Q: Did JRR Tolkien’s Aragorn Use a Two Handed Sword?
ANSWER: The short answer to this question is “No”. Aragorn used only one hand to wield his sword, Andúril. There are few passages in The Lord of the Rings that describe how Aragorn wielded his sword but in the chapter “Helm’s Deep” Tolkien describes Aragorn wielding the sword one-handed:
A broad stairway climbed from the Deep up to the Rock and the rear-gate of the Hornburg. Near the bottom stood Aragorn. In his hand still Andúril gleamed, and the terror of the sword for a while held back the enemy, as one by one all who could gain the stair passed up towards the gate. Behind on the upper steps knelt Legolas. His bow was bent, but one gleaned arrow was all that he had left, and he peered out now, ready to shoot the first Orc that should dare to approach the stair.
The only reference I can find to anyone wielding a blade two-handed is found in Frodo and Sam’s confrontation with Shelob. However, if you were to look at Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth and read the section on the height of the Elves and Numenoreans, you would be right to ask what length of blade a 7 or 8-foot tall Noldorin or Numenorean warrior might wield.
Narsil was a very ancient sword, said by Aragorn to have been made “by Telchar in the deeps of time”. The blade would have been made for a Noldorin prince or warrior and only eventually found its way into the hands of the Numenoreans. By the time it came down to Elendil he was considered to be very tall for a Numenorean (hence his nickname, “Elendil the Tall”). Aragorn was much shorter than Elendil. When Andúril was reforged one must presume that Elrond’s smiths made a sword that Aragorn could wield comfortably.
In the movies the artists who designed the swords addressed this issue by making the shards of Narsil very large and unwieldy for a man; but the shards were laid on a special statue. When Andúril is given to Aragorn, the sword has been forged for his own build.
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