Gurthang
the Iron of Death; the Black Sword of Túrin
Name and Nature
Gurthang — “the Iron of Death” — is the name Túrin gave to the Anglachel, the Black Sword of Eöl, when at last it came wholly into his hands: — the Quenta: “it was called Gurthang, Iron of Death” — for “death it dealt” — the weapon Túrin carried through the last stages of his doom (as the “Black Sword”, Mormegil) and with which the age’s greatest tragedy ran its course.
The Deeds
- The slaying of the dragon: With Gurthang, Túrin (as Turambar, hidden in Brethil) at last slew the great dragon Glaurung, stabbing it through the belly from below as it forded the Teiglin; the dragon’s dying words revealed to Nienor the horror — and Gurthang’s “master”
- The end of the doom: In the utter ruin (after Nienor’s death and the full curse), Túrin fell upon Gurthang, the blade whose purpose fulfilled its master’s doom — “and thus the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled”.
Significance
Gurthang is the perfect tragic weapon — the black sword that, twice (at Beleg’s slaying, at Túrin’s own), completes the doom the curse intends, and which at the last even speaks (in the tale’s darkest poetry) to enact its master’s ending. It is the “sword of the children of Húrin” whose very iron embodies the hidden malice of Angband (its forger Eöl dark), and whose fate, like his, is the marriage of the weapon and its grief.