Talk:List of Middle-earth weapons/Deleted film stuff
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"A list of Middle-earth weapons shouldn't include movie-only weapons. These should be mentioned in the movie articles, and a link to there provided from here, but there is no need to raise these movie-only weapons to the same status as weapons found in the books. The whole structure of the Tolkien articles should be centred around the books and their author, with the film articles being subsidiary to that."
-- Carcharoth 01:18, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
- By canonicity:
The weapons found in List of Middle-earth weapons come directly from Tolkien's writings. However, Peter Jackson's live-action film trilogy based on The Lord of the Rings features non-canonical weapons not found in the author's writings.
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[edit] Movie-only weapons
New Line has published a book, The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare, purportedly detailing weaponry and warfare in Middle-earth, combining what Tolkien actually wrote with movie-only inventions. This should not be taken as a canonical and wholly accurate record of Tolkien's literary Middle-earth, but as of Jackson's cinematic version of it.
[edit] Weapons of note
[edit] Hadhafang
In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy, based on J. R. R. Tolkien's book, Hadhafang is a sword used by Arwen. The sword and its history are not part of the original story, but were invented for the movies. In the books, Arwen is never seen in combat. Since her character was given an action scene in the movie version, it was deemed necessary to give her a weapon and to provide the weapon with a back story like many of the fictional weapons described in the original novel. According to the movie trilogy's official publicity material, Hadhafang (whose name is a newly-coined Sindarin word meaning "throng-cleaver"), once belonged to the Elven Princess Idril, who wed a mortal man (Tuor) and bore Eärendil, the father of Elrond, who in turn was father to Arwen. Before Arwen's birth, Elrond wielded Hadhafang at the end of the second age of Middle-earth, during the Last Alliance of Elves and Men in the great battle against Sauron on the slopes of Mount Doom.
Later his daughter, Arwen, used Hadhafang when she aided Frodo in his escape from the Ringwraiths. Inscribed on the blade are Cirth (runes) in Sindarin that say, "Aen estar Hadhafang i chathol hen, thand arod dan i thang an i arwen." Which transfers to "this blade is called Hadhafang, a noble defense against the enemy throng for a noble lady." (In Sindarin "Arwen" actually means "noble (or royal) woman").
Like all of the props used in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, Hadhafang was manufactured by Weta Workshop.
[edit] The Witch-king's weapons
In his duel with Éowyn, the Witch-king uses a sword (the flaming sword) and a flail instead of the book's mace.
In the Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, his sword is named as "the Pale Blade".
[edit] Weapons in general
[edit] Crossbows
The Uruk-hai use crossbows at Helm's Deep. Tolkien never mentions them in his stories.
[edit] Lhang
Not found in the original text, the lhang is an Elvish sword. It was developed by designers and armourers at Weta Workshop for use in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. It is reminiscent of the Japanese nagamaki. Some viewers have found this Eastern-influenced weapon odd, since Tolkien drew from Western sources for his work.
[edit] Armour
In Peter Jackson's films, Gondor and Rohan use plate armour in varying degrees, along with chain mail.
The Elves wear chain mail and plate armour, the latter with leaf and other nature-inspired designs, which is not the case in the books (though the elves were close to nature). Some viewers have found their armor reminiscent of samurai gear; some have likewise found this Eastern influence odd.
[edit] More removed stuff
- In Peter Jackson's The Return of the King, Grond has fire spewing from its gaping jaws and is pulled by four huge rhinoceros-like creatures (such "Great Beasts" were briefly mentioned as pulling it in the book). The wolf design is extended, with the whole battering ram carved to resemble a great wolf. Gothmog refers to it as "the wolf's head" in the film.
- In the Peter Jackson films, Theoden's sword was depicted as a spatha, which has no precedent in the book.
- Since swords are usually said to be used with shields, they were probably not two-handed, medieval long swords, as depicted in the Jackson movies. This goes for the swords of the main characters as well as those of common soldiers (Aragorn takes a shield before the battle at Helm's Deep). The swords were frequently described as damascened/pattern welded, also pointing towards early medieval parallels rather than the late medieval weapons from the Jackson movies.
- Saruman used pikemen in the Battles of the Fords of Isen (though not at the Hornburg as in Jackson's version of The Two Towers).
- Much of the armour used in Rohan was made in and purchased from Gondor (likewise, Gondor bought many of its horses from Rohan), so warriors of the two nations tended to dress alike, as opposed to Peter Jackson's films.
