Swords in the Troll's Cave

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by Galin

...according to late texts Nerdanel named her last two sons Ambarussa, although Feanor desired that this should not be so, and admittedly this could be an arguably unique scenario.

They were twins. It is as if she did not care for the difference between them; but later one was killed by his father.

Back to the original thesis of the thread: Surely the swords were taken as loot by Morgoth’s army after the Fall of Gondolin. Then, as Elrond surmised, the original hoard of loot was looted by others, perhaps several times, until their journey ended in the trolls’ cave. In which case (to paraphrase Gandalf) some other power was at work, and Gandalf was meant to have Glamdring.

I’ve also thought that Glamdring and Orcrist were a matched pair: Wealthy princes in our real world sometimes had two swords made together, so that if his first broke, the prince would have another, identical sword immediately at hand to replace it. I think that perhaps Aranrúth and Narsil might be swords of the same sort: a pair made by Telchar for Thingol. Narsil would then have been an appropriate gift by Tar-Elendil to his grandson Valandil of Andúnië; besides had the law Tar-Aldarion put in place to pass the throne to Tar-Telperion been enacted in Silmariën’s day, Valandil, not Aldarion, would have been King of Númenor.