Second Age

The Second Age is the second of the great ages of the history of Middle-earth in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, spanning the long span of years between the overthrow of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, at the end of the First Age and the first defeat of Sauron at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. It is the age of the rise of the island kingdom of Númenor, the forging of the Rings of Power, and the first great wars against Sauron.

The events of the Second Age form the essential backstory of The Lord of the Rings, for it was in this age that the One Ring was made and the long history of its peril began.

Major events

After the fall of Morgoth, his servant Sauron arose as the new Dark Lord. In the middle years of the age, he came in fair disguise to the Elven-smiths of Eregion and helped them forge the Rings of Power, while secretly making the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom to rule them all. When his treachery was revealed, war broke out between Sauron and the Elves.

The age is also the time of the glory and fall of Númenor, the great island realm granted to the Men who had aided the Elves in the First Age. The Númenóreans grew mighty but were corrupted in the end by Sauron, whom they had taken captive; he turned them against the Valar, and in their pride they assailed the Undying Lands. For this the world was changed and Númenor was drowned beneath the Sea. The faithful survivors, led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion, escaped to Middle-earth and founded the realms of Gondor and Arnor.

End of the age

The Second Age ended with the War of the Last Alliance, in which the Elves and the Men of Gondor and Arnor united against Sauron. Though Elendil and the Elven-king Gil-galad were slain, Sauron was defeated, and Isildur cut the One Ring from his hand. Sauron's spirit fled, and the age came to a close, but because the Ring was not destroyed, his eventual return was assured.

Significance

The Second Age establishes nearly all the deep history that shadows The Lord of the Rings: the making of the Rings of Power and the One Ring, the founding of Gondor and Arnor, the line of kings from which Aragorn descends, and the unfinished defeat of Sauron that leaves the Third Age forever under threat.