Isildur: Hero and Failure | Tolkien's Most Misjudged King Explained
Who was Isildur, really? History remembers him as the man who failed at Mount Doom, the king who claimed the One Ring and doomed Middle-earth. But Tolkien's writings tell a far richer story. Long before Orodruin, a young Isildur was speared nearly to death stealing a fruit from Nimloth, the White Tree of Numenor, saving the seedling that would become the White Tree of Gondor. On Mount Doom he claimed the Ring as weregild for his slain father Elendil and brother Anarion. In this deep dive we follow Isildur to the Disaster of the Gladden Fields, where a repentant king rode to surrender the Ring…
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