Today I’m
going to talk about the famous Sting. I don’t mean that singer that starred in
Dune and got his nickname in high school by wearing a black and yellow stripped
shirt. No, the Sting I’m going to discuss will sing a different tune. A song
filled with a history of blood, monsters, and hobbits. For those of you who saw
the Lord of the Rings, or even better, read the books, you are already aware of
this blade. You already know some of its magical nature, but do you know its
origin?
Some Tolkien
historians have discussed the origins of this mysterious sword. Yes Middle-Earth is deep and rich enough to have expert historians studying the
thousands of documents and notes that JRR Tolkien wrote up over the years it
took him to create his world. Some of these historians have thought that it was
not a blade that was forged alone. It was a companion
blade made alongside two other swords that were found with it in the Hobbit. The
largest blade starred in the Lord of the Rings as Gandalf’s sword, Glamdring. There
was another shorter version of Glamdring which is called Orcrist. I can’t tell
you too much about Ocrist because that would create spoilers for The Hobbit
movies still in the editing room. Glamdring and Orcrist are believed to have
been made as sister blades. Orcrist was shorter than Glamdring and they were
probably intended to be wielded in a similar fashion to the Samurai Daisho.
