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Isildur

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Character in Tolkien's Middle-earth

Fictional character
Isildur
Tolkien's legendarium character
Harry Sinclair as Isildur in Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring, holding the One Ring after cutting it from the hand of Sauron
Harry Sinclair as Isildur holding the One Ring
First appearance
Last appearance
Created byJ.R.R. Tolkien
Portrayed by
In-universe information
RaceMen
TitleHigh-King of theNúmenorean Realms in Exile
FamilyHouse of Elendil
Children
  • Elendur
  • Ciryon
  • Aratan
  • Valandil
Book(s)

Isildur (Quenya:[iˈsildur]) is a fictional character inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sMiddle-earth, the elder son ofElendil, descended fromElros, the founder of the island Kingdom ofNúmenor. He fled with his father when the island was drowned, becoming in his turn King ofArnor andGondor. He cut theRing fromSauron's hand, but instead of destroying it,was influenced by its power and claimed it for his own. He was killed byorcs, and the Ring betrayed him by slipping off his finger just before his death. The Ring then became lost in theRiver Anduin. This set the stage for the Ring to pass toGollum and then toBilbo, as told inThe Hobbit; that in turn provided the central theme, the quest to destroy the Ring, forThe Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien begana time-travel story,The Lost Road, in which a father and a son were to reappear time and again in human families throughout history. One of the appearances was to be in Númenor just before its fall, with the father as Elendil and the son as Herendil, later called Isildur. The story was abandoned, but Tolkien reused the characters and events.

Isildur features briefly in voiced-over flashback sequences ofPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The video gameMiddle-earth: Shadow of War departs from Tolkien's narrative by having Sauron make Isildur into aNazgûl or ringwraith. In the television seriesThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the young Isildur is played by the English actorMaxim Baldry.

Fictional history

[edit]

Númenor

[edit]
The downfall of Númenor and the changing of the world: the island is drowned byIlúvatar, andElendil, Isildur and their people escape toMiddle-earth.[1]

InTolkien's legendarium, the island ofNúmenor, in the great sea to the West ofMiddle-earth, was created at the start of theSecond Age as a reward to the men who had fought against the fallenValaMorgoth, the primary antagonist of theFirst Age.[T 1] Isildur's father wasElendil, descended from Elros, founder of the Kingdom of Númenor. Since Elros washalf-elven, from themarriage of Beren to the elf Lúthien, he and his descendants enjoyed much longer life than other men.[T 2]

In Isildur's youth,Ar-Pharazôn, King of Númenor, was corrupted by the fallenMaiaSauron, who urged that Nimloth theWhite Tree be cut down. Isildur went to the court of the king in disguise and stole a fruit of the tree. He was severely wounded during his escape, but his sacrifice was not in vain: Nimloth was cut down and burned shortly afterwards, but the line of the White Tree continued by way of the stolen fruit. WhenNúmenor was destroyed by the creator,Ilúvatar, Elendil's family escaped in nine ships.[T 1]

In Middle-earth

[edit]

The refugees from Númenor fled east to the continent ofMiddle-earth. Isildur's father Elendil landed in the north and founded the realm of Arnor, while Isildur and his brother Anárion landed in the south, where they established the realm ofGondor and the cities ofOsgiliath,Minas Ithil, andMinas Anor. Isildur lived in Minas Ithil on the east side of the River Anduin and Anárion in Minas Anor on the west side; they ruled Gondor jointly from Osgiliath.[T 3]

The Dark LordSauron captured Minas Ithil and destroyed the White Tree Isildur had planted there. Isildur and his family escaped down the Anduin by boat, bearing with them a seedling of the tree. They sailed toLindon, seeking theElven KingGil-galad and Elendil in Arnor. Anárion bought time for Gondor by defending Osgiliath and driving Sauron back to the mountains, while Elendil and Gil-galad marshalled their forces.[T 3]

Isildur returned with Elendil and Gil-galad in theLast Alliance of Elves and Men. After the Alliance defeated Sauron's host at the Battle of Dagorlad, they advanced intoMordor and laid siege toBarad-dûr. When Minas Ithil was recaptured, Isildur sent his younger sons Aratan and Ciryon to man that fortress, preventing Sauron and his forces from escaping that way. Isildur was accompanied throughout the war by his eldest son Elendur. The campaign in Mordor was long and bitter, and Anárion was killed by a stone from the Dark Tower.[T 4][T 3]

