House of Bëor

Origins and arrival

The people of Bëor were the first Men to cross the Blue Mountains into Beleriand. In the year 310 of the First Age Finrod Felagund came upon them encamped in the foothills of Ossiriand, and the friendship between Elves and Men began with his harp-playing by their fires. Bëor gave Finrod his service and went with him to Nargothrond, leaving the rule of his people to his son Baran. The Green-elves of Ossiriand disliked having Men in their woods, so Finrod led them to the wide land of Estolad east of the Celon, where they lived for some fifty years.

After the council in which some Men questioned the alliance with the Elves, the greater part of Bëor's folk moved west into the highlands of Dorthonion, where Angrod and Aegnor, Finrod's brothers, were their lords. There they lived on the northern marches, closest of all the Edain to the mountains of Angband.

Character

The people of Bëor were, of the three houses, the most like the Noldor in mind. They were quick to learn and eager for lore, and they took to the Sindarin tongue so readily that their own speech fell out of use. They were shorter and darker than the people of Hador, grey-eyed and dark-haired for the most part, with faces the Elves thought handsome. Their lords were remembered for steadfastness rather than exuberance, and in the tale of the First Age they are the house of endurance in loss.

The line of lords

Bëor was succeeded by Baran, Boron, Boromir and Bregor. Bregor's sons were Bregolas and Barahir. Among the women of the house were Bëor's descendant Andreth, remembered for her wisdom, and Emeldir, wife of Barahir and mother of Beren. Bregolas's sons Baragund and Belegund were the fathers of Morwen and Rían, who married into the House of Hador and became the mothers of Túrin and Tuor. In this way the blood of Bëor ran in every great figure of the late First Age.

The Bragollach and the outlaws of Dorthonion

The long Siege of Angband ended in the winter of F.A. 455 when Morgoth loosed rivers of fire across Ard-galen. Dorthonion took the brunt of it. Angrod and Aegnor were killed, Bregolas fell with most of his warriors, and Barahir, fighting in the Fen of Serech, saved Finrod's life at great cost. Finrod swore an oath of friendship to Barahir and all his kin and gave him his ring.

Barahir would not abandon Dorthonion. While Emeldir led the women and children away through the mountains to Brethil and Dor-lómin, he and twelve companions held out in the highlands beside the lake of Tarn Aeluin. For five years they harried the Orcs, until Gorlim was tricked by Sauron into revealing their refuge. The band was slain in F.A. 460, and only Beren, away on an errand, survived. He recovered his father's hand and ring, avenged him, and lived four more years alone in Dorthonion before he crossed the Mountains of Terror into Doriath.

Beren and the Silmaril

The deeds of Beren are the house's chief glory. He won the love of Lúthien, daughter of Thingol and Melian, and with her and with Finrod's sacrifice he took a Silmaril from Morgoth's iron crown. His marriage was the first union of Elves and Men, and from it came Dior, Elwing, and at last Elrond and Elros. Every king of Númenor and every chieftain of the Dúnedain descended from the House of Bëor through this line.

Fate

As a people the Bëorians never recovered from the Bragollach. Those who escaped to Brethil and Dor-lómin merged with the other houses, and after the Nirnaeth and the ruin of Beleriand the remnant of Bëor's folk sailed with the other Edain to Númenor. There they were remembered chiefly in the west of the island, where the Elf-friends of Andúnië traced descent from Bëor's line. The house's name survived in the Elvish records and in the pride of Beren's descendants, but as a separate people it ended in the First Age.

The Bëorians were shorter and less broad than the Hadorians, with dark or brown hair and grey eyes. They were held to resemble the Noldor in features and in the quickness of their expressions. Bëor lived to ninety-three, and the lords of the house commonly lived some years beyond the span of lesser Men.

The Bëorians gave up their own language within a few generations and spoke Sindarin as a mother tongue. They loved learning and were the readiest of Men to sit with the Elves and question them about the world. They lived in Dorthonion as hunters and herdsmen among the pines, under hereditary lords who owed service to the sons of Finarfin. Their women were remembered for strength of will: Emeldir led her people to safety, and Andreth was counted wise even by the Eldar.

The people of Bëor were a branch of those Men who had turned away from Melkor in the far east and wandered west over many generations, guided by a longing for a light they had heard of but never seen. They were the first to reach the passes of the Ered Luin, and their leader Balan, renamed Bëor, was the first mortal to enter the service of an Elven-king.

Broken at the Dagor Bragollach and scattered thereafter, the House of Bëor merged into the other Edain and, through them, into the Númenóreans. Its royal legacy survived in the line of Beren and Lúthien.