The First Age of the
Children of Ilúvatar (
Eruhíni) began during the Years of the Trees when the
Elves awoke in
Cuiviénen in the middle-east of
Middle-earth. This marked the start of the years when the Children of Ilúvatar were active in Middle-earth.
First Age The First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar, also referred to as the Elder Days in
The Lord of the Rings, began during the Years of the Trees when the Elves awoke at Cuiviénen, and hence the events mentioned above under
Years of the Trees overlap with the beginning of the First Age. Fingolfin died when Morgoth broke the siege in the
Dagor Bragollach ("Battle of Sudden Flame"). The Elves, Men, and Dwarves were all disastrously defeated in the
Nírnaeth Arnoediad ("Battle of Unnumbered Tears"), and one by one, the kingdoms fell, even the hidden ones of
Doriath and
Gondolin. At the end of the age, all that remained of free Elves and Men in
Beleriand was a settlement at the mouth of the
River Sirion and another on the Isle of Balar.
Eärendil possessed the Silmaril which his wife Elwing's grandparents,
Beren and Lúthien, had taken from Morgoth. But Fëanor's sons still maintained that all the Silmarils belonged to them, and so there were two more Kinslayings. Eärendil and Elwing crossed the
Great Sea to beg the Valar for aid against Morgoth. They responded, sending forth a great host. In the War of Wrath, Melkor was utterly defeated. He was expelled into the Void and most of his works were destroyed, bringing the First Age to an end. This came at a terrible cost, however, as most of
Beleriand itself was sunk. At the start of the Second Age, the Men who had remained faithful were given the island of Númenor, in the middle of the Great Sea, and there they established a powerful kingdom. The
White Tree of Númenor was planted in the King's city of
Armenelos; and it was said that while that tree stood in the King's courtyard, the reign of Númenor would endure. The Elves were granted pardon for the sins of Fëanor, and were allowed to return home to the
Undying Lands. The Third Age saw the rise in power of the realms of Arnor and
Gondor, and their fall. Arnor was divided into three petty Kingdoms, which fell one by one in the wars with Sauron's vassal kingdom of Angmar, whilst Gondor fell victim to Kin-strife, plague,
Wainriders, and
Corsairs. In this time, the line of the Kings of Gondor ends, with the
House of the Stewards ruling in their stead. Meanwhile, the
heirs of Isildur from the fallen kingdom of Arnor wander Middle-earth, aided only by
Elrond in
Rivendell; but the line of rightful heirs remains unbroken throughout the age. By the winter of late the Plague spread from Rhûn into
Wilderland, on the east of Middle-earth's western lands; in Wilderland it killed more than half the population. In the following year the Great Plague spread into
Gondor and then
Eriador. In Gondor the Plague caused many deaths, including King Telemnar, his children, and the
White Tree; the population of the capital city
Osgiliath was decimated, and government of the kingdom was transferred to
Minas Tirith. In Eriador, the nascent
Hobbit-realm of
the Shire suffered "great loss" in what they called the Dark Plague. Eldarion, son of Aragorn II Elessar and Arwen Evenstar, became King of the Reunited Kingdom in F.A. 120. Aragorn gave him the tokens of his rule, and then surrendered his life willingly, as his ancestors had done thousands of years before. Arwen left him to rule alone, passing away to the now-empty land of
Lórien where she died. Upon the death of Aragorn, Legolas departed Middle-earth for Valinor, taking Gimli with him and ending the Fellowship of the Ring in Middle-earth. Tolkien once considered writing a sequel to
The Lord of the Rings, called
The New Shadow, which would have taken place in Eldarion's reign, and in which Eldarion deals with his people turning to evil practices – in effect, a repetition of the history of
Númenor. In a 1972 letter concerning this draft, Tolkien mentioned that Eldarion's reign would have lasted for about 100 years after the death of Aragorn. His realm was to be "great and long-enduring", but the lifespan of the royal house was not to be restored; it would continue to wane until it was like that of ordinary Men.
Later Ages Later Ages continue up to modern times, the remade Arda being equated with Earth. With the loss of all its peoples except Man, and the reshaping of the continents, all that is left of Middle-earth is a dim memory in
folklore,
legend, and
old words. The concept of Dagor Dagorath appears in many of Tolkien's manuscripts that were published by his son
Christopher in
The History of Middle-earth series, but not in the published
Silmarillion, where the eventual fate of Arda is left open-ended in the closing lines of the
Quenta Silmarillion. However, Tolkien later came to the conclusion that the Elves themselves had no objective idea of the end of Arda, although they understood with some clarity that it would be achieved through a large-scale catastrophe. The only thing the Elves could count on was
estel, which is hope on Eru that his divine plan would ultimately result in salvation and good for the whole world and all the peoples who lived in it. In this context, the legend of the Second Prophecy of Mandos and the specific events of Dagor Dagorath were in fact an ancient Mannish myth of Númenórean origin. == Analysis ==