Ulfang and Uldor by Himring

Ulfang and Uldor

Ulfang is the name of the leader of a group of Easterlings in the First Age.¹ His group is among the first and largest to arrive in Eastern Beleriand in the First Age,² and therefore, he is one of the two named leaders that Maedhros, son of Fëanor, chooses to forge an alliance with. Maedhros needs support for his planned major campaign against Morgoth, known as the Union of Maedhros. The sons of Fëanor and their previous allies have suffered a disastrous setback in their war against Morgoth a short time previously. Maedhros initially is pinning hopes on additional alliances to make up for heavy losses, but also, soon after, wishes to make a great push to win the whole war, rather than continue the failed attempt merely to contain the enemy.

Ulfang agrees to the alliance. However, unlike the other of the two named leaders of Easterlings, Bór, Ulfang, with his three sons Ulfast and Ulwarth and Uldor, is not sworn to the cause through personal allegiance to Maedhros but more indirectly through Maedhros's younger brother Caranthir. At first, the new alliance between the sons of Fëanor and the Easterlings achieves some military successes, and there is no indication that Ulfang and his people contribute less to these than Bór; they appear to be a valuable fighting force, although it is hinted that they are aiding Morgoth's spies. When it comes to the decisive battle, the three sons of Ulfang, and particularly Ulfang's son Uldor, turn out to have been plotting against the sons of Fëanor. For the success of Maedhros's battle plan, timing is critical. Uldor delays Maedhros's troops fatally with false reports of enemy movements that threaten his flank. Not only this, but when battle is engaged, the sons of Ulfang attack Maedhros and his army unexpectedly from the rear at a critical moment so that they have to divert their attention from the main battle to defend themselves. Moreover, Uldor also turns out to have summoned other Easterlings with whom he has previously arranged an ambush.

Although the machinations of the sons of Ulfang are not the only reason that the Union of Maedhros results in a failure that is even more disastrous than Morgoth's earlier attack, they are a very decisive factor in the comprehensive defeat that gains this battle the name Battle of Unnumbered Tears. Ulfang's sons, however, do not benefit from the success of their plot, as vengeance is swift. Uldor's brothers are killed in battle by the sons of Bór, who have remained loyal to Maedhros, and Uldor himself is killed by Maglor, the second eldest son of Fëanor. Furthermore, those Easterlings who joined the attack on the Fëanorian troops and survived the battle are not rewarded for their contribution to Morgoth's victory as they had expected. Instead, they are all penned by him in the region of Hithlum, where, by Morgoth's design, they become the oppressors of other Men, the remains of the defeated House of Hador.

Thus far, the outline of the story of Ulfang and his sons is told in the text of the published Silmarillion. The same narrative also introduces the Easterlings as a people or peoples. I have already discussed in my biography of Bór³ how Easterlings are portrayed and the problems connected with this. It will be necessary to touch on some of the same issues again here, but I refer to the previous biography for a more thorough discussion of these matters.

The story of the defeat of the Union of Maedhros and its tragic consequences for the people of Beleriand is a harrowing one. It does not come as a surprise to the reader that the Battle of Unnumbered Tears is lost, as its outcome has been well prepared for. What perhaps surprises, rather, is that despite all foreshadowing, Tolkien's narrative still manages to persuade readers that the battle was nearly won, heroically, at several points. That the defeat is almost total, nevertheless, adds further emotional weight to the narrator's condemnation of the betrayal that played such a decisive role in the defeat, a condemnation that is extended not just to Uldor or to Ulfang's people, but leads, troublingly, to Elvish distrust and rejection of Easterlings altogether:

From that day the hearts of the Elves were estranged from Men, save only those of the Three Houses of the Edain.⁴

The reader has not only been prepared for defeat, but also for the role of Easterlings in bringing it about, almost from the moment of their introduction to the story. While the details of Morgoth's plans are not revealed immediately, it is made quite obvious that the Easterlings' arrival and their joining with Maedhros is part of his design. Uldor, in particular, already is singled out the very first time he is named with the epithet "the accursed", hinting at his role to come, but in the same sentence the future treachery of all three brothers is announced unambiguously:

The sons of Ulfang the Black were Ulfast, and Ulwarth, and Uldor the accursed; and they followed Caranthir and swore allegiance to him, and proved faithless.⁵

The role of their father Ulfang is a little less clear in the published Silmarillion text, but he appears to be equally involved in his sons' plots at the planning stage,⁶ and his epithet in the sentence quoted above is surely intended to be ominous in its own way: the Easterlings have been introduced as Swarthy Men and, given the associated colour bias discussed elsewhere,⁷ to be singled out as the Black among the swarthy is unlikely to be a value-neutral statement, even if as epithet it is not as blindingly obvious as "the accursed". (As comparison with another version of the story shows, Ulfang may have died shortly before the date of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.⁸)

