Narsil

2008-10-08T20:51:24Z

98.64.138.140: /* Portrayal in Adaptations */

{{quote|...The blade that cut the [[One Ring|Ring]] from [[Sauron]]'s hand...|[[Boromir]]}}
[[Image:John Howe - Narsil.jpg|thumb|''Narsil'' by [[John Howe]].]]
'''Narsil''' was the sword of King [[Elendil]] of the [[Dúnedain]]. It was later known as '''Andúril''' (see below). The sword was forged during the [[First Age]] by the famed Dwarven-smith [[Telchar]], making it a cousin to the knife [[Angrist]], which cut a [[Silmaril]] from the crown of [[Morgoth]]. The blade presumably was given to one of the [[Sons of Fëanor]], possibly [[Curufin]], who also held Angrist. It eventually came to [[Maglor]], who likely gave it to [[Elros]].

In the [[Second Age]], Narsil was an heirloom of the descendants of Elros, the first [[King of Númenor]]. Although nothing is said of Narsil during this period, it eventually came into the hands of [[Elendil]], a distant descendant, towards the close of the Second Age.

Elendil used Narsil in the Siege of [[Barad-dûr]], but [[Sauron]] killed Elendil and the sword broke into two pieces under him as he fell. Elendil's son [[Isildur]] took up the sword and used its shard to cut the [[One Ring]] from the hand of Sauron. Isildur took the shards home with him. Shortly before Isildur was killed in the second year of the [[Third Age]] in the [[Disaster of the Gladden Fields]], the shards were rescued by [[Ohtar]], squire of Isildur's oldest son. He took them to [[Rivendell]], where Isildur's youngest son [[Valandil]] was fostered.

The '''Shards of Narsil''' were 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]]. It was not reforged until the [[War of the Ring]] at the end of the Third Age.

In Third Age 3019 Narsil was reforged in Rivendell as Andúril, the "Flame of the West", for [[Aragorn II|Aragorn]], the heir of Isildur. He carried the sword during his journey south as part of the [[Fellowship of the Ring]], and it featured prominently at several points in the story, where it was sometimes referred to as the "Sword That Was Broken" or "The Sword Reforged".

== Etymology ==
Narsil means "[[Sun]] and [[Moon]]" in [[Quenya]] (from ''[[Anar]]'' = "sun" and ''[[Isil]]'' = "moon").

== Portrayal in Adaptations ==
In [[Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings]], Narsil was not broken in two but in several parts, which were kept at Rivendell, and by Sauron stepping on it instead of it breaking as Elendil fell. The sword is not reforged into Andúril until the [[Peter Jackson's The Return of the King|third film]], when [[Arwen]] persuades [[Elrond]] to have [[Elves|Elven]] smiths reforge it from the shards and bring to Aragorn. In the books, 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 of the Ring|Fellowship]] is a decisive move toward kingship.

Aragorn holds a reverence for [[Andúril]] that is not shown in the films. In ''[[The Two Towers]]'', when asked by [[Háma]] to disarm outside [[Meduseld]], he is very reluctant, saying that normally he would give up his weapon, "if I bore now any sword but Andúril." It is an omission from the film on the grace that the sword Aragorn surrenders there was not Andúril, but still rather interesting. However, the movie version of The Fellowship of the Ring does include a scene of Aragorn reverently placing the hilt of Narsil back into the display after Boromir dropped the hilt on the floor.

==See also==
* [[Shards of Narsil]]

{{weapons}}

[[Category:Swords]]

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Narsil