Det här svaras delvis i boken själv, först och främst i den ursprungliga beskrivningen av trollens lair:
There were bones on the floor and a nasty smell was in the air; but there was a good deal of food jumbled carelessly on shelves and on the ground, among an untidy litter of plunder, of all sorts from brass buttons to pots full of gold coins standing in a corner. There were lots of clothes, too, hanging on the walls-too small for trolls, I am afraid they belonged to victims - and among them were several swords of various makes, shapes, and sizes. Two caught their eyes particularly, because of their beautiful scabbards and jewelled hilts.
För det andra när Elrond undersöker svärdet:
That day he looked at the swords they had brought from the trolls' lair, and he said: "These are not troll-make. They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the West, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin-wars. They must have come from a dragon's hoard or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago."
Så medan det definitivt finns ett mycket stort gap i historien om särskilt svärdet, verkar det tydligt att mycket av skatten kommer från trollens offer, och kompletteras med saker på något sätt erhållna från "en drakens hov eller plundring "(men Tolkien säger aldrig klart hur eller när detta hände).