What kind of blade kills th Jabberwock?

Question

What kind of blade kills th Jabberwock?

Answer 1

A vorpal blade

Answer 2

A vorpal blade.

It's a portmanteau word, one that Humpty Dumpty doesn't explain. The blade goes snicker-snack so it must be thin enough to move quickly through the air. Apart from having suggestions of "flight" and "excitement" ("volare" in Latin; and "volatile"), I can't unpack the word for you.

Answer 3

A "Vorpal Sword"!

"One, two! One, two! and through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!"

This was always one of my favorite poems since the third grade!  I memorized it back in Junior High.  (Sad, eh?)  But it's full of such delightful nonsense and goofy sounding words!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Here's Lewis Carroll's full masterpiece...  Enjoy!

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'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought --

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

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.

"And has thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.