Named weapons in Middle-earth

The named weapons in Middle-earth are the swords and other powerful weapons in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium which he considered significant in his mythology. The naming of weapons derives from Medieval times, being found in Norse mythology and in the Old English poem Beowulf. Among the many weapons named by Tolkien are Orcrist and Glamdring in The Hobbit, and Narsil / Andúril in The Lord of the Rings.

Beowulf fights the dragon with the sword Nægling. 1908 illustration by Joseph Ratcliffe Skelton

There are multiple parallels between Tolkien's usage of named weapons in his Middle-earth writings, and the Medieval epics. These include their inheritance as heirlooms, sometimes royal; their rediscovery in ancient treasure-hoards, or their reforging; their adornment with runic inscriptions; and their interlinking with the lives of their owners.

Background
Hervör wakes her father Angantýr's ghost from his barrow to demand the cursed sword Tyrfing as an heirloom.
Sigurd holding the sword Gram on the Ramsund carving, c. 1030
Runes in silver on the 8th-century Sæbø sword
The runic inscription reads right-to-left Oh Þurmuþ, "Thurmuth owns me", the swastika standing for "Thor".

In Medieval epics, heroes carried named weapons. The name, lineage, and power of the weapon reflected on the hero. Among the major tales are those of Sigurd the Volsung and his sword Gram that he used to kill the dragon Fafnir;[lower-alpha 1][1] Beowulf and the swords Hrunting and Nægling;[2] King Arthur's Excalibur, the "Sword in the Stone";[2] Roland's Durendal; Waldere's Mimming;[2] and the Elder Edda's account of the "Waking of Angantyr" (the Hervararkviða) and the sword Tyrfing.[3][4]

Such weapons were praised both for their strength and for their history. For example, Nægling is repeatedly described with epithets such as "sharp", "gleaming", "bright", "mighty", and "strong", while its history is explicitly recalled in phrases such as "excellent ancient sword", "ancient heirloom", and "old and grey".[5] They might have magical powers: Excalibur shines[2]

so bryght in his enemyes eyen that it gaf light lyke thirty torchys, and therwith he put hem on bak and slew moche peple".

in Modern English:
so bright in his enemies' eyes that it gave light like thirty torches, and therewith he drove them back and killed many people.[6]

Swords may be heirlooms within a royal family, or may be recovered from ancient hoards of treasure, in either case having a lineage and story of their own.[3] A sword-blade could be adorned with runes; these might attach power, history, and magic spells to the weapon, just as Sigurd was instructed to engrave runes of wisdom and victory on his sword Gram.[3][7] The historian of arms Ewart Oakeshott described the sword as having "a potent mystique which sets it above any other man-made object".[2] Swords had two attributes which made them especially highly prized: they were costly to manufacture, and effective as weapons.[4][8]

In Middle-earth

Weapons of power
Further information: Middle-earth weapons and armour

Tolkien named many weapons, mainly swords, but also including Aeglos, the spear of the Elf-king Gil-Galad; Belthronding, Beleg's bow;[4] Dramborleg, Tuor's axe;[4] and Grond, the name both of the evil battering-ram from Minas Morgul, and of the mace of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, in his Middle-earth writings. Eighteen such weapons are listed by Anthony Burdge and Jessica Burke in the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia.[3] As in medieval epics, the sword in particular symbolised the heroism and position of its owner. As the Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger put it, the sword "proclaims the emergence of the hero";[9] further, "the fates of sword and man are linked, and the destruction of one signals the end of the other".[3][2][9]

Such themes can be seen clearly with Aragorn's sword Andúril, but they run similarly through Tolkien's accounts of many other named weapons. The swords Glamdring and Orcrist named in The Hobbit fit two strands of the Medieval pattern, as they are both ancient, having been forged in the First Age, and were retrieved from a treasure-hoard, having been held by the three Trolls in their cave.[3][T 1] Reforging and rediscovery effectively pass old power to the new weapon and its new owner, and renew that power.[3][2]

Glamdring and Orcrist, and Bilbo's knife used as a sword, which he named Sting, gleam when Orcs are nearby;[2] the ancient swords terrify the Orcs, and are recognised by them; indeed, the Orcs have their own nicknames for the two famous swords, Biter and Beater.[3] These weapons have numerous connections to the famous swords of Medieval mythology, including, according to the Tolkien scholars K. S. Whetter and R. Andrew McDonald, the style and content of their names, which recall the names of swords in Norse mythology such as Fotbitr and Dragvandil ("Leg-biter" and "Slicer").[2] Indeed, in The Hobbit, when Bilbo's party arrive at Rivendell, Elrond reads the swords' runic inscriptions and describes the heroic history and lineage of the recovered weapons:[T 2]

