Isildur was a Númenórean lord of the Second Age, the elder son of Elendil and brother of Anárion. With his brother he founded and jointly ruled the South-kingdom of Gondor after the Downfall of Númenor, establishing the city of Minas Ithil on the borders of Mordor.
In the War of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Isildur marched with his father Elendil and the Elven High King Gil-galad against Sauron. After both Gil-galad and Elendil fell in the final struggle at the foot of Mount Doom, Isildur took up the hilt-shard of his father's sword Narsil and cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand. He refused to destroy it, keeping it for himself, an act that allowed Sauron's spirit to endure.
Isildur was slain by Orcs at the Disaster of the Gladden Fields early in the Third Age when the One Ring betrayed him and slipped from his finger, becoming lost in the River Anduin. Through his surviving son Valandil his line continued in the Dúnedain of the North, and his distant heir Aragorn would ultimately reunite the realms of Gondor and Arnor. Isildur appears in the prologue of Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring and as a younger man in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. This overview is licensed CC BY-SA; see the Timeline for chronology.
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