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Timeline Event

Ondoher's heirs slain in the Battle against the Wainriders at the Morannon

Event Type: Genealogical

Age: 3rd Age - The Kings

Dates: July 13, 1944 ~ July 14, 1944

Description:

The result of the second battle of the final war in Gondor's Wars with the Wainriders; see that entry for a description of the enemy and a timeline of the wars:

The northern army was commanded by King Ondoher himself. This had always been the custom of Gondor, that the King, if he willed, should command his army in a major battle, provided that an heir with undisputed claim to the throne was left behind. Ondoher came of a warlike line, and was loved and esteemed by his army, and he had two sons, both of age to bear arms: Artamir the elder, and Faramir some three years younger.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: The Northmen and the Wainriders

Artamir: Ondoher's Older Son
Ondoher was utterly unprepared to meet a charge of horse men and chariots in great weight. With his Guard and his banner he had hastily taken up a position on a low knoll, but this was of no avail. The main charge was hurled against his banner, and it was captured, his Guard was almost annihilated, and he himself was slain and his son Artamir at his side. The bodies were never recovered.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: The Northmen and the Wainriders

Faramir: Ondoher's Younger Son
Here the text abruptly breaks off, and the notes and jottings for its continuation are for the most part illegible. It is possible to make out, however, that men of the Éothéod fought with Ondoher; and also that Ondoher's second son Faramir was ordered to remain in Minas Tirith as regent, for it was not permitted by the law that both his sons should go into battle at the same time (a similar observation is made earlier in the narrative...). But Faramir did not do so; he went to the war in disguise, and was slain. The writing is here almost impossible to decipher, but it seems that Faramir joined the Éothéod and was caught with a party of them as they retreated towards the Dead Marshes. The leader of the Éothéod ... came to their rescue, but Faramir died in his arms, and it was only when he searched his body that he found tokens that showed that he was the Prince. The leader of the Éothéod then went to join Minohtar at the head of the North Road in Ithilien, who at that very moment was giving an order for a message to be taken to the Prince in Minas Tirith, who was now the King. It was then that the leader of the Éothéod gave him the news that the Prince had gone disguised to the battle, and had been slain.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: The Northmen and the Wainriders

Minohtar: Ondoher's Sister-son
Ondoher had only time to turn and face the assault ... and to send word to Minohtar, Captain of the Right Wing behind ... when the chariots and horsemen crashed into his disordered line. Of the confusion of the disaster that followed few clear reports were ever brought to Gondor. ...

Minohtar took command. He was a man both valiant and warwise. ... He at once sent messengers to Adrahil ..., the Captain of the Left Wing, commanding him to withdraw ... to take up a defensive position ... where ... the land was at its narrowest, to cover as long as he could the approaches to Minas Tirith. Minohtar himself, to allow time for this retreat, would form a rearguard and attempt to stem the advance of the main host of the Wainriders. ...

... the notes at the end [of the fully-written text] show that they were not long held up by the rearguard defence of Minohtar. "The Wainriders poured relentlessly into Ithilien," and "late on the thirteenth day of Cermië they overwhelmed Minohtar," who was slain by an arrow. He is here said to have been King Ondoher's sister-son. "His men carried him out of the fray, and all that remained of the rearguard fled southwards to find Adrahil."

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: The Northmen and the Wainriders

[Note: the dates are based upon the estimated dates of the Battle against the Wainriders at the Morannon, and are adjusted arbitrarily to follow the death of Ondoher on the timeline.]

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 7.18.04

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