Skip to main content

the lord of the rings - What did Aragorn do with his sword between the battles of Pelennor Fields and Morannon?


After the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Aragorn draws his sword Andúril and says:



"You shall not be sheathed again until the last battle is fought."

The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter 9: "The Last Debate"



The date is March 15; the "last battle" he has in mind is presumably the Battle of the Black Gate, which takes place ten days later, on March 25.


What did Aragorn do with Andúril for 10 days? He spent the first two days in his camp outside the gates of Minas Tirith, and the next seven days riding from Minas Tirith to the Black Gate.


We know from his dialogue outside Theoden's hall in Edoras that he is reluctant at best to lay the sword down, even in its sheath and under guard.



"It is not my will to put aside my sword, or to deliver Andúril to the hand of any other man".
-The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book III, Chapter 6: "The King of the Golden Hall"



He is eventually persuaded by Gandalf to comply with the guard's request to disarm, but only after delivering this warning:




"Here I set it, but I command you not to touch it, nor to permit any other to lay hand upon it. In this elvish sheath dwells the Blade that was Broken and has been made again. Telchar first wrought it in the deeps of time. Death shall come to any man that draws Elendil's sword save Elendil's heir."
-The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book III, Chapter 6: "The King of the Golden Hall"



In light of this, I can't imagine him leaving it unprotected in his tent. Did he walk around carrying an unsheathed sword for two days, then ride along carrying an unsheathed sword for a week? This seems like it would be dangerous, inconvenient, and fatiguing.


So how did he deal with an unsheathed, presumably razor sharp sword for a week and a half?




Note: here's why carrying an unsheathed sword around is a bad idea:



Aragorn stood before the Black Gate, fire in his eyes, Andúril held firmly in hand, shining forth from his hip. Pippin, alight with excitement, ran to his side, and cried, "Strider! Whither has the Dark Lo----". His voice suddenly ceased, for Aragorn, turning to face the halfling, smote his neck with an unintended blow; grimly he gazed upon the ruins of Pippin's throat, and with displeasure saw the hobbit's head tumble down the slag pile, spilling from its helm as it came to rest in the scree below.



A tear in his eye, Gandalf spoke: "Ever and anon, even the greatest of men may chance to visit such misfortune upon one whom he loves". Aragorn stood silent, watching until Pippin's headless body, which had remained upright through some unseen force of will, began at length to waver, and finally, fell in a heap at Aragorn's feet. At last he turned away, fixing his eyes upon the fair face of his fallen companion, saying "Alas, I did not wish this thing, Peregrin Took, Ernil i Pheriannath, Guardian of the Citadel, son of Paladin of the Shire. Truly, I tell thee, though I fear it be of no comfort now - My bad, dog".




Answer



He was speaking figuratively.


Obviously he didn't plan to keep his sword actually unsheathed, for reasons of safety on several different levels, for the many days it would obviously take until he reached the last battle.


I've wondered about this exact same thing (hey, I'm a pedant too!) and satisfied myself with the following version, which captures the spirit of Aragorn's words but could be intended literally:



"You shall not be sheathed again permanently, with no intention to unsheathe you afterwards, until the last battle is fought."
-- The Pedant of the Rings, The Return of the Pedant, Book V, Chapter 9: "The Last Pedant"




Edit: as Royal Canadian Bandit points out, the sword can be sheathed permanently if and only if there are no more battles, i.e. the last battle has been fought. So an even more rigorous phrasing would be:



"You shall not be sheathed again permanently, with no intention to unsheathe you in the foreseeable future, until the last battle of this ongoing war is fought."
-- The Pedant of the Pedants, The Pedant of the Pedant, Book V, Chapter 9: "The Pedant Pedant"



Edit: as Wad Cheber points out, there were later battles in the War of the Ring in which Aragorn did not fight (e.g. the Scouring of the Shire). So an even more more rigorous phrasing would be:



"You shall not be sheathed again permanently, with no intention to unsheathe you in the foreseeable future, until the last battle in which I shall participate in this ongoing war is fought."
-- The Pedant of the Pedants, The Pedant of the Pedant, Pedant V, Pedant 9: "The Pedant Pedant"




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...