Narsil
Encyclopedia
Narsil is a fictional sword featured in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. It is introduced in The Lord of the Rings
as having once belonged to King Elendil
of the Dúnedain
. It also appears in The Silmarillion
, and Unfinished Tales
.
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
.
The sword's name contains the elements nar and thil, "fire" and "white light" respectively in Tolkien's fictional language of Quenya
, referring to the Sun and Moon (Anar and Isil).
The sword is first mentioned in Tolkien's legendarium as being in the possession of Elendil
. He brings it back with him to Middle-earth
towards the close of the Second Age
, as his father Amandil
correctly predicted Númenor
's imminent destruction.
Elendil became thereafter a great lord, the first of the kings of Gondor and Arnor. He used Narsil in the War of the Last Alliance against Sauron
. During the siege of Barad-dûr
, Elendil and Gil-galad
overthrew Sauron, but perished in the act, and Narsil broke into two beneath Elendil as he fell. Elendil's son Isildur
then used the hilt-shard of the sword to cut the One Ring
from Sauron's hand, thus destroying the Dark Lord's physical form.
Isildur took the shards on his journey home. Shortly before Isildur was killed in the second year of the Third Age
in the disaster at the Gladden Fields
, the shards of Narsil were rescued by Ohtar
, squire of Isildur. He took them to Imladris (Rivendell), where Isildur's youngest son Valandil was fostered.
The Shards of Narsil became one of the heirlooms of the Kings of Arnor, and after the Northern Kingdom was destroyed they remained an heirloom of the Rangers of the North
. The sword was reforged in Rivendell
in 3018 T.A.
during the War of the Ring
, in celebration of the rediscovery and capture of the Ring with which it had become associated as its symbolic antithesis.
Thereafter it was renamed Andúril, (meaning "Flame of the West" in Sindarin
, another of Tolkien's invented languages), by Aragorn
, the heir of Isildur. He carried the sword during his journey south as one of the Fellowship of the Ring, and it featured prominently at several points in the story, where it was sometimes referred to as "the blade that was broken" or "the sword reforged".
Boromir
, son of the Steward of Gondor, traveled to Rivendell
in time for the Council of Elrond because of the prophetic dream of his brother Faramir
, in which he was told to "seek for the sword that was broken". Aragorn often used the sword to help establish his credentials.
Narsil (broken and reforged as Andúril) acts as a symbol of the kingship of Arnor
and Gondor
, and by extension, the stewardship of law over evil. As the Chieftain of the Rangers of the North, Aragorn is the heir to the fragments of the ancient sword. The reforging of the broken sword into Andúril prior to the Fellowship of the Ring leaving Rivendell is one of many important prophesied events leading up to the downfall of Sauron and the restoration of the line of Elendil as kings of Arnor and Gondor.
:
Some passages in Tolkien's writings, including the above, imply or indicate that Narsil/Andúril glowed, similarly to Sting and Glamdring. However, Andúril was Dwarven-made rather than Elven-made, so unlike Sting and Glamdring, Narsil/Andúril did not glow blue in the presence of Orcs. Rather, it glowed with a red light in sunlight, and a white light in moonlight.
From The Silmarillion
:
There are several other indications of this in The Lord of the Rings
, including:
Tolkien confirms that this glow was not simply due to reflection or polishing in a private letter, where he describes Andúril as glowing with an "elvish light".
Thus, the sword was enriched with the talents of three great races of Middle-Earth - Dwarves
, Elves and Men - further illustrating its perfection as a symbol of kingdoms reunited and kinship triumphant.
In the motion picture trilogy
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 stepped 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 Hobbit
s 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.)
The hollow pommel is inscribed with tengwar
: Narsil essenya, macil meletya, telchar carnéron navarotessë ("Narsil is my name, a mighty sword, Telchar made me in Nogrod"). After Narsil was reforged into Andúril, runes were added to the blade, which read: Anar. Nányë Andúril i né Narsil i macil Elendilo. Lercuvanten i móli Mordórëo. Isil ("Sun. I am Andúril who once was Narsil, sword of Elendil. The slaves of Mordor
shall flee from me. Moon"). Both inscriptions were composed in Quenya
by David Salo
.
While Tolkien wrote that there were runes engraved on the blade, he apparently never wrote down the actual inscription, both inscriptions are inventions of the filmmakers.
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 [that not everything is what it appears to be]." 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.
