Tuor

Tuorwas an Edain of the House of Hador and great hero of the of Men, the only son of Huor and Rían. He was the cousin of Túrin Turambar.

Early
Tuor was born in FA 471 two years before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (Battle of Unnumbered Tears) and his father to Huor died in the battle. After hearing that the battle was lost, Rían fell into despair and left Dor-lómin while still pregnant with Tuor. She would have been lost and died if not for the Sindar Elves of Mithrim who rescued her and took her to there home in the Mountains of Mithrim. Tuor was soon born and first fostered by the Grey-elves. Later, when their leader Annael told his mother Rían that Huor had perished in the battle. She soon fell into grief in her early twenties and went to Haudh-en-Ndengin, the Hill of the Slain and seeing the mounts of rotting and despoiled remains, she fell sick and died.

When the Easterlings came to claim their reward for aiding Morgoth in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, they occupied Hithlum and captured slaves. The Sindar moved their camp into the caves of Androth and it was there that he spent youth. In his sixteenth year, he grew angry with the Easterlings and their allies for the evil deeds they had done to his people and wished to fight them. Annael forbid this and Tuor obeyed. When the Elven group intended to move to the safer havens in the Mouths of Sirion  through the Annon-in-Gelydh (Gate of the Noldor), Tuor went with them but the group came under attack by orcs and scattered during the night. Tuor was captured and sent to the Easterlings and sold into slavery.

Life as Thrall in Hithlum
Tuor served the Easterling chief, the brutal Lorgan, who had been sent there by Morgoth and who cruelly oppressed the remnant of the House of Hador. He worked as a thrall for three years, at which point he had grown to his full stature, and became taller and swifter than any of the Easterlings.

Life as a Wandering Outlaw
Tuor then escaped, and lived the life of an outlaw. He travelled down Hithlum to the Cirith Ninniach, and then through the Annon-in-Gelydh (Gate of the Noldor) into Nevrast. At the Gate of the Noldor, he met to Noldorin Elves, Gelmir and Arminas, who showed him the way into Nevrast. He spent the rest of the year in Nevrast, until he saw seven swans, and took it as a sign that he had tarried too long. He followed these swans down the coast until he reached the ruins of Vinyamar, the previous home of Turgon and his people.

At this point, the Vala Ulmo, Lord of Waters, emerged from the Belegaer and appeared to Tuor, bestowing upon him a great cloak to shield him from the eyes of his enemies, and a quest to remind Turgon of the Doom of the Noldor, and to warn him of the Fall of Gondolin. He also found Voronwe, an Elf of Gondolin, who had been a mariner on the last Noldorin voyage to Valinor, saved from the wrath of Osse.

Tuor and Voronwe then travelled through the Fell Winter past the Pools of Ivrin, where they caught a glimpse of Tuor's cousin, Turin, wielding Gurthang, and making his way towards the wastes of Dor-lomin.

Life in Gondolin
Passing through the Fell Winter, Tuor and Voronwë eventually arrived in Gondolin in FA 496, where Tuor remained. Tuor fell in love with King Turgon's Elven daughter, Idril Celebrindal. This was the second union between an elf and a man, after Beren and Lúthien, but much easier for "Little cause had Turgon to withstand their love, for he saw in Tuor a kinsman of comfort and great hope". They were wed in a celebration of great happiness, and soon after, their only child Eärendil the Mariner was born, who himself became the father of Elrond and Elros.

In the Book of Lost Tales, Part 2 (The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 2), the Elves in Gondolin treated Tuor very highly - "Upon a time the king caused his most cunning artificers to fashion a suit of armour for Tuor as a great gift, and it was made of Noldorin steel overlaid with silver, but his helm was adorned with a device of metal and jewels like two swan-wings, one on either side, and a swan's wing was wrought on his shield". "A house was built for him upon the southern walls, for he loved the free airs and liked not the close neigbourhood of other dwellings. There it was his delight often to stand on the battlements at dawn, and folk rejoiced to see the new light catch the wings of his helm."

Tuor was one of the leaders of Gondolin during the Fall of Gondolin, and fought for the city during the attack by the forces of Morgoth including and attack on his wife and son by Maeglin, which he was able to thwart by throwing him from the walls into a fire. Afterwards, he and his wife and Eärendil and a remnant of its people escaped through secret way in the mountains to the Mouths of Sirion. Longing for the sea, Tuor eventually built the ship Eärrámë and sailed into the West with Idril.

Fate
Faithful hero and Elf-friend he may have been but he was still a Man and therefore mortal. Tuor and Idril arrived in Valinor, bypassing the Ban of the Valar. Thus, Tuor had become the only Man ever to be counted among the Elven kindred, and to dwell immortally in Valinor with his wife. This story indeed may indeed be his exceptional fate by divine will as with Beren and Lúthien who were granted a second life in Middle-earth. However, it could be that this was just a story sung by Elves and cultured Men in itself or perhaps something passed down from generation to generation, as some vague faith to fill in for what was not known, as it was not recorded whether Eärendil ever found or saw his parents again.

Earlier Fate
In The History of Middle-earth series story, Tuor and Idril reached the Tower of Pearl on one of the Enchanted Isles in the Shadowy Seas and either one or both fell asleep there for an unknown period of time.

Appearance
The only note of Tuor's physical appearance appears in Unfinished Tales, where he is described as "fair of face, and golden-haired after the manner of his father's kin, and he became tall and strong and valiant".

Weapons
In The Book of Lost Tales 2 (History of Middle-earth Vol. 2), it says - "but he carried an axe rather than a sword, and this in the speech of the Gondolindrim he named Dramborleg, for its buffet stunned and its edge clove all armour. See: Dramborleg.

External link


Tuor Туор