In the Beginning of Days, Iluvatar ("Father of
All") made the Ainur ("Holy Ones") from the power of his
own thought. Through the music of the Ainur, Iluvatar gave form to the
universe (Ea) and the world (Arda). Iluvatar ordained the
rise of Elves and Men and sent his greatest Ainur, the Valar
("Those With Power"), into the world to
prepare for their coming; assisting the Valar were a host of lesser Ainur
called the Maiar. Largest of all the regions of the world was Endore
("Middle Earth"), the mortal lands bound by time. Far to the
west beyond the
In the "Elder Days" the elves (Quendi) were
the first natural race to awaken, migrating from the forests of the far east. Long awaiting this event, the Aratar sought
to guide the elves to Aman. Melkor, however, had already unleashed evil
into the world, and some of the elves were afraid. The lesser Queni
remained in the far east and were called the Avari
("The Unwilling"). However, "Three Kindreds" of
elvenkind undertook the journey under the guidance of Orome and were called the
Eldar ("People of the Stars"). The third and largest
elven host, who called themselves the Lindar ("Singers"), tarried
along the way and was renamed the Teleri
("Last-comers"). Some of the Teleri abandoned the journey at
the
The dwarves (Khazad in their own tongue) were created solely by Aule
before the rise of the ordained races. Iluvatar forgave Aule's
presumption and breathed life into the "seven fathers" of the
dwarves, but he forbade them to awaken before the elves. Sometime after
the awakening of the elves, the dwarves, guided by Aule, migrated to the
mountains of western Middle Earth. Durin’s Folk, descended from the most royal of
the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves, settled in the
Then awakened the races of men, with a mortal lifespan (the "doom of men") even shorter than the dwarves. First to migrate from the far east to the west were the Three Houses of the noble Edain, followed in later years by their distant kinsmen they called the "men of twilight" (who would eventually become the Northmen). More distant still were the "wild men" who, in unrecorded history, settled in western Middle Earth as the Easterlings (swarthy men who, already tainted by the corruption of evil, attempted to migrate into Beleriand late in the First Age), the Woses, the Men of the White Mountains, and the Haradrim.
After his long imprisonment, Melkor was finally unchained and compelled to beg forgiveness from Manwe. Melkor feigned friendship for the elves, but in reality he poisoned the minds of the Noldor leaders with mistrust of the Valar and jealousy of each other. Despite this interference, the Noldor grew to be a numerous and powerful people. Feanor, their mightiest prince, crafted the Silmarils, three Great Jewels of unsurpassed power and beauty that reflected the sacred light of Aman. Jealous of such power and beauty, Melkor sacked the citadel of the Noldor, slew Feanor's father, and stole the Silmarils. Melkor, who ever after became known as Morgoth ("Black Enemy"), fled to his old realm in the far north of Middle Earth and founded an even mightier domain called Angband. There he spawned orcs, trolls, and other monstrosities in mockery of elves, men, and dwarves. His power was augmented by the first dragons, wolves of great size and strength, and the balrogs (evil fire spirits who had survived the ruin of Utumno). Morgoth still commanded the loyalty of a number of corrupted Maiar, including his chief lieutenant named Sauron.
When the Valar refused to take action, Feanor led the Noldor out of Aman to seek vengeance against Morgoth and his minions. When the Teleri along the coast refused to lend the Noldor their ships, the Noldor attacked them--for the first time elves slew other elves (an event known as the Kin-slaying). In punishment, the Valar banned the Noldor rebels from ever returning, severing them from the Vanyar who remained with the Valar and became lost to the lore of Middle Earth. Upon returning to Middle Earth, the Noldor were hailed as "High Elves" and reunited with the Sindar who never departed Middle Earth. Reluctantly aided by their fellow Eldar in Beleriand, the Noldor constructed citadels such as Gondolin in the far north as bases in their "war of wrath" against Morgoth. The fruitless conflict dragged on for centuries. Many great Noldor lords, including Feanor himself, were killed in violent battles against the orcs and monstrous beasts of Angband. At the height of his power, Morgoth invaded deep into Beleriand and destroyed the Noldor citadels. Only the aid of the brave Edain, who had migrated into Beleriand and entered the service of the Noldor kingdoms, saved the elves from total defeat. The Edain prince Earendil, on behalf of the rebellious Noldor, sailed to Aman to beg the Valar to intervene. Invading Angband with a mighty host, the Valar unleashed a cataclysm that flooded much of the far north under the icy sea. Morgoth was destroyed, but in the cataclysm much of Beleriand was also buried under the Northern Waste or the sea.
The Sindar re-established themselves in the Grey Havens
of Lindon, and the remaining Noldor exiled from Eldamar founded a new haven (Forlond)
in
Although Morgoth was destroyed, one of his servants, Sauron, lived on.
Around the Year 1000 Sauron infiltrated the previously barren
Exposed as an enemy of the Free Peoples, Sauron marched his forces through Eriador (the western lands) in the Year 1695, quickly overrunning the elven realms. Refugees from Eregion, led by Elrond, established the haven of Rivendell (Imladris) in 1697. Again, it was the Edain who saved the elves; a mighty army from Numenor landed in Middle Earth in 1700 and beat back Sauron’s forces.
Enraged with the Numenoreans for defeating his invasion of the west, Sauron cast his evil shadow over Numenor and slowly began to corrupt them. Over the centuries Numenor came to dominate much of Middle Earth. Numenorean princes directly conquered their own realms along the southern coasts, a land later known as Umbar. To these three "Black Numenoreans" and other rulers of men Sauron gave his nine Rings of Power; they were corrupted by their rings and ever after served Sauron as his Nazgul (Ring-wraiths). In the Year 3261 the Numenorean king Ar-Pharazon conquered rebellious Umbar and even took Sauron himself back to Numenor as his prisoner. It was Sauron’s greatest ploy, for he quickly insinuated himself as the king’s advisor. Playing upon the mortal king’s fear of dying, he convinced him to commit the ultimate sacrilege--to attack the Undying Lands and seize immortality by force.
