XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: no.spam@no.spam   
      
   Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm not claiming that Narsil   
   was bronze, only that it might have been. Although a bronze weapon   
   is at a disadvantage against iron, it can still be wielded   
   with deadly effect by a skilled swordsman such as Aragorn.   
      
   Perhaps the first question to ask is whether bronze, a copper-tin alloy   
   was even used in Middle Earth. We know by a number of references   
   that copper was known; for instance: "Mithril! All folk desired it.   
   It could be beaten like copper..."   
      
   There is only one mention of tin, where Merry says, "A punch from   
   an Ent-fist crumples up iron like thin tin."   
      
   Bronze itself is mentioned only twice: artifacts found by Tom Bombadil   
   in a barrow and Faramir's cups or basins in Henneth Annun.   
      
   Apparently Narsil was forged in Beleriand during the during the First   
   Age by the Dwarf Telchar of Nogrod, a famous weaponsmith and artificer   
   who also made the knife Angrist, which cut a Silmaril from the crown   
   of Morgoth, and the Helm of Hador later used by Túrin Turambar. [wp]   
      
   I don't know my First Age history very well, but it could have been   
   during Middle Earth's Bronze Age.   
      
   This would be a good place to quote Öjevind Lång, replying on July 21,   
   2009 to my posting "Bronze Age Middle Earth":   
      
    > You forgot one passage which, in my opinion, makes it quite clear   
    > that there was a Bronze Age in Middle-earth. It's from "In the House   
    > of Tom Bombadil", and I think it is hauntingly beautiful. Tom tells   
    > the hobbits about ancient times:   
      
    > "Kings of little kingdoms fought together, and the young Sun   
    > shone like fire on the red metal of their new and greedy swords."   
      
   SQ   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)