When reading the Sil today, I encountered this passage:
Thorin was relatively unarmed at the outset of The Hobbit, so taking on Orcrist at the time makes sense...but why would Thorin choose to keep Orcrist, an Elf-made blade from the first age, when his own people possessed greater craft in the matter once he arrived at the Lonely Mountain? History.J.R.R. Tolkien, in [i]The Silmarillion[/i], Chapter 10: Of the Sindar, regarding the Dwarves, wrote:Their smithcraft indeed the Sindar soon learned of them; yet in the tempering of steel alone of all crafts the dwarves were never outmatched even by the Noldor, and in the making of mail of linked rings, which was first contrived by the smiths of Belegost, their work had no rival.
Thorin, though portrayed as such in The Hobbit film, was not as anti-elf as we are led to believe. He may have had a personal beef with Thranduil, but we never see such an argument between the two of them; the Dwarves are jailed essentially for trespassing. Holding onto Orcrist was, I feel, a respectful nod to the unifying hatred for Orcs among free folk.J.R.R. Tolkien, in [i]The Hobbit[/i], Chapter III: A short Rest, wrote:'This, Thorin, the runes name Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver in the ancient tongue of Gondolin; it was a famous blade.' -Elrond
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'Thorin Pondered these words. "I will keep this sword in honour," he said. "May it soon cleave goblins once again!" -Thorin