Elvish Sword Names: Sting, Glamdring, Orcrist, Narsil and What They Mean

Quick Answer: Tolkien's great swords carry Sindarin names with literal meanings: Glamdring is "Foe-hammer", Orcrist is "Goblin-cleaver", Narsil joins the words for fire and white light, Anglachel is "iron of flaming star", and Gurthang is "Iron of Death". Sting is not Elvish at all: Bilbo named it in English. Tolkien glossed most of these himself in The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, so you can read them from their roots.

Swords in Tolkien are rarely just swords. They have histories, lineages, sometimes grudges. They glow when enemies are near, they break at the worst moment, and they get renamed when their owners change. And because Tolkien was a philologist first, almost every named blade is a small lesson in Elvish.

This guide decodes the famous ones, from the Hobbit's trio to the First Age blades of The Silmarillion, shows the word roots underneath, and ends with a safe method for naming your own sword. Aragorn's Andúril has its own full article, so here we keep it short and link to Aragorn's names and Andúril.

A note on method: we separate what Tolkien wrote from what the films added and from fan interpretation. Every Elvish word below has a published Tolkien source.

Why Tolkien's swords have several names

A pattern repeats across the legendarium: the makers give a blade an Elvish name, its enemies give it a crude nickname, and later owners sometimes rename it.

• In The Hobbit (chapter 4), Glamdring and Orcrist are known to the goblins as Beater and Biter. The goblins hate them precisely because they recognise them.
• In The Silmarillion, Túrin's sword Anglachel is reforged and renamed Gurthang, and Túrin himself becomes known as Mormegil, "the Black Sword".
• In The Lord of the Rings, Narsil is broken and reforged as Andúril.

The name follows the sword's story. That is worth remembering if you want to name a blade of your own: the best Tolkien names describe what the weapon does or what it is made of, not an abstract quality.

Glamdring, "Foe-hammer"

Owner: found in the trolls' hoard, carried by Gandalf. Source: The Hobbit, chapter 3 ("A Short Rest") and chapter 4. Translation given by Tolkien: "Foe-hammer".

In Rivendell, Elrond reads the runes on the blades found in the troll-cave and names them. Glamdring was made for the King of Gondolin, Turgon, in the First Age, and was forged by the High Elves of the West.

The roots:

So literally something like "din-hammer" or "host-beater", which Tolkien renders freely as "Foe-hammer". The glam element turns up elsewhere in Sindarin for the noise of Orc armies, which is why it reads as "enemy host" rather than any enemy.

Pronunciation: GLAM-dring. The a is as in "father", short.

Film note: In Peter Jackson's films Glamdring's design, including the lettering on the blade, is a Weta Workshop creation. The name and its origin in Gondolin are Tolkien's; the specific engraving is not.

Orcrist, "Goblin-cleaver"

Owner: Thorin Oakenshield. Source: The Hobbit, chapters 3 and 4; its fate in chapter 18. Translation given by Tolkien: "Goblin-cleaver".

Orcrist came from the same hoard and the same city. The goblins called it Biter, and Thorin's possession of it marks him instantly as an enemy in the Misty Mountains. After the Battle of Five Armies it is laid on Thorin's tomb, where it glows when enemies approach.

The roots:

orch + rist gives Orcrist. The final -ch becomes c before the r. The same rist element appears in Angrist, below.

Pronunciation: ORK-rist.

Sting, the sword that is not Elvish

Owner: Bilbo, then Frodo, then Sam. Source: The Hobbit, chapter 8 ("Flies and Spiders").

Bilbo's little blade is an Elvish knife from the same troll hoard, and like its bigger cousins it glows blue when orcs are near. But the name Sting is Bilbo's own. He chooses it after killing a giant spider in Mirkwood, and it is plain English (or, within the story, Westron rendered as English).

Tolkien never gave Sting an Elvish name. Search results offering "Sting in Elvish" are fan translations, and some are built from words that do not mean "sting" at all. If you want an Elvish equivalent for a replica, treat it openly as your own coinage.

Narsil, fire and light

Owner: Elendil; its shards later reforged for Aragorn. Source: The Lord of the Rings, Book II chapter 2 ("The Council of Elrond") and chapter 3.

Narsil broke when Elendil fell fighting Sauron. It was Isildur, Elendil's son, who then cut the Ring from Sauron's hand with the hilt-shard (a detail the films sometimes blur).

The roots: Tolkien explained the name as containing the basic stems for fire (nar, associated with the Sun) and white light (thil, associated with the Moon). You can see the same elements in Anar, the Sun, and Isil, the Moon.

Reforged in Rivendell, Narsil became Andúril, "Flame of the West". Its full story, including why the name was a political statement, is in Aragorn's Elvish names and Andúril.

First Age blades from The Silmarillion

The older swords are darker, and their names are too.

Anglachel, "iron of the flaming star"

Owner: Eöl the Dark Elf, then Thingol, then Beleg, then Túrin. Source: The Silmarillion, chapter 21 ("Of Túrin Turambar").

