- ""Arrow!" said the bowman. "Black arrow! I have saved you to the last. You have never failed me and always I have recovered you. I had you from my father and he from of old. If ever you came from the forges of the true king under the Mountain, go now and speed well!""
- —Bard in chapter 14 of The Hobbit
The black arrow was an heirloom of the Lords of Dale that was passed down to Bard.[1]
History[]
Sometime after TA 2589 during the reign of Thrór as King under the Mountain in the Third Age,[2] the black arrow was made in the forges beneath the Lonely Mountain.[1] Sometime afterward, a Lord of Dale somehow acquired it from the Dwarves. Thus, the black arrow became an heirloom of the Lords of Dale.[1]
During the Sack of Erebor by the dragon Smaug in TA 2770,[3] the family of Girion, the present Lord of Dale, "had escaped down the River Running" taking the black arrow with them. The heirloom continued to be passed down until it eventually fell into the hands of Bard. While it is unknown whether or not the black arrow bore any magical properties, Bard always recovered it because it never failed him, nor ever broke.[1]
In the year 2941 when the Dragon Smaug attacked Lake-town,[3] a company of archers had defended the town against him, but soon fled after their captain, Bard, had used up all his arrows save only the black arrow. Just as Bard bent his great yew bow, the thrush who had previously overheard a conversation between Bilbo Baggins and Smaug, directed him to shoot at the small chink in the scales upon Smaug's left chest.[1]
After praising the black arrow, Bard shot it with remarkable speed into the dragon's only weak spot. The entirety of the black arrow vanished completely within the hollow. Smaug was felled by the shot, flying into the air before falling back down, crushing Lake-town.[1]
Background[]
In The History of The Hobbit: Mr Baggins and Return to Bag-End, John D. Rateliff suggested that Dailir, the arrow of Beleg, may have had some influence on J.R.R. Tolkien's development of Bard's black arrow. This is despite not being a direct predecessor since the Noldorin word for black arrow "would have been something like Morlin or Morhlin (mor- ‘black’, as in Moria and Mordor, + lhinn ‘arrow’; cf. Parma Eldalamberon XIII page 163)".[4]
In adaptations[]
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (1966 film)[]
In the short 1966 film, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, significant changes were made. For instance, the black arrow and the Arkenstone were merged and it was Bilbo Baggins, rather than Bard, who killed Smaug.
The Hobbit (1977 animated film)[]
In the 1977 animated film, the death of Smaug by the black arrow is lifted directly from the book with only minimal changes.
The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest[]
In the Wii and PS3 versions of The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, the player can obtain tips of black arrows to allow Aragorn to lock on to multiple enemies and shoot them all at once with his bow. This Artifact does come with one downside: it will deplete his ammunition quite quickly.
The Hobbit film trilogy[]
The black arrow as depicted in The Hobbit films
In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, the black arrow is not a single regular-sized arrow, but rather one in a series of large metal quarrels, designed to be fired by a "Wind lance" ballista for attacking dragons. The arrows themselves are roughly two metres in length with heavy twisted steel heads, combining elements of both spears and harpoons. Black arrows were the only known weapons with enough power to pierce the armoured hide of dragons.
As seen in the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and again in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, all but one of the black arrows are spent on Smaug as Girion, the Lord of Dale, attempted to shoot him down in defence of the city. One of his shots managed to break off an armoured scale protecting the left side of the dragon's chest. However, Girion was himself killed by Smaug before taking a final shot. It is later revealed that the last black arrow was kept as an heirloom by Girion's descendants.
After Thorin and Company accidentally release Smaug upon Lake-town, Bard, a direct descendent of Girion, retrieves the arrow from his home and attempts to reach Lake-town's wind lance ballista, intent on slaying Smaug. However he is arrested by the corrupt Master of Lake-town before reaching the weapon, prompting his son Bain to instead hide the arrow in a boat, narrowly avoiding it being seized by the Master's guards.
During The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Bain retrieves the arrow in the midst of Smaug's assault upon Lake-town, bringing it to Bard whilst he is attempting to shoot down the dragon with regular arrows fired from a longbow. During this exchange, Smaug attacks the bell tower they are standing on, shattering the limbs of Bard's bow. Improvising, Bard attaches his bowstring to the ruined tower's posts and, using his son as a stand, fires the black arrow into the weak spot on the dragon's chest, puncturing his exposed skin and piercing his heart. Enraged, Smaug soars into the sky before succumbing to the arrow's wound, his corpse falling onto the town's burning ruins, crushing the Master and sinking his boat.
