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Timeline Event

Elendur advises Isildur to escape the Disaster of the Gladden Fields with the One Ring

Event Type: Military/Strategic

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.
[The] Orcs closed in on all sides, flinging themselves against the Dúnedain with reckless ferocity....

Elendur, not yet harmed, sought Isildur. He was rallying the men on the east side where the assault was heaviest, for the Orcs still feared the Elendilmir that he bore on his brow and avoided him. Elendur touched him on the shoulder and he turned fiercely, thinking an Orc had crept behind.

'My King,' said Elendur, 'Ciryon is dead and Aratan is dying. Your last counsellor must advise nay command you, as you commanded Ohtar. Go! Take your burden, and at all costs bring it to the Keepers: even at the cost of abandoning your men and me!'

'King's son,' said Isildur, 'I knew that I must do so; but I feared the pain.1 Nor could I go without your leave. Forgive me, and my pride that has brought you to this doom.' Elendur kissed him. 'Go! Go now!' he said.

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


Notes
1   Compare the words of the scroll which Isildur wrote concerning the Ring before he departed from Gondor on his last journey, and which Gandalf reported to the Council of Elrond in Rivendell: 'It was hot when I first took it, hot as a glede,2 and my hand was scorched, so that I doubt if ever again I shall be free of the pain of it. Yet even as I write it is cooled and seemeth to shrink...' (The Fellowship of the Ring II 2).

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields: Notes, Note 23

2   glede — An archaic word meaning 'live coal', commonly spelt gleed.

The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, by Wayne G Hammond and Christina Scull, Book 2, Ch 2, The Council of Elrond

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 11Nov07

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