I own nothing.
The twin sons of Eärendil and Elwing are left to decide what becomes of the heirlooms of their house in the twenty-eighth year of the Second Age of the Sun. Everything left behind by Tuor goes to Elros—that is easily enough decided, for Elros has chosen the path of Men, and the Men of Elenna remember Tuor as being mighty among Men. It is only meet and fitting that his grandson, their first King, should have them.
Everything has been divided between the two brothers, except for two swords which they found amongst the heirlooms of their house—Aranrúth, and Hadhafang. Those swords sit on the table that divides the brothers, and they stare down at them, unsure quite of what to say to each other.
"…How's Sírien?" Elrond asks, wanting for anything to break the silence and avoid seeing that even in the brief years its been since they last laid eyes on each other, Elros has changed mightily, speeding along towards death, it seems. He wants anything but to have to look at that.
Elros shrugs, smiles briefly. "She's fine. Talking about wanting children. I said that maybe we should wait until everyone's settled on Elenna. She really doesn't like sailing," he confides with a grimace.
"Then don't do a whole lot of sailing."
"I know. How are you? How's life under Gil-Galad?"
"Fine."
Silence falls between them again, and they look at each other, down at the swords, and back at each other.
Finally, Elros chooses to break the silence, flicking his eyes from Aranrúth to Elrond. "Do you want it?" he asks quietly.
Elrond's right eyebrow shoots up, and he stares at his brother. "What?"
Elros looks distinctly uncomfortable, shifting his weight from left to right foot. "Do you want to take Aranrúth, Elrond? We agreed that one of us would take one sword, and the other would take the other one, and you are older than me," he points out, and Elrond resists the urge to squeeze his eyes tightly shut, knowing now what Elros means.
They are the twin heirs of Doriath and Gondolin through Elwing and Idril, the previous owners of these two swords—though it's anyone's guess as to whether tiny Elwing was even able to lift Aranrúth, let alone use it. However, Elros is the younger twin, and has moreover chosen the Doom of Men, leaving Elrond as the only heir to both of the empty thrones, the thrones of the Gondolindrim and the Sindarin people. Aranrúth is the symbol of the High King of the Sindar, when held by an Elf, and Elros, being the younger brother, is deferring to him on whether or not he wants it.
These thoughts digested and dissected, Elrond shakes his head violently. "No. I'll take Hadhafang; you take Aranrúth."
Now instead of looking uncomfortable, Elros looks decidedly surprised. "Really?"
"Yes, really," Elrond all but snaps back at him. "Look at it, Elros." He gestures at Aranrúth, which is a massive, cruciform long sword nearly longer than the table it sits on with a cross-guard more than a foot across—Thingol must have been huge to wield it, for Aranrúth's no ceremonial prop. "And look at Hadhafang." Which by comparison is a gently curved, lightweight backsword with no cross-guard and gold filigree on the hilt. "You know how these Men are—"
"Elrond, I'm a Man," Elros points out, slightly annoyed and uncomfortable again, but Elrond ignores him.
"—if you go around with a sword made for a nís they'll never let you live it down, even if it did belong to the Queen of the Gondolindrim. Hadhafang could have been wielded by the Lady Haleth herself and they'd still mock you. Whereas Aranrúth is the sword of a King." Elrond smiles gently at his brother, drawing the sheathed Aranrúth from the table and holding it out to Elros. "Well-fit for the King of Elenna."
He doesn't want Aranrúth. Claiming the sword that belonged to Thingol, Dior and Elwing, all rulers of the Sindar in their own time, is far too akin to claiming that throne for Elrond's liking, and there are plenty of Elves in Middle-Earth who are going to get the wrong idea if he claims Aranrúth for his own. Elrond has no desire to be King of anything, and has no intention of doing anything that could give someone the impression that he does.
There's also the matter of it having been Elwing's sword. The longer Elrond is alive, the less sure he is that he wants anything that belonged to Elwing. He likes to think that any anger he's felt towards his mother has cooled, and for the most part, it has. But in the same moment that he asserts that, he also finds that he while he still loves his mother, he will never be able to remember Elwing without remembering that she also chose death to keep her Silmaril over life to keep her children, so perhaps he hasn't moved past it as much as he supposes. Elrond doesn't want Elwing's sword. He has her blood, and that is all he wants from his mother—and sometimes, he's not sure if he even wants that from her.
But while Elrond hardly feels any less ambivalent towards Eärendil, who also chose a Silmaril over his children, and moreover valued finding Aman over the safety of his sons, Hadhafang is not Eärendil's sword. It was only ever wielded by Idril, Queen of the Gondolindrim after her father, Eärendil's mother and Elrond and Elros's grandmother. Elrond remembers the stories told to him about Idril by his foster-father; he remembers them well. True, having Idril's sword could give certain Elves the wrong impression just as much as Aranrúth could, but there are less survivors of Gondolin than there are Sindarin Elves on Middle-Earth, and Gondolin has sank beneath the waves.
Elrond finds that he likes it. He likes Hadhafang's gently curved shape. He likes that it is lightweight and easy to use both two and one-handed, but still strong and keen. He likes that it is beautiful, for though Elrond is no hoarder of jewels and other precious items, he appreciates beauty. He likes the fact that it looks like a blade an Elf would wield, more so than does Aranrúth.
Most of all, Elrond likes Hadhafang because it doesn't leave him feeling weighed down by the past.
Note #1: Hadhafang is not a canonical sword. It was created for the Jackson LoTR movie trilogy, where it is said to have been made for Idril, and later wielded by Elrond; it's the sword Arwen's seen drawing in FoTR at the ford. However, I like the idea of Idril having a sword (And of her maybe giving Maeglin a good few whacks with it during the Fall of Gondolin). And the image of Elrond carrying his grandmother's sword around without a care in the world is oddly sweet.
Note #2: My suspicion is that Elrond and Elros never found out that their mother didn't actually die when she jumped into the sea with her Silmaril, or at least that Elros never did and Elrond didn't find out until Glorfindel came back to Middle-Earth. Eärendil could have told them, but I don't envision the twins and their father having any contact during the War of Wrath—they assume that she's dead, don't bother to ask about her whereabouts, and no one (until Glorfindel) ever thinks to tell or even knows to tell them otherwise. And yeah, I feel that in SA 28, Elrond's probably still pretty bitter towards both of his parents, wondering what could have been had they been there, even if he doesn't want to admit it—he does get over it eventually.
Elenna—an early Quenya name for Númenor, meaning 'Starwards'; my guess is that they didn't start calling it Númenor until SA 32, when Elros is supposed to have officially taken the throne.