One of my favourite Legolas moments in the book was how he brought down a flying mount of a Nazgûl with a single arrow, in the middle of the night, completely nonchalantly. While the Fellowship was travelling down the Anduin, Legolas spotted a dark, winged creature approaching from the south. Armed with the bow gifted to him by Galadriel, he fired into the night sky and sent the creature crashing down near the eastern shore. Legolas couldn’t even identify what he had shot. When Gimli praised his shot, Legolas responded merely that he didn’t even know what he had hit. It was only in The Two Towers that Gandalf revealed he had killed the winged steed of a Nazgûl. The Ringwraith itself had survived. This event may have completely altered events had that Ringwraith continued pursuing them. Frodo would soon put on the One Ring to escape Boromir, while Merry and Pippin would fall into the hands of Orcs. Imagine a Nazgûl overhead during either encounter. (Art by Ralph Damiani)

I’ve always loved the meaning Tolkien gave to the names of Narsil and Andúril. Each derives from Quenya. Narsil comes from NAR, meaning “fire,” and THIL, meaning “white light.” Tolkien explained that these represented the Sun and Moon, the great lights opposed to darkness. When the broken sword is reforged in Rivendell, Aragorn names it Andúril, “Flame of the West,” from andúnë (“sunset” or “west”) and ril(brilliance or glittering light). West accordingly refers to Númenor. (Via Tolkien Gateway) The films change this, Narsil isn’t reforged until The Return of the King, when Elrond presents it to a more reluctant Aragorn at Dunharrow as Andúril. This removes Aragorn naming the sword himself, which I believe adds more meaning. Narsil belonged to his ancestors and carried their history. Once reforged, Aragorn gives it a new name before carrying it into his own story.