommel shaped like a heart pierced by an arrow — the Tarly sigil. Despite its size, the Valyrian steel makes it surprisingly light.
Also known as: Heartsbane, the Tarly sword, Sam's sword