Bór by Himring

I

The story of Bór and his sons is a short one, within the First Age events recounted by The Silmarillion, with few details given,¹ but it has some importance within the Legendarium for its implications and the questions it raises.

Bór is the leader of a group of Easterlings. In the context of Beleriand in the First Age, this means that he and his people are part of a second wave of immigration of Men from the other side of its eastern border, the mountains of the Ered Luin, which took place a few generations after the arrival of the Edain.²

Whereas the Edain arrived in a time of relative peace in Beleriand, during which Morgoth and his forces were largely contained within their fortress of Angband by the Elves, the situation had changed by the time of the arrival of the Easterlings, who arrived shortly after the disastrous Battle of Sudden Flame.³ Apparently taking a more northern route than the Edain earlier,⁴ the Easterlings arrive in a region of Eastern Beleriand that was largely overrun a short time previously, except for the fortress of Himring, still defended by Maedhros, son of Fëanor. Maedhros at this time is trying to reassert his control over the area and, if possible, push back against Morgoth’s forces, with an eventual aim of counterattacking. He is therefore seeking new allies and welcomes the Easterlings, receiving a number of them into his allegiance. Men have previously provided significant support to Elven rulers in Beleriand, but the Edain have recently suffered very heavy losses, as well as the Elves. Before the Easterlings, alliances of Men had been chiefly with the houses of Fingolfin and Finarfin, among the rulers of the Noldor, rather than with the house of Fëanor, so for Maedhros and his brothers this is a new departure in more than one way.

The newly arrived Easterlings are numerous and split into several groups, some of which are still on the other side of the mountains. The two major groups that Maedhros seeks out are under the leadership of Bór and Ulfang. One of these two groups, led by Bór, from then on owes immediate allegiance to Maedhros himself and to his brother Maglor, who has recently joined him at Himring.⁵ Ulfang, the leader of the other group, who like Bór has three sons, follows Caranthir, one of Maedhros’s brothers. (Maedhros and Caranthir are the two of the Sons of Fëanor who are also recorded as having had amicable, although limited, relations with Men in the past.⁶)

At first this new alliance between the Sons of Fëanor and these two groups of Easterlings appears to be successful, as Maedhros manages to make territorial gains and push the enemy back. However, from the beginning there is a question mark over the alliance and its future success in the narrative. This is partly because the whole narrative arc already indicates that Maedhros and his brothers cannot win against Morgoth in the end. However, it is also hinted early on that Morgoth is aware of the Easterlings’ arrival before it happens, may even have planned it outright, and also expects the Easterlings to betray Maedhros and their alliance with the Elves. It is not made entirely clear exactly how strong Morgoth’s hold over the Easterlings might be and how far Bór and Ulfang are aware of his plans from the start: it is stated that some of the Easterlings are indeed under Morgoth’s dominion, but others of the immigrating Easterlings appear to be motivated by a variety of more general human goals and emotions: material acquisition, curiosity, or simple wanderlust:⁷

Some were already secretly under the dominion of Morgoth, and came at his call; but not all, for the rumour of Beleriand, of its lands and waters, of its wars and riches, went now far and wide, and the wandering feet of Men were ever set westward in those days.⁸

Whatever Morgoth’s possible hold over Bór and his people might be, Bór and his sons successfully resist it, while other Easterlings are more susceptible to Morgoth’s attempts at infiltration. When Maedhros and his allies finally meet Morgoth’s forces in pitched battle on the plain of Anfauglith before Angband in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, Bór’s sons remain faithful throughout. However, Ulfang’s people, and particularly Ulfang’s son Uldor, have already betrayed and fatally delayed Maedhros and now attack without warning at a crucial moment. Bór’s sons fight and fall during this attack but not before killing Uldor’s two brothers and helping to mitigate the effect of Uldor’s betrayal at least to some extent, although not the final outcome. Bór’s sons are no longer alive to witness Maedhros’s crushing defeat and retreat. Bór, if he is present at the battle, shares the fate of his sons.⁹