Eöl forged Anglachel from meteoric iron, which The Silmarillion describes as iron that fell from the sky as a blazing star. The name says exactly that:

Gurthang, "Iron of Death"

When Anglachel was reforged for Túrin in Nargothrond, it was renamed Gurthang, which The Silmarillion translates as "Iron of Death": gurth "death" + ang "iron". Túrin became known as Mormegil, "the Black Sword", from mor "dark, black" + megil "sword". It is one of the grimmest naming arcs in Tolkien: the sword that was a falling star becomes simply death.

Ringil, Fingolfin's sword

Owner: Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor. Source: The Silmarillion, chapter 18.

In his duel with Morgoth, Fingolfin's sword Ringil glitters like ice. Tolkien does not translate the name directly in The Silmarillion. Its elements look like ring "cold" (The Etymologies, root RINGI-) and gil "star, spark". Read that as an informed interpretation, not a Tolkien gloss.

Angrist, "iron-cleaver"

Owner: Curufin, taken by Beren. Source: The Silmarillion, chapter 19 ("Of Beren and Lúthien").

Angrist is a knife, not a sword, but its name completes the family: ang "iron" + rist "cleave", the same rist as Orcrist. It cut through iron like wood, and Beren used it to cut a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown.

Other named weapons

Two famous non-Elvish names for comparison: Théoden's sword Herugrim and Éomer's Gúthwinë are Old English, the language Tolkien used to represent Rohirric. They follow the same logic (describing the weapon) but are not Elvish, so do not mix their elements with Sindarin.

Film-only names

Some blades exist only in the films or their merchandise:

• Hadhafang, the sword Arwen carries in The Fellowship of the Ring film, has a Sindarin-looking name but is not in Tolkien's books.
• The names on Legolas's and Aragorn's film knives and the long inscriptions on film swords come from Weta Workshop and the films' language consultant, David Salo. They are film Sindarin, not Tolkien's.

That does not make them bad names. It means you should not cite them as canon.

The word-root table

These are the building blocks that appear in Tolkien's own weapon names. All are Sindarin unless marked.

For a wider vocabulary see our Elvish dictionary of common words, and for darker themes, Elvish words for death and fate.

How to name your own sword safely

Want a name for a LARP blade, a D&D character's weapon, or a display sword? Here is a method that stays honest.

1. Decide what the name should describe. Tolkien's names describe material (iron, star-metal), action (cleaving, hammering), enemy (orcs), or appearance (flame, light). Pick one or two.

2. Use only attested elements. Take them from the table above or from a reliable dictionary. Never use a word just because a fan site lists it.

3. Combine them the way Tolkien did. The simplest pattern is noun + noun, as in gurth + ang, or thing + action, as in orch + rist. Sindarin sounds do change when words join (the ch in Orcrist became c), so keep combinations short.

4. Label the result honestly. A name you build is your coinage in Tolkien's style, not a canon name. Say "Neo-Sindarin" if anyone asks.

Example coinages (ours, not Tolkien's):

These are illustrations of the method. Whether Tolkien would have formed them exactly this way (with the right mutations and word order) is uncertain, which is exactly why they should be labelled.

For character names to go with the weapon, see the D&D Elvish names guide and Elvish phrases for D&D campaigns. You can also check a word with our Elvish translator, which draws on attested vocabulary and tells you when a word is uncertain.

Engraving a name in Tengwar

The blades from Gondolin carried runes, which is why Elrond could read them. For a modern replica, Tengwar is the natural choice.

1. Write the name in the Sindarin mode if it is a Sindarin name; the Tengwar modes guide explains the difference.
2. Render it with the Tengwar name generator and compare the result against the Tengwar alphabet guide.
3. For a year of forging, use proper Tengwar digits in the right order: see Tengwar numerals.
4. Practise the letters by hand in the Tengwar Scribe before you pay for engraving.

What we left out, and why

• An "Elvish name for Sting". Tolkien never gave one.
• A direct gloss of Ringil or Belthronding. Tolkien did not translate them in the published texts, so we give only a labelled interpretation for Ringil and none for Belthronding.
• Film blade inscriptions. These are film Sindarin by the production, not Tolkien.

People Also Ask

What does Glamdring mean?

"Foe-hammer", Tolkien's own translation in The Hobbit. It is Sindarin: glam (din of an enemy host) + dring (hammer, beater).

What does Orcrist mean?

"Goblin-cleaver", from orch (goblin, orc) + rist (cleave). The goblins called it Biter.

What is Sting's name in Elvish?

It does not have one. Bilbo named it Sting in English after the spider fight in Mirkwood.

What is Gandalf's sword called?

Glamdring, the sword of Turgon of Gondolin, found in the trolls' hoard in The Hobbit.

Related Reading

• Aragorn's Elvish names and Andúril
• Elvish words for death and fate
• D&D Elvish names guide
• Elvish dictionary: common words
• Tengwar numerals: numbers and dates
• Sindarin grammar basics

Learn Elvish with Tengwar

Want to read these roots yourself instead of trusting lists? Tengwar teaches Sindarin and Quenya with lessons built on attested words and an AI tutor that cites its sources. Start learning Elvish free.