Bëor

The coming of Men

Balan was the leader of a people of Men who had wandered westward over many generations from the lands where Men first awoke, and who had heard rumours of a light in the West and of Elves who dwelt there. He was born in F.A. 262, and in his forty-eighth year, F.A. 310, he led his people over the passes of the Ered Luin and down into the green valleys of Ossiriand, the first mortal Men to enter Beleriand.

There Finrod Felagund, King of Nargothrond, came upon their camp while hunting with the sons of Fëanor. He watched them from the shadows, and when they slept he took up a crude harp and played to them, and they woke to a music unlike anything they had ever heard. Finrod stayed with them through the following season, learning their tongue and teaching them. He was the first Elf Balan had seen, and the Men thought at first that he was one of the Valar. Balan's people called Finrod Nóm, Wisdom, and his people Nómin.

Vassal of Finrod

The Green-elves of Ossiriand disliked the newcomers and asked Finrod to remove them, so he led Balan's people north-east to Estolad, the Encampment, east of the river Celon in the land of Amrod and Amras. When Finrod returned to Nargothrond, Balan asked to go with him and entered his service for the rest of his life. Because of this he took the name Bëor, which means Vassal in his people's tongue, and it is by that name that he is remembered. The rule of his folk passed to his elder son Baran; his younger son was Belen.

Bëor spoke to Finrod at length about the history of Men, but he would say little of the darkness that lay behind them in the east, only that they had turned away from it and did not wish to look back. He confirmed that other peoples of Men were following, and it was through him that Finrod learned of the coming of the Haladin and the people of Marach.

Death

Bëor lived in Nargothrond for forty-four years, and died in F.A. 355, aged ninety-three. His death was the first time the Elves had seen a mortal die of age alone, in full possession of his mind and not by violence, and they grieved to see it and marvelled at the Gift of Men, which took a man they loved for no reason they could understand. He had lived far longer than most Men of his time, and in later ages the Edain called him Bëor the Old.

Legacy

Bëor's line continued through Baran to Boron, Boromir, Bregor and the brothers Bregolas and Barahir. Beren, his descendant, took a Silmaril from Morgoth and married Lúthien, and through Beren's line came Elros, first King of Númenor, and Elrond. The House of Bëor was the smallest of the three houses of the Edain and the first to be broken, but its name endured in the histories as the house of the Elf-friends who first met the Eldar.

Died of old age in Nargothrond in F.A. 355, aged ninety-three, the first Man the Elves saw die naturally.