Aegnor

Lineage

Aegnor was the fourth and youngest son of Finarfin and Eärwen, daughter of Olwë. His brothers were Finrod, Orodreth and Angrod; his sister was Galadriel. His name in Quenya, Aikanáro, means Fell Fire, and the Elves gave it for the flame of his eyes and the fierceness with which he fought. Like the rest of his house he followed Fingolfin into exile without part in the Kinslaying, and crossed the Helcaraxë.

Dorthonion

When the lands of Beleriand were divided among the princes of the Noldor, Aegnor and Angrod took the highland of Dorthonion, a wide pine-clad tableland north of Doriath. Its northern edge fell in long slopes to the plain of Ard-galen, and from those slopes the two brothers kept the closest watch on Angband of any of the Eldar. Their people were few, for the land was hard and the south slopes toward Nan Dungortheb were haunted, but for four hundred years no enemy came through. Aegnor fought in the Dagor Aglareb, when Morgoth tested the leaguer and his Orcs were driven into the north and destroyed. When Finrod brought the people of Bëor into the north, they settled the highlands under the brothers, and the lords of the House of Bëor, among them Barahir, served Aegnor and Angrod as their liege-lords.

Death

In F.A. 455 Morgoth broke the Siege in the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame. Rivers of fire poured over Ard-galen and up the northern slopes of Dorthonion, and behind them came Glaurung, the Balrogs and the Orcs. Aegnor and Angrod were killed in the first assault, and most of the warriors of the House of Bëor with them. The highland fell to the enemy and grew into the forest of dread that men called Taur-nu-Fuin, and only Barahir's outlaws kept a foothold there for a few years more. Finrod, riding north to the aid of his brothers, was cut off in the Fen of Serech and would have died but for Barahir. In the Silmarillion Aegnor stands as the most warlike of Finarfin's peaceable house, remembered chiefly for the ferocity of his defence and for the land he and his brother held longest against the greatest odds.

Slain in Dorthonion in the Dagor Bragollach, F.A. 455, together with Angrod.