How Caranthir's association with Ulfang's family came about or developed is not discussed. Narratively, it appears to mirror Caranthir's previous failure to recruit Haleth and the Haladin (although in terms of the development of the Legendarium, it is Haleth's history with Caranthir that developed later⁹). In the case of the Haladin, Caranthir's offer of allegiance was delayed, as well as his assistance, and Haleth refused it, but both sides were sincere in their interactions with each other.¹⁰ In the case of Ulfang, the opposite happens: the alliance is forged precipitately and in deception. More superficially, Caranthir's byname "the Dark" could be seen as linking to the names "Swarthy Men" and  "the Black" through an association of colour.

Some further speculation is possible, but bound to remain inconclusive. Caranthir's temper is said to be harsh elsewhere,¹¹ and this may have made it more difficult for him to gain Men's loyalty, but the brief narrative seems to offer no suggestion of a particular conflict with Ulfang that might have caused a rift. Another possible consideration might be that, as allegiance to Maedhros was indirect, that might make it easier for Uldor to deceive him, if it means Maedhros was less well acquainted with him, but that also seems not fully supported by the text.

On the other hand, despite the implication that Ulfang and his sons were almost certainly already in the service of Morgoth—or at least in communication with him—before they ever met the sons of Fëanor, there is no suggestion in the text that this previous allegiance makes their betrayal of Maedhros and Caranthir any less personal: Ulfang's sons are described as faithless. (There is no room in this narrative for the concept of the daring double agent, even if arguably that is what Uldor's actions represent, for allegiance to Morgoth is a priori not treated as a valid motivation.) 

There is also little differentiation in the narrator's assessment between different groups of Easterlings that are described as involved in Ulfang's and Uldor's plans: there are Ulfang's original followers, others of their kinsfolk summoned out of the East who joined the Fëanorian troops shortly before the battle,¹² and also the Easterlings that Uldor had apparently summoned separately and hid in ambush and who seem not to have been pledged to Maedhros beforehand. All these are condemned equally for treachery, with the exception of those Easterlings who merely fled the battle in fear, deceived by lies. Thus, those Easterlings who are sent by Morgoth to Hithlum after the battle are by no means all survivors of Ulfang's original group, and the proportion of survivors from that group might be relatively low, given the fate of their leaders, although the narrative obscures this.¹³

That it is Maglor who ends up killing Uldor in the battle can be read as Maglor acting as Maedhros's proxy in avenging this betrayal, as the two brothers are already closely associated by that point. Maglor has been named earlier as sharing in the allegiance of the sons of Bór with Maedhros¹⁴ and, during the battle, he may be fighting with the sons of Bór as a unit to counter the attack of the sons of Ulfang.

The motivation for the betrayal attributed to the Easterlings is greed. While the motivations given for the original arrival of the Easterlings in general are less uniformly negative (although they do not include any consideration of the pressures the Easterlings might have found themselves under where they came from), the desires of those who served Morgoth during the battle are said to be the opportunity for gain, implying conquest or plunder:  "they coveted the rich lands of Beleriand."¹⁵

But Morgoth denies them this and they are reduced to the role he assigns to them in Dor-lómin, a development that Ulfang and his sons are unlikely to have foreseen, even though it is narratively prepared for by hints of earlier hostility between the Easterlings and the Edain, already during a time when they hardly met.¹⁶  Of course, Ulfang and Uldor might have been able to guess that Morgoth's promises were untrustworthy, regardless.

The situation in Hithlum and the disappointment of the Easterlings' expectations neither hinders Morgoth from enlisting the Easterling occupiers of Hithlum for his purposes again later on, nor from summoning new Easterling reinforcements during the War of Wrath.¹⁷ While, in one sense, Ulfang and his sons leave no legacy, as they do not survive the aftermath of their intrigues and they have no named descendants, in another sense, their legacy is long-lasting and fatal: a pattern is set that will play out in the Legendarium again and again even in the Third Age—a pattern of hostile interaction between Easterlings and the West that Tolkien never quite breaks, even when he seems troubled by it.

It is obvious that the story of Ulfang and his sons is told almost entirely from an Elvish point of view. This perhaps comes across particularly egregiously (although a little tangentially), when it is said of the last stand of the Men of Dor-lómin,"Thus was the treachery of Uldor redressed …."¹⁸

There appears to be no reason at all why the Men of Dor-lómin should be called on to make up for the treachery of Uldor, except that, in the eyes of Elves, both of these groups are Men.

