the Orcs, and are recognised by them; indeed, the Orcs have their own nicknames for the two famous swords, Biter and Beater. These weapons have numerous connections to the famous swords of Medieval mythology, including, according to the Tolkien scholars K. S. Whetter and R. Andrew McDonald, the style and content of their names, which recall the names of swords in Norse mythology such as Fotbitr and Dragvandil ("Leg-biter" and "Slicer"). Indeed, in The Hobbit, when Bilbo's party arrive at Rivendell, Elrond reads the swords' runic inscriptions and describes the heroic history and lineage of the recovered weapons: "Renewed shall be blade that was broken" The Lord of the Rings hero Aragorn, heir of the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor, carried the shards of the sword Narsil, broken when his ancestor Elendil died in battle with the Dark Lord Sauron. Its name, Narsil, contained the roots for "fire" and "white light", meaning "Sun and Moon" in Quenya. It had been forged in the First Age by the greatest of the Dwarf-smiths, Telchar. He worked into the enchanted sword the ability to shine "with the light of the sun and of the moon", with the result that "the sword of Elendil filled Orcs and Men with fear". After it was broken "its light was extinguished and it was not forged anew", until Aragorn brought it to Rivendell at the end of the Third Age and the quest to destroy the One Ring. It was then remade as Andúril, meaning "Flame of the West" in Quenya: The seven stars were Elendil's heraldic device, which in turn denoted the stars, one per ship, for the seven ships that carried the seven palantirs from Númenor, the island of the West, to Middle-earth. The sword thus carried the symbolism of the lineage of Elendil and the power of the kingdom of Númenor. In addition, Tolkien wrote that the sword's original name, Narsil, "symbolised the chief heavenly lights [Sun and Moon], as enemies of darkness". The poem that Aragorn says goes with his own name, "The Riddle of Strider", calls the sword the "blade that was broken": There are multiple parallels here with Arthurian legend. The Sword in the Stone is broken. Just as Excalibur delimits King Arthur's reign, so Narsil delimits the Third Age, beginning when Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron's hand, and ending when the remade Andúril helps to end Sauron's power and