They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the West, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin-wars. They must have come from a dragon's hoard or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago. This, Thorin, the runes name Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver in the ancient tongue of Gondolin; it was a famous blade. This, Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foe-hammer that the king of Gondolin once wore. Keep them well!"[T 2]

Narsil / Andúril
Further information: Middle-earth weapons and armour § Narsil / Andúril
An artist's impression of Andúril, the hero Aragorn's reforged sword

The Lord of the Rings hero Aragorn, heir of the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor, carried the shards of the sword Narsil, broken when his ancestor Elendil died in battle with the Dark Lord Sauron.[T 3][3] Its name, Narsil, contained the roots for "fire" and "white light", meaning "Sun and Moon" in Quenya.[T 4] It had been forged in the First Age by the greatest of the Dwarf-smiths, Telchar. He worked into the enchanted sword the ability to shine "with the light of the sun and of the moon", with the result that "the sword of Elendil filled Orcs and Men with fear".[T 3] After it was broken "its light was extinguished and it was not forged anew",[T 3] until Aragorn brought it to Rivendell at the end of the Third Age and the quest to destroy the One Ring. It was then remade as Andúril, meaning "Flame of the West" in Quenya:[T 4]

The Sword of Elendil was forged anew by Elvish smiths, and on its blade was traced a device of seven stars set between the crescent Moon and the rayed Sun, and about them was written many runes; for Aragorn son of Arathorn was going to war upon the marches of Mordor. Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West.[T 5]

The seven stars were Elendil's heraldic device, which in turn denoted the stars, one per ship, for the seven ships that carried the seven palantirs from Númenor, the island of the West, to Middle-earth. The sword thus carried the symbolism of the lineage of Elendil and the power of the kingdom of Númenor.[10] In addition, Tolkien wrote that the sword's original name, Narsil, "symbolised the chief heavenly lights [Sun and Moon], as enemies of darkness".[T 4]

The poem that Aragorn says goes with his own name, "The Riddle of Strider", calls the sword the "blade that was broken":[2][T 6]

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.[T 6]

There are multiple parallels here with Arthurian legend. The Sword in the Stone is broken. Just as Excalibur delimits King Arthur's reign, so Narsil delimits the Third Age, beginning when Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron's hand, and ending when the remade Andúril helps to end Sauron's power and restore Aragorn as King.[2] Both Kings lead their peoples to victory.[11] The sword's magical scabbard, too, which the Elf-queen Galadriel gives to Aragorn as he leaves Lothlórien with the words "The blade that is drawn from this sheath shall not be stained or broken even in defeat",[T 7] parallels Excalibur's sheath, which guarantees that its wearer "shall never lose no blood, be ye never so sore wounded".[11] The elven scabbard describes the sword it was made for:[T 7]

It was overlaid with a tracery of flowers and leaves wrought of silver and gold, and on it were set in elven-runes formed of many gems the name Andúril and the lineage of the sword.[T 7]

The theme of the sword that was broken is found in various places in Norse mythology. Burdge and Burke write that Tyrfing, like Narsil, was Dwarf-forged, in its case by Dvalin and Durin. They made Tyrfing shine like fire; Andúril shines like Sun and Moon.[3][12] Sigurd's sword Gram, too, was remade; Sigurd's father Sigmund's dying wish was for his sword to be reforged; and flames leapt from Gram's edges.[3][13][8] Aragorn's sword thus combines the natures of the Norse sword Gram and the Arthurian Excalibur.[2]

Notes
  1. Gram is indeed so strong and sharp that it can cut an anvil in half.[1]

References

Primary
This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.
  1. Tolkien 1937, The Hobbit, ch. 2 "Roast Mutton"
  2. Tolkien 1937, The Hobbit, ch. 3 "A Short Rest"
  3. Tolkien 1977, The Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
  4. Carpenter 1981, #347 to Richard Jeffery, 17 December 1972
  5. Tolkien 1954, The Fellowship of the Ring, book 2, ch. 3 "The Ring Goes South"
  6. Tolkien 1954, The Fellowship of the Ring, book 1, ch. 10 "Strider"
  7. Tolkien 1954, The Fellowship of the Ring, book 2, ch. 8 "Farewell to Lórien"

Secondary
  1. Ogden 2013, p. 265.
  2. Whetter & McDonald 2006, article 2.
  3. Burdge & Burke 2013, pp. 703–705
  4. Croft 2015, article 1.
  5. Culbert 1960, pp. 13-20.
  6. Malory 2014, p. 30.
  7. Byock 1990, pp. 67-68.
  8. Brisbois 2008, article 9.
  9. Flieger 1981, pp. 40–62.
  10. Hammond & Scull 2005, p. 263.
  11. Hall 2012, article 6.
  12. Terry 1969, pp. 250-253.
  13. Byock 1990, pp. 53-54.

Sources
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