[doug*platypus]

I don't know much about how Rune Magic is shown in books, or in mythologies, except for in The Death Gate Cycle. In these books, a bunch of people called Patryns have sigla (more than one sigil) all over their body, intertwined with each other. The Patryns activate these and use them for magic, while another group called Sartans writes sigla (or runes) in the air.

So, if you've seen a few too many cartoons or comic books, like me, you might imagine the runes on Glamdring or Andúril glowing blue and flying around the room in the middle of a fight, giving power to the wielder and scaring the bejeebas out of the poor wee Orcs.

There's also the "cool factor" from the runes, like when Aragorn leaves Andúril with Háma. A sword like Andúril has so many impressive looking runes on it and its scabbard, that it's obvious that it and its owner are something special. Not every sword would have been so heavily inscripted.

That phrase about Sting sounds very familiar! Is it really only from the movies? It sounds like a very Bilbo Baggins thing to write.