Besieged in the Dark Tower for seven years, the enemy was all but defeated, and Sauron himself appeared to challenge the king. During the final battle on the slopes ofMount Doom, Elendil and Gil-galad were both killed in combat with the Dark Lord, but Sauron's mortal form was destroyed.[T 3][T 5] The Second Age ended, and Isildur became High King of both Arnor and Gondor.[T 3]

Isildur took up the hilt-shard ofNarsil, Elendil's sword, and cut theOne Ring from the hand of Sauron. Despite the urging ofElrond andCírdan, Gil-galad's lieutenants, Isildur did not throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. He made a scroll with a description of the Ring and a copy of its fading inscription. This scroll was deposited in the archives of Minas Anor (which much later was renamedMinas Tirith), and the scroll was discovered byGandalf nearly an Age later.[T 3]

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 boundaries. He planted the seedling of the White Tree in Minas Anor in memory of Anárion. As his brother's helmet had been crushed during his death at Barad-dûr, Isildur left his own helmet as Gondor's crown. He installed Anárion's son Meneldil as King of Gondor, and returned north en route to Arnor with his three sons. He made first forRivendell, where his wife and his fourth son, Valandil, had stayed throughout the War of the Last Alliance.[T 6]

Death

[edit]
'Gladden' is an old name for theyellow iris which grows beside freshwater.[2]

At the Gladden Fields in the middle course of the RiverAnduin Isildur's party was ambushed by roamingOrcs from theMisty Mountains. It was 5 October in the second year of Isildur's reign, and the second year of theThird Age.[T 7]

Tolkien wrote two differing accounts of the battle leading to Isildur's end.

"Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age", at the end ofThe Silmarillion, is told from the point of the view of theEldar. It states that Isildur had set no guard in his camp at night, deeming that all his foes had been overthrown, and orcs attacked him there.[T 3]

InUnfinished Tales Tolkien gives a fuller account, writing that Isildur was ambushed on the march by orcs. Isildur had left Minas Anor with a party of some 200 soldiers. His men had to march, as their horses were mainly beasts of burden, not for riding. They had two dozen archers, but they were too few to be effective. Isildur chose the route along the Anduin rather than the safer but longer road North. Sauron, however, had deployed an army of orcs east of the Misty Mountains to attack stragglers of theLast Alliance. The orcs did not show themselves when the armies of the Elves and Men passed by, but they were more than a match for Isildur's small company. Isildur was assailed at sunset. Though the first orc sortie was beaten off, the orcs regrouped and surrounded Isildur's party to prevent his escape. When nightfall came the orcs assaulted him from all sides.[T 8]

TheDúnedain were surrounded and outnumbered. Ciryon was killed and Aratan was mortally wounded in a failed attempt to rescue Elendur, who 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 betrayed him by slipping (of its own volition) from his finger. Isildur felt that the Ring was missing and was momentarily dismayed, but with the burden of the Ring removed he rallied and made for the opposite bank. Despite the darkness, the royal Elendilmir gem that he was wearing betrayed his position to orcs on the far bank, who were seeking survivors from the attack, and they killed him with their poisoned arrows. Isildur'ssquire, Ohtar, saved Elendil's sword from the enemy, fleeing into the valley before the orcs encircled Isildur's company. Estelmo, Elendur's squire, was found alive under his master's body, stunned by a club.[T 7]

During theWar of the Ring theNazgûl searched the Gladden Fields, but failed to find any traces of Isildur's remains. Their efforts were hampered bySaruman, who had deceived the Nazgûl, and who had arrived there first. After the overthrow of Saruman and the opening ofOrthanc (inThe Two Towers)Gimli found a hidden closet containing the original Elendilmir, which was presumed lost when Isildur died.[T 7]

Development

[edit]

In the short workThe Fall of Númenor, written before 1937, Tolkien wrote of two brothers namedElendil andValandil, who escaped the destruction of Númenor and founded two kingdoms in Middle-earth, Elendil in the north and Valandil in the south. Valandil was thus a precursor to the later Isildur, although in this work he was not Elendil's son but his brother.[T 9]

Soon afterwards Tolkien starteda time-travel story,The Lost Road, in which a father and a son were to reappear time and again in human families throughout history. Only two chapters were written, one set in or near the present day, with the father named Oswin and the son Alboin, and one set in Númenor just before its fall, with the father named Elendil and the son Herendil. Here Valandil is the name of Elendil's father. It seems that Herendil (later Isildur) and his father were going to escape the destruction of Númenor as inThe Fall of Númenor, but the story did not progress that far before it was abandoned.[T 9]