Some Easterlings have already fled in fear and confusion before Morgoth’s tremendous assault, even before Uldor attacked Maedhros’s troops treacherously from the rear, but it is not clear whether any of them belong to Bór’s people or how many of Bór’s people fall with their leaders. Some of Bór’s people may survive the battle, but the death of the chieftain and all his heirs suggests that they lost their identity as a people. Bór and his sons or his people are not mentioned again in the narrative of The Silmarillion.¹⁰ They appear to be so quickly forgotten that a concluding comment states that the Elves trusted only Edain among Men from that day on:

From that day the hearts of the Elves were estranged from Men, save only those of the Three Houses of the Edain.¹¹

II

Before considering the implications of Bór’s story further, it may be helpful to note that, as far as authorial intention goes, the main focus of this story is clearly on the role of his family within the story arc of Maedhros and his brothers and is subordinate to it, because this helps to evaluate both the information that is given and the gaps. The different versions and revisions of the Quenta Silmarillion make a sequence of adjustments to the degree in which different factors contribute to the gradual downfall of the Sons of Fëanor: character flaws of the individual sons of Fëanor and individual wrong decisions, the overwhelming power and malice of their opponent Morgoth, and foreordained fate as retribution for their earlier transgressions. Bór’s story is deeply embedded in this Fëanorian arc.

In the earliest version of the story of this great defeat of the Elves by Morgoth, there were no Easterlings, although betrayal features in accounts of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears from the start. In an early draft, betrayal is attributed to certain Men, but these do not belong to a particular group.¹² The series of revisions in the account of the defeat seem to be linked to Tolkien’s reinterpretations of the Doom of the Noldor and the curse on the house of Fëanor, sometimes clarifying the chain of causality, but sometimes seeming to introduce more ambiguity. From this point of view, Bór seems to represent an element of agency and free will: the way Bór and Ulfang and their sons mirror each other¹³ demonstrates that the betrayal of Ulfang, Uldor, and the others was not inevitable. Because Bór and his sons chose differently, the other Easterlings could have chosen differently, too. However, their death also shows that making the right choice—or at least the best choice available under the circumstances—is not necessarily rewarded with victory or survival.

On the other hand, the lack of clarity in the narrative on the extent to which the Easterlings had been under Morgoth's power and how much information, exactly, was passing between them and Morgoth, creates more ambiguity, which also enables the narrator to shift blame back towards Maedhros and Caranthir. As elsewhere, not all of that ambiguity is necessarily deliberate, given the complicated history of the text.

It seems to be implied that it is not coincidental that it is the Easterlings who owe their allegiance directly to Maedhros that remain loyal. This is probably to be linked in some way to more negative characterization of Caranthir elsewhere in the text, although any conclusion that he treated the Easterlings led by Ulfang badly would contradict a statement in an earlier version of the tale.¹⁴ Maedhros may have handled relations with Bór and his sons better or been more inspiring as a leader, but is accused by the narrator of making a tactical error by prematurely revealing his hand.

III

The Easterlings of the First Age are characterized in the text as a distinct ethnic group by means of physical characteristics; that is, the Easterlings are said to share physical traits that typically appear to distinguish them from the Edain:

These Men were short and broad, long and strong in the arm; their skins were swart or sallow, and their hair was dark as were their eyes.¹⁵

