Thread: What Did Frodo's Sword Sting Look Like?

Tolkien never described Sting, or any weapon, to any great extent.
Sting, along with Glamdring (Foe Hammer) and Orcrist (Goblin Cleaver) were taken from a troll hoard in The Hobbit. Gandalf, the wizard, caried Glamdring throughout the Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Thoren Oakenshield took Orcrist to his death. It was buried with him. Glamdring and Orcrist were both swords. Sting, taken by Bilbo Baggins and later given to Frodo, was a dagger.
All three were of ancient elvish manufacture. They had magical properties and actually glowed blue in the presence of goblin-kind.
Sting was directly described as a "dagger." For a Hobbit, it was almost big enough for a short sword. Bilbo stated thet it would only make a "pocket knife" for a troll.

What did these weapons look like?


These are the movie sword from The Lord Of The Rings

In movies and illustrations, the swords are usually represented as double edged, two-handed broadswords, almost Bastards. Glamdring is almost always depicted as double-handed. Orcrist usually is. Sting is usually pictured as a long, double-edged dagger, with distinct cross guard and pommel. These weapons resemble those from the High Middle Ages, or even Reniassance.
These depictions are a result of popular perception. Ask the average person to describe a sword, or a dagger. That's what you usually get, I have no doubt.
Sting is short enough to hide. Bilbo habitually carries it thrust inside his breeches. Anyone who has carried a knife in such a fashion knows that the blade can't extend past the knee. Hobbits are about 2-4 feet high, Bilbo is average height. Let's say he's 3'6". Figuring for normal anatomy, let's limit the blade length of Sting to 10 inches, probably less.

Some have claimed that Sting is described as leaf-shaped. I couldn't find that anywhere. The swords that Merry and Pippin took from the Barrow in The Fellowship were described as leaf-shaped. I don't think Sting was. Correct me if I'm wrong.

What do I think?

IMHO, Tolkien patterned his world not from the high midle ages, but from the world of the Anglo-Saxon/Norse. His imagery had more to do with Beowulf than Robin Hood.

Thus, his weapons would be Saxon weapons.

As far as Sting goes, the Saxons didn't distinguish between the words dagger and knife. I have no doubt they had double-edged knives, but not usually. I think in Tolkein's context "Dagger" meant fighting knife. He was a veteran of WWI they used plenty of daggers there, only they were called bayonets. They wern't double edged. Neither were the German "trench knives."
The Saxons had a special knife, beloved of my heart, the Seax. They were even named after them.
Seaxs were of all different sizes. They were more than knives, they carried cultural, and probably religous, significance. Only free men were allowed to carry Seaxs and they all did. There's evidence that even the poorest farmers carried these as tools and weapons.

Seaxs are thick, sturdy, single edged knives. They were usually carried edge-up in a horizontal sheath. As in our American West, knife-fighters were probably trained to hold their blades with the edge-side up. This lets you parry with the dull side more easily. Russian troops are still trained this way.

Here's what I think Sting looked like, far left:



( Here's a small norse Seax, reproduction from Urweg):



Here are the patterns for Glamdring and Orcrist:

Thanks for this Ghastly. I love learning about weaponry and you info here was no exception. That's a very interesting conclusion about Tolkien's influence.

I've not seen the movie, but had I the sight of one of those out-of-place swords would have put me off. They would not have fit in Tolkein's world atall. The cross guard is a Christian symbol and certainly had no place in Middle Earth.

I actually had a Seax knife made to look like my idea of Sting.



This is a Germanic Seax knife. It technically has a Frankish-Style Blade and a Saxon sword hilt. This knife is completely hand hammered by Ben Potter, an American bladesmith. I designed every aspect of the knife, except the shape and decoration of the pommel and cross guard. As you can see, the size of the knife is decieving because of the super-long hilt.




The runes are Anglo-Saxon from the 6th Century. They spell out "Gra Vind" which means Grey Wind. You could pronounce it just like we do, but it would more probably be pronounced Gra, like the a in father, Vind. You would say it fast, as one word, Gravind.




I designed the knife to be meant for stabbing. It can slash, but the wide, tapering blade is better for thrusting. It's got a 15.25 in blade of hand-hammered and thrice-tempered 1095 Carbon steel. The hilt is peened over. That means the blade runs all the way through and is hammered flat outside the pommel. It's the strongest construction known and historically accurate. The blade is quite heavy, at 1/4 inch thick. Saxon Seaxs were always single edged. This is heavy toward the back, unsharpened edge.



Here I am holding it. You can see the size (I'm 5'11"). I had it porportioned like a giant's dagger. The incredible thing is the balance and the spring-like quality of the steel. This is a tough but FLEXIBLE blade. That's tempering by a master.



Here I am wearing it.


There, I put my money where my mouth is...That's my idea of what Sting looked like (with us humans the size of hobbits). What do you think???

The immediate problem is what to do about rust. No REAL blade is made of stainless steel, that's carnival-crap, it doesn't flex, too brittle. I could blue it, but I think I'll just let it darken naturally and keep it rubbed down with SOS and olive oil.



King Hrothgar enters the marsh, by Will Jacques (me).

Check out this recreation of a 6th century Saxon Warrior: