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Strongblade Lore
(A Bit of History According to Strongblade)

Andúril, the sword that was forged from the shards of Narsil, was the symbol of hope to the inhabitants of Middle Earth during the War of the Ring. Forged in 3018, the sword was living testiment to the fact that the Dark Lord Sauron, lieutenant of Morgoth and ravager of the east, could be defeated.

You'll recall from your history texts that Narsil was the blade carried by King Elendil, the First High King of the exiled Numenoreans. Narsil was forged by Telchar, the greatest dwarven smith that ever lived in Middle Earth (some of you may recall that Telchar also forged Angchrist, the knife used by Beren to pry a silmaril from the crown of Morgoth. That was back in the day of course, when Sauron was but a lieutenant and got his butt kicked by a wolf). Elendil carried Narsil against Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance. In the final battle of that War, Elendil was slain by Sauron, but his son, Isildur, picked up the sword and confronted the Dark Lord. Sauron, shattered the blade and as he reached toward Isildur to finish him, Isildur famously swung the broken hilt-shard and hacked the One Ring (and a stray finger) from Sauron's hand, thus snatching victory from defeat and destroying The Dark Lord Sauron (for a while, anyway. Dark Lords have a way of always popping up again, much like In-laws and indigestion).

But Enough about Narsil. This is the story of Anduril, which was reforged by elves from the shards of that other sword (we won't ention its name again lest the Sword Union (local 404) complain that Narsil upstaged Anduril in Anduril's own history page). The elves took great care in reforging narsil and etched runes and symbols on its blade, as Tolkien writes:

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...

These runes are painstakingly recreated in this reproduction of Andril. If you want to know what it means, the good folks at www.elvish.org translated the runes from Tolkien's Elvish description (Quenya Elvish to be precise) to read as follows:

I am Anduril who once was Narsil, sword of Elendil.
The slaves of Mordor shall flee from me.

And the last bit of poetry that we'd like to share with you is perhaps the most often quoted (and misquoted) line from The Lord of the Rings, which loosely pertains to Anduril and narsil:

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring;
renenwed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.

Inspired by Model SBU-ANDURIL