By Elizabeth T.

From 455 of the First Age to 460 of the same age, Barahir, son of Bregor, was a lord of the First House commanding a band of fellow outlaw Edain that later aided him in the rescue of Finrod Felagund. It was after this rescue during Dagor Bragollach that Finrod gave his ring to Barahir as a symbol of his pledge of aid to that house in an act of thanks for his rescue. Finrod did indeed fulfill his promise to Barahir when he went forth with Barahir’s son, Beren the One-hand, on the Adan’s quest for the Silmaril that would enable him to wed Lúthien, daughter of Thingol. Findrod upheld his pledge even to the death which claimed him in the dungeons of Tol-in-Gaurhoth while defending Beren.

After Barahir’s rescue of Finrod, he returned to Dorthonion. Morgoth’s shadow stretched further and sought ever to take the lands denied him. But Barahir and his band stood fast in their dwindling territory against the wiles and assaults of Morgoth’s evil. Their plight eventually became so desperate that Barahir’s wife, Emeldir the Manhearted, led the remaining women and children of that house to Brethil. Their journey was equally perilous and they were wrought with much loss.

As for the fate of Barahir and his men that yet lived, they remained in the wild and were hunted by their foes. Only when their last possessions and comforts were destroyed did they at last withdraw to the "…barren highland above the forest " and to the Tarn Aeluin. Here Barahir and his outlaws were concealed and Morgoth failed to find them. There safety was betrayed unwittingly by Gorlim son of Angrim, who’s love for his lost wife Eilinel drove him to depart secretly at times from his companions at Tarn Aeluin and visit his home which still stood.

Unbeknownst to him, the spies of Morgoth knew of this and while he had come down on and autumn evening he saw a light in the window and within one whom he thought to be his beloved Eilinel and was taken captive by Sauron’s hunters. He held strong at first, telling nothing of Barahir’s position, but at last after vain promises of being reunited with his love and through the weariness of his pain he faltered and was taken to Sauron himself, whom was yet Morgoth’s chief servant. Sauron told Gorlim of the sorcerer’s trick he had played on him, but though his heart would have him draw back and say nothing, Gorlim could not relent now for the look in Sauron’s eyes held him. He told all, and in the end was indeed reunited with Eilinel through the cruel death that Sauron delivered upon him.

Through this, Barahir and his remaining outlaws were betrayed and all were slain save his son, Beren. He, through a dream, perceived this tragedy and hastened to their lair and buried his father’s bones. Here he swore an oath of vengeance and set out to fulfill it upon the heads of the Orcs which committed the crime. It was by Rivil’s Well above the Fen of Serech that he found them and slew the Orc who boast of their triumph. From the Orc he took the hand of his father which bore the ring given to him by Felagund that the Orc had taken as proof of their success.

Here Barahir’s tale ends and Beren’s begins. As for the ring of Felagund and Barahir, Beren bore it to Nargothrond during the Quest for the Silmarils perhaps as evidence to Finrod and then was preserved through the remainder of the First Age. Passing into the keeping of the Faithful of Númenor in the Second Age. By the Third Age it was an heirloom of the North-kingdom. After the fall Arthedain, Arvedui, the last king of that realm, gave it to the chief of the Lossoth after which it was ransomed back. Following that, it was kept in Imladris and perhaps handed off to Aragorn whom later was known as Elessar.