Aeglos

"I was at the Battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate of Mordor, where had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-Galad and the the Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil, none could withstand"

- Elrond to the Council Aiglos or Aeglos (meaning "snow-point" or "snow-thorn" or more commonly "icicle") was the famed glaive of Gil-galad. He wielded Aiglos in the War of the Last Alliance and the forces of Sauron greatly feared it.

Description
The spear that belonged to Gil-galad, king of the Noldorin Elves, who was slain during the War of the Last Alliance. In The Fellowship of the Ring it is also called a lance, suggesting that Gil-galad used it as such on horseback. It stood nine feet high; the blade was recurved and almost two feet long and was etched in brass filigree. The spear must surely have been in Gil-galad's possession for some time before the Battle of Dagorlad, and may well have dated back to the First Age or even before but Tolkien never wrote about it. Nevertheless, the Battle is the only situation where the spear explicitly appears. The blade bears the following Elvish inscription: Gil-galad ech vae vaegannen matha

Aith heleg nín i orch gostatha

Nin cíniel na ngurutho

Hon ess nín istatha: Aeglos

Gil-galad wields a well-made spear

The Orc will fear my point of ice

When he sees me, in fear of death

He will know my name: Aeglos

Origin of the name
Aiglos means "snow-point" or "icicle." The element aeg means "point" from ayak meaning "sharp, pointed". The element los means "snow". There are two variant spellings of this spear's name, Aiglos and Aeglos (though they are pronounced in the same way, and would be written identically in Elvish characters). Aiglos is the spelling in most earlier editions of The Lord of the Rings, but has been adjusted in more recent editions to Aeglos. It was called such because when orcs saw this spear, they would recognize it by its reputation as a weapon which would bring a cold death to them. It stood nine feet high; the blade was recurved and almost two feet long and was etched in brass filigree.

What happened after Gil-Galad's death
Tolkien never wrote about what happened to Aeglos after the death of its wielder but there are two principal schools of thought:
 * Some people beleive that after Gil-galad fell in battle at the foot of Mount Doom, Aiglos was borne by Elrond back to Rivendell. Here it was placed in the grand chamber alongside the shards of Narsil, so that the two legendary weapons should remain as close in death as their two wielders had been in life.
 * Another possibility is that when Gil-Galad and Elendil were slain by Sauron, the blade of Aiglos melted and the rest of the spear were buried with its wielder.

In literature
Tolkien mentions Aeglos in the following places:
 * "I was at the Battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate of Mordor, where we had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-Galad and the the Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil, none could withstand"

- Elrond to the Council


 * "Against Aeglos the spear of Gil-galad none could stand;"

- The Silmarillion


 * Unfinished Tales: "Narn I Hin Hurin," p. 148 note 14

In movie
In the Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Peter Jackson, Gil-galad, portrayed by Mark Ferguson, appears very briefly in the first film during the opening prologue sequence. He is never mentioned by name in any of the films, although he is mentioned in the behind the scenes documentaries included with the Extended Edition DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring.

External link
Aiglos at The Thain's Book

Aiglos Elvish inscriptions