Hammer of Govannon

Hammer of Govannon
Giles performs the Hammer of Govannon.
Name	Hammer of Govannon
Effect	Blast of energy
Performer(s)	Rupert Giles Willow Rosenberg
Appearances
Debut	"Grave"
Last seen	The Great Escape

“Excudo!”

―Rupert Giles

The Hammer of Govannon was a conjuration spell used to project a mass of concussive energy and blast it against a target. It required the wording "excudo" and a hand movement from where a light blue bolt of energy would project out.

History

In May 2002, using the borrowed power of the Devon coven, Giles used this spell in his magical duel against Willow after she became capable of countering the binding spell "vincire." The bolt of energy the spell projected threw Willow back with enough strength to break through a brick wall.

During the end of magic, Willow cast this spell in another dimension, striking and eliminating creatures that tried to attack her and her companions. However, its power manifested on a minor scale and did not affect the target creatures.

To destroy the Safe Zone force field, Willow cast the spell on a large scale at the building housing its generators, freeing dozens of demons and vampires. She called it "Hammer of Govannon" and used it at enough strength to tap her out. When Faith mentioned preferring this spell, Willow explained: "Yeah, it's great if you have an hour to recover. Not if need to, y'know, be useful."

Behind the scenes

• In the Welsh mythology, Govannon is the metalsmith god, with power over the weather and the elements such as thunder and fire.
• The chanting "excudo" is Latin for "hammer out" or "strike out."
• Differently from its first use by Giles ("Grave"), Willow pronounced this spell as "escudo" in Season Nine. In Season Eleven, her pronunciation was "excudo," an actual word in Latin, indicating that the previous use (with an "s" in place of "x") was an writing mistake. Notably, an in-universe explanation could reside on Willow's difficulty in pronouncing Latin, as noted in "Get It Done" and New Rules, Part One, despite her natural magic abilities which allow the spell to be cast anyway.
• The Hammer of Govannon is one of the spells the player is able to cast in the video game Sacrifice, in which Willow uses Buffy as a conduit for each item on her spellbook.

Appearances

• "Grave"
• Sacrifice
• Wonderland, Part One
• Wonderland, Part Two
• The Great Escape
• Revelations (Only mentioned)