Event

The Disaster of the Gladden Fields

Isildur is ambushed and killed; the One Ring is lost in the Gladden River for two thousand years.

Tolkien’s textsSupported by the narratives published in Tolkien’s lifetime.

Date: T.A. 2
Age: The Third Age
Type: Disaster
Certainty: Exact

The event

Isildur is ambushed and killed; the One Ring is lost in the Gladden River for two thousand years.

Consequences

The Ring passes out of knowledge; the line of Isildur is diminished but survives.

Participants

Isildur

King of Gondor and Arnor who cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand, then kept it and was slain by Orcs.

Artifacts

Sources

The Lord of the Rings · 1954–55
Three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King.
Unfinished Tales · 1980
Expanded and alternative accounts of the First, Second and Third Ages.