Isildur

Isildur

High King of Gondor and Arnor; Lord of Minas Ithil

House / Order	House of Elendil; the Dúnedain
Race / Culture
Status	Deceased
Origin	Gondor; Arnor; formerly Númenor
Born	Second Age 3209
Died	Second Age 3441 (slain Third Age 2)
Weapon	The sword Narsil (broken); a great spear
Fate	Slain by Orcs at the Gladden Fields when the One Ring betrayed him
Portrayed by

This I will have as weregild for my father, and my brother.

Isildur was a lord of the Dúnedain, elder son of Elendil the Tall, and, with his brother Anárion, a founder and king of the realms of Gondor and Arnor in exile after the Downfall of Númenor. He is remembered above all as the man who cut the One Ring from the hand of Sauron at the end of the Second Age, and who then, fatally, kept it for himself rather than destroying it.

Background

Isildur was born in Númenor in the line of Elros, the first King of Númenor, and was the elder son of Elendil. In the days when the Númenóreans fell under the sway of Sauron and turned against the Valar, Isildur's family, the Faithful, remained loyal to the old friendship with the Elves and the Valar. In a celebrated deed, Isildur braved the guarded courts of the King to steal a fruit of the White Tree, Nimloth, before it was cut down and burned, preserving its line; he was wounded in the attempt but escaped, and the sapling he saved became the White Tree of Gondor.

The founding of the realms in exile

When Númenor was drowned in the cataclysm of the Downfall, Elendil, Isildur, and Anárion were borne east on the waves to the shores of Middle-earth with the surviving Faithful. There they founded the Dúnedain realms in exile: Arnor in the north under Elendil, and Gondor in the south, ruled jointly by the brothers Isildur and Anárion. Isildur established the city of Minas Ithil beneath the Mountains of Shadow, while Anárion held Minas Anor.

The Last Alliance

When Sauron arose again and made war, Elendil joined with the Elven-king Gil-galad to form the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. After years of war and a long siege of Sauron's fortress of Barad-dûr, Elendil and Gil-galad together overthrew Sauron in single combat on the slopes of Mount Doom, but both were slain, and Elendil's sword Narsil broke beneath him as he fell. Isildur took up the hilt-shard of his father's broken sword and with it cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, casting down the Dark Lord and ending the war.

The Ring and the Gladden Fields

Elrond and Círdan counseled Isildur to cast the Ring at once into the fires of Mount Doom where it had been forged, the only place it could be unmade. But Isildur refused, claiming it as weregild for the deaths of his father and brother, and keeping it as an heirloom of his house. The Ring had already begun to ensnare him.

Two years later, journeying north to Rivendell and Arnor, Isildur and his guard were ambushed by Orcs at the Gladden Fields beside the Great River. Overwhelmed, Isildur put on the Ring to escape by invisibility and fled into the river, but the Ring slipped treacherously from his finger in the water, and Orc archers spied and slew him. Thus the One Ring passed out of knowledge into the depths of the Anduin, where in time it was found by Déagol and taken by Gollum.

Legacy

The broken sword Narsil was preserved through the long generations of Isildur's heirs, the Chieftains of the Dúnedain, until it was reforged as Andúril for his distant descendant Aragorn, who claimed the crown of Gondor and Arnor that Isildur had founded. The failure of Isildur to destroy the Ring became a long shadow over the history of Middle-earth, undone at last only in the War of the Ring.

Character

Isildur is a figure of both valor and tragic weakness. Brave, loyal, and noble in the saving of the White Tree and the cutting of the Ring, he is also the archetype of the strong man undone by the Ring's seduction, his single refusal to destroy it echoing down three thousand years.

In the films

In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films, Isildur is portrayed by Harry Sinclair, appearing in the prologue cutting the Ring from Sauron's hand and later refusing to destroy it.

Appearances

• The Silmarillion (Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age)
• The Fellowship of the Ring (mentioned and in history)
• Unfinished Tales (The Disaster of the Gladden Fields)