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
as having once belonged to King Elendil
Elendil
Elendil is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
of the Dúnedain
Dúnedain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Dúnedain were a race of Men descended from the Númenóreans who survived the sinking of their island kingdom and came to Eriador in Middle-earth, led by Elendil and his sons, Isildur and Anárion...
. It also appears in The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
, and Unfinished Tales
Unfinished Tales
Unfinished Tales is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980.Unlike The Silmarillion, for which the narrative fragments were modified to connect into a consistent and...
.
Literature
The sword was forged during the First AgeFirst Age
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the First Age, or First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar is the heroic period in which most of Tolkien's early legends are set...
by the Dwarf
Dwarf (Middle-earth)
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting the world of Arda, a fictional prehistoric Earth which includes the continent Middle-earth....
Telchar of Nogrod, a famous weaponsmith and artificer who also made the knife Angrist, which cut a Silmaril
Silmaril
The Silmarils are three brilliant jewels which contained the unmarred light of the Two Trees in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. The Silmarils were made out of the crystalline substance silima by Fëanor, a Noldorin Elf, in Valinor during the Years of the Trees...
from the crown of Morgoth
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...
, and the Helm of Hador later used by Túrin Turambar
Túrin Turambar
Túrin Turambar is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. "Turambar and the Foalókë", begun in 1917, is the first appearance of Túrin in the legendarium. J.R.R...
.
The sword's name contains the elements nar and thil, "fire" and "white light" respectively in Tolkien's fictional language of Quenya
Quenya
Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi in Quenya. The tongue actually called Quenya was in origin the speech of two clans of Elves...
, referring to the Sun and Moon (Anar and Isil).
The sword is first mentioned in Tolkien's legendarium as being in the possession of Elendil
Elendil
Elendil is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
. He brings it back with him to Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
towards the close of the Second Age
Second Age
The Second Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. Tolkien intended for the history of Middle-earth to be considered fictionally as a precursor to the history of the real Earth....
, as his father Amandil
Amandil
Amandil is a fictional character from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Amandil was a Lord of Andúnië, succeeding his father Númendil upon his death. Amandil is most noted for being the father of Elendil, founder of the Númenórean Realms in Exile....
correctly predicted Númenor
Númenor
Númenor is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was a huge island located in the Sundering Seas to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was known to be the greatest realm of Men...
's imminent destruction.
Elendil became thereafter a great lord, the first of the kings of Gondor and Arnor. He used Narsil in the War of the Last Alliance against Sauron
Sauron
Sauron is the primary antagonist and titular character of the epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.In the same work, he is revealed to be the same character as "the Necromancer" from Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit...
. During the siege of Barad-dûr
Barad-dûr
Barad-dûr is the fortress of Sauron in the heart of the black land of Mordor and close to Mount Doom in the fantasy world of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
, Elendil and Gil-galad
Gil-galad
Ereinion Gil-galad is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, and featured in The Silmarillion.- Character overview :...
overthrew Sauron, but perished in the act, and Narsil broke into two beneath Elendil as he fell. Elendil's son Isildur
Isildur
Isildur is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in the author's books The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales....
then used the hilt-shard of the sword to cut the One Ring
One Ring
The One Ring is a fictional artifact that appears as the central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy novels. It is described in an earlier story, The Hobbit , as a magic ring of invisibility. The sequel The Lord of the Rings describes its powers as being more encompassing than...
from Sauron's hand, thus destroying the Dark Lord's physical form.
Isildur took the shards on his journey home. Shortly before Isildur was killed in the second year of the Third Age
Third Age
The Third Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The history of Middle-earth is to be taken fictionally as a history of the real Earth....
in the disaster at the Gladden Fields
Gladden Fields
The Gladden Fields is a location in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. In his works, the Gladden Fields are located where the Gladden river joins the Anduin....
, the shards of Narsil were rescued by Ohtar
Ohtar
Ohtar is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.In the story "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields" found in Tolkien's Unfinished Tales, Ohtar was introduced as squire to Isildur, the Númenórean prince who cut the ruling ring from the hand of Sauron at the end of the Second Age...
, squire of Isildur. He took them to Imladris (Rivendell), where Isildur's youngest son Valandil was fostered.
The Shards of Narsil became one of the heirlooms of the Kings of Arnor, and after the Northern Kingdom was destroyed they remained an heirloom of the Rangers of the North
Rangers of the North
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Rangers of the North, also known as the Dúnedain of the North, were the descendants of the Dúnedain from the lost kingdom of Arnor...
