He who makes really, really, really big swords will be appearing at the West Tisbury library at 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 31. Actually, these are not just big swords. These are the biggest swords the world has ever seen.

West Tisbury native Michael Craughwell built a sword that is 8 feet, five inches long. It weighs 54 pounds. And you thought your Island neighbor with the chicken coop and hogs was doing something cool.

Mr. Craughwell is a native of Ireland. His father owned a video shop and wee Michael spent his formative youth relating to the Mad Max films. He was particularly intrigued with the trappings of a civilization being repurposed for mediaeval barbarism. And so, in due course, he began making Mad Max-style weapons and armor out of scrap from the Irish building boom.

In 1997 a video game called Final Fantasy 7 arrived in Ireland and Mr. Craughwell abandoned his former ideas of what size a sword should be. In 2000 he went to art school to learn all things metal. He graduated as “that guy who makes swords.”

In 2007, Mr. Craughwell was commissioned to make the signature Final Fantasy 7 sword. He has been making ridiculously big swords ever since. He has been featured on cracked.com and gamespy.com. As of this writing Craughwell’s youtube videos have 952,000 views.

For a sneak preview visit youtube.com/michaelcthulhu. Then go see the real thing next Friday.

For more details, call 508-693-3366.