Any reader of the Lord of the Rings or fan of the Jackson trilogy knows that swords are held in high regard in Middle Earth as one of the more preferred weapons of choice among warriors. You can almost say that besides sting Aragorn's broken blade descended from Elendil King of Gondor himself is probably one of the more important swords in the books and in the movies. First I will address the history of this weapon and then delve in to the changes Jackson made or his workers at Wetter Workshop.
The sword, known as Narceal, was first manufactured in Nogrod by the famous craftsman Telchar who also forged the knife Angrist and the Dragon Helm of Dorlomen. Of old we don't know who welded the famous blade during the first age but we do know that it belonged to the Numenorians after the war of Warath in witch Morgoth was overthrown. Elendil was the son of Amandil who was a mighty councilor of the king of Numenor before its fall. When the king left to die on the shores of the Undying Lands Elendil and those faithful to the Valar or angelic protectors of Middle Earth returned to Arda where they established the kingdoms of Arnor in the north and Gondor in the south. Elendil was overlord over both these realms but his two sons, Anarian and Issildur, who were kings themselves under their father, mostly ran the south kingdom. All threw out Elendil's reign he carried his sword Narceal and likely would have used in his wars against Sauron with Gilgalid leading up the Last Alliance's march on Mordor. In that final conflict the blade of Elendil broke as its master fell slain by the dark lord. Yet Isildur took up the shards of his father's sword and dealt the enemy his deathblow by cutting of Sauron's pinky witch bore the ruling ring. When Isildur was slain at the Gladin fields his squire brought the shards of Narceal to Imladris also called Rivindil where it was given to Valandil heir of the king Isildur. Sauron soon arose once again and destroyed the north kingdom but the shards were protected by the long forgotten blood line of Elendil until Aragorn brought the broken sword to Imladris again where it was previously kept by Elrond until Aragorn grew up to become a ranger and a captain of war. Up until the reforging of Narceal he had used the blade to help Frodo get to Rivindil and fight of enemies of Gondor as Thorongil. The blade was renamed Anduril when it was reforged by the smiths of Elrond. In the war of the ring Aragorn used this sword again at the hornburg in Rohan and Pelenor in Gondor as well as at the final battle that took place before the gates of Mordor. Peter Jackson depicts Narceal as a two handed bastard sword when Tolkien seems to suggest that the blade was one handed. Runic inscriptions were added on the blade when there only very specific runes described to have existed on the sword at the time of its reforging in Imladris. Aragorn also only receives the sword in the movie version of the Return of the king while in the books he always carries it threw out all three fat novels. Finally Jackson depicts Anduril as a sword that doesn't glow while Tolkien frequently describes the blade glowing with a pale or red light in mortal combat depending on whether it is under the sun or moon.
Thank you and know my friends, that renewed shall be blade that was broken and the crownless again shall be king.
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