This spell was awarded to Team 3 of Series 1 by Merlin, along with the spell LANTERN. Rather than casting the aggressive-sounding ANVIL spell against the wellway guard Gibbet, the team made the fatal mistake of dispelling LANTERN.
On the other hand, Team 4 of Series 1 successfully deployed ANVIL - and utilised dispelling to non-fatal effect. Having received the spell from Cedric, they cast it when Gumboil was advancing on them. An airborne anvil duly appeared, and bopped Gumboil on the head, knocking him out. (And presumably the same fate would have befallen Gibbet in the previous quest.) As the anvil floated towards dungeoneer Danny, it was swiftly dispelled (as NVILA), and vanished before it could harm Danny.

The 1987 Knightmare computer game from Activision had a spell called ANVIL. According to the manual, it involved 'a large, cast-iron anvil, which hovers at the top of the screen, causing evils to be squashed into the ground.' If you think that sounds crude, bear in mind that the game also had the command 'Throw Bricks'.

See also: SWORD, Acme Persuader.

[Earlier version: 2005-09-10 17:16:01]

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