It is left to readers and writers to imagine what background might have led Ulfang, Uldor and his two brothers, who seem to show considerable political and military skills as well as physical courage, to engage upon such a very dangerous plot that proved fatal to them in the end.

Earlier Versions of the Legendarium

Looking at the earlier versions of the Legendarium, we find that the theme of treachery as a factor in this major battle goes back to the earliest layers, but the attribution of such a betrayal to Uldor and the Swarthy Men (originally "swart Men") came later. The name of Uldor and the concept of the Swarthy Men are introduced together.¹⁹

During the development of the Legendarium, the story becomes temporarily more focussed on Uldor's personal betrayal of Cranthir (the earlier name of Caranthir). Cranthir is stated to have loved Uldor and his brothers and killed Uldor with his own hands for his betrayal.²⁰ But Tolkien eventually shifted the focus of Uldor's story a little away from Caranthir, as indicated above.

The introduction of the character and names of Uldor's father and brothers follow shortly after his own, all of the names, in their different versions, consistently featuring Ul- as the first element. Although the precise sense of the element in these names is not certain, it is clear that, as etymologized in Sindarin, all four have uncomplimentary names, apparently to be interpreted as speaking names given by speakers of Sindarin with reference to the betrayal, as if the betrayal was already known to them.²¹ There is no realistic in-universe explanation offered for this, although of course it would not be impossible to construct explanations, with a little world-building effort.

It also appears, according to material from this approximate period,²² that Uldor was the eldest son, followed by Ulfast and Ulwarth. This may still be the case later on, at the time of the published Silmarillion text, even though the enumeration of the brothers (as cited above) puts Uldor last, as that ordering may be for syntactic rather than chronological reasons.²³ The same genealogical material suggests that Ulfang died shortly before the final battle.

In the Grey Annals, the story has reached the shape it has in the published Silmarillion, with little more detail given on the subversive activity of Uldor and his family. It is stated more explicitly here, however, that they were afterwards believed to have been in Morgoth's service even before their arrival.²⁴

Works Cited

1. In The Silmarillion, Ulfang 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 the rest of their story unfolds in the chapter "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad". All the following discussion is based on this version, 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. Himring, "Bór," Silmarillion Writers' Guild, July 1, 2022, accessed October 30, 2022.
4. The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad." A similar comment later recurs in the context of the War of Wrath (The Silmarillion, "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath.")
5. The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin."
6. "In this hour the plots of Ulfang were revealed." (The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad.")
7. See the biography of "Bór," /node/5593 and further for references in that biography.
8. History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road, Appendix: I: The Genealogies. Compare the discussion below.
9. Lady Haleth and her encounter with Caranthir emerge in History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Later Quenta Silmarillion, §25-27. Uldor's association with Caranthir goes back considerably further than that; see below.
10. The Silmarillion, "Of the Coming of Men into the West."
11. The Silmarillion, "Of the Return of the Noldor." Also, both Caranthir and the Easterlings are linked to Dwarves, but they interact with them in different ways, and it is not clear how that shared connection could be relevant. In the case of the Easterlings, some are said to prefer Dwarves over Elves in The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin," but they are not explicitly specified to be of the people of Ulfang.
12. The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad."
13. The occupiers of Hithlum are still called "the people of Uldor" a considerable time later in The Silmarillion, "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath."
14. It is often assumed by readers that Maedhros and Maglor were already closer than the rest of their brothers to begin with, but in the texts that association only gradually becomes apparent. In The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin", Maglor is associated, together with Maedhros, with Bór and his sons. By that time, he is residing together with Maedhros in Himring.
15. The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad." This could imply, concretely, that they were denied any spoils from Morgoth's subsequent attack on the Falas the following year. But the reference seems vaguer than this and to hearken back to comparisons between northern Hithlum and Beleriand proper in The Silmarillion, "Of Beleriand and Its Realms."
16. The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin."
17. The Silmarillion, "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath."
18. The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad."
19. History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, Section 11.
20. History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Earliest Annals of Beleriand, Annals 163, 172; History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road. Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Fourth Battle: Nirnaith Arnediad," §15.
21. History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road, The Etymologies, ÚLUG. Compare the discussion of the individual name forms by Paul Strack on Eldamo (for example: Uldor, accessed October 30, 2022).
22. History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road, Appendix: I: The Genealogies.
23. That is, Uldor's name may have moved to the end because the addition of the epithet "the accursed" makes Uldor's name longer than that of his brothers.
24. History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, Annal 463, §174, note.