Famous Literary Swords: Sting

Sting
The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

As you can see, there are no Elvish markings when Bilbo first finds it.
These were added later by the elves at Rivendell.

Sting was lost around the same time as Glamdring, and in the same battle. Along with Glamdring, Sting was found in the troll hoard, where it was described as a blade that "would have made only a tiny pocket-knife for a troll, but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit". The sword glowed blue whenever orcs or goblins were near (a common property of blades forged in Gondolin).

The sword's gaining of a name is an historic occurrence. After killing a spider in Mirkwood "all alone by himself...without the help of the wizard or the dwarves", Bilbo felt "a different person, and much fiercer and bolder..."

...he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath. "I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall call you Sting."

Bilbo carried the weapon throughout the "incident with the dragon" and ended up giving Sting to his nephew Frodo, when the young hobbit was setting out to destroy the One Ring.
The sword seems to come in full circle, for it was on that same quest that Sam took up the sword to protect Frodo and kill the most dangerous and deadly of all spiders, Shelob.

"Let him go, you filth."

At the end of the Third Age Frodo gave the sword to Sam, and the sword became a Gamgee family heirloom.