There are a number of physical traits given in this initial description,¹⁶ but the use of colour adjectives stands out among these: they have been introduced as “Swarthy Men,” and it is specified that not only are their hair and their eyes dark, but their skin is “swart or sallow”. These are problematic adjectives in the context of Tolkien’s Legendarium and the sources that influence him in his use of colour terms and their symbolism. While the use of “swarthy” or the related “swart” is not inevitably negative in Tolkien,¹⁷ it is predominantly associated with negative characterizations, both when the word refers to stereotypical traits of ethnic groups and when it refers to individuals—for example Bill Ferny of Bree.¹⁸ “Swarthy Men” appears to be used as an alternative term for Haradrim in The Lord of the Rings as well as for Easterlings¹⁹ and can be compared to the related “Swertings”, used by Hobbits.²⁰ (However, “swart” and “swarthy” could cover quite a range of darker skin tones.)  The term “sallow” is similarly problematic. It probably denotes lighter skin tones than swarthy,²¹ but as a description of olive or yellowish skin, it also tends to have negative associations, because in individuals of European descent that colour is associated with disease or ill health. Taken together with other physical traits such as short stature and long arms, this physical description of the Easterlings is not distinctive enough to identify with any particular historical group but shows overlap with other negative ethnic stereotypes within the Legendarium to a degree which is likely to cause misgivings and concern to a contemporary reader.

This combines with elements of nonphysical characterization to contrast the Easterlings with the Edain in a less positive light, foreshadowing the betrayal by Ulfang’s people and other later events before they have occurred. Not all of these nonphysical characteristics seem to apply to Bór’s people, but a certain amount of hostility to Edain appears to be attributed to them as well.²² This may not only be intended as foreshadowing, as there are hints of an earlier history of hostility between Edain and other Men in Tolkien’s writings,²³ but the early history of Men in the Legendarium is a subject which does not appear to have reached a stable canonical form.

The Easterlings of the First Age emerge from the other side of the Blue Mountains, apparently from territory that in the Third Age will be part of Eriador. Originally, they would hail from farther East than that, since all Men, including the Edain, are said to be originally from Hildórien,²⁴ but there is no distinct account of their earlier movements. Nevertheless, their arrival seems to mark a point at which the perception of the westward movement of peoples, which is quite a common trait in the origin story of Elves, Men, and even, to some extent, Dwarves in the Legendarium,²⁵ shifts and migration from the East is more likely to be perceived as potentially hostile.

The First Age Easterlings are also said to have their own language, but their linguistic identity seems to be a relatively late concept and is not consistently developed.²⁶ The names of Bór and his sons were originally etymologized in Noldorin, the ancestor of Sindarin (although not fully), and their later versions are still at least partly analysable in Sindarin. The names of Bór’s sons are given as Borlad (earlier Borlas), Borlach (earlier Boromir), and Borthand (earlier Borthandos). The element Bor- shared by all four names is etymologized as “Faithful”, except in the case of Borthandos (apparently because it would have been too difficult to etymologize -thandos). The names are stated to have been “given”, presumably by the Noldor, and are clearly speaking names, but to deduce that they were conferred posthumously may be to apply a reasoning to the interpretation of this etymology that Tolkien perhaps would not always wish to see to applied to such names.²⁷

IV

In the earliest version of the Legendarium, Easterlings had no role in the history of Beleriand: not only were they not involved in betraying the Union of Maedhros, but they also were not originally a part of the story of Túrin and the house of Hador, either.²⁸ In both cases, these are later narrative developments. The idea of the involvement of groups from outside Beleriand seems to have developed as the horizons of Middle-earth began to broaden beyond Tolkien’s original focus.

But it is not certain how unified the concept of Easterlings is in Tolkien’s mind. In the Third Age, Easterlings appear to be a category of people defined from the point of view of Gondor and its allies, a cover term for perhaps quite unrelated ethnic groups liable to invade Gondor and Rhovanion from the East. The inspiration of their portrayal in the Appendices²⁹ seems to be a succession of historical invasions by nomadic or otherwise more mobile groups into the settled territory of the Roman Empire and its successors from the East. The attack of the Huns, in particular, had left its mark on Germanic literature that Tolkien was familiar with and that inspired him,³⁰ but he would also have been aware of later attacks by other groups, such as the Hungarians and Mongols. In the main text of The Lord of the Rings, the descriptions are vaguer but also more menacing, as the association between Sauron and the peoples of the East is more explicit and there is a sense of looming hostile multitudes, which contrasts with the one dead Easterling whose face Sam actually sees and reflects upon.³¹ Here, the resonances of the experience of the two World Wars seem to predominate over other ethnic and historical associations, although they are also coloured by fears that seem to go further back.

