Isildur!
If you really got into Professor J.R.R.
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you have to read Isildur. Just as Lord
of the Rings told the story of the war that ended the Third Age, Isildur
tells of the even greater conflict that brought to an end the Second Age. Copyright 1996 by Brian K. Crawford.
NEW! Second Edition
available in hardcopy!
After
receiving hundreds of comments from readers (many pointing out inconsistencies
between Isildur and Tolkien’s canon), I have spent four years working with
three other editors to correct these inconsistencies and other errors. This required a major rewrite of the
story and entirely new chapters from the fall of Sauron until the death of
Isildur. This new Second Edition
is now complete and available in either paperback or hardcover editions. It has a beautiful new cover by David
Criado Ortiz. Check it out at: www.Lulu.com\BrianCrawford. Copyright 2008 by Brian K. Crawford
Synopsis
The time is over three thousand years before the
birth of Frodo Nine-Finger the Ringbearer. The Elves are much more active in
the affairs of the world and the hobbits and wizards have not yet appeared. The
mighty empires of the exiled Men of Numenor are just rising to the height of
their glory. The high king Elendil rules in Arnor in the north and has
entrusted the southern realm of Gondor to his sons Isildur and Anarion. The
great cities of Annuminas and Minas Anor and Minas Ithil are still under
construction. But there is a shadow of evil on the world, a remnant of an
ancient folly.
Eighteen centuries earlier, the Elvensmiths of
Eregion, led by their master Celebrimbor, learned how to forge the great rings of
power, giving their bearers powers that the unlearned might call magic. A
mysterious foreign mage appeared and assisted them, teaching and learning with
the Elves. Then, disaster. The stranger was revealed to be none other than
Sauron, servant of Morgoth the Enemy, whom all thought lost, and he had created
the One Ring, with the power to rule those who wield the other rings. His
hordes swept out of the east and overran Eregion. Only when the Men of Numenor
came to their aid were the Elves and their allies able to drive Sauron back to
his land of Mordor.
There was peace for a millenium and a half, but
then Sauron attacked anew. But he struck before his power was sufficient, and
the Numenoreans took him prisoner. He soon rose from prisoner to courtier, and
finally advisor to the king, and through his lies and treachery he brought
about the destruction of Numenor, and very nearly himself. Sauron fled back to
Mordor. The Men of the West, refugees of the downfall of Numenor, settled in
Middle-earth and founded the Realms in Exile, Gondor and Arnor. They brought
peace and order to the Men of the Twilight, those Men who had remained in
Middle-earth.
Now Sauron is striking yet again, sweeping
across Gondor with flame and sword. The Elves and Men joined together in the
mighty Last Alliance and pressed Sauron's forces back within Mordor and have
besieged him there in the Barad-dur, his Black Tower. But they are unable to
break the Tower and are forced to remain in siege, not daring to turn their
backs. The uneasy stalemate continues for over seven years, until the Lords of
the West determine on a desperate course.
Isildur is sent throughout the West to gather
another army to launch a surprise attack on his own city of Minas Ithil, still
under the control of the dreaded Nazgul, Sauron's most feared lieutenants. This
time, the allies will use their greatest weapons and their greatest danger: the
Great Rings of Power. But this is exactly what Sauron has been waiting for so
long.
See:
- The White Fleet of
Lindon battle the Corsairs of Umbar in a mighty naval battle!
- An entire nation doomed
to continue as undead until their oath is fulfilled!
- The origin of The Mouth
of Sauron, the Dark Lord's eldritch spokesman!
- The great Council of the
West, held under the majestic Dome of Stars in Osgiliath!
- The Three Rings battle
with the Nine as the Elves attack the Nazgul in Minas Ithil!
- The final battle on the
slopes of Orodruin when Sauron emerges at last!
- Isildur's fateful
decision to take the One Ring for himself!
- How the Ring came to be
lost so that it would be found again by Gollum!
Isildur is:
- Consistent in major
details with Tolkien's history of Middle-earth.
- Written in Tolkien's
exciting, uplifting style and high language.
- A complete novel, with
fourteen chapters, 417 pages, over 144,000 words.
- Complete with an
introduction to establish the historical perspective.
- Supplied with a preface
explaining how this ancient text has been brought to light.
- Enhanced with a
day-by-day chronology of the events of the war.
- Packaged with a glossary
of the people, places, and things that inhabit it.
Read it online or download Isildur in any one of
the following formats:
Isildur in
Macintosh Word 5.1a format and compressed with Zipit (285k).
zipped (303k) HTML
format. Read it on screen but offline (much thanks to Lawrence Crowl for
doing the conversion).
(884k) Sony Reader format.
Thanks to Roy White for the conversion.
Or if you are a Mac-challenged PC user, you can
download a zipped (459k) Word 6.0 format (complete
with an index).
Not sure you want to download the whole thing
right now? Read some excerpts first to get the feel
of it.
I also have a large-scale
map (976k GIF) of the portions of Middle-earth covered in the book.
Want to read what other
people have said about it?
You might also want to check out a nicely
formatted version of the novel at The Grey Havens
Hey, hey, hey. Isildur has won the much
coveted Tolkien Trail Award for best Tolkien material on the Net, as well as
The Mystic Award:
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