Everything about Isildur totally explained
Isildur is a fictional character in
J. R. R. Tolkien's
legendarium. He appears in the author's books
The Lord of the Rings,
The Silmarillion and
Unfinished Tales.
He was first mentioned in
The Fellowship of the Ring as a
Dúnadan of
Númenor, elder son of
Elendil. His full character history was detailed in
The Silmarillion and
Unfinished Tales. He was (briefly) the second king of
Gondor and
Arnor. His name means "devoted to the
moon". In a note written well after the initial publication of
The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien gave Isildur's height as 7 feet tall.
Biography
As detailed in the appendices of
The Return of the King, Isildur was born in the year 3209 of the
Second Age in Númenor, the first son of
Elendil son of
Amandil, the last Lord of
Andúnië. He had a younger brother,
Anárion. Isildur had four sons:
Elendur,
Aratan,
Ciryon, and
Valandil.
In Isildur's youth, Númenor's King
Ar-Pharazôn was corrupted by
Sauron, who urged the
White Tree to be cut down. Isildur went to the courts of the king in disguise and stole a fruit of
Nimloth, though the guards were alerted and he was severely wounded in his escape. He lay near death for a time but his sacrifice wasn't in vain, as Nimloth was cut down and burned shortly afterwards, and Isildur's deed continued the line of the White Tree.
The Silmarillion explains that Isildur, together with his father and brother, fled when
Númenor was destroyed by
Ilúvatar. Isildur and Anárion landed in the south and established the realm of
Gondor, and their father landed in the north, founding the realm of Arnor.
Isildur settled on the east bank of the
Anduin and established the city of
Minas Ithil (which would later be named
Minas Morgul), as well as the province of
Ithilien and setting his throne alongside his brother
Anárion in the city of
Osgiliath. However, in 3428
Sauron captured Minas Ithil and destroyed the White Tree. Isildur and his family escaped down the Anduin by boat, bearing with them a seedling of the tree. They sailed to
Lindon, seeking the
Elven High King
Gil-galad and his father in Arnor. Meanwhile, Anárion managed to buy time for Gondor by defending Osgiliath and driving the Dark Lord back to the mountains, while Elendil and Gil-galad marshalled their forces.
As told in
The Fellowship of the Ring, he returned with his father and Gil-galad in the
Last Alliance of Elves and Men in 3434. After the Alliance was victorious over Sauron's host at the
Battle of Dagorlad, they advanced into
Mordor and laid siege to
Barad-dûr. With
Minas Ithil recaptured, Isildur sent his younger sons Aratan and Ciryon to man that fortress, which would prevent Sauron and his forces from escaping that way. Isildur was accompanied throughout the war by his oldest son Elendur. The campaign in Mordor was long and bitter, and
Anárion was slain by a stone from the Dark Tower.
After seven years of besieging the Dark Tower, the enemy was all but defeated and Sauron appeared to challenge the king. During the final battle on the slopes of
Mount Doom, Elendil and Gil-galad were both slain in combat with the Dark Lord. Isildur took the hilt-shard of his father's sword
Narsil, which had broken beneath Elendil when he fell, and cut the
One Ring from Sauron's finger. This caused Sauron to die but later regenerated in his fortress in Mirkwood.
Despite the urging of
Elrond and
Círdan, lieutenants of Gil-galad, Isildur didn't throw the Ring into the fires of
Mount Doom, instead claiming it as an heirloom for his House, and as
weregild for the deaths of his father and brother.
After the fall of Sauron, the greater part of the army of Arnor returned home while Isildur stayed in Gondor for a year, restoring order and defining its bounds. He planted the seedling of the White Tree in Minas Anor in memory of Anárion. As his brother's helm had been crushed during his death at
Barad-dûr, Isildur left his helm from the overthrow of Sauron as the replacement for Gondor's crown. He placed Anárion's son
Meneldil in charge of Gondor, and returned north to
Arnor with his three sons. His wife and fourth son Valandil had stayed behind in
Rivendell throughout the War of the Last Alliance and the aftermath, and Isildur also sought further counsel from Elrond.
Death
At the
Gladden Fields, Isildur's party was ambushed by roaming
Orcs of the
Misty Mountains.
Tolkien wrote two differing accounts of the battle leading to Isildur's end:
The Silmarillion, which is told from the point of the view of the Eldar, states that Isildur had set no guard in his camp at night, deeming all his foes had been overthrown, and was attacked there.