V

To a contemporary reader troubled by Tolkien’s tendency to depict groups of Men that are not of the Edain or, in the Third Age, aligned with the West as racially other and dark, and permit that dark colouring symbolically to imply negative moral values,³² Bór the Faithful and his sons seem at first sight a very welcome counterexample. Indeed, it is difficult to see how any personal criticism could be levelled against Bór and his sons, who live up to the loyalty they are named for against overwhelming forces of evil and pay for that choice with their lives. The way this is presented narratively in the published Silmarillion text, however, qualifies that impression to some extent, making the house of Bór look more like an exception that proves a rule and, furthermore, almost appearing to convey some kind of guilt by association, both by association with the house of Ulfang and the house of Fëanor. The alliance of Bór and Maedhros seems to be presented as a lesser foil to the alliance of the house of Bëor with Finrod and the house of Hador with Fingolfin and his sons; the memorable Elf-friends are from among the Edain.

Tolkien may not have intended it quite like this and some details that did not make it into the published Silmarillion from The Grey Annals version of the story suggest a bit more nuance, although its expression remains tied to a similar point of view and system of values:

Some were not uncomely and were fair to deal with; some were grim and ill-favoured and of little trust.³³

In this source, Bór’s people are also portrayed as “worthy” people interested in settling and invested in agriculture.³⁴ However, if Tolkien was at any point considering making Bór part of a longer tradition of Faithful Men, he does not seem to have developed the idea further.³⁵ Moreover, as the narrative is so distanced from the point of view of the characters in this passage, the members of the house of Bór’s own perspective on their fate remains unexplored. We see elsewhere that Tolkien was not incapable of imagining that the perspective of an Easterling might be different, as the aforementioned reflections by Sam on the dead Easterling show. However, in the case of Bór and his sons, it is left to the reader to employ their own imagination in order to appreciate more fully the conflicts and the tragedy inherent in this story of Bór and his sons, a tragedy that the narrative threatens to submerge in the more general tragedy of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

