For Christmas 2005, I received a
replica of Anduril, the sword of King Elessar (Aragorn) from the Lord of the
Rings. I found some translations on the 'net, but wanted to have the fun
of doing it myself, so here is mine on the linked page.
In order to display these properly, you will need to have installed the
following fonts: Tengwar
Parmaite and Angerthas.
Overview
(January 2006)
The top row are the runes as copied from the sword
blade starting at the hilt; the
bottom gray area is the sword runes with my corrections based on the elvish runes. It appears that the sword makers from the movie substituted some
Germanic runes, hence some of them were wrong. This doesn't appear to be unique to my sword; it appears that all of the replica
swords share this, hence I think the prop makers from the movie must of started it...
Quenya (High Elven)
Nányë Andúril i né Narsil i macil
Elendilo. Lercuvanten i móli Mordórëo.
Translation
I am Andúril who once was Narsil, sword of
Elendil. The slaves of Mordor shall flee from me.
Also, the pommel is engraved in Tengwar Cirth "letters" with the following: (No,
I didn't translate this; I don't know how to translate Tengwar as it is not character based like the Angerthas runes, but is phonetic. I found
this on the
internet...)
Quenya (High Elven)
Narsil essenya, macil meletya; Telchar carnéron Návarotesse
Translation
Narsil [is] my name, [a] mighty sword; Telchar made me in Nogrod
This fits with the book, since Narsil *was* forged by Telchar:
[Aragorn to the guards at the hall of Theoden]
"Telchar first wrought it in the deeps of time. Death shall come to any man that draws Elendil's sword save
Elendil's heir." (The Two Towers, p. 500)
The reference to Nogrod can be traced to the Silmarillion.
When the blade was reforged (in the book), Aragorn names it Anduril and runes are set on its blade:
"The Sword of Elendil was forged anew by Elvish smiths, and 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; for Aragorn son of Arathorn was going to
war upon the marches of Mordor... And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it
Anduril, Flame of the West." (The Fellowship of the Ring, p. 269)
If you look at the blade near the hilt are the rays of the Sun, followed by its
name (Anar), then the runes, interspersed with 7 stars, then the name of the
moon (Isil), then a crescent moon.
Really, they did a good job in their realization of the sword for the movie. It
is much more true to the book than one could tell from watching the movie.
More trivia
The sons of Elendil were Isildur (who cut the ring from Sauron's hand and lost it in the river Anduin), and Anarion. "Isil" is the name of the Moon, and
"Anar" is the name of the Sun, hence Elendil named his sons for the Sun and the
Moon. Incidentally, Anarion was slain much earlier in the war at the end of the
Second Age, prior to Sauron's battle with Gil-Galad and Elendil. The name
"Narsil" has the roots of [A]nar[I]sil, also named for the Sun and the Moon.
See also my brief
Synopsis of the First and Second Ages of Middle Earth.
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