What is Anvil?
An '''anvil''' is a hard piece of [[metal]] which is used as a workbench when making things out of [[iron]] or [[steel]]. An anvil is used by a [[blacksmith]] when they need to [[hammer]] hot iron to bend it into the shape they want. A blacksmith can make new shoes for [[horse]]s. [[File:Amboß klein.jpg|thumb|right|Small anvil]] Anvils were known in the [[Bronze Age]] and possibly earlier. They were used in [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Egypt]]. They are still in use today, although not nearly as much as 100 years ago when there were many more horses. Anvils are extremely heavy. They are made in different sizes. The [[17th century]] [[writer]] [[John Bunyan]] was a tinker (someone who mends pots and pans). He walked around the villages of [[Bedfordshire]] with a small anvil and a few tools on his back. His anvil was wedge-shaped, so that he could knock it into the ground when he needed to do a repair. His anvil is now in the John Bunyan museum in [[Bedford (England)|Bedford]]. == Use as a musical instrument == The anvil has sometimes been used as a [[percussion instrument]] because it makes a very loud sound when hit by the hammer. Usually musicians use a metal bar mounted on a sound-box. This sounds just as good as a real anvil (which would be very heavy to carry around). [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] wrote some famous music called the ''Anvil Chorus'' in his [[opera]] ''[[Il Trovatore]]''. [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] asked for 18 anvils in ''[[Das Rheingold]]'' in the scene which takes place below the [[earth]] where the Nibelungs are working at their [[forge]]s. [[Albert Parlow]] wrote an ''Anvil Polka'', [[Edgar Varèse|Varèse]] used an anvil in ''[[Ionisation]]'', [[William Walton|Walton]] uses an anvil in ''[[Belshazzar’s Feast]]'' and there is an anvil in the orchestra in [[Howard Shore]]'s music for [[The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy|''The Lord of the Rings'' movie trilogy]]. ==Related pages== *[[Forge]] *[[Iron]] *[[Steel]] *[[Blacksmith]] *[[Silversmith]] [[Category:Tools]] [[Category:Percussion