Works Cited

1. In The Silmarillion, Bór and his house are introduced upon their arrival in Beleriand in the chapter of “Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin” and meet their fate in the chapter “Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad”. All the following discussion is based on this version of their story, unless otherwise indicated.
2. According to History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §173, the Easterlings arrived in the year 463 of the First Age.
3. For an account of this battle, see: The Silmarillion, “Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin.
4. Unlike the Edain, the Easterlings do not appear to encounter the Elves of Ossiriand in any version of the tale. According to History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §173, they entered Beleriand by passing around the Ered Luin to the north. The northerly route could be meant to be read as ominous, suggesting affinity with Angband.
5. Maglor is not mentioned beside Maedhros in this context in the version in The Grey Annals (History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §174).
6. These interactions are mentioned in The Silmarillion, “Of the Coming of Men into the West.” Amlach of the house of Hador joined the service of Maedhros. Caranthir came to the aid of the Haladin, when they were besieged at the Ascar, and offered them friendship and protection, although the offer was rejected.
7. In The Grey Annals it is stated a little more straightforwardly in a note that it was the people of Ulfang who were believed to have been secretly in the service of Morgoth even before they entered Beleriand (History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §174, note), although they also aided in further attempts at subverting others (Annal 469, §213).
8. The Silmarillion, “Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin."
9. The Grey Annals (History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 231) say Bór was with his sons, as he already was in the History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Earliest Annals of Beleriand, Annal 172. In that earliest version, all four of them remain faithful but are slain by the sons of Ulfang, without accomplishing the death of two of these.
10. However, a footnote in The Grey Annals (History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §174, note) suggests that people of Bór were among the ancestors of the people of Eriador, which would imply that some survived the battle, unless this subgroup had remained in Eriador in the first place.
11. The Silmarillion, “Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad.” The original version of that concluding statement seems to go back to a version in the History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, Section 11, in which the motif of the treachery of Uldor and the "swart men" had already emerged but the loyalty of Bór had not. The first mention of the sons of Bór is in later revisions to this section of The Quenta (footnote 14).
12. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The History of the Exiled Gnomes, Gilfanon’s Tale: The Travail of the Noldoli.
13. This kind of mirroring effect (that is, three sons on either side) is one commonly employed in folktales and mythology, but less often in more realistic modes of storytelling.
14. In History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Earliest Annals of Beleriand, Annal 163, it is stated that the sons of Ulfand (earlier name of Ulfang) were most beloved by Cranthir (earlier name of Caranthir).
15. The Silmarillion, “Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin.” Tolkien has a tendency to imagine ethnic groups as showing significant degrees of physical differentiation even when his origin stories do not seem to allow much time for such developments.
16. The description is in The Silmarillion, “Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin.” In its earliest form, this description goes back to the 1930s. Compare the discussion of the earliest versions in Dimitra Fimi, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 146-7, who also discusses the cultural background at the time.
17. Some members of the house of Bëor are said to be swarthy in History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, Of Dwarves and Men, “The Atani and their Languages."
18. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony."
19. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, “The Muster of Rohan."
20. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, “The Black Gate is Closed.” Tolkien had once written a study of Old English references of Ethiopians in which the word “swart,” or rather its Old English ancestor, also figures (“Sigelwara Land,” Medium Aevum Vol. 1, No. 3 (December 1932): 183-196 (first part of an article continued in Medium Aevum Vol. 3, No. 2 (June 1934): 95-111). He comments that one might expect to find an early English name for them to be derived from this word, although such a word is not attested (p. 191). (This is a philological essay, a review of scattered beliefs and imagery associated with Ethiopians in Old English sources in order to discuss the probable etymology of an obscure compound name for them. These beliefs are certainly not endorsed, but a contemporary reader might well find the wording of some of the discussion insufficiently sensitive.)
21. Tolkien, however, would have been aware that in Old English the word and its compounds can refer to a darker, sometimes even black, colour and the use of sallow for yellowish skin is only securely attested later in English. Compare Joseph Bosworth, .An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online,  ed. Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy (Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014), “salu."
22. The preference for Dwarves over Elves may be implied for the house of Bór as well (this is a detail that would have had rather different implications over time, as Tolkien’s concept of the Dwarves shifted). The account in The Grey Annals (History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §174, note) has a few additional details, including the information that the house of Bór were "worthy folk and tillers of the earth".
23. History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth’s Ring, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, The Tale of Adanel.
24. The Silmarillion, "Of Men."
25. Compare the medieval idea that Paradise was in the East.
26. The language is only explicitly commented on in Unfinished Tales, Narn i Hîn Húrin, The Return of Túrin to Dor-lómin, where it is called “harsh” (in a context of occupation and oppression) but no more detail is given. Given the disunity between groups of Easterlings, this might not even necessarily be Bór’s own language or dialect.
27. History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road, The Etymologies, BOR-.
28. Compare the biography by oshun, "Brodda,"Silmarillion Writers' Guild, July 1, 2017, accessed June 26, 2022, which explains that although this character was already in the first draft, he was not originally an Easterling.
29. The Lord of the Rings: The Númenorean Kings, Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion, Appendix A, records a number of attacks by Easterlings, including groups distinguished as the Wainriders and the Balchoth.
30. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, especially Guðrúnarkviða en nýja (The New Lay of Gudrún).
31. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit.
32. On this subject more generally, compare the discussion by Dimitra Fimi, "Revisiting Race in Tolkien’s Legendarium: Constructing Cultures and Ideologies in an Imaginary World," Dr Dimitra Fimi: Academic and Writer, December 2, 2018, accessed June 25, 2022.
33. History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §173.
34. History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §174 and note.
35. It seems possible that he might have been contemplating such a tradition at the time of History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, but it is impossible to pin down or to prove. Compare also the suggestion of survival in Eriador in History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §174, note.