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Originally Posted by Pitchwife
Good point about curses and spells not being 'context-sensitive', Legate. As for Ohtar - well, Aragorn's precise words were Death shall come to any man that draws Elendil's sword, so I'd suppose Ohtar was safe as long as he kept the shards sheathed or wrapped up. As a loyal Numenorean and kinsman of Isildur, he would have handled them with the utmost respect and caution.
I still favour the magic protection hypothesis, but it occurs to me Aragorn may have had another good reason for his stubborn reluctance to part with the sword. Théoden was at that time still under Wormtongue's (and thereby Saruman's) influence, and up to his healing by Gandalf, Rohan's position in the coming war would have been open to some doubt. Remember the rumour at the Council of Elrond that the Rohirrim were paying tribute in horses to Mordor. Boromir vehemently denied this, but later, when the Three Hunters met Éomer's éored, Aragorn still felt it necessary to ask whether they were friend or foe of Sauron.
Gandalf obviously knew all the time that Wormtongue was working for Saruman; it isn't mentioned whether he told Aragorn as much, but Aragorn may have done some guessing of his own and decided that it might be better not to leave Andúril out of his sight and reach.
His caution certainly wasn't unwarranted. Later in the same chapter, Háma reveals that Wormtongue was not only a traitor, but also a petty thief:
Surely Saruman would have loved to get the Blade That Was Broken into his hands - another nice trophy to keep with the Elendilmir and the chain on which Isildur had worn the Ring.
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beyond this, The blade was pretty much the Heir's token, the symbol by which the Heir and Future King could be recognized as such. I would very much doubt that there were many amoung the people of ME (and still fewer amoung the men) who, given the time that had passed would be able to recognize kinship to the Kingly line in Aragorn just on the basis of his face (even assuning there was anyone around at tha ttime who knew waht Isiuldur had looked like, or where an accurate portrait of him was to be found) If somone had walked aweay with Anduril, there would have been a very real possilbity that they could claim to be Isiuldur heir and many men would gather to him, on top of all his other troubles, Aragorn could have wound up having to deal with a contender to the throne, and one who would likey be commanding a large force. I doubt the rangers (who presumaby knew Aragorn as the heir from the day he was born) on thier own could have stood up to all of the other peoples of ME, seperately or collectively.