cycas:

ilsa-fireswan:

cycas:

elvenking:

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.

I started thinking: how did Telchar make Narsil in the first place? (…

Telchar first wrought it in the deeps of time … )

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells

Narsil is a first-age sword. It’s a dwarf-sword, not an elf-sword.  (Though, potentially, using some Noldorin technology, since it was made by Telchar of Nogrod, presumably during the period when Nogrod, Belegost and Thargelion were at the height of wealth and technology, when Curufin was learning Khuzdul, and Caranthir was trading with the Dwarves.)  

It’s probably about six thousand seven hundred years old.

Let me consider that for a bit.  6700 years.  6700 YEARS.

It’s older than Stonehenge is now. It’s older than the Pyramids. It’s far older than the oldest known coins.  If we had a sword that was 6700 years old today, it would have to be made of stone, because that’s well before the start of the Bronze Age. 

I can’t think of any metal object in the real world that is still in use after 6700 years.

And it’s being remade from Narsil to Anduril in Rivendell, which means, I’m guessing, that those two guys hitting it are smiths escaped from Eregion that Elrond swept up and managed to rescue during his insanely-risky post-fall-of-Eregion attempted rescue mission.  Eregion, of the jewelsmiths.  Eregion of the Rings that can avert entropy.

And later, Anduril seems to know what it’s hitting, and be able to flash light at just the right moment…?  Maybe it can do what Sting does and detect enemies.

…mighty spells…

Maybe you DO remake the damn thing by hitting it with a very carefully tuned hammer while reciting poetry? In the absence of a treatise on the practice of Elven Enchantments and Dwarven Spells And Their Employment in Metalworking it seems as valid a theory as any. 

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, 

Arthur C Clarke’s third law says.   

No doubt Galadriel would argue with the use of the word ‘magic’ on the grounds that it isn’t sufficiently distinguished from the deceits of the Enemy, but we don’t all have the advantage of having studied with Aule, Galadriel.

… I love this scene!  

I have always wished to read On the Practice of Elven Enchantments and Dwarven Spells And Their Employment in Metalworking.  Because this is not how iron-based metals work.  Ferrous metals neither work that way in the sense of “function” nor do they work that way in the sense of “to bring to shape by gradual process.”

If I try to consider it as steel, I have the following issues:

• If that is a (forge)weld, you are hammering too hard and will break it.
• If that is a weld, where is your flux?
• It’s not even the right kind of weld for a high-impact tool (i.e. a sword), so even the idea of welding in this way is wrong, but we’ll ignore that since it’s apparently what they are doing.   (Re-forging a sword is exactly what it says on the tin, forging again.)
• Good temperature-color for shaping, not hot enough for sticking (welding)
• Lawsy, someone teach that boy how to aim his hammer
• Or maybe give him a proper smithing hammer?
• Or some muscles?  That ain’t how your swing that (estimated) 3-pound hammer.
• The sparks always give me a special shudder because if your steel
  comes out of the fire sparking, you’ve burned it and have to REMAKE YOUR
  STEEL (or cut off the burned bits)
• Never mind how that steel isn’t hot enough to spark white
• What are you even doing? 
• If I try to consider it as a whitesmithing situation (gold, silver, etc) then I have even bigger issues, so that’s a no-go.

Ergo, either “magic metal” or “metal that has had magic applied to it.”  A metal we have no access to or steel that has had enchantments applied so that it no longer functions molecularly like steel.
(It’s Tolkien, why not both?  I’ve always headcanoned something like a mithril-alloy with magical enhancements.)

In spite of all that, 10/10 for feels.  Bonus points for atmosphere and working at night.  (Leaving aside ideas that starlight might help with Elven enchantments, a dark forge is properly historic and the still used by many of the best swordmakers.)

And now 11/10 for the idea that those are
Eregion

smiths. 

Reblogging because I secretly hoped @ilsa-fireswan  would have Thoughts on this!