Dumbing it down

[Neurion]

Originally Posted by Essex

3 of the above lines are exactly the same as the book. Why can't you take a leap of faith and have the sword as magic? Why couldn't it be the blade of numenour that was given to Merry by Galadriel (which was an obvious play on the blade of westernesse that he gets from Tom)? Just use a bit of lateral thinking and the scene will be OK for you.

You can't, in all honesty do that. Merry quite obviously uses the sword Theoden gives him at Edoras.