Aragorn's Weapon

How sad the the future King of ME has to use a branch to fight with.

Better than a ham!

I think this makes him even more kingly!

"He himself overthrew the Captain of the Haven on the quays, and then he withdrew his fleet with small loss..." from LotR, Appendix A. This quote tells of Aragorn in his Thorongil guise while on errantry in Gondor. He has just attacked and defeated the Corsairs of Umbar, leaving many ships burning in his wake. It is hard to imagine him fighting the Captain of the Haven with the hilt shard of Narsil. It also seems highly unlikely that he would even carry it on his person. When he announced his sword and its lineage to Eomer years later while rising up out of the grass with Legolas and Gimli, Eomer seemed to know of the legend. If the legend was known in Rohan, then it was assuredly known in Gondor. With Thorongil being a great Captain, loved above all by Ecthelion, you would think that his carrying around a hilt shard would have been entirely too suspect. I imagine he had another sword of great but lesser lineage to fight with until Narsil could be reforged. But, in searching LotR, Sil, UT and HoMe, I find no definitive answer on this subject.

And what conceivable reason would he be carrying Narsil in Bree? Enscabbared? Shirley, not to impress the hobbits? If Narsil was enscabbared, then no other sword would be available, unless you embrace the 2-scabbard theory. If Aragorn expected to fight the Nazgul, did he plan on using a branch, burning or otherwise?

I don't think he expected to fight the Nazgul because he must have known they would have no chance in out and out combat. I just don't get the feeling Aragorn was running around fighting people or other creatures - is there any mention of him getting into combat - I dimly remember him and Gandalf getting into some scraps but....

Aragorn was the Chief of the Rangers of the North. Check out his snappy comeback to Boromir at the CoE. Heck yes, he was fighting all sorts of nasties, even aside from his errantries in Rohan and Gondor. He was NOT a desk-chair general.

What about the vulcan death grip?

What about those cool boot knives??

Yes yes...and the nunchucks and the brass knucks and the garotte and the flick knife and the chloroform and the pepperspray and the derringer and the potato mashers and the slim jims and the katy-bar-the-doors and the snicker-snees and the russian roulettes and the pottsville pigstickers and the dangerous liaisons and the high-tops and the arty-chokes and the hog-warts and the french ticklers.

But this is all supposition. Where is the literary evidence?

Where would Aragorn have left Narsil when he wasn't traveling, though? I always wondered if the Ranger's had a city or at least village. None is mentioned. Where does he winter when not in Rivendale? The whole Ranger community doesn't live in Rivendale,and I assume some of these men have families, or else there would eventually not be any Rangers...
I assume the guy took some luggage with him... A change of clothes perhaps (Of course, that he might not of is a difference between male and female that female cannot comprehend.)... on his travels. He obviously didn't have a sword with him. You can hide a sword in a saddle bag. I always imagined him doing something like that in his travels. Perhaps it was a special occasion in Bree. Perhaps he didn't particularly prefer swords to burning brands. The guy is a mystery, for gosh sakes. He doesn't have to be understandable.
Maybe Gandalf had told him to drag along the sword. Perhaps it was like Excaliber... you can't be wounded when you have Excaliber's sheeth, I believe. Maybe something to do with good luck. He'd give his ring to Arwen. Allow the guy to keep at least one of his heir looms handy.
Maybe there was danger of someone stealing it and pretending to be him. Maybe it was a form of identification. WHo knows?
The guy

Ummmm... by the way, Aragorn wasn't grabbing a branch to fight any trolls. I don't know whether he took it as an extra precaution, just in case everything about trolls had suddenly been reversed, if it was an attempt to make the hobbit's think he was doing something about it, or if he wanted to hit the hobbits over the head with it for bothering him, but he knew very well that it was the middle of the day and no trolls would be up.

Maybe Aragorn didn't start carrying Anduril until he knew for sure that the One Ring had been found. That would explain how he fought before anyway. He wasn't sure that the One Ring had been found until sometime very close to the time he met the Hobbits in Bree. He was fully aware of their mission, so I assume he was briefed by Gandalf in Rivendell? I haven't checked the book to see if this theory has merit but it would make sense.

Harad, notice that the movie handled it by keeping the sword in Rivendell. Maybe that's where the sword was kept until Aragorn knew his destiny was moving forward, when the One Ring was found.

Grond,
I sincerely appreciate (and I wouldnt say it unless I meant it) your attempt to answer this question, so please do not take this as a criticism since you are flailing for an answer like everybody else.

Why would Aragorn, switch whatever functional weapon he had been using, for the hilt-shard of Narsil, just when things got REALLY dangerous, ie. when the Ring was found? It was pointed out that Elrond gave Narsil to Aragorn when he was 20 (or 67 years before).

