How did Túrin's sword speak?

Question

At the end of the tragic tale of Túrin Turambar, as told in The Silmarillion, Túrin goes alone to the high point of Cabed-en-Aras above the river Teiglin, and there calls to his sword Gurthang.

There he drew forth his sword, that now alone remained to him of all his possessions, and he said, 'Hail Gurthang! No lord or loyalty dost thou know, save the hand that weildeth thee. From no blood wilt thou shrink. Wilt thou therefore take Túrin Turambar, wilt thou slay me swiftly?'

And from the blade rang a cold voice in answer: 'Yea, I will drink thy blood gladly, that so I may forget the blood of Beleg my master, and of Brandir slain unjustly. I will slay thee swiftly.'

Then Túrin set the hilts upon the ground, and cast himself upon the point of Gurthang, and the black blade took his life.

...

Then they lifted up Túrin, and found that Gurthang had broken asunder.

Nowhere else in the legendarium, as far as I know, does a sword speak, nor is any explanation offered for how Gurthang did so.

Answer 1

You have to remember the literary genre. Quenta Silmarillion is presented as a collection of legends and stories, collected many years after the events concerned. It is not a novel, and is not written as one. It is the legends and stories of the Elves, though also containing accounts of some of the notable Atani, such as Túrin. As such, only those stories known to the Elves of Middle-earth are told. For example, we are told little of what passed in Valinor after the exile of the Noldor, nor do we know the final fate of Maglor.

How then, can we know the details of the passing of Túrin and Gurthang, since they were alone at the time? We can't, of course. The detail of the sword speaking is a literary flourish, added as the story passed down the generations, because it seemed fitting. A talking sword taking the life of its owner ("master of doom by doom mastered") is properly the stuff of legends, and so it is included in this legend.

What makes this legendary is not the likelihood or otherwise of the tale, but the way it is told, the high remote language, and the overall structure of the story. The plot of The Lord of the Rings is the stuff of legends, but that novel is not itself legendary in style. The dialogue is natural; the characters are shown intimately. The reader is made to feel close to the tale. The Silmarillion has a very different feel to it. The events happened long ago, in a different Age of the world, in fact, in a world which in many ways no longer exists, for it has changed so much in the interim.

To think that Gurthang actually spoke is to make a mistake in the understanding of literary genre; the same mistake that people make when they think Genesis says the world was created in 144 hours.

Answer 2

Tolkien's works took inspiration from many different mythologies and epics, including the Finnish epic Kalevala. Túrin's character in particular was inspired by the character Kullervo from Kalevala. Túrin and Kullervo's stories share many similarities; they're both raised at some point of their childhood by someone else than their biological parents. After either an accident or causing intentional harm, they run away from those who raised them. Eventually, after a life filled with misfortune, some of which they brought upon themselves by violent deeds, they meet a girl who is their sister whom they'd never met before. They fall in love with the girl and have sex with them. When it is revealed that they're siblings, the girl commits suicide by jumping into a river.

Then Kullervo/Túrin comes to the place where his sister jumped into the river, and chooses to commit suicide by throwing himself upon his sword. These scenes are extremely similar in Kalevala and Silmarillion. Here is a link to an English translation of Kullervo's death scene: https://glaemscrafu.jrrvf.com/english/kullervo.html I suggest you read it to see for yourself the similarities between this and Túrin's death in Silmarillion.

I cannot offer a definitive in-universe explanation as to why Gurthang speaks if that is what you were asking, but the reason Tolkien chose to make it speak in that scene was that he was basing the scene on the one in Kalevala.

Answer 3

Turin's sword Gurthang uses Ósanwe, the interchange of thought, which, as described in the Ósanwe-kenta, requires neither lung nor tongue -- structures biological entities use to produce audible speech and which swords don't posses -- as long as all participants involved give their consent. It's dramatized in The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter 6 "Many Partings."