Description or pictures of bilbo's sword

[flaminghammster]

Help! I am a desperate high school artist seeking the aid of knowledgable people! I am an avid fan of fantasty, but have not yet read and of Tolkien's works (but i do plan to in the near future). Anyways, I am in a class called studio art at my high school which gives me total artistic freedom in my projects. I am planning on doing a sword this year. I was talking to my art teacher about it, and he suggested that I do an interpretation on Bilbo's sword, Sting (again, i'm sorry, i don't know if i spelled it right, i'm not too familiar with the books). I have searched and searched and I cannot find any pictures or descriptions of what it looked like. If any of you could help me out (emailing me a description, sending me artwork based upon it, anything!), I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. So, thanks for the help!

Nik

[orion]

Quoting from The Hobbit page 40 &41 chapters 5&6
"...and Bilbo took a knife in a leather sheath. It would have made only a tiny pocket-knife for a troll, but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit."

"These look like good blades," said the wizard, half drawing them and looking at them curiously. They were not made by any troll, nor by any smith among men in these parts and days; but when we can read the runes (Tolkien used actual runes) on them." The blade was made by elfs and glowed whenever danger approached (goblins, etc.)

The Lord of The Rings Prologue: Description of A Hobbit:

...and though inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nontheless nimble and deft in their movements. For they are a little people, smaller than Dwarves. Their height is variable,ranging between two and four feet of our measure. Hope this helps size up Bilbo. In other words he carried a knife by our standards.

[flaminghammster]

Hey, thanks a million man. If i'm correct in my thinking, isn't Sting the same sword that Frodo uses in the LOTR trilogy? If it is, is there any more information that I could find on it in those books?

[orion]

Yeah the same. I am just reading LOTR but I havent found any other distinct discriptions about it yet. I dont think there are any. I dont believe it was jeweled or anything. I will keep looking.

[Grond]

I'm helping you by using my imagination because there aren't any descriptions with more detail that those already sited. First, it would be a pocket knife for a troll, a knife to a man or a sword to a hobbit. That would make it (blade and handle) about 24 inches long. (handle 10" and blade 14"). It would be an elvish blade made of an exotic metal imbued with elfen qualities (glows blue when orcs are near) and of an exotic elfin profile. (I won't describe what my interpretations of exotic and elfin are because then it would be my blade and not yours.)

I suggest you read The Hobbit during Christmas break. Go on the internet and possibly look at some of the work done by the Hildebrant brothers (not to copy, mind you) to give you a perspective.

Hope this helps.

[Rosie Cotton]

You're probably done with your project by now, but if not and you're desperate for ideas, here's a site that if you search throughly probably has a picture:

http://fan.theonering.net/~rolozo/images.php?collection=aaldijk

[Merry]

Originally posted by Rosie Cotton
You're probably done with your project by now, but if not and you're desperate for ideas, here's a site that if you search throughly probably has a picture:

http://fan.theonering.net/~rolozo/images.php?collection=aaldijk

Fantastic web site Rosie! I've just checked it out and it has some great drawings on there.

Can you submit your own pictures to view or are they all known artists??

[Rosie Cotton]

I just went and looked around, and I didn't see an adress to send pictures to... but it's sponsered by www.theonering.net so you might try looking there. If you have some drawings, why don't you post them here?

[Grond]

flaminghammster, if you haven't found a picture from which to get any ideas, here's some I've found... http://img-fan.theonering.net/rolozo/images/baker/sting.jpg ... http://www.barrowdowns.com/Pictures.asp?ImageFile=riddles2&ArtistIdentifier=hague ... http://www.barrowdowns.com/Pictures.asp?ImageFile=howe08&ArtistIdentifier=howe !

That's all I've found so far. Hope they help.

[flaminghammster]

I would like to first thank all of you for all of your great help and assistance in this project. I have not finished the project yet, but I am about done shaping the blade (I am doing this all by hand, including hand filing and sanding the blade to shape!). My main question is about the blade itself though. I am in need of some more information about the runes that were inscripted onto the base of the blade. I quote from The Hobbit, in which the blade is described as "when one can read the runes on the blade, it will glow when danger is near". I have yet to decide if I will use the alphabet out of the appendix of the new printing of the lord of the rings trilogy, or if i will use germanic or norse runes instead. again, I hope you all can help me out on this one. thanks again!

Nik

[Tyaronumen]

My personal thought would be that if you were trying to make it as 'Middle-Earth'-ish as possible, that you might consider using the Runes at the end of LotR as opposed to the Nordic/Germanic runes...

[Elanor2]

Yup. I would also use the runes of the book. They are beautiful and not too difficult to carve, I think.
High Elvish runes, mind. The blade was made in Gondolin, one of the last reams of the High Elves in Middle Earth after their exile from the Blessed Realm.