Last Alliance

The Last Alliance of Elves and Men was the great coalition formed at the end of the Second Age of Middle-earth to make war upon Sauron, the Dark Lord, and to cast down his power. It was the mightiest host of the Elder Days, the last time that the kindreds of Elves and Men stood together in such numbers and to such effect, and from it the alliance took its name. Its great campaign culminated in the defeat of Sauron and the cutting of the One Ring from his hand -- though the victory was incomplete, for the Ring was not destroyed.

Formation

By the close of the Second Age, Sauron had rebuilt his strength in Mordor and assailed the western lands, destroying among other things the realm and tree of Gondor's neighbors and threatening all the free peoples. In answer, Gil-galad, the High King of the Noldor and last of the great Elven kings of Middle-earth, joined with Elendil, the High King of the Dúnedain who had escaped the drowning of Númenor and founded the realms of Gondor and Arnor. Together they forged the Last Alliance and marshaled a vast host of Elves and Men, marching east against Mordor.

The War

The Alliance defeated Sauron's forces at the great Battle of Dagorlad before the gates of Mordor, then laid siege to his dark tower of Barad-dûr for seven long years. At the last, Sauron himself came forth to do battle on the slopes of Mount Doom. In that final combat both Elven and mortal kings fell: Gil-galad was destroyed by Sauron's heat, and Elendil was slain, his great sword Narsil broken beneath him.

But Sauron was overthrown. Isildur, Elendil's son, took up the hilt-shard of his father's broken sword and cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, and the Dark Lord's spirit fled, his bodily form destroyed.

Aftermath

The victory was flawed by a single fateful choice. Isildur took the One Ring for his own rather than casting it into the fires of Mount Doom, where it might have been destroyed and Sauron ended forever. The Ring was thus preserved, and with it Sauron's power to one day return. Isildur was soon slain at the Disaster of the Gladden Fields, and the Ring was lost in the river Anduin for long ages -- setting the stage for the War of the Ring thousands of years later.

Significance

The Last Alliance was the high point of the union of Elves and Men, and its victory ended the open dominion of Sauron for an age. Yet because the Ring survived, the triumph proved only a reprieve. The failure to destroy it when the chance was given became the central lesson and burden carried into the Third Age.