Sting
an Elvish blade of the hobbits; the knife that shone in the dark
Names
Sting — Bilbo’s Elvish blade, so named by its holder; the knife of the hobbits, an Elf-knife of the great realm of Gondolin in the elder days, when the fall of that city scattered its blades into the wide treasure-hoards.
Description
Sting was a long, slender blade of Elvish make, sharp and luminous, with sheathed silver and a crystal, pale light within: “it dazzled the eyes and thrilled the heart”. Its special virtue was that the Elven-knife “glows blue when orcs are near”, shining with a frosty gleam in the presence of evil — for the Orcs hated and feared the shining of the Elvish blades.
History
Found by Bilbo in the troll-hoard beneath the Misty Mountains, Sting was given him by the Elvish smiths of Rivendell, who knew its old kind, and it served him in the dark paths under the mountain. In the quest of the Ring, the blade passed to Frodo, who bore it in the dark ways of Mordor, and at the leaguer of Shelob's lair it shone and stabbed in the darkness of her chamber, the Elf-knife that wounded the great spider before the Ring-bearer was taken.