Dragon Helm - Named Items

Named Items

Tolkien emulated his Northern European mythological and literary sources in creating weapons and armour with names (real examples of named weapons include Hrunting and Naegling in Beowulf, Tyrfing in the Elder Edda and Gram in the Volsunga saga). The bestowal of proper names serves to make weapons and armour unique and connecting the reader to ritualized warfare. The items illustrate the passage of time and the transfer of power or fate to their future bearers.

Aeglos

(Sindarin: Snow Point; also spelled Aiglos.) A spear wielded by Gil-galad in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales; Aiglos is also the name of a type of plant in Middle-earth which most notably grew on Amon Rûdh. Aeglos is also the name of a Tolkienist semiannual almanac published by the Polish Silesian Science-Fiction Club, parent organisation of the Polish Tolkien Society.

Anglachel

Angrist

(Sindarin: Iron-cleaver) A knife made by the great weaponsmith Telchar of Nogrod, and borne by Curufin. Beren, who had taken it from Curufin, used it to cut a magical Silmaril jewel out of Morgoth's iron crown; as Beren attempted to remove another, the knife snapped. In the earliest version of Beren's story in The Book of Lost Tales, he uses an ordinary household knife; the element of Curufin's involvement in Beren's affairs came later.

Anguirel

(meaning in Sindarin unclear) A sword forged by Eöl the Dark Elf, similar to Anglachel which was given to Thingol of Doriath in The Silmarillion. Anguirel was kept by Eöl until it was stolen by his son, Maeglin.

Aranrúth

(Sindarin: King's Ire) A sword wielded by Thingol of Doriath in The Silmarillion.

Belthronding

(Sindarin/Ilkorin: Intractable Bow) A bow wielded by Beleg Cúthalion (Strongbow) in The Silmarillion and The Lays of Beleriand.

Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin

A helmet owned and used by men of the Royal house of Hador (such as Húrin and Túrin) in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The Children of Húrin. Also known as the Helm of Hador.

Dramborleg

(Sindarin: Thudder-Sharp) An axe belonging to Tuor, son of Huor in The Book of Lost Tales and Unfinished Tales.

Glamdring

(Sindarin: Foe-hammer) A sword in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales belonging first to Turgon. Gandalf appropriated it after it was discovered among the hoard of the three trolls in The Hobbit, and he carries it throughout his journeys with Bilbo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring. Glamdring was nicknamed "Beater" by the Goblins of the Misty Mountains. Glamdring would glow blue whenever orcs were nearby.

Grond

(Sindarin: Club) The name of the mace of Morgoth in The Silmarillion; also a battering ram in The Lord of the Rings, used to assault the main gate of Minas Tirith. In the Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Return of the King, the ram Grond is called "the arm of the devil" also named "the hammer of the underworld".

Gurthang

See Anglachel

Gúthwinë

(Old English: Battle Friend) A sword wielded by Éomer, third marshal of the Riddermark in The Lord of the Rings.

Herugrim

(Old English: Fierce Sword) A sword that belonged to Théoden.

Narsil

(Quenya: roughly, Red and White Flame) A sword in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, influenced by the legendary swords Tyrfing and Gram. The sword was forged during the First Age by the Dwarf Telchar of Nogrod, a famous weaponsmith and artificer who also made the knife Angrist, which cut a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth, and the Helm of Hador later used by Túrin Turambar. Narsil was broken in the overthrow of Sauron at the end of the Second Age and was later reforged as Andúril (Quenya: Flame of the West).

In the motion picture series directed by Peter Jackson, Narsil was broken into six parts (rather than two), which were kept in Rivendell, and broke not when Elendil fell but rather when Isildur reached for it and Sauron stomped on it. It is also not reforged into Andúril until the third film, when Arwen persuades Elrond to have elven smiths reforge it from the shards and bring to Aragorn. In the book, he actually wears the broken blade and shows it to the Hobbits when they meet at the Prancing Pony in Bree, and its reforging prior to the departure of the Fellowship is a decisive move toward kingship. According to conceptual artist John Howe, it is designed with a hollow pommel.

The incident involving Aragorn disarming reluctantly is omitted from the second film on the grace that the sword he surrenders there is not Andúril. However, the first film does include an invented scene of Aragorn reverently placing the hilt of Narsil back into the display after Boromir knocks it from its podium onto the floor.

In The Two Towers, it is written that Aragorn uses Andúril with a shield from Théoden's armoury during the Battle of the Hornburg. In The Fellowship of the Ring it is also stated that his sword was similar to Boromir's, who uses his with a shield consistently. This, coupled with Tolkien's comparisons of Middle-earth's clothing and war gear to that of Dark Age Europe and the Bayeux Tapestry, would suggest that it and other swords would be single-handed rather than the two-handed longsword depicted in the films, which is more akin to the late medieval and Renaissance periods.

The filmmakers opted not to make Andúril glow at all, keeping that property only for Sting. (Gandalf's sword Glamdring also did not glow in the presence of orcs. Peter Jackson notes, in his DVD commentary on The Fellowship of the Ring, that this was an oversight, not a deliberate change from the books.)

Christopher Tolkien suggested that Narsil was introduced during the writing of The Lord of the Rings rather spontaneously: "It is possible that the Sword that was Broken actually emerged from the verse 'All that is gold does not glitter': on this view, in the earliest form of the verse ... the words a king may yet be without crown, A blade that was broken be brandished were no more than a further exemplification of the general moral ." Following this, references to the Sword were introduced during major recastings of "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" and "The Council of Elrond" chapters.

Originally the sword was only referred to as "the Sword of Elendil" or "the Broken Sword"; later the name Branding (from Old English brand 'sword') was devised for the Sword Reforged. This was replaced by Andúril after the emergence of Narsil.

Orcrist

(Sindarin: Goblin-cleaver) A sword in The Hobbit. Originally forged in Gondolin, Orcrist was nicknamed "Biter" by the Goblins of the Misty Mountains. After finding it in a troll hoard, Thorin Oakenshield carried the sword throughout much of The Hobbit, and it was laid on his tomb after he died in the Battle of Five Armies. It is the mate of Glamdring.

Red Arrow

A black-feathered arrow barbed with steel; its tip was painted red. It was a token used by Gondor to summon Rohan in time of dire need, and may have been associated with the Oath of Eorl. In The Return of the King, the Red Arrow was presented to Théoden by Hirgon with the message: "...the Lord Denethor asks for all your strength and all your speed, lest Gondor should fall at last." The Red Arrow has a historical antecedent in the Old English poem Elene in which Constantine the Great summoned an army of mounted Visigoths to his aid against the Huns by sending an arrow as a "token of war". Théoden pledged his assistance, but Hirgon was killed during the ride back to Minas Tirith, leading Denethor to believe that no help was forthcoming from Rohan.

Ringil

(Sindarin: Cold-Star/Cold-Spark) A sword wielded by Fingolfin in The Silmarillion and The Lays of Beleriand. It bit with chilling cold, and glittered like ice with a pale light.

Sting

A sword called Hadhafang was invented for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy, where it was borne by Arwen. The name is derived from Tolkien's etymological word list written in the 1930s; here Tolkien provides the word hadhathang (dissimilated: havathang, hadhafang), which he translates as "throng-cleaver". The author never actually used this name in any of his writings.