Uldor

Son of Ulfang

Uldor was the eldest of the three sons of Ulfang the Black, chieftain of the Easterlings who came into East Beleriand around F.A. 463 and took service with Caranthir in Thargelion. With his brothers Ulfast and Ulwarth he was accepted among the captains of the sons of Fëanor, and he learned the plans of Maedhros as a trusted ally. Like his father he had been bought by Morgoth before ever he crossed the mountains, and he waited for the moment when his betrayal would do the most harm.

The Nirnaeth Arnoediad

That moment came in the summer of F.A. 472. Maedhros had planned the battle so that his eastern host would draw Morgoth's armies out onto Anfauglith while the western host under Fingon struck them from the flank. Uldor sent false word that an assault was coming out of Angband, and on his warning the eastern army halted and marched late. Fingon's host, provoked by the murder of a captive before the walls, charged too soon, and the two armies never joined as they should have. When Maedhros at last came to the field and Morgoth's main force was loosed against him, Uldor and his brothers turned their weapons on the Elves behind them, while a hidden force of Easterlings, gathered in the eastern hills beforehand, came down on Maedhros's flank. The eastern host was thrown into confusion and scattered. Uldor himself was killed by Maglor, and Ulfast and Ulwarth fell to the sons of Bór, who had stayed loyal. But the damage was done: Fingon was slain, Húrin was captured, and Hithlum, Dor-lómin and the lands of the sons of Fëanor were lost.

Legacy

The Elves named him Uldor the Accursed, and his treachery is the single act most often blamed for the ruin of the Union of Maedhros. Morgoth rewarded his people with the prison of Hithlum rather than the broad lands they had been promised, so that the Easterlings gained nothing lasting from him. In later ages the Eldar's distrust of the Men of the East, and the Edain's enmity toward them, traced back to Uldor's name.

Slain by Maglor on the field of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad in F.A. 472.