Rings of Power Season 3’s Mysterious Sword Explained

Can anyone explain why a sword apparently levitates while a stone stubbornly refuses to do the same? Because I certainly can’t.

The image introduces Anarion, a new face in Rings Of Power Season 3. He is Elendil’s younger son and Isildur’s brother, which is curious for two reasons: first, I don’t remember him being mentioned in the first two seasons; second, he looks older than Isildur, at least to my eyes. Still, Anarion is a real figure from Tolkien’s legendarium, so the Prime Video series is not simply inventing everyone from scratch — or, at the very least, not doing so every single time.

What’s harder to understand is the sword. How, exactly, is Anarion supposed to be carrying this thing? His arms appear to be hanging down at his sides. The blade is not in a scabbard. It is not strapped across his back. Instead, it seems to be perched somewhere around the base of his neck, right near the top of his spine. It is not even convincingly resting over one shoulder. I have seen plenty of fantasy warriors carry swords in dramatic ways, but this is a new one. If he were moving the weapon into position, surely at least one hand would be on the hilt.

The whole thing has the strange quality of an AI image prompt gone slightly wrong: “Anarion stands heroically with a sword over his shoulder,” except the generated image forgot to include the arm and hand doing the holding. What remains is a blade hovering in place, which is maybe preferable to six or seven fingers, but still not exactly reassuring.

I’m struggling to come up with another explanation. Perhaps Anarion has a tail, and that tail is gripping the sword by the tip just outside the frame. Maybe someone hurled it at him from behind, and we’re catching the split second before it smashes into his neck. If so, my money is on that dirty coward Kemen.

So what is happening with this bizarre floating sword in The Rings Of Power Season 3 image? Is it a magical blade that follows a few inches behind your neck at all times, turning every dinner party, council meeting and battlefield entrance into a deeply uncomfortable experience? Is it some Middle-earth variation on the Sword of Damocles, waiting to drop the moment poor Anarion questions the widely accepted Númenórean belief that the Sea is always right? And to be fair, the Sea is always right. It probably knows calculus and everything.

There may be a tempest in Galadriel, but Anarion has a magical hovering sword behind his neck. Ten points House Hufflepuff.

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