Armouries reveal sharp edge of movies’ personal weapons

VISITORS to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds got their own taste of Middle Earth with an epic display of five weapons from The Lords of The Rings and The Hobbit films.
By The Newsroom
Published 14th Dec 2013, 00:01 BST
Bob Woosnam-Savage, Curator of European Edged Weapons at the Royal Armouries, with Orcrist the personal weapon of Thorin Oakenshield from the latest episode of the Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug.Bob Woosnam-Savage, Curator of European Edged Weapons at the Royal Armouries, with Orcrist the personal weapon of Thorin Oakenshield from the latest episode of the Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug.
Bob Woosnam-Savage, Curator of European Edged Weapons at the Royal Armouries, with Orcrist the personal weapon of Thorin Oakenshield from the latest episode of the Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug.

This weekend sees the cinematic release The Hobbit; The Desolation of Smaug and the Royal Armouries is believed to be the only museum in the world to display the range of weapons.

The fifth and latest sword, Orcrist, is the personal weapon of Thorin Oakenshield, the lead dwarf character in the latest instalment.

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Along with the other four weapons, Orcrist joins the four existing exhibits – Andúril, Strider’s Sword, Glamdring and Sting.

The Royal Armouries’ curator of European edged weapons, Bob Woosnam-Savage, has kept in touch with one of its directors, Sir Richard Taylor, in New Zealand since the exhibition closed.

Bob said: “We are probably the only museum in the world to have the full set of swords.

“We intended, last December, to display these as a temporary exhibition but they have proved so popular and successful that they have stayed here all year. We are delighted to be adding the fifth sword to the collection, which continues to attract so much interest from our visitors.”

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