In
Unfinished Tales, Tolkien writes that Isildur was ambushed by Orcs while travelling:
Isildur departed Minas Anor with a party of around 200 soldiers. His men had to march as they supposedly had around ten horses, mainly as beasts of burden and not for riding. They had two dozen archers who were armed with the deadly
Númenórean steel bows but their numbers were too few to be effective.
Fatefully, he chose to travel the route along the Anduin, instead of the safer if longer
North-South road. Sauron had deployed an army of Orcs East of the Misty Mountains, however, to attack any stragglers of the
Last Alliance. The Orcs didn't show themselves when the full armies of the Elves and Men passed by, but they were easily more than a match for a company.
Isildur was assailed during sunset, and though the first Orc sortie were beaten off, they regrouped and surrounded Isildur's party to prevent his escape. When nightfall came, the Orcs assaulted him from all sides.
The
Dúnedain were surrounded and outnumbered, and with Ciryon slain and Aratan mortally wounded in a failed attempt to rescue him, Elendur urged his father to flee. Isildur put on the Ring, hoping to escape under the cover of invisibility. Fleeing to the
Anduin, he cast off his armour and tried to swim to the other side of the river, but the Ring slipped (of its own volition) from his finger. The strength of the Anduin was such that it overpowered Isildur. As he struggled through the reeds at the far side of the river, Isildur felt the Ring was missing and was compelled to give in to the river and drown, resigning his life at the loss of the Ring. Despite the darkness, the
Elendilmir that he was wearing gave his position away to the Orcs on the far bank who were seeking survivors from the attack, and they killed him with their poisoned arrows. Isildur's
squire,
Ohtar, saved his sword,
Narsil, from the enemy, fleeing into the valley before the orcs encircled Isildur's company. Estelmo, the squire of Elendur, was found alive under his master's body, stunned by a club.
The Elves from the realm of
Thranduil quickly got word of the attack, though they were too late to save any of the
Dúnedain. They organized a counter-attack, destroying the Orcs before they could mutilate the bodies of Isildur's company.
During the
War of the Ring (as chronicled in the
Lord of the Rings), Sauron's servants had been searching the Gladden Fields but failed to find any traces of Isildur's remains. Their efforts were hampered by
Saruman, who had deceived Sauron's servants — indeed, the White Wizard had got there first before the
Dark Lord. After the overthrow of Saruman and the opening up of the
Orthanc (both portrayed in
The Two Towers),
Gimli found a hidden closet which contained the original
Elendilmir, which was presumed lost forever when Isildur died.
Sons of Isildur
The four sons of Isildur were Elendur,
Aratan,
Ciryon and
Valandil.
- Elendur: (–) The eldest son and heir apparent of Isildur, who fell along with two of his brothers at the Battle of Gladden Fields. High in the confidence of his father, Elendur alone of the sons knew the existence of the Ring in his father's possession and counselled Isildur to turn over the One Ring to the Keepers of the Three Rings. In a marginal note in the Unfinished Tales, Aragorn is stated to have resembled this son of Isildur "in body and mind", even though he wasn't descended directly from him. Elendur himself was noted to have borne a striking resemblance to his grandfather Elendil.
Portrayals in adaptations
In
Ralph Bakshi's 1978
animated film, Isildur (called
Prince Isildur of the mighty Kings from across the Sea) appears as the events of the
Last Alliance are portrayed in silhouette. He is called "the heroic shadow who slipped in" to chop off the One Ring from
Sauron's finger. Later, he's sitting at the base of a tree by the River Anduin examining the One Ring. Sensing a disturbance, he draws his sword but he's shot by Orc arrows a moment later.
In
Peter Jackson's
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy Isildur (played by
Harry Sinclair) briefly appears in the first scenes of, and in an extended flashback scene later on. In the theatrical versions, Anárion and heirs don't appear nor are mentioned at all, and Arnor doesn't feature at all. In, Legolas refers to Isildur as "the last king of Gondor". However, in the extended edition, both Arnor and the House of Anárion are mentioned, and at times it's clear that Isildur wasn't the last King.
The story of Isildur's succumbing to the temptation of the Ring affects
Aragorn, who fears that he could succumb to the same weakness (a fear that isn't evident in the book). Later, Isildur and Elrond go to the
Crack of Doom where he refuses to destroy the Ring, mirroring
Frodo and
Sam in the future; however, Tolkien never wrote that he went to the Crack himself, only that he was advised to (as said above).
The
Disaster of the Gladden Fields is depicted in Jackson's first film as Isildur's column of mounted troops being ambushed on a dark forest road.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Isildur'.
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