In one of the earliest manuscripts ofThe Lord of the Rings, written in 1938, in the chapter which became "The Shadow of the Past", Gandalf tells Frodo (then called Bingo) that his ring "fell from the hand of an elf as he swam across a river".[T 10] Although Isildur was not anelf, this was the earliest germ of the story of Isildur's death.[T 10] In the next version of this part of the story Isildur himself appears, first named Ithildor, then changed to Isildor. He is described as a man who cut theOne Ring from Sauron's finger after his father (here named Orendil) defeated Sauron in single combat, then lost it while swimming across a river to escape Orcs.[T 10]

House of Elendil

[edit]
Half-elven family tree[T 11][T 12]
Melian
theMaia		Thingol
of the Teleri		House
of Bëor		House
of Haleth		House
of Hador		Finwë
of the Noldor		Indis
of the Vanyar		Olwë
of the Teleri
BarahirBelegundHarethGaldorFingolfinFinarfinEärwen
LúthienBerenRíanHuorHúrinTurgonElenwë
DiorNimlothTuorIdril
ElurédElurínElwingEärendilCelebornGaladriel
ElrosElrondCelebrían
22 Kings
ofNúmenor and
Lords of Andúnië
Elendil
IsildurAnárion
22 Kings
ofArnor
and Arthedain		27 Kings
ofGondor
ArveduiFíriel
15Dúnedain
Chieftains
AragornArwenElladanElrohir
Eldariondaughters
Colour key:
ColourDescription
 Elves
 Men
 Maiar
 Half-elven
 Half-elven who chose the fate of Elves
 Half-elven who chose the fate of mortal Men

Analysis

[edit]

Paul H. Kocher writes that whereas Isildur claimed the Ring as his own,Aragorn, on hearingFrodo's exclamation that since he is Isildur's direct descendant the Ring must be his, at once renounces all claim to it. Aragorn explains that he searched for it to helpGandalf as "it seemed fit that Isildur's heir should labour to repair Isildur's fault", an inherited wrong.[3] Catholic scholars have noted that just asJesus, in hisrole as king, is a descendant ofKing David, Aragorn is a descendant of Isildur.[4][5][6][7] The Tolkien scholarNicholas Birns notes Isildur's survival, along with his father Elendil, of Númenor's catastrophic fall, an event that recalls to him Plato'sAtlantis, the Biblicalfall of man, andNoah's flood; he notes that Tolkien called Elendil a "Noachian figure",[T 13] an echo of the biblicalNoah.[8]

Tom Shippey writes that Gandalf's account to theCouncil of Elrond of Isildur's description of the Ring combines hints of the ancient time in which Isildur lived, with old words like "glede" (a hot coal) and obsolete endings as in "fadeth", and "loseth". It also provides a sudden reminder ofGollum's name for the Ring, with "It is precious to me, though I buy it with great pain." His use of the "ominous word 'precious'" is, Shippey writes, quite enough for readers to guess that Isildur was already becomingaddicted to the Ring.[9]

Adaptations

[edit]

Film

[edit]
Harry Sinclair plays Isildur inPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy.[10]

InRalph Bakshi's animated 1978 film version ofThe Lord of the Rings, Isildur is calledPrince Isildur of the mighty Kings from across the Sea and appears as the events of the Last Alliance are portrayed in silhouette.[11] InPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Isildur is played byHarry Sinclair.[10]

Shippey writes that Jackson uses the voice-over to say of Isildur that he had "this one chance to destroy evil for ever", commenting that when Tolkien says "for ever", he at once indicates that that optimistic hope is wrong:Elrond says he recalls "whenThangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so." Shippey writes that there is a glimpse here of a sharp difference between Jackson's and Tolkien'sconcept of evil, and their respective media: Tolkien believed that even the best of men were fallen, victory always temporary, and portrayed that in his writings, whereas a dramatic medium like film required good on one side and bad on the other.[12]

Streaming

[edit]

In the streaming seriesThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the young Isildur is played by the English actorMaxim Baldry. Although Isildur eventually fails to destroy the One Ring, the series' showrunner Patrick McKay stated that the intention was to present Isildur more favourably, as burdened by heavy responsibilities; McKay compared the character to the gangsterMichael Corleone fromThe Godfather trilogy.[13][14]

Video games

[edit]