. The sword was reforged in Rivendell
Rivendell
Rivendell is an Elven outpost in Middle-earth, a fictional realm created by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was established and ruled by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth...
in 3018 T.A.
Third Age
The Third Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The history of Middle-earth is to be taken fictionally as a history of the real Earth....
during the War of the Ring
War of the Ring
In the fictional high fantasy-world of J. R. R. Tolkien, the War of the Ring was fought between Sauron and the free peoples of Middle-earth for control of the One Ring and dominion over the continent. The War of the Ring took place at the end of the Third Age. Together with the Quest of Mount Doom,...
, in celebration of the rediscovery and capture of the Ring with which it had become associated as its symbolic antithesis.
Thereafter it was renamed Andúril, (meaning "Flame of the West" in Sindarin
Sindarin
Sindarin is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called the Eledhrim or Edhellim in Sindarin....
, another of Tolkien's invented languages), by Aragorn
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
, the heir of Isildur. He carried the sword during his journey south as one of the Fellowship of the Ring, and it featured prominently at several points in the story, where it was sometimes referred to as "the blade that was broken" or "the sword reforged".
Boromir
Boromir
Boromir is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings , and is mentioned in the last volume, The Return of the King....
, son of the Steward of Gondor, traveled to Rivendell
Rivendell
Rivendell is an Elven outpost in Middle-earth, a fictional realm created by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was established and ruled by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth...
in time for the Council of Elrond because of the prophetic dream of his brother Faramir
Faramir
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, Faramir is a fictional character appearing in The Lord of the Rings. He is introduced as the younger brother of Boromir of the Fellowship of the Ring and second son of Denethor II, the Steward of the realm of Gondor...
, in which he was told to "seek for the sword that was broken". Aragorn often used the sword to help establish his credentials.
Narsil (broken and reforged as Andúril) acts as a symbol of the kingship of Arnor
Arnor
Arnor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. Arnor, or the Northern Kingdom, was a kingdom of the Dúnedain in the land of Eriador in Middle-earth. The name probably means "Land of the King", from Sindarin Ara- + dor...
and Gondor
Gondor
Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth by the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is concerned with the events in Gondor during the War of the Ring and with...
, and by extension, the stewardship of law over evil. As the Chieftain of the Rangers of the North, Aragorn is the heir to the fragments of the ancient sword. The reforging of the broken sword into Andúril prior to the Fellowship of the Ring leaving Rivendell is one of many important prophesied events leading up to the downfall of Sauron and the restoration of the line of Elendil as kings of Arnor and Gondor.
Description
The reforged Andúril is described in The Fellowship of the RingThe Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It takes place in the fictional universe Middle-earth. It was originally published on July 29, 1954 in the United Kingdom...
:
...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... 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.
Some passages in Tolkien's writings, including the above, imply or indicate that Narsil/Andúril glowed, similarly to Sting and Glamdring. However, Andúril was Dwarven-made rather than Elven-made, so unlike Sting and Glamdring, Narsil/Andúril did not glow blue in the presence of Orcs. Rather, it glowed with a red light in sunlight, and a white light in moonlight.
From The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
:
...the sword of Elendil filled OrcsOrc (Middle-earth)In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Orcs or Orks are a race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by both the greater and lesser villains of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings — Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman...
and Men with fear, for it shone with the light of the sun and of the moon, and it was named Narsil. ...Thus Narsil came in due time to the hand of Valandil, Isildur's heir, in Imladris; but the blade was broken and its light extinguished, and it was not forged anew.
There are several other indications of this in The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, including:
But even as the orc flung down the truncheon and swept out his scimitar, Andúril came down upon his helm. There was a flash like flame and the helm burst asunder. The orc fell with cloven head.
Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elvenElf (Middle-earth)In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out.
Charging from the side, they hurled themselves upon the wild men. Andúril rose and fell, gleaming with white fire. A shout went up from wall and tower: "Andúril! Andúril goes to war. The Blade that was Broken shines again!" ...Three times Aragorn and ÉomerÉomerÉomer is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in The Two Towers and The Return of the King, the second and third volumes of Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings....
rallied them, and three times Andúril flamed in a desperate charge that drove the enemy from the wall.
Tolkien confirms that this glow was not simply due to reflection or polishing in a private letter, where he describes Andúril as glowing with an "elvish light".
