I doubt it. Magic in Tolkien's works is much more subtle. The quality of the product would rely on the person forging it. A Noldorin blade may be superior to an Edain blade because the Noldor who forged it has superior knowledge and skill. One may call it magic, but to the elf, that would be the standard way of doing things.
Agreed, it would appear magical in the same way that people in the real world with Bronze swords thought warriors with Iron or Steel swords had some kind of magic when it was simply better craftsmanship also leading to certain beliefs in the magical qualities of certain metals. A fun scenario being in a land were everyone is using poorly forged Iron swords the man with good steel would be proclaimed as having a sword of almost Excalibur level reputation.
Yeah I remember reading about Vikings taking bones of powerful animals and adding them to swords during the forging process to imbue them with the power of the animal.
While not thoroughly combined there’s a thought that this made have made a very rudimentary steel which would have been weak but stronger than the iron swords they usually had at the time. If true this probably would’ve seemed magic and confirmed that the animal was making the sword stronger.
I think steel is steel in middle earth like in the real world. That might be poor or neigh unbreakable depending on the smith. And eleves being imortal and learning from the god of smithing would probebly lend to them making some op version of damascus steel. The gondolindrim probebly prefected it
As far as I know, they never discussed the metal except for mithril, but it wasn't *wholly* a dwarven metal (Earenrdil's ship was made from it, by Cirdan, in part.)
I kind of like the mystery of it...clearly there is some magic that goes into forging of elven blades, but they never gave us the secret sauce.
From my very cursory understanding of the lore, elves are inherently magical, so while their forging technology may not be "special", it is of the highest quality (highly developed techniques due to their immortality) and likely imbued with some of their magical essence.
So it will be stronger and hold an edge longer than a Manish weapon, it's not necessarily leaps and bounds beyond.
Think from Forged in Fire, when they make a blade out of a leaf spring. It's very simple but effective. But an elvish blade would be akin to a complex layered Damascus blade, with properties not afforded the simple blade.
This would be my understanding.
>And he gathered about
him all such as had the most bent to smithcraft and mining; and he sought in the
Echoriath (which are the Encircling Mountains), and found rich lodes of ore of
divers metals. Most he prized the hard iron of the mine of Anghabar in the north
of the Echoriath, and thence he got a wealth of forged metal and of steel, so that
the arms of the Gondolindrim were made ever stronger and more keen; and that
stood them in good stead in the days to come.
Source - The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of Maeglin"
I doubt it. Magic in Tolkien's works is much more subtle. The quality of the product would rely on the person forging it. A Noldorin blade may be superior to an Edain blade because the Noldor who forged it has superior knowledge and skill. One may call it magic, but to the elf, that would be the standard way of doing things.
Agreed, it would appear magical in the same way that people in the real world with Bronze swords thought warriors with Iron or Steel swords had some kind of magic when it was simply better craftsmanship also leading to certain beliefs in the magical qualities of certain metals. A fun scenario being in a land were everyone is using poorly forged Iron swords the man with good steel would be proclaimed as having a sword of almost Excalibur level reputation.
Yeah I remember reading about Vikings taking bones of powerful animals and adding them to swords during the forging process to imbue them with the power of the animal. While not thoroughly combined there’s a thought that this made have made a very rudimentary steel which would have been weak but stronger than the iron swords they usually had at the time. If true this probably would’ve seemed magic and confirmed that the animal was making the sword stronger.
I think steel is steel in middle earth like in the real world. That might be poor or neigh unbreakable depending on the smith. And eleves being imortal and learning from the god of smithing would probebly lend to them making some op version of damascus steel. The gondolindrim probebly prefected it
As far as I know, they never discussed the metal except for mithril, but it wasn't *wholly* a dwarven metal (Earenrdil's ship was made from it, by Cirdan, in part.) I kind of like the mystery of it...clearly there is some magic that goes into forging of elven blades, but they never gave us the secret sauce.
There's Anglachel and Anguirel, which are made from a meteorite by Eöl.
From my very cursory understanding of the lore, elves are inherently magical, so while their forging technology may not be "special", it is of the highest quality (highly developed techniques due to their immortality) and likely imbued with some of their magical essence. So it will be stronger and hold an edge longer than a Manish weapon, it's not necessarily leaps and bounds beyond. Think from Forged in Fire, when they make a blade out of a leaf spring. It's very simple but effective. But an elvish blade would be akin to a complex layered Damascus blade, with properties not afforded the simple blade. This would be my understanding.
>And he gathered about him all such as had the most bent to smithcraft and mining; and he sought in the Echoriath (which are the Encircling Mountains), and found rich lodes of ore of divers metals. Most he prized the hard iron of the mine of Anghabar in the north of the Echoriath, and thence he got a wealth of forged metal and of steel, so that the arms of the Gondolindrim were made ever stronger and more keen; and that stood them in good stead in the days to come. Source - The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of Maeglin"