Hadhafang

Hadhafang as designed by The Noble Collection
Sword
Hadhafang
Location	Gondolin
Owner	Idril, Eärendil, Elrond, Arwen
Creator	Elves

Hadhafang is a sword used by Elrond and Arwen in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and also by Elrond in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The sword and its history are not part of the original story, but were invented for the movies.

Hadhafang is a curved, single-edged sword with an Elven inscription running along the length of the blade, and both the blade and the grip are decorated with golden plating. There are two small prongs sticking out from the blade, but the sword, like most Elven swords in the films, lacks a guard.

History

Wētā Workshop created Hadhafang, which, according to some official publicity material for the first film of Peter Jackson's film trilogy, once belonged to the Elven lady Idril, who wed Tuor, a Man. She wielded it in Gondolin during the city's fall. She later passed it on to her son Eärendil, who in turn passed it on to Elrond.

Hadhafang was wielded by Elrond during the War of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men against the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron on the slopes of Mount Doom. Later, his daughter Arwen carried Hadhafang when she aided Frodo Baggins in his escape from the Nazgûl.

The blade is inscribed with tengwar runes in neo-Sindarin that say Aen estar Hadhafang i chathol hen, thand arod dan i thang an i arwen. This translates to "This blade is called Hadhafang, a noble defense against the enemy throng for a noble lady".

Etymology

Hadhafang (or Haðafang) is mentioned as a Noldorin "sword-name" in entries SYAD and STAG of The Etymologies. Another dissimilated form given is Havathang. It is said to be a cognate of Quenya Sangahyando ("throng-cleaver"). The names have not been used by Tolkien in his stories, while Sangahyando was eventually used as a person's name, of a corsair of Umbar.

Other versions

In the original concept for the sword, the inscription contained an additional verse of text that read as follows: Idril i hel en aran Gond dolen, which when translates to "Idril, daughter of the king of the Hidden Rock". This text was omitted from the final design for the sword due to a lack of space on the finished prop.

In "The Fall of Gondolin" from The Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien does state that Idril bears a sword and uses it to save Elven-women and children in the great sack.

In The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, Arwen wielded a sword identified as Gwemegil ("maiden-sword"), derived from gwen ("maiden") + megil ("sword"). The blade is stated to have been "forged by the Elven-smiths of Rivendell" and possess enchantments which "ward off the forces of" Sauron. In a subsequent expansion, the sword was later identified to be the same sword as Hadhafang from the films, though mispelled as Hadafang. The flavor text on the card uses the translation of the inscription in the films.