Naming of weapons in Middle-earth

Background

In Medieval epics, heroes gave names to their weapons, and the name, lineage, and power of the weapon reflected on the hero. Major tales include Sigurd the Volsung and his sword Gram used to kill the dragon Fafnir; Beowulf and the swords Hrunting and Nægling; King Arthur's Excalibur, the Sword in the Stone; Roland's Durendal; Waldere's Mimming; and the Elder Eddas account of the Waking of Angantyr and the sword Tyrfing. Heroic literature did not always name its weapons; in ancient Greece, Homer describes the shield and spear of Achilles in detail but does not give them names, and the crucial bow of Odysseus functions anonymously.

In medieval Northern Europe, the name of a weapon, especially a sword, gave it an identity, almost a personality. The Tolkien scholar Janet Brennan Croft writes that the name marks a weapon as an heirloom tying generations together and legitimizing the heir who holds it. Some 200 sword names are recorded in medieval writings, in line with the Norse practice of naming objects in stories, such as the Dwarf-made chain Gleipnir that unbreakably fastened Fenris the giant wolf.

Powerful swords

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. They might have magical powers: Excalibur shines. In Norse mythology, a sword may shine like the sun, as in the Poetic Edda: Surt from the south comes with flickering flame; shines from his sword the Val-god's sun.

Swords may be heirlooms within a royal family, or recovered from ancient hoards of treasure, in either case having a lineage and story of their own. 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. The historian of arms Ewart Oakeshott described the sword as having a potent mystique which sets it above any other man-made object.

Swords had two attributes which made them especially highly prized: they were costly to manufacture, and effective as weapons.

In Middle-earth

In his Middle-earth writings, J.R.R. Tolkien gave names to a variety of weapons, most often swords, but also including Aeglos (the spear of Elf-king Gil-Galad), Belthronding (Beleg’s bow), Dramborleg (Tuor’s axe), and Grond—a name shared by the evil battering-ram from Minas Morgul and the mace of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. Following the tradition of medieval epics, a sword in particular stood for the heroism and status of its bearer. Scholar Verlyn Flieger observed that the sword “proclaims the emergence of the hero,” and that the fates of sword and man are tied together, with the destruction of one signaling the end of the other.

This idea is clearly visible with Aragorn’s sword Andúril, but it also runs through many other named weapons in Tolkien’s stories. The swords Glamdring and Orcrist, introduced in The Hobbit, match two aspects of the medieval pattern: both are ancient, forged in the First Age, and both were recovered from a treasure-hoard after being held by three trolls in their cave. Reforging and rediscovery pass old power to the new weapon and its new owner, renewing that power.

Each of these two swords actually has three names: one in the high, ancient tongue of Sindarin; a translation into the Common Speech (Westron), rendered as English; and a goblin nickname. Glamdring, Orcrist, and Bilbo’s knife—which he used as a sword and named Sting—all gleam when orcs are near. The ancient swords terrify orcs and are recognized by them; indeed, the orcs have their own nicknames for the two famous blades: Biter and Beater. These weapons also have many links to famous swords from medieval mythology.

According to Tolkien scholars K. S. Whetter and R. Andrew McDonald, the style and content of their names recall Norse mythological swords like Fotbitr and Dragvandil (meaning “Leg-biter” and “Slicer”). In The Hobbit, when Bilbo’s party reaches Rivendell, Elrond reads the runic inscriptions on the swords and recounts the heroic history and lineage of the recovered weapons.