Denethor

The son of Lenwë

Denethor was the son of Lenwë, the leader of the Teleri who turned aside from the Great Journey at the Anduin and became the Nandor. He is not to be confused with the later Steward of Gondor, Denethor II, who bore the same Elvish name. His people lived for long ages in the vales of the Great River, without kings and with few weapons, but as the evil things of Melkor spread through the mountains their life grew hard, and Denethor at last gathered as many as would follow him and led them westward.

Ossiriand

Crossing the Blue Mountains, Denethor's people came down into Ossiriand, the Land of Seven Rivers between Gelion and the mountains, and settled there some time before the rising of the Moon, in about Y.T. 1350 by the reckoning of the Grey Annals. Thingol of Doriath welcomed them as kin long parted, and they became the Laiquendi, the Green-elves, who wore green, sang in the woods, and kept to their own country, and whose name stayed on the land, for Ossiriand was afterwards called Lindon, the land of singers.

The First Battle of Beleriand

When Melkor returned to Middle-earth after the Darkening of Valinor, his Orcs invaded Beleriand from the north in Y.T. 1497. Thingol called on Denethor, and the Green-elves marched out of Ossiriand to meet the eastern Orc-host with Doriath's forces. They were lightly armed, with bows and no armour against iron, and on the hill of Amon Ereb Denethor and his kin were surrounded and slain before Thingol could reach them. Thingol avenged him and drove the Orcs off, but the Laiquendi never forgot the cost. They took no king after Denethor, withdrew into the secrecy of their woods, and fought no more in open war, though they aided Beren against the Dwarves at Sarn Athrad long afterwards.

Legacy

Denethor is the only named leader of the Nandor after Lenwë, and his death fixed the character of the Green-elves for the rest of the Age: a hidden people, kin to Doriath, outside the wars of the Noldor.

Slain with his nearest kin on Amon Ereb in the First Battle of Beleriand, Y.T. 1497.