Gil-galad | |
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Tolkien character | |
In-universe information | |
Aliases | Ereinion, Artanáro, Rodnor, High King of the Noldor |
Race | Elves |
Book(s) |
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Gil-galad is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the last high king of the Noldor, one of the main divisions of Elves. He is mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, where the hobbit Sam Gamgee recites a fragment of a poem about him, and The Silmarillion. In the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Gil-galad and Elendil laid siege to the Dark Lord Sauron's fortress of Barad-dûr, and fought him hand-to-hand for the One Ring. Gil-galad and Elendil were both killed, but Sauron was wounded. This allowed Elendil's son Isildur to cut the Ring from Sauron's hand, defeating Sauron, and to take the Ring for himself.
Gil-galad briefly appears at the opening of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, in several video games based on Middle-earth, and as a secondary character in the TV series The Rings of Power.