In the Year 3319 the wicked Numenoreans landed on the shores of Valinor. The Valar called upon Iluvatar to intervene, and the world was changed: the isle of Numenor was cast into the sea and Aman forever shrouded from the sight of mortal eyes. Only one branch of the men of the Westernesse remained loyal to the Valar and escaped the cataclysm. Called the "Faithful" and led by their king Elendil, they returned to Middle Earth. Ever after known as the Dunedain, they founded the Numenorean realms in exile--Arnor in the north and Gondor in the south. They brought with them the few remaining artifacts of the ancient glory of Numenor, including five elven "seeing stones" (palantiri) and saplings from the original White Tree of Aman.
Sauron, however, was not destroyed in the fall of Numenor. He returned to Mordor and built up his forces. The Dunedain formed the "Last Alliance" with the elves of Lindon. Led by Elendil and Gil-galad, the last Noldor king, the allies destroyed the armies of Sauron on the Field of Dagorlad (much of it later covered by the Dead Marshes). They then besieged Barad-dur for seven years, finally compelling Sauron to emerge in the Year 3441 for one climactic battle in which he, Elendil, and Gil-galad were all slain. However, Isildur, heir of Elendil, greedily kept the One Ring which he cut from Sauron’s hand, thus ensuring that Sauron would be reborn in a later era.
In the second year of the Third Age, Isildur set out for Arnor to claim the throne. However, he was betrayed by his prized ring. Ambushed by orcs, he was slain and the ring lost in the river Anduin. It would remain lost in the river for over two thousand years, until Gollum acquired it by murdering his friend who had found it while fishing.
The Third Age brought many hardships for the Dunedain Realms in Exile. In
the Year 861 rival heirs partitioned Arnor into Arthedain (northern
Eriador), Cardolan (southern Eriador), and Rhudaur (eastern
Eriador), and these three kingdoms remained bitter enemies for centuries. Even
worse, around the Year 1000 Sauron and his Nazgul reformed after their first
defeat. Fearful of drawing attention to himself while still weak, Sauron did
not return to Mordor. Known only as the mysterious "Necromancer" of
the dark fortress Dol Guldur, he began to breed new hordes of orcs and
dark beasts in southern
The century after the Year 1300 saw the rise of the dark realm of Angmar,
established in the mountains north of old Arnor by the Witch-King of the
Nazgul. Soon thereafter, hostile wild men drove out the few remaining Dunedain
and seized Rhudaur for themselves, allying with Angmar. By 1409 Cardolan also
fell to the forces of Angmar and Rhudaur. Sorrow only increased when, in the
Year 1636, the Great Plague from the east swept across Eriador and completely
depopulated the former provinces of Cardolan (resettled in the next millennium
by the Dunlendings, hill-men descended from the Men of the
Hardship befell the dwarves in the Third Age as well. In the Year 1980 their
deep mining for mithril in the tunnels of Moria awakened an evil spirit buried
since the First Age--the Balrog known as "Durin’s Bane"--and
the surviving dwarves were forced to evacuate. In 1999 the dwarves founded the
"Kingdom under the Mountain" in the Lonely Mountain of Erebor
and in the Iron Hills, but attempts to mine the far-north
After the destruction of Angmar, the Witch-King and his other Nazgul retook Mordor for their master. By the Year 2002 they had gathered enough power to capture Minas Ithil, the eastern capital of Gondor. Known ever after as Minas Morgul, its fall brought a coveted palantir into Sauron’s possession. In 2050 the Witch-King provoked the last king of Gondor into accepting a foolish challenge to fight him personally. The king rode out of Minas Tirith (the western capital) and left a steward to rule in his place, holding the throne as a trust until the return of the king. He was never heard from again, and the Ruling Stewards became a dynasty leading Gondor in his name.
After the fall of Arnor, the realm of Gondor gradually decreased in size.
In the early Third Age, a race of diminutive people calling themselves Hobbits
(from the Northern Mannish word holbytlan, or "hole builders")
migrated from their ancestral homes in the vales of the upper Anduin and
settled in Eriador near Bree, a town founded at the end of the Second
Age by roaming descendants of the Men of the White Mountains. In the Year 1601
the Hobbits received permission from the king of Arthedain to settle the
deserted but still-fertile countryside west of the
The era of the War of the Ring began in 2951, when Sauron openly declared himself in Mordor and ordered the reconstruction of Barad-dur. However, Gandalf the Grey (known as Mithrandir to the elves and Dunedain) had already discovered that the "Necromancer" was really Sauron when he secretly ventured into Dol Guldur in 2850, finding the captured dwarven king Thrain II on the verge of death. Moments before dying, Thrain gave him the map and key to the lost dwarven halls of Erebor. Gandalf tried to convince the White Council (his fellow Wizards) to attack Dol Guldur, but he was overruled by the chief Wizard, Saruman the White (who then took over Isengard and plotted his own schemes to find the One Ring). On his own, Gandalf found Thorin Oakenshield and aided his quest to slay Smaug and regain Erebor, hoping a strong dwarf haven in the north would check the power of Sauron. The recovery of the One Ring by Bilbo Baggins, and the subsequent capture of Gollum by the minions of Sauron in Mordor, set the stage for the events of 3018 and 3019, including the reforging of the sword Narsil (now Anduril) and the return of the king. Aragorn’s coronation as King Elessar, ruler of both Arnor and Gondor, ushered in the Fourth Age of Middle Earth.