I'm a bit confused--are you talking about the last paragraph of "A Knife in the Dark?"
What's confusing you regarding the sword? He only drops it once and doesn't pick it up again:
"At that moment Frodo threw himself forward on the ground, and he heard himself crying aloud: O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! At the same time he struck at the feet of his enemy. A shrill cry rang out in the night; and he felt a pain like a dart of poisoned ice pierce his left shoulder. Even as he swooned he caught, as through a swirling mist, a glimpse of Strider leaping out of the darkness with a flaming brand of wood in either hand. With a last effort, dropping his sword, Frodo slipped the Ring from his finger and closed his right hand tight upon it."
Are you referring to something in the next chapter?
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"Art is our way of keeping track of what we know and have known, secretly, from the beginning."--John Gardner
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