Sketch: Noldorin swords

Ok.. i managed to scan a couple of sketches so i'm posting one.. This is basically a scrap, but i just wanted to show it.. perhaps i'll dump it later. Anyway, i still gave it the "brown paper treatment" just for the heck of it.

So, it's a sword design sketch i did a while ago for my Oath of Fëanor illustration (i'm working on that but i don't know when i'll have the time to finish it.. if you like you can go see the current stage here: [link] ).

Normal pencil stuff.. i wanted to show that each of these characters have a different personality and also a different fighting style. So i drew swords that seemed fitting for each of them. Some of these i had already designed and you might recognize from the earlier drawings (they are the more random ones, i guess.. ). The new ones were in part inspired by the elven heraldry by =elegaer -- many thanks!


EDIT:

After aswering a comment below I thought I'll need to explain this a bit more:

If i think of fighting styles and weapons i see Maedhros, Caranthir, Fingolfin, Fingon, Angrod and Aegnor as quite military minded characters, Finrod, Celegorm and the twins as more hunter/ranger kind and the rest as people who wielded weapons more out of necessity.

I picture Fëanor, Maedhros, Celegorm, Curufin, Fingolfin, and especially Fingon, Caranthir and Aegnor as aggressive offensive fighters and the others as more careful, "defence comes first" kind.

For defence, all would carry shields to battle except Fingon, Caranthir and Aegnor whom I see as more "running-straight-at-you-obvious-to-danger-while-screaming-and-wielding-a-two-handed-weapon" types as well as Celegorm and Finrod who would be skilled swordsmen and trusting their "parry-riposte-counterattack" style with a two-handed blade rather than a shield. Fingon and Celegorm (and probably Finrod, Caranthir and the twins too) also carried bows, which would be part of the reason why they didn't carry shields.

The swords are all drawn roughly to scale, so their sizes are comparable with each other. Fingon's sword is the only true two-hander; it's basically an early Medieval English type "short" two-handed sword, about 4½ feet long. The swords of Fingolfin, Finrod, Aegnor, Celegorm and Caranthir are hand-and-a-half swords, or bastard swords, used with one or (mainly) both hands (though Fingolfin, being the strongest, often wielded Ringil one-handed and carried a shield). Maglor's sword is basically a cavalry sabre with some katana flavour, Curufin's is a scimitar and the swords of Turgon, Orodreth and the twins fall in the wide category of (antique style) broadswords. All these are often used with a shield. The swords of Fëanor, Maedhros and Angrod are "knight's swords" ie. long, straight-bladed broadswords used together with a shield and wielded in one hand.