Thus, the sword was enriched with the talents of three great races of Middle-Earth - Dwarves
Dwarf (Middle-earth)
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting the world of Arda, a fictional prehistoric Earth which includes the continent Middle-earth....
, Elves and Men - further illustrating its perfection as a symbol of kingdoms reunited and kinship triumphant.
Adaptations
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
directed by Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
, 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 stepped on it. It is also not reforged into Andúril until the third film
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
, when Arwen
Arwen
Arwen Undómiel is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. She appears in his novel, The Lord of the Rings, usually published in three volumes. Arwen is one of the Half-elven who lived during the Third Age.-Literature:...
persuades Elrond
Elrond
Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
to have elven
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
smiths reforge it from the shards and bring to Aragorn. In the book, he actually wears the broken blade and shows it to the Hobbit
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
s when they meet at the Prancing Pony in Bree
Bree (Middle-earth)
Bree is a fictional village in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, east of the Shire and south of Fornost Erain. It is thought to have been inspired by the Buckinghamshire village of Brill, which Tolkien visited regularly in his early years at Oxford...
, 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
The Two Towers
The Two Towers is the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It is preceded by The Fellowship of the Ring and followed by The Return of the King.-Title:...
, it is written that Aragorn uses Andúril with a shield from Théoden
Théoden
Théoden is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings. He appears as a major supporting character in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.-Appearances:...
's armoury during the Battle of the Hornburg
Battle of the Hornburg
The Battle of the Hornburg is a fictional battle in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings. The battle pitted the forces of the Wizard Saruman against the Rohirrim under King Théoden, who had taken refuge in the mountain fortress of the Hornburg at Helm's Deep...
. 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
Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—nearly long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings...
, would suggest that it and other swords would be single-handed rather than the two-handed longsword
Longsword
The longsword is a type of European sword designed for two-handed use, current during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, approximately 1350 to 1550 .Longswords have long cruciform hilts with grips over 10 to 15 cm length The longsword (of which stems the variation called the bastard...
depicted in the films, which is more akin to the late medieval and Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
periods.
The filmmakers opted not to make Andúril glow at all, keeping that property only for Sting. (Gandalf
Gandalf
Gandalf is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In these stories, Gandalf appears as a wizard, member and later the head of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West...
'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.)
The hollow pommel is inscribed with tengwar
Tengwar
The Tengwar are an artificial script created by J. R. R. Tolkien. In his fictional universe of Middle-earth, the tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and used first to write the Elven tongues: Quenya, Telerin, and also Valarin. Later a great number of languages of Middle-earth were written...
: Narsil essenya, macil meletya, telchar carnéron navarotessë ("Narsil is my name, a mighty sword, Telchar made me in Nogrod"). After Narsil was reforged into Andúril, runes were added to the blade, which read: Anar. Nányë Andúril i né Narsil i macil Elendilo. Lercuvanten i móli Mordórëo. Isil ("Sun. I am Andúril who once was Narsil, sword of Elendil. The slaves of Mordor
Mordor
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Mordor or Morhdorh was the dwelling place of Sauron, in the southeast of northwestern Middle-earth to the East of Anduin, the great river. Orodruin, a volcano in Mordor, was the destination of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to...
shall flee from me. Moon"). Both inscriptions were composed in Quenya
Quenya
Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi in Quenya. The tongue actually called Quenya was in origin the speech of two clans of Elves...
by David Salo
David Salo
David I. Salo is a linguist who worked on the languages of J. R. R. Tolkien for the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, expanding the Elvish languages by building on vocabulary already known from published works, and defining some languages that previously had a very small published vocabulary...
.
While Tolkien wrote that there were runes engraved on the blade, he apparently never wrote down the actual inscription, both inscriptions are inventions of the filmmakers.
Concept and creation
Christopher TolkienChristopher Tolkien
Christopher Reuel Tolkien is the third and youngest son of the author J. R. R. Tolkien , and is best known as the editor of much of his father's posthumously published work. He drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings, which he signed C. J. R. T. The J...
suggested that Narsil was introduced during the writing of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
rather spontaneously: "It is possible that the Sword that was Broken actually emerged from the verse 'All that is gold does not glitter
All that is Gold Does Not Glitter
All that is gold does not glitter is a poem written by J. R. R. Tolkien for his fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It alludes to an integral part of the plot. The poem reads:...
': 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 [that not everything is what it appears to be]." 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.