Favorite Lord Of The Rings Sword?

This is the Ringwraiths sword that Croccifixio and I both referenced. As you can see, nicely odd asymmetrical blade. (Different in that key way from the pic you posted.)

www.weapons-universe.com/Brands/United_Cutlery/Lord_of_the_Rings/Ringwraiths.shtml

Agree with him on the "barbed wire" guard though, would lop off those protrusions. Also flatten the handle to help with edge alignment. (Like the pommel but might enlarge it a bit; and like the langets on the guard, would definitely keep them.)

I'm pretty sure Tolkien understood everything he was writing about.    


But that is my main point; many different types of Elves--Vanyar, Noldor, Sindar, Silvan--all separated by so much time and distance that their languages evolved in to different forms.  Yet, in the movie, if we weren't told they are different, none are distinguishable from the other.  If their languages have evolved in to different forms, things like their weapon and armor style, hair style, and clothing would probably be different, too.  But they're not.  

The Elvish designs and aesthetic are all wrong, imo.  I suppose wrong is a strong word.  Off, would be better.  They're not so bad that I hate them, but they also aren't faithful to the books, either.  For whatever reason, PJ and Co. went with an all nature, leafy, floral motif for all the Elves (again, regardless of cultural division).  This leads to all curved blades, where Tolkien is pretty specific and consistent from The Silmarillion through The Hobbit through LOTR that Orcs, Easterlings, and Southrons are the ones who used curved blades.  Not Elves.  

All Elves have long hair, but they'll be darned if they're going to let it flow.  Braids for everyone!  Don't get me started on the pointed ears.  Yuck!  No pointed ears for Elves, and certainly not for Hobbits.  

Ok, back to the swords.  Seriously, if you guys don't remember what Merry and Pippin's Barrow Blades look like, go look them up.  Wonderful swords, sadly discarded and forgotten about at the end of the first movie.  Lame.  

I find it hard to beleive tolkien if quizzed would be able to decipher between all elf types but thats just me lol. Ya the older elves even in some pictures used straighter longswords.

Like tancred I prefer the less fantasiesque swords.
I hate squiggles on fantasy swords. 
The elvish sabers are ok, not what Tolkien had in mind but no bad design idea. 

Oh man lotr is quite possibly one of the big influencing factors which made me get into swords.

I love hadhafang. The gentle lines and graceful shape of the blade is really appealing to me. I had a chance to inspect a friends UC repro and was disappointed to see that the gold highlights on the hilt are just painted on. A shame

My other 2 favourites were ranger sword and glamdring. The UC glamdring ended up being my very first sword. But i ended up selling it once i started wanting actual useable swords

I still want one from UC lol

I get that the Elvish weapons are wrong based on the books, but the principles behind this are really visuals-driven: you want highly contrasting cultural aesthetics, to the point that looking at an object (be it a sword, ornament, utensil, etc) is enough to know its origin (elvish, man, orc, dwarf, hobbit). I appreciated that from a cinematographic perspective, else the elvish weapons would just be a different kind of noldor weapon and vice versa.

Anglachel/Gurthang. The malice filled sentient black sword ultimately wielded by Turin.

Yeah, I'm getting Windlass' take on it when budget allows.