In the video gameMiddle-earth: Shadow of War, Isildur's fate differs from the book. After he was attacked by the orcs, they transported his lifeless body to Mordor at Sauron's behest. Sauron revived Isildur with one of thenine rings, and then tortured him until his spirit was broken and he became aNazgûl. The specific power of his ring allowed him to raise the dead and have them fight by his side as mindless minions. Eventually, he was defeated by the game's protagonist, Talion, after multiple encounters. Instead of subduing him with his own ring of power, Talion chose to spare Isildur and release his spirit, allowing him to proceed into the afterlife after millennia of service to Sauron. Talion took Isildur's ring and eventually became a Nazgûl himself.[15]

Royal titles
First
Kingdom established
King of Gondor
SA 3320 –TA 2
withElendil the Tall (SA 3320 – 3441)
Anárion (SA 3320 – 3440)
Meneldil (TA 2)		Succeeded by
Meneldil
Preceded byKing of Arnor
SA 3441 –TA 2		Succeeded by
High-King of the
Númenorean Realms in Exile
SA 3441 –TA 2		Dormant
Title next held by
Aragorn Elessar
as King of the Reunited Kingdom

References

[edit]

Primary

[edit]
  1. ^abTolkien (1977), "Akallabêth"
  2. ^Tolkien (1977), ch. 19 "Of Beren and Lúthien"
  3. ^abcdefgTolkien (1977), "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
  4. ^Tolkien 1955, Appendix B, "The Second Age"
  5. ^Carpenter 2023, #131: Elendil and Gil-galad were "slain in the act of slaying Sauron."
  6. ^Tolkien 1955, Appendix B, "The Third Age"
  7. ^abcTolkien (1980), part 3, ch. 1 "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields"
  8. ^Tolkien (1977), "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
  9. ^abTolkien 1987, 3. "The Lost Road"
  10. ^abcTolkien 1988, pp. 78, 85, 261
  11. ^Tolkien 1977, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age": Family Trees I and II: "The house of Finwë and the Noldorin descent of Elrond and Elros", and "The descendants of Olwë and Elwë"
  12. ^Tolkien 1955, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers, I The Númenórean Kings
  13. ^Carpenter 2023, Letter #131 toMilton Waldman, late 1951

Secondary

[edit]
  1. ^Shippey 2005, pp. 324–328, "The Lost Straight Road".
  2. ^Judd, Walter S.; Judd, Graham A. (2017).Flora of Middle Earth: Plants of J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium.Oxford University Press. p. 155.ISBN 978-0190276317.
  3. ^Kocher, Paul H. (1974) [1972].Master of Middle-earth: The Achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien.Penguin Books. p. 125.ISBN 0140038779.
  4. ^Fielding, Julien R. (26 September 2008).Discovering World Religions at 24 Frames Per Second.Scarecrow Press. p. 422, note 44.ISBN 978-0810862661.Like Aragorn's ancestor Isildur, Jesus' ancestor King David wasn't without his human faults and frailties.
  5. ^Kreeft, Peter J. (November 2005)."The Presence of Christ in The Lord of the Rings".Ignatius Press. Archived fromthe original on 24 November 2005.
  6. ^Kerry, Paul (2011).The Ring and the Cross : Christianity and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien.Fairleigh Dickinson University Press /Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 32–34.ISBN 978-1-61147-620-0.
  7. ^Schultz, Forrest W. (1 December 2002)."Christian Typologies inThe Lord of the Rings"(PDF).Chalcedon Report. No. 447. Chalcedon Foundation. pp. 22–25.OCLC 58733860.Archived(PDF) from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved26 March 2020.
  8. ^Birns, Nicholas (2011). "The Stones and the Book: Tolkien, Mesopotamia, and Biblical Mythopoeia". In Fisher, Jason (ed.).Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays.McFarland & Company. pp. 45–68.ISBN 9780786464821.
  9. ^Shippey 2005, pp. 138, 263.
  10. ^ab"Harry Sinclair".British Film Institute. Archived fromthe original on May 18, 2017. Retrieved28 March 2020.
  11. ^Leotta, Alfio (2015). "Lord of the Rings: Plot".Peter Jackson. New York:Bloomsbury Academic.ISBN 978-1-62356-096-6.OCLC 923808382.
  12. ^Shippey 2005, p. 422.
  13. ^Gaughan, Liam (31 August 2022)."Who Is Isildur? The 'Rings of Power' Character and His 'Lord of the Rings' Connection, Explained".Collider. Retrieved3 September 2022.
  14. ^Robinson, Joanna (February 14, 2022)."10 burning questions about Amazon'sThe Rings of Power".Vanity Fair. RetrievedOctober 1, 2022.
  15. ^Middle-earth: Shadow of War, 2017, Chapter 3.Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Sources

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