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Timeline Event

Isildur, King of Arnor and Gondor, slain by Orcs in the Disaster of the Gladden Fields

Event Type: Genealogical

Age: 3rd Age - The Kings

Date: October 4, 0002

Description:

An event in the Disaster of the Gladden Fields; see that entry for an overview:
Isildur, son of Elendil and 2nd (High) King of Arnor and Gondor, is slain along with his three eldest sons:
The Northern Line: Heirs of Isildur

Arnor. Elendil S.A. 3441, Isildur 2, Valandil 249....

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: The Realms in Exile

2
[4 October 1]
... Disaster of the Gladden Fields; Isildur and his three elder sons are slain.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, The Tale of Years: The Third Age

'Isildur was marching north along the east banks of the River, and... he was waylaid by the Orcs..., and almost all his folk were slain. He leaped into the waters, but the Ring slipped from his finger as he swam, and then the Orcs saw him and killed him with arrows.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 2, The Shadow of the Past

His feet found the river bed, and heaving himself up out of the mud he floundered through the reeds to a marshy islet close to the western shore. There he rose up out of the water: only a mortal man, a small creature lost and abandoned in the wilds of Middle-earth. But to the night-eyed Orcs that lurked there on the watch he loomed up, a monstrous shadow of fear, with a piercing eye like a star. They loosed their poisoned arrows at it, and fled. Needlessly, for Isildur unarmed was pierced through heart and throat, and without a cry he fell back into the water. No trace of his body was ever found.... So passed the first victim of the malice of the masterless Ring: Isildur, second King of all the Dúnedain, lord of Arnor and Gondor, and in that age of the World the last.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields


Notes
The sign indicates a premature death, in battle or otherwise, though an annal of the event is not always included.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers

1The date of this event was calculated as follows: Isildur is said to have set out on the equivalent of September 5th in the Shire calendar; every month in that calendar had thirty days, with no between-month days (such as Lithedays) between September and October; and the attack occurred on the 30th day of the journey:

Isildur set forth from Osgiliath early in Ivanneth....

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields

Yavannië 5, according to the Númenórean "King's Reckoning," still kept with little change in the Shire Calendar. Yavannië (Ivanneth) thus corresponded to Halimath, our September....

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields: Notes, Note 9

The hobbits... continued to use a form of Kings' Reckoning.... Their months were all equal and had 30 days each....

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix D, The Calendars

So it came to pass that late in the afternoon of the thirtieth day of their journey they were passing the north borders of the Gladden Fields....

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields

Contributors:
Loquacious 29Jun03, 18Jul04
Nessime 30Nov05
Elena Tiriel 1Dec07, 5Jan13

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