[The Saucepan Man]

Um, in a world where we have Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Dragons and walking talking trees, is it really too far-fetched to believe in talking swords?

The Barrow-Wights were dead creatures inhabited by houseless spirits. And I believe that Tolkien, in one of the HoME volumes, talks of disembodied spirits seeking to gain control over the bodies of the living.

Is it not possible that Eol learned the craft of infusing inanimate objects with houseless spirits? Or perhaps such a spirit simply decided to house itself in a sword of its own accord. Given that a spirit can exist independently of a physical body, there is no reason why it should necessarily require an organic body.

As for the Ring, it contained part of Sauron's will.

Given that telepathy was used in Middle-earth, in Elvish Osanwe for example, I see no reason why possessed objects should not be able to 'speak' even without the physical apparatus to do so.