Character of the Month: Bór

Bór is one of those characters in the legendarium who feels like a work in progress. He's also one of those characters barely mentioned (just four times!) but whose role, according to this month's biography author Himring, "has some importance within the Legendarium for its implications and the questions it raises."

Bór, along with his sons, is one of the loyal Easterlings who followed Maedhros and died fighting the (disloyal) Easterlings led by Ulfang. This month's biography not only details what the texts tell us of his life and the Easterlings overall but those larger implications: namely, the role of free will and choice and the expansion of the world of Middle-earth from its Beleriandic focus.

The latter, of course, introduces the issue of race, with the Easterlings often held up as one more example of Tolkien's tendency to correlate melanism and a susceptibility to evil. Himring calls Bór and his sons "at first sight a very welcome counterexample," but as always with Tolkien, a more thorough unpacking of Bór and the Easterlings uncovers complexity.

You can read this month's biography of Bór here.

Posted on 1 July 2022 (updated 5 August 2022) by Dawn Felagund