Black Arrow

Black Arrow
Background Information
Owner(s)	Girion, Bard
Made	Steel
Creator	Dwarves

The Black Arrow was an heirloom of the house of Girion, Lord of Dale, passed down to Bard, his descendant.

History

The Black Arrow was Bard the Bowman's last remaining arrow when Smaug attacked Lake-town and, directed by a Thrush who had overheard a conversation between Bilbo Baggins and Smaug, he shot it with remarkable speed into the dragon's only weak spot; a small chink in the scales upon its left chest. Smaug was felled by the shot, and the Lonely Mountain, Dale, and Lake-town were freed.

The Black Arrow was forged by Thrór, who was the King under the Mountain before its fall, according to The Hobbit. It is not known if it had any magical properties, but Bard said that he had successfully retrieved it every time he used it (like Beleg's arrow Dailir).

Portrayal in adaptations

The Hobbit film trilogy

The Black Arrow as depicted in The Hobbit films

In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film series, the Black Arrow is not a single regular-sized arrow, but rather one in a series of large metal quarrels, designed to be fired by a "Wind lance" ballista for attacking dragons. The arrows themselves are roughly two metres in length with heavy twisted steel heads, combining elements of both spears and harpoons. The Black Arrows are the only known weapons with enough power to pierce the armoured hide of dragons.

As seen in the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and again in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, all but one of the Black Arrows are spent on Smaug as Girion, Lord of Dale attempted to shoot him down in defence of the city. One of his shots managed to break off an armoured scale protecting the left side of the dragon’s chest. However, Girion was himself killed by Smaug before taking a final shot. It is later revealed that the last Black Arrow was kept as an heirloom by Girion's descendants.

After Thorin and Company accidentally release Smaug upon Lake-town, Bard the Bowman, a direct descendent of Girion, retrieves the arrow from his home and attempts to reach Lake-town’s windlance ballista, intent on slaying Smaug.  However he was arrested by the corrupt Master of Lake-town  before reaching the weapon, prompting his son Bain to instead hide the arrow in a boat, narrowly avoiding it being seized by the Master’s guards.

During The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Bain retrieves the arrow in the midst of Smaug’s assault upon Lake-town, bringing it to Bard whilst he is attempting to shoot down the dragon with regular arrows fired from a longbow.  During this exchange, Smaug attacks the belltower they are standing on, shattering the limbs of Bard’s bow. Improvising, Bard attaches his bowstring to the ruined tower’s posts and, using his son as a stand, fires the arrow into the weak spot on the dragon’s chest, puncturing his exposed skin and piercing his heart. Enraged, Smaug soars into the sky before succumbing to the arrow’s wound, his corpse falling onto the town’s burning ruins, crushing the Master and sinking his boat.

The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest

In the Wii and PS3 versions of The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, the player can obtain tips of Black Arrows to allow Aragorn to lock on to multiple enemies and shoot them all at once with his bow. This Artifact does come with one downside: it will deplete his ammunition quite quickly.

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Afrikaans	Swart Pyl
Albanian	Shigjeta e Zezë
Amharic	ጥቁር ቀስት
Armenian	Բլածկ Արրու
Arabic	السهم الأسود
Azerbaijani	Ox Qara
Basque	Gezi Beltza
Belarusian Cyrillic	чорная стрэлка
Bengali	কাল তীর
Bosnian	Crna Strelica
Breton	Bir Du
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Черна стрела
Cambodian	ព្រួញខ្មៅ
Catalan	Fletxa negra
Cebuano	Itom nga udyong
Chinese	黑箭
Cornish	Seth Du
Croatian	Crna Strelica
Czech	Černý Šíp
Danish	Sort Pil
Dutch	Zwarte Pijl
Esperanto	Nigra Sago
Estonian	Must Nool
Faroese	Svartur Pílur
Filipino	Itim na Palaso
Finnish	Musta Nuoli
French	Flèche Noire
Georgian	შავი ისარი
German	Schwarzer Pfeil
Greek	Μαύρο βέλος
Gujarati	બ્લેક એરો
Haiti Creole	Nwa Flèch
Hebrew	חץ שחור
Hawaiian	ʻeleʻele Pua
Hindi	काले तीर
Hungarian	Fekete Nyíl
Icelandic	Svartur Ör
Italian	Freccia Nera
Indonesian	Panah Hitam
Irish Gaelic	Saighead Dubh
Japanese	黒い矢
Kannada	ಕಪ್ಪು ಬಾಣದ
Kazakh	Қара көрсеткі (Cyrillic) Qara körsetki (Latin)
Korean	검은색 화살
Kurdish	Reş Tîr (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic	кара жебе
Laotian	ລູກສອນສີດໍາ
Latin	Nigrum Sagittam
Latvian	Melna Bulta
Lithuanian	Juodoji Strėlė
Luxembourgish	Schwaarz Pfeil
Macedonian Cyrillic	црна стрелка
Malaysian	Anak panah hitam
Maltese	Vleġġa Sewda
Manx	Side Doo
Maori	Pere Pango
Marathi	काळा बाण
Mongolian Cyrillic	хар сум
Nepalese	कालो तीर
Norwegian	Svarte Pilen
Pashto	تور غشی
Persian	تیر سیاه
Polish	Czarna Strzała
Brazilian Portuguese	Flecha Negra
Portuguese	Seta Preta
Punjabi	ਕਾਲਾ ਤੀਰ
Romanian	Săgeată Neagră
Romansh	Nair Frizza ?
Russian	Чёрная стрела
Samoan	Uliuli Aū
Scottish Gaelic	Dubh Saighead
Serbian	Црна стрелица (Cyrillic) Crna Strelica (Latin)
Sindhi	ڪارو تير
Sinhalese	කළු සරය
Slovak	Čierna Šípka
Slovenian	Črna Puščica
Somalian	Falaar Madow
Spanish	Flecha Negra
Sundanese	Panah Hideung
Swahili	Mshale Mweusi
Swedish	Svart Pil
Tajik Cyrillic	тирчаи сиёҳ
Tamil	கருப்பு அம்புக்குறி
Telugu	నలుపు బాణం
Thai	ลูกศรสีดำ
Turkish	Kara Ok
Turkmen	Gara Görkezgiç ?
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Чорну стрілку
Urdu	بلیک ایرو
Uzbek	Қора ўқ (Cyrillic) Qora o'q (Latin)
Vietnamese	Mũi tên màu đen
Welsh	Saeth Ddu
Xhosa	Abamnyama Utolo
Yiddish	שוואַרץ פייַל
Yoruba	Dudu ọfà
Zulu	Umcibisholo Omnyama