daggers.txt

For each of the hobbits he chose a dagger, long, leaf-shaped, and keen, of marvellous workmanship, 
damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold. They gleamed as he drew them from their black sheaths, 
wrought of some strange metal, light and strong, and set with many fiery stones. 
Whether by some virtue in these sheaths or because of the spell that lay on the mound, 
the blades seemed untouched by time, unrusted, sharp, glittering in the sun.

'Old knives are long enough as swords for hobbit-people,' he said. 
'Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go walking, east, south, or far away into dark and danger.' 

Then he told them that these blades were forged many long years ago by Men of Westernesse: they were foes of the Dark Lord, 
but they were overcome by the evil king of Carn Dûm in the Land of Angmar.

- The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 8