When Smaug the fearsome comes pummeling down from the mountains, leaving a trail of fire and destruction wherever he goes, the people of Lake Town are in terrible trouble. Everyone is panicking, The Master andhis servant Alfridare fleeing with no regard to anyone else, no one knows what to do about the flaming beast raging above, and there seems no hope that any of them will survive the night. That is until Bard ventures out onto the rooftops wielding the Black Arrow, and shoots the reptile right out of the sky in a burst of smoke and leathery wings.
But what is it about this Black Arrow that makes it so special, and why is it the key to destroying Smaug? Talking purely visually, it is easy to see in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations ofthe original book, that the Black Arrow is not like the other arrows that have been fired at the dragon and twanged harmlessly from his scaly skin without leaving a scratch. It is much larger and sturdier, and seems to be made of a solid, wrought black iron. Rather than the thinner and lighter shafts of the other archers. It’s fletches too, seem to be made of a thicker, perhaps metallic substance, rather than the typical feathers that are used. Just from looking at its construction, it is a formidable weapon.
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But more importantly than that is where it was made, and who it is wielded by. Any great weapon can fail if put into the hands of one who is not worthy to use it. This is a big message in bothThe Hobbitand theLord of the Rings, and can be seen in several important swords, includingBeater and Biter, the goblin swords, the shards of Narsil which is reforged and wielded by Aragorn, and of course the One Ring, who has only one master capable of wielding it, andbetrays all othersin order to return to him. The Black Arrow of Lake Town is of a similar ilk, having been made for just such a purpose of slaying dragons, andhanded down through generations. It is no accident that Bard is the one to kill the dragon, and it is no surprise that he only entrusts his son, his blood, to keep the weapon safe.
When he points the device at Smaug in the book, he states “Black Arrow! You have never failed me, and always I have recovered you. I had you from my father, and he from of old. If ever you came from the forges of the true king under the mountain, go now and speed well!” And it does just this, it locks onto its target, pinpointing the exact location of Smaug’s missing scale, and ‘In it smote and vanished, barb, shaft and feather, so fierce was its flight.’
Of course, in the movie versions, this goes a little differently, with Bard’s bow having been burnt to a crisp, and him having to use the shoulder of his son Bane to guide the arrow to its mark. It still hits exactly where it is supposed to however, and makes for an even more dramatic and tense scene because of it. But what is important in this context is that the arrow was ‘from the forges of the trueking under the mountain’.
This means that the arrow was made in Erebor, possibly by Thorin’s father or grandfather, because they knew that they were digging too deep, and they knew that the hoards of gold they were amassing had the possibility of luring a dragon. It is unknown exactly how many of these black arrows were made for this purpose, and whether some were gifted to the men of Dale in order for them to protect themselves, or whether one was found in the ruins of the city by one of Bard’s forefathers, and then kept safe in case it was ever needed again.
In the films it is explained that ‘only a black arrow, fired from a dwarvish wind lance could pierce its hide’ and that Girion, the leader of Dale had used up the only store of these arrows in trying to defeat Smaug when he first arrived. This is how he lost his scale in the first place, creating the opening for Bard to use years later, with the only remaining arrow.
Thus, Bard is the first human to kill a dragon without a dwarvish wind-lance, and is heralded as a hero among his people. He also in turns saves the dwarves lives, and earns a right to some of the treasure of Erebor to help him rebuild homes for his suffering people. Of course, this doesn’t come easily whenThorin is taken by the dragon sickness, but all reparation is paid in due time, when Dane becomes king under the mountain after Thorin, Fili and Kili are all killed in the Battle of The Five Armies.