The Lord of the Rings Online[]
In The Lord of the Rings Online, there is a quest focused on finding fifteen different "Soggy Pages".[5] Upon finding all fifteen of them, the pages combine to form the tale of "The Black Arrows". The tale tells of an archer named Bródda, who became the first Lord of Dale after saving the Dwarf-king Thrór from a band of Orcs. As a reward for saving his life, Thrór gave him a Black Arrow and the name "Geirjarn Ironbolt". For seven generations afterwards, each subsequent Lord of Dale was given a new Black Arrow. Eventually, all seven of them were used up and wasted on Smaug by Girion. However, the hidden eighth one was saved by his son, "Brandjarn". After fleeing, this Black Arrow was passed down from father to son until it was used by Bard to slay Smaug. Many years later, in the Fourth Age, the tradition of Black Arrow forging began again for the King of Dale, Bard II, who eventually used his own Black Arrow to wound "Vethúg Wintermind", one of the great Cold-drakes of the Withered Heath.[6]
Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | Swart Pyl |
| Albanian | Shigjeta e Zezë |
| Amharic | ጥቁር ቀስት |
| Armenian | Բլածկ Արրու |
| Arabic | السهم الأسود |
| Azerbaijani | Ox Qara |
| Basque | Gezi Beltza |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | чорная стрэлка |
| Bengali | কাল তীর |
| Bosnian | Crna Strelica |
| Breton | Bir Du |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Черна стрела |
| Cambodian | ព្រួញខ្មៅ |
| Catalan | Fletxa negra |
| Cebuano | Itom nga udyong |
| Chinese | 黑箭 |
| Cornish | Seth Du |
| Croatian | Crna Strelica |
| Czech | Černý Šíp |
| Danish | Sort Pil |
| Dutch | Zwarte Pijl |
| Esperanto | Nigra Sago |
| Estonian | Must Nool |
| Faroese | Svartur Pílur |
| Filipino | Itim na Palaso |
| Finnish | Musta Nuoli |
| French | Flèche Noire |
| Georgian | შავი ისარი |
| German | Schwarzer Pfeil |
| Greek | Μαύρο βέλος |
| Gujarati | બ્લેક એરો |
| Haiti Creole | Nwa Flèch |
| Hebrew | חץ שחור |
| Hawaiian | ʻeleʻele Pua |
| Hindi | काले तीर |
| Hungarian | Fekete Nyíl |
| Icelandic | Svartur Ör |
| Italian | Freccia Nera |
| Indonesian | Panah Hitam |
| Irish Gaelic | Saighead Dubh |
| Japanese | 黒い矢 |
| Kannada | ಕಪ್ಪು ಬಾಣದ |
| Kazakh | Қара көрсеткі (Cyrillic) Qara körsetki (Latin) |
| Konkani | काळो बाण |
| Korean | 검은색 화살 |
| Kurdish | Reş Tîr (Kurmanji) |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | кара жебе |
| Laotian | ລູກສອນສີດໍາ |
| Latin | Nigrum Sagittam |
| Latvian | Melna Bulta |
| Lithuanian | Juodoji Strėlė |
| Luxembourgish | Schwaarz Pfeil |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | црна стрелка |
| Maithili | कारी तीर |
| Malayalam | കറുത്ത അമ്പ് |
| Malaysian | Anak panah hitam |
| Maltese | Vleġġa Sewda |
| Manx | Side Doo |
| Maori | Pere Pango |
| Marathi | काळा बाण |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | хар сум |
| Nepalese | कालो तीर |
| Norwegian | Svarte Pilen |
| Pashto | تور غشی |
| Persian | تیر سیاه |
| Polish | Czarna Strzała |
| Portuguese | Seta Preta (Portugal)
Flecha Negra (Brazil) |
| Punjabi | ਕਾਲਾ ਤੀਰ |
| Romanian | Săgeată Neagră |
| Romansh | Nair Frizza ? |
| Russian | Чёрная стрела |
| Samoan | Uliuli Aū |
| Scottish Gaelic | Dubh Saighead |
| Serbian | Црна стрелица (Cyrillic) Crna Strelica (Latin) |
| Sindhi | ڪارو تير |
| Sinhalese | කළු සරය |
| Slovak | Čierna Šípka |
| Slovenian | Črna Puščica |
| Somalian | Falaar Madow |
| Spanish | Flecha Negra |
| Sundanese | Panah Hideung |
| Swahili | Mshale Mweusi |
| Swedish | Svart Pil |
| Tajik Cyrillic | тирчаи сиёҳ |
| Tamil | கருப்பு அம்புக்குறி |
| Tatar | Кара ук |
| Telugu | నలుపు బాణం |
| Thai | ลูกศรสีดำ |
| Tigrinya | ጸሊም ፍላጻ |
| Turkish | Kara Ok |
| Turkmen | Gara ok |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Чорну стрілку |
| Urdu | بلیک ایرو |
| Uzbek | Қора ўқ (Cyrillic) Qora o'q (Latin) |
| Vietnamese | Mũi tên màu đen |
| Welsh | Saeth Ddu |
| Xhosa | Abamnyama Utolo |
| Yiddish | שוואַרץ פייַל |
| Yoruba | Dudu ọfà |
| Zulu | Umcibisholo Omnyama |
| Named weapons of Middle-earth | |
|---|---|
| Hobbits | Barrow-blades • Sting |
| Dwarves | Durin's Axe • Orcrist |
| Servants of Evil | Grond (battering ram) • Grond (hammer) • Morgul-knife |
| Elves | Aeglos • Anglachel • Anguirel • Angrist • Aranrúth • Belthronding • Dailir • Glamdring • Orcrist • Ringil |
| Men | Andúril • Dramborleg • Black arrow • Dagmor • Gúthwinë • Gurthang • Herugrim • Narsil • Red Arrow |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 The Hobbit, Chapter XIV: "Fire and Water"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers, "Durin's Folk"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B: The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands), "The Third Age"
- ↑ The History of The Hobbit: Mr Baggins and Return to Bag-End, The Second Phase, "The Death of Smaug", (ii) The Black Arrow, pg. 558 (note 6)
- ↑ Quest:Lost Lore of the North: Men on lotro-wiki.com
- ↑ Item:Copy of Lost Lore: Men of Dale on lotro-wiki.com