Wow, Klingons came from Middle earth...who knew?
Anyway, really cool sword!
Now that you mention it, Thorin does look remarkably like Gowron.
Beautiful blade. Find it interesting they went single-edge with that instead of double.
Not a big fan of the single edge look...weren't Orcrist and Glamdring supposed to be almost twins?
Very similar blade etching to Sting (film) as well, that swooping loop is almost identical..
The text was added for Bilbo after they returned. so itd make since that this this is an UNtexted version as he just found it
Sting has its lettering from the get-go in the film, judging by the trailer.
EDIT: And UC has the license and will be producing replicas of Orcrist and all manner of other things. In addition, Orcrist's design is now meant to be more of a mate to Sting than Glamdring for the film, so said the Weta people.
Oh no, The new staff looks so much better in my opinion !