Lord of the Rings Swords

Featured in the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, Narsil (also known as the Sword of Elendil and the Broken Sword) is the sword of Isildur. Despite being shattered, Isildur manages to use the remaining portion of the blade to separate the Dark Lord from the One Ring, thus defeating Sauron at the battle of Barad-dur.

The pieces of the sword were taken to Rivendell where they laid in repose as a memory of the battle and a relic of the war.

The blade is eventually reforged by the elves as Anduril (the Sword Reforged) during the third movie, The Return of the King. This allows Aragorn to prove his bloodline to the ghost army of Dunharrow that saves Minas Tirith, and help defeat the forces of Mordor. Its history and intent are engraved on its blade in Quenya runes - "I am Anduril, who once was Narsil, sword of Elendil. Let the slaves of Mordor flee from me."

Prior to receiving Anduril and claiming his birthright, Aragorn, posing as the ranger Strider, carries a simple sword which serves him well against orcs and Ringwriaths alike.

The sword is beautiful, but not particularly ornate, reflecting Strider's inconspicuous nature at the time.

Found in a Troll's cave in The Hobbit, the matching Elven blades of Glamdring and Orcrist, and the knife Sting all glowed blue to alert their owner that orcs were nearby. Gandalf claimed Glamdring for himself and Bilbo Baggins ended up with Sting, a dagger to any human or elf but a serviceable sword for a hobbit.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, Sting is passed on by Bilbo to Frodo who takes it with him when he leaves the Shire. Glamdring and Sting are well-seen in all three movies, and Sting's Orc-seeking properties are prominently displayed throughout Fellowship (Glamdring is also supposed to glow, but this was an oversight by Jackson).

Orcrist is the only blade of the three that is not shown in the trilogy, as it was set on the tomb of Thorin in the Hobbit (book). With The Hobbit (movie) in pre-production, we may very well see this blade on the big screen by 2011.

Boromir, son of Denethor the Second, Steward of Gondor becomes obsessed with the One Ring, but redeems himself at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring by saving Merry and Pippin, and slaying piles of Orcs before finally being shot down by a hail of arrows. His sword isn't special in any magical way, but it is big, wide and heavy, devastating everything in his path.

Styled as a typical Gondorian sword of the third age, it is very wide with a long fuller to reduce weight, which stops short of the tip to maintain sword strength.

Gimli is like the Swiss Army - bristling with blades. From time to time smaller axes pop out to be thrown, but generally you get to see a lot of Gimli's favorites - his walking axe and his fighting axe.

The walking axe has a conveniently long shaft and simple single head. His fighting axe, on the other hand is all business: heavy, double-bitted and deadly.

Gimli also carries 2 throwing axes and a regular axe for everyday tasks. These five axes are on his person throughout all 3 movies, but the walking (and particularly the fighting) axe get the most screen time.

Although Legolas eats, sleeps and breathes with his bow in mind, he does get the chance to flex his flashing steel in the form of two long slender knives. Even though they're barely seen criss-crossed over his back for most of three movies, enough orcs are foolish enough to get within melee range in Two Towers so that Legolas can cut them down.

Weta designed and produced two other designs for the Elves of Middle Earth, one mass-produced for armies and one for a single character, Arwen.

Arwen's, as well as Hadhafang's, role in the movies is greatly increased compared to the books. According to lore, Hadhafang once belonged to Idril, who was mother of Earendil, who was father of Elrond, who was father of Arwen. Elrond himself carried Hadhafang into battle during the first battle against Sauron in The Fellowship of the Ring, and the sword was handed down to Arwen who brandishes it later in the movie when saving Frodo from the Ringwraiths at the river.

The movie version of the sword is inscibed with Elvish runes that read "Aen estar Hadhafang i chathol hen, thand arod dan i thang an i arwen." Which translates to "This blade is called Hadhafang, a noble defense against the enemy throng for a noble lady." Hadhafang is also known as Throng-Cleaver as a result.

As much as some LOTR purists complained about Arwen's increased importance in the films, It's great that they included this fabled blade that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Other elves were able to carry the long-handled warrior's blade, known as a Lhang, that is featured in the first fight with Sauron in The Fellowship of the Ring. The long handle and katana-like blade allowed elven warriors to sweep the Lhang around in a dizzying, blood-letting arc and mow down ranks of orcs at a time. It must have been a good design, because thousands of years later, the elves that arrive at Helms Deep are similarly armed in The Two Towers.

(Note Aragorn in the foreground with his ranger sword).

Introduced in The Two Towers, King Theoden of Rohan and his niece Eowyn each have their own swords, Eowyn debuting hers while practicing in the King's Hall in Two Towers and later in Return of the King against the Witch King, and Theoden unsheathes his sword in the Battle at Helms Deep in Two Towers, and again before the Battle of Minas Tirith.

Both of their swords feature horse heads facing each other on the guard, reflecting their horseman heritage. The faces on Theoden's sword (known as Herugrim) touch in the middle over the blade forming a heart shape, while the heads on Eowyn's guard face each other at a distance, allowing for a wider blade and fuller at the hilt. The pommels and grips are vaguely Roman looking and are my personal favorites of the trilogy.

The Nazgul, formerly the kings of men, now corrupted by the rings gifted to them by Sauron, all carry identical swords with black grips and barbed quillions. Only the Witch-king of Angmar carries a different sword, with a pommel reminiscent of his armor and the towers of Angmar. All of these are Mordor blades, capable of injuring their targets with festering black wounds that will kill those that are not struck down in combat, and should a fragment of the blade reach the heart, the deceased will rise as a ringwraith. Both Frodo and Eowyn are wounded by these blades but survive their wounds thanks to herbal healing arts.

The Witch-King also carries a dagger that matches his sword and has the same dark Mordorian properties. The Witch-King also carries a giant mace or flail, which does him no good against Eowyn.

When Saruman pillages his own ward of Isengard to give birth to his Uruk-Hai, he also creates a massive factory that churns out thousands of blades for his new army. Among them is the cheap but devious-looking orc sword.

Heavy and cumbersome, but undoubtedly deadly, the Uruk-Hai sword is a thick machete-like blade with a massive spike at the business end and a gut hook near the grip. Simply wrapped in leather straps for minimal comfort and quick mass production, the orcs march in uncountable numbers on their way to intercepting the fellowship in Fellowship of the Ring, en masse to Helms Deep in Two Towers and in the final battles of Return of the King. Orc leaders Lurtz and Ugluk are featured carrying the orc chopper, among many others.