No...I am sorry to conclude that there is no good reason for the Bree revelation. The only "justification" is again a literary one. It makes for a good "show." Witness the Bakshi version which is pretty faithful to the book and effective theater. However, no one has been able to make it sensible to me in terms of Aragorn's "real" life as a Knight-Errant and Ranger. The movie version, as it does in other instances I have mentioned (to some consternation) seems to "smooth over" this rough spot.

Finally, I still consider LOTR to be a literary masterpiece. Its just my forever-questing mind that leads me down such paths. I can't help myself.

there was no revelation in bree as far as i can remember! that was just Bakshi let aragorn go to the wild with half a sword !!!

i thought we only saw anduril with Bilbo verse at the council of elrond

Harad, I must totally agree with you. What in the wide, wide world of sports is the most hale man in all of Middle-earth doing carrying around a 1 foot sword. I guess he could club someone to death with the pommel or maybe it was really accurately thrown.

This is one that I can't rationalize. I keep picturing Thorongil on the quay at the Bay fighting the Captain of the Corsairs. The Captain pulls out a four and 1/2 foot Claymore and Aragorn pulls out the hilt shard of Narsil. Monty Python would make a heck of a film out of that scene. haha!

Originally posted by Grond
Harad, I must totally agree with you. What in the wide, wide world of sports is the most hale man in all of Middle-earth doing carrying around a 1 foot sword. I guess he could club someone to death with the pommel or maybe it was really accurately thrown.

This is one that I can't rationalize. I keep picturing Thorongil on the quay at the Bay fighting the Captain of the Corsairs. The Captain pulls out a four and 1/2 foot Claymore and Aragorn pulls out the hilt shard of Narsil. Monty Python would make a heck of a film out of that scene. haha!

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Also grond remeber Aragorn said that he would suffer no other mortal man to touch anduril and if anyone draws the sword of elendil bar elendil death shall come to him/her. I think that he would suffer no other person to take it also who better to keep it safe then the best huntsemen west of the sea? I think he carried around with him as well as a bow and another weapon.

Reading the opening pages of the Ring goes South when Tolkien asserts that the best hope of the Fellowship was in stealth and speed andd not weapons of war Aragorn is said to take only Anduril. It seems like Aragorn tooks weapons as needed and carried only a bow and the shards of Narsil on a regular basis. The bow is from is statment earlier that he has some skill as a hunter and they will not go hungry on their journey to Rivendell from Bree. Also remember when he allowed himself to believe that Merry and Pippin had seen three live trolls he picked up a stick as a weapon. Aragorn was not on a war footing when he found the Hobbits.

Aragorn was not on a war footing when he found the Hobbits.

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Aragorn was surely on a War footing for more than 60 years, or all the years of his manhood. Remember his speech to Boromir in the CoE, where he says that Gondor gets more credit for defending against the threat in the South, but were it not for the Rangers in the North, there would be no peace there either. Something to the effect that "there is a fat innkeeper in Bree, that if he knew what dangers lived within one days march of him, his blood would freeze." Aragorn's father and father before were killed in the Cold War in the North. Please dont tell me that Aragorn walked thru the Northern wild relying on a tree branch for protection.

"If I wanted the ring... I could have it... NOW!"

Just want to say that one of my favorite scenes is when Aragorn draws his broken sword at Bree....

"Not much use, is it, Master Gamgee?"


Why didn't Strider have weapons and armour at Bree? Why didn't he have any friends with him? Why didn't he have a horse?

He undergoes quite a transformation.... From rogue... to ranger... to king.... Does it make sense?


The only thing that I can think of was that Gandalf's disappearance disrupted the communication lines so badly that the good guys just weren't ready for all the trouble. Combine that with Striders need to be able to travel quickly and discreetly... and you still don't seem have a super strong case.

But really... would swords and armor matter in a contest against the Black Riders? I don't think so. Speed and stealth and the ability to find Rivendell QUICKLY and along the most advantageous route-- these were most important things for the company at this point.

Returning briefly to Strider97's previous posting:

When Aragorn takes up "a stick as a weapon" to confront with Pippin and Merry those three fearsome "live" trolls, it's only because he knows perfectly well (as Bilbo's old Hall of Fire friend & auditor/collaborator the Dunadan) precisely which turned-to-stone ogres he's going to face.

Aragorn was never a rogue, except in the eyes of the unaware. He was Chieftain of the Dunedain for 67 years by the time he met the Hobbits in Bree. He had been a protector of the North and knight-errant in Rohan and Gondor during those 67 years, battling trolls, orcs, and other fell beasts.

So youre right. He didnt need a weapon. There would always be a handy tree branch. When Gandalf told Aragorn to help the hobbits because the 9 were abroad, Aragorn no doubt thought that he could negotiate with the Nazgul, and that it would never come to fisticuffs.

I found nothing in LoTR. Was expecting something in the Muster of Rohan or something like that, like when he says to Hama that whomever touches his sword gets death. Also looked at Robert Foster Guide to Middle Earth, it said that he carried Narsil occasionally (duh).

I will check UT from here.