- "I will give you a name... and I shall call you Sting."
- —Bilbo Baggins[1]
Sting was an Elven short-sword made in Gondolin during the First Age, possibly first owned by Gondolindrim. Bilbo Baggins discovered Sting in the year TA 2941 in a Troll-hoard, and used it during the Quest of Erebor. He later passed it to his heir Frodo Baggins.
Description[]
Though just a dagger by standard of the Elves, Sting made a perfect short-sword for a Hobbit, although it was still rather small. Bilbo initially chose to wear it "inside his breeches"[2] and was still able to travel and even run without any apparent inconvenience.
Sting was like Glamdring and Orcrist in that "being the work of Elvish smiths in the Elder Days, these swords shone with a cold light, if any Orcs were near at hand."[3] But only Sting was definitively described as glowing blue, or glittering with blue flame at its edges. However, when the fellowship entered Moria, it is said that "no gleam came from the blades of Sting, or Glamdring, and that was some comfort. For being the work of Elven smiths in elder days, these swords shone with a cold light if any orc were near at hand."
As fitting of a blade of Gondolin, Sting could easily cut the webs of Ungoliant's offspring such as Shelob and the spiders of Mirkwood.
History[]
Sting as depicted in film
An ancient Elvish blade made by weapon-smiths in Gondolin, Sting may have been lost during the Fall of Gondolin, the same battle in which Turgon fell and Glamdring was taken.
By the late Third Age, it came into the possession of three trolls dwelling in eastern Eriador; and they put in their lair, along with Glamdring and Orcrist, which Gandalf, Bilbo, and Thorin and Company later found. When rescuing Thorin and Company from the giant spiders of Mirkwood, Bilbo was inspired to give the sword its name after cutting himself free from a cocoon and slaying the spider guarding him.[4]
Just before his nephew embarked on his quest to Mordor from Rivendell, Bilbo gave Sting to Frodo. Sam then took the weapon from his (seemingly dead) master and used it to good effect against Shelob on the borders of Mordor.
Gollum, who disliked anything made by the Elves, was afraid of Sting. This fear aided Bilbo when he confronted Gollum in the cave at the base of the Misty Mountains in The Hobbit. This also helped Frodo and Sam subdue Gollum decades later, when they encountered him in the Emyn Muil. Orcs also had an instinctive fear of these weapons and hated any who carried them.
Following Frodo's departure to the Undying Lands it is unknown whether he took Sting with him or left it to Sam, as he did with the Red Book, in which case it would have landed in the possession of the Fairbairns or Gardners.
In adaptations[]
In Peter Jackson's films[]
"The blade glows blue when Orcs are close"
In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Gandalf uncovers the blade on the floor of the cave as he was about to leave and gives it to Bilbo, who is waiting outside. Sting is depicted as vaguely leaf-shaped, with a spiral design and gently curving edges (much like a Greek xiphos), such as Tolkien described in his book. In The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, engraved on the blade are Sindarin letters that read phonetically, Maegnas aen estar nin dagnir in yngyl im. Translated, they read, Sting is my name; I am the spider's bane.[5] According to the appendix of The Silmarillion, the element maeg in Sindarin means 'sharp' or 'piercing', and etymologies in The Lost Road and Other Writings give the meaning of the element nass as 'point', so "Maegnas" is literally translated as "sharp-point".
Bilbo holding Sting for the first time after its discovery
In the books there is no mention that Bilbo had the blade inscribed, and the inscription is not present in The Hobbit films, but after Bilbo named the blade Sting he could have had it inscribed by the elves during the story of The Hobbit or after, or the elves could have inscribed it for him after he returned to live in Rivendell. This seems likely since the engraving is in Sindarin and the elves obviously would have had the best experience in reshaping a blade such as Sting.
Despite both Glamdring and Orcrist being elvish blades of similar make, Sting is the only blade shown to glow blue in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films.
