You Have My Sword, and My Bow, and My Axe

About

"You Have My Sword, and My Bow, and My Axe" is a memorable quote from the 2001 epic fantasy film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring uttered by characters Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Online, the quote has also been used as a bait-and-switch tactic and as an expandable snowclone format You Have My X, and My Y, and My Z.

Origin

On December 19th, 2001, the epic fantasy film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring premiered in the U.S.^[5] In the film, the characters Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli agree to assist the hobbits Frodo and Sam in their quest to deliver the Ring of Power to Mount Doom in order to destroy it. The characters offer their weapons in turn, pledging their allegiance (scene shown below).

- If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. You have my sword!
- And you have my bow!
- And my axe!

On June 6th, 2005, YTMND user zeronspoonx^[1] made the earliest known viral meme based on the quote. In the YTMND post, a flashing image macro of Gimli is set to "Heroes to Us" by Kalmah and captioned "And you shall have my axe!!!" The page received over 27,900 views in 16 years, maintaining an average score of 3.95.

Spread

On August 12th, 2005, YTMND^[2] user MutantHeadcrab posted a derivative of the meme, replacing the music with "Goodbye" by SR-71. The post received over 7,600 views in 16 years with an average score of 3.81.

On July 12th, 2007, an anonymous 4chan user made a post in which they promised to marry actress Evanna Lynch, finishing his post with the phrase "You have my word." In the thread, two other users replied with images of Legolas and Gimli, writing "And my bow" and "AND MY AXE!" On May 11th, 2011, Know Your Meme^[3] user Cyber6x archived a Demotivational Poster meme based on the screenshot of the thread (shown below).

On August 5th, 2007, an anonymous 4chan user started a thread by posting a Demotivational Poster of a man clutching a sword in his hands and writing "You have my sword." In the thread, which gained over 132 replies, users replied with "and my X" snowclone messages, supporting the set up (thread shown below). On July 25th, 2012, Know Your Meme^[4] user Trash Boat is (spoiler) W.W. archived a screenshot of the thread on the site.

In the following years, the quote maintained its popularity in memes, being used as a snowclone, as "And My Axe!" bait-and-switch punchline and in other ways.

Related Memes

And My Axe!

And My Axe! refers to a series of image macro and fan art featuring Gimli with an axe or other objects. The images have often been used as a bait-and-switch punchline, used to bomb the conversations in which consecutive replies start with "and X."

Related Memes

One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor

"One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor" is a memorable quote from the 2001 epic fantasy film Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring that originates from the same scene as "You Have My Sword, And My Bow, And My Axe." The phrase has seen frequent use in memes as "One Does Not Simply X" snowclone, particularly when paired with an image macro of Boromir.

Search Interest

External References