John Thunstone is a fictional character and the hero of a series of stories by author Manly Wade Wellman.
The blade is inscribed with a text from Judges chapter 5 in the Vulgate, "Sic pereant omnes inimici tui" — "thus perish all your enemies".
[1] The sword-cane had also been used by Wellman's earlier character, Judge Pursuivant, who passed it on to Thunstone when his advanced age made him too weak to effectively wield it.
These include the shonokins, a race of human-like creatures who claim to have ruled North America before the coming of humans.
Thunstone's most persistent foe is a sorcerer named Rowley Thorne, who appears in a number of the stories.