Horn of Gondor

The Horn of Gondor is the great war-horn carried by Boromir, son of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, in The Lord of the Rings. It is an ancestral heirloom of the Stewards' house, a horn of the wild ox of the far north, bound with silver and graven with ancient devices. By tradition, the heir of the house of the Stewards bore it, and its deep voice was a call for aid that, in older days, was always answered within the bounds of the realm of Gondor.

The horn is closely bound to the character and fate of Boromir, and its sounding marks one of the most poignant moments in the tale.

Description

The Horn of Gondor was a mighty horn, cloven from the horn of one of the great wild kine that roamed the lands of the north in elder days. It was tipped and bound with silver and inscribed with old letters. Boromir declared that whenever it was blown at need within the ancient borders of Gondor, it would not go unheeded. He winds it boldly as the Fellowship of the Ring sets out, despite the counsel of others to go in secret.

In the narrative

At the breaking of the Fellowship of the Ring at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring and into The Two Towers, Boromir sounds the horn as he is beset by a host of Orcs while defending the hobbits Pippin and Merry. He is slain by many arrows, and the hobbits are taken captive. The sound of the horn carries far, and Aragorn hears it and races to his side, finding Boromir dying.

Later, the horn is found cloven in two, washed up on the shores below, and the cloven halves come at last to Denethor in Minas Tirith, a grievous sign to the Steward of the loss of his son.

Significance

The Horn of Gondor symbolizes the proud and martial tradition of Gondor and the valor of Boromir, whose last stand redeems his earlier failure when he was tempted by the One Ring. Its cloven remains, borne back to Denethor, deepen the Steward's despair and foreshadow the dark course of his end, weaving the horn into the larger tragedy of the house of the Stewards.