#dailir

@sindarweek day 3: Objects

Crest for Dailir

2021, Mark Jarrell

more TFO headshots to flesh out the appendices haha 😅 still working my way through the few that don’t have illos!

Sure! And weapons aren't only named because of a battle they've been in (Balin's quote from An Unexpected Journey isn't necessarily canon.) Some weapons are named just because they were owned by somebody important, and others were named because they were made of an unusual material, etc.

But, anyway, the bow and arrow. The most famous archer in Tolkien's stories, Beleg Strongbow, named his bow and one of his arrows.

Beleg's bow was called Belthronding. I don't think Tolkien ever translated the name for us, but we do know a bit about the bow itself. It was made of black yew wood. It was Beleg's weapon of choice, and in fact his epesse/surname "Strongbow" is a reference to Beltrhonding. When Beleg died, Belthronding was buried with him.

Beleg also named one of the arrows he used, Dailir. Tolkien didn't translate this name either, but some of the more linguistically inclined readers think that the name could mean either "shadow song" or "cleaver." Beleg named the arrow because every time he shot it, he would find the arrow again unharmed. But he finally broke it by accident, only minutes before he died.

Tolkien really loved swords, so he doesn't give as much attention to bows, but I see no reason for why they would be named less often than swords.