Gallery[]
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- Videos
Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | Stank |
| Albanian | Djeg |
| Amharic | ነደፈ |
| Arabic | ستينغ |
| Armenian | մազմզուկ |
| Azerbaijani | Dişlək |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Джала |
| Bengali | হুল |
| Bosnian | Ubod |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Стинг |
| Cambodian | ទ្រនិច |
| Catalan | Picada |
| Cebuano | Mopaak |
| Chichewa | Mbola |
| Chinese (Hong Kong) | 刺針 |
| Chinese (Mandarin) | 刺叮 |
| Croatian | Žalac |
| Czech | Žihadlo |
| Danish | Stik |
| Dutch | Prik |
| Esperanto | Pikilon |
| Estonian | Nõelamine |
| Filipino | Sigid |
| Finnish | Piikki |
| French | Dard |
| Frisian | Stekke |
| German | Stich |
| Georgian | ნესტარი |
| Greek | Κεντρί (Kentri) |
| Gujarati | સ્ટિંગ |
| Haitian Creole | Pike |
| Hebrew | עוקץ |
| Hindi | डंक |
| Hmong | Plev |
| Hungarian | Fullánk |
| Icelandic | Stunga |
| Indonesian | Menyengat |
| Italian | Pungolo |
| Japanese | つらぬき丸 |
| Kannada | ಕುಟುಕು |
| Kazakh | Стинг (Cyrillic) Stïng (Latin) |
| Korean | 스팅 |
| Kurdish | Pêvedan (Kurmanji) |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | чагып алуу |
| Latin | Stimulus |
| Latvian | Dzēlums |
| Lithuanian | Geluonis |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Стинг |
| Malaysian | Sengat |
| Malayalam | കുത്ത് |
| Maori | Wero |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | хатгах |
| Nepalese | डंक |
| Norwegian | Brodd |
| Pashto | لیشه |
| Persian | نیش |
| Portuguese | Ferroada (Brazil) Ferrão (Portugal) |
| Polish | Żądło |
| Punjabi | ਸਟਿੰਗ |
| Romanian | Țeapa (Înțepătura) |
| Romansh | Piztgar |
| Russian | Жало |
| Samoan | Tui |
| Sanskrit | ष्तिङ् |
| Serbian | убод (Cyrillic) Ubod (Latin) |
| Sesotho | Motsu |
| Sinhalese | විෂ දළය |
| Shona | Ruma |
| Slovenian | Želo |
| Somalian | Micida |
| Slovak | Bodnutie |
| Spanish (Spain and Latin America) | Dardo |
| Sundanese | Nyeureud |
| Swahili | Nyuki |
| Tajik Cyrillic | газидан |
| Tamil | ஸ்டிங் |
| Telugu | స్టింగ్ |
| Thai | ดาบสติง |
| Turkish | Acı |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Стинг |
| Urdu | ڈنک |
| Uzbek | Стинг (Cyrillic) Caqmoq (Latin) |
| Vietnamese | Mũi Đốt |
| Welsh | Golyn |
| Xhosa | Suzela |
| Yiddish | שטעכן |
| Yoruba | Ta |
| Named weapons of Middle-earth | |
|---|---|
| Hobbits | Barrow-blades • Sting |
| Dwarves | Durin's Axe • Orcrist |
| Servants of Evil | Grond (battering ram) • Grond (hammer) • Morgul-knife |
| Elves | Aeglos • Anglachel • Anguirel • Angrist • Aranrúth • Belthronding • Dailir • Glamdring • Orcrist • Ringil |
| Men | Andúril • Dramborleg • Black arrow • Dagmor • Gúthwinë • Gurthang • Herugrim • Narsil • Red Arrow |
References[]
- ↑ The Hobbit, Chapter VIII: "Flies And Spiders"
- ↑ The Hobbit, Chapter V: "Riddles in the Dark"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter IV: "A Journey in the Dark"
- ↑ The Hobbit, Chapter VIII: "Flies and Spiders"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, "Hobbits", pg. 43
External links[]
- Wētā Workshop - STING SWORD