Enchantment or advancement.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Eönwë raises an interesting point about mass production. I would like to look into this a little.

Mordor and Angband mass produce weaponry, armour and soldiers for the wars. How do the elves and men answer this? With enchanted weapons, one-of-a-kinds and heroes, the like of whom may never be seen again. Both are things of war, but I do think they are different views of war.

Sauron and Melkor in their mass production and floods of soldiers represent the basic destructive nature of war. The Dragons breathe fire, laying waste to the lands, the Balrogs go around- um- Balroging. Orcs hack down trees, not always to feed the fires of Isenguard or anything. All the destructive and horrific side of war.

The elves, with their enchanted weapons and special captains, represent a more heroic side of war. The valour and bravery, the fight against evil, you might say. A very idyllic view, as has been argues in other threads, but I think Tolkien is trying to look at things in two different ways and he is perfectly entitled to.

Perhaps Tolkien saw the mechanised way of producing weaponry (especially) as focussing too much on destruction. The less work that goes into the creation of something, the easier it may be to use it to destroy. Perhaps.

That's not to say swords like Anduril were not used for killing. They were. But there is something about those thousands of crude blades dropping off the production lines that makes it seem like killing is only a small matter.

In some cases, enchantment requires something of the self to go into the object. As has been discussed. If Anduril has something of Aragon within it, along with Isildur and Elendil, it may make the killing process a much more personal thing. Whereas with the blade off the production line, it may seem more functional.

I don't know... Maybe?