Done if by Hand or Hew if by Sword?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by alatar

Did Aragorn mean that the sword would not permit anyone's touch save one from his lineage, or did Aragorn mean to execute anyone that touched his sword?

Whichever, then the next question would be, why? Sure, I want to keep the kids out of my stuff, but if Aragorn meant the latter, why so severe a punishment?

I would say the latter, or at least that's how I read it. As for why, Aragorn seemed somehow upset in Théoden's house overall (maybe the several-day long run on the plains, his failure as the leader of the fellowship have fallen upon him all at once, so he focused also strongly on "okay, I screwed up everything, now I need to at least fulfil my destiny as the heir of Isildur!")... But I think the touchiness about the sword could have had something to do with the fact that the sword was connected to so many prophecies. Of course, nobody says Aragorn would really do it, I personally rather doubt (and I think every sane person would) that Aragorn would come out chopping the heads of Théoden's doormen, however, it was worth the threat in his opinion, to underline the importance of the sword to him. I guess we need to take this a bit metaphorically, come on - I don't think Aragorn would do anything to people touching it, if it came to that (he'd look at them nastily, probably), but he would certainly be enraged beyond imagination if he found that his sword has been stolen or that the guards somehow decided meanwhile to lock the travelers' weapons in the armory, just for "safety measures".