Burning Iron by Lferion  

Burning Iron

Tales say that iron burns the flesh of elves. Those tales are not correct. Iron burns in the hands of Elves: Burns with blue-bright flame wrought as steel, with edges sharp, points keen, shafts sturdy, hilts bound round with wire gripping fast and firm. To elves (and Men, Dwarves, Hobbits, that incandescent metal is quite cool, affords no harm to flesh, not by means of fire, though points and edges are no less hazard. No, that iron fire is scorching signal of Angband's evil, of Morgoth's warped and brittle, breaking song imbued in the engendering, crafting, assembling of his constructs.

One of the secrets - only one, of several - is in the charcoal that is used to make the weapon-steel from iron. The charcoal must be made from oak, ash, and elder, with a generous layering of iron-hard and fennel. Of oak, wood and galls are used, of ash, wood and keys. Iron-hard, also called Bluet, provides the base for the blue and the sharpness of the warding glow, the umbelliferous fennel provides a key to the perceptive, warning and warding element. (And as with the iron, the herbs are used by, not against, the Elves. But such is the Marring.)