Who Is The Greatest Hero Of All-Time In Middle-Earth?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been debating this question with a friend of mine for quite a while now. I of course think it’s me, Fingolfin. :stuck_out_tongue: My friend thinks it’s Hurin. What about you guys?

Here are some worthy candidates:

Fingolfin- Knocked on Morgoths door and challenged him to a duel, mano-on-mano. Crossing the Heleraxe.

Hurin- Valiant stand at the fens of Serech. Killed 70 + Trolls. Survived years of captivity in Angband.

Turin- Slew Glaurung. Probably killed more Orcs than any other man. Walked away from more battles than many long-lived Elven lords had.

Beren- Snuck into Angband and stole a Simiril from Morgoth. Countless other acts of bravery.

Luthien- Defeated Sauron and rescued Beren from Tol-in-Gaurhoth. Helped Beren steal the Simirl from Morgoth. Successfully laid a spell on Morgoth!

Huan- Slew Draugluin (Lord and sire of the werewolves). Defeated Thu(Wolf-Sauron, Sauron in werewolf form). Slew Carcharoth – The Red Maw(Raised by Morgoth himself).

Earendil- Defeated Ancalagon (not to mention his years of voyaging to find Valinor).

Turgon- Founded the city of Gondolin. Led ten thousand warriors to the Nirnaeth. Bravery in the Fall of Gondolin.

Maedros- Endured years of suffering hanging from the peaks of Thangorodrim. [his actions later probably cancel him out there; namely leading to the destruction of Doriath].

Finrod- Founded Minas Tirith. Assisted Beren is stealing the Simiril.

Ecthelion- Single handedly slayed Gothmog, lord of the Balrogs. Kicked everyones ass in combat.

Isildur- Broke into the well-guarded royal palace of Numenor to steal a sapling of the White Tree. The little thing at The Battle of the Last Alliance.

Elendil- He alone withstood the madness of Ar-Pharazon.

Gil-Galad- The only Elven king ever to defeat a Dark Lord.

Aragorn- Actions in before, during, and after The War of the Ring.

Eomer- Greatest Rohirrim ever.

Elrond- Founded Rivendell. Last Alliance. White Council member. Presence in Middle-Earth for over 6500 years.

Gandalf- Too many to name.

Frodo- Destroyed The One Ring.

Sam- See above.

Legolas- Countless acts of bravery.

Gimli- See above.

There are obviously many more worthy candidates. I just don’t have time to name them all. :wink:

2

Gollum.

He’s the one who took the One Ring and destroyed it after Frodo failed in his quest.

3

You left two critical names off the list.
Tuor - Father of Earendil, chosen messenger of Ulmo, saved what could be saved from the ruin of Gondolin, only Man to become a Noldor (at least according to rumor). I would rank him first and Beren 1b.

and

Feanor - Created the Silmarils, led the revolt of the Noldor, one of only a few Noldo feared by Morgoth. Yeah, did quite a few bad things as well, but is acknowledged as the greatest of all the Noldor.

My list:

  1. Tuor
    1b. Beren
  2. Fingolfin (yeah, got to give some credit - wounding Morgoth 7 times before falling is a big deal)
  3. Feanor - could have been #1, but there is this little oath.
  4. Frodo

Honrable mentions: Elendil, Fingon & Turin

Ladies of ME:

  1. Luthien - nuff said
  2. Galadriel - Feanor’s match in female form
  3. Eoywn - she did take out the Lord of the Nazgul

Oh - I would disqualify two candidates from your list:
Huan - yeah, some impressive victories, but he is a hound.
Gandalf - incarnations of Maiar (or possibly Manwe) are just not fair comparisions

Other candidates:
Eorl: Sorry Eomer, Eorl would be the greatest
Barahir: Beren’s ring had this name for a reason

4

I think your question’s answer depends in large part on a very careful definition of what it is to be heroic. Most of the Elves and Men on your list were born and bred to their grand achievements, and nothing less could reasonably have been expected of them. They were simply being who they were.

Frodo and Sam, on the other hand, were simple folk who had no interest in adventures or world-saving, yet the burden was laid on them regardless.

Together they achieved what they should never have been asked to do in the first place, and on those grounds I think undeniably they were the greatest heroes on your list.

5

You know I did mean to include Hurin as an honorable mention. Switched Frodo into #5 & forgot to move him down.

6

What? Not one mention of Bill the Pony???

7

Frodo and Sam for courage and valor far above and beyond the call of their station in life.

Luthien for being f’ing fearless and having the chops to back it up, all in the pursuit of hopeless loser Beren. Love is a many splendid thing.

Turin. Will personally kick Morgoth’s ass before killing him at the end of time. Many desperate acts in the meantime.

8

Feanor always struck me as the biggest git in the entire history of Middle-Earth.

I figure all that over the top heroing is fine but you want my kinda hero I’mall for the likes of Beleg. No attitude, no whining, just doing his job till the end.

9

I see Beren, Luthien, and Huan as inextricably combined; you can’t really seperate the deeds of one from the deeds of the other two.

Likewise for Sam and Frodo.

So for me:

  1. Sam Gamgee and Frodo Baggins

  2. Luthien, Huan and Beren

  3. Elrond. For sheer amount of stuff he does.

  4. Fingolfin. Cuz he’s just really cool.

P.S. Feanor was a bratty, conceited git. (Hey, near simulpost CaptEgo!

10

I vote for Hurin. I believe he was noted as the strongest of any man, the only (beside Turin) who was strong enough to wear the Dragon Helm.

Plus, he made a hell of a stand at the Battle of U.T. (what does he call out with each ax-stroke? “Dawn shall come again” or something? way cool.) and withstood Morgoth’s torment for decades.

11

“Aure entuluva! Day shall come again!”

12

deathawk, it’s “Aurë entuluva”. Ya gotta get the accents right! Without it, all you said was “(the) fork (traditionally used for making lembas) shall come again!” :smiley:

13

Yeah, but you have to admit the mental image of Hurin slaughtering trolls with a fork is priceless… :wink:

14

My vote is with Fiver – while there were many well-equipped heroes doing heroic deeds for the good side, Frodo had to accomplish the most with the least resources of any. That to me is the ultimate in bravery.

15

As far as the greatest hero goes, my vote’s for Hurin any day. Luthien, Beren and Huan share too much of the glory in their tale to take top prize.

As far as the greatest potential, my vote’s for Galadriel. Certainly, even in the Rings saga, greater deeds have been done by “mortals”, but I attribute that to the fact that most of them have Maia blood in their veins. (Of course, she had the help of the Ring…) I always think of Galadriel as far and away the most powerful non-ainur related entity in the Rings Saga. But of course we were talking about middle-earth and not just the Rings era.

16

Qagdop

And what do you think the traditional ingredients of lembas were? :slight_smile:

17

Isildur’s disqualified for not destroying the Ring when he had the chance.:wally
Elrond’s out too–shouldn’t he have pushed or tripped Isildur at the edge of the Crack of Doom?:wink:
My vote’s for Luthien, Beren & Huan.

18

Hmmm…
I’m stuck between Luthien, Beren, and Huan vs. Fingolfin. But then Feanor was supposed to be the greatest Noldor of all…

19

I vote for Frodo, Sam and Bilbo.

True, Frodo did fail at the end, but he carried the ring all the way to Mount Doom before he did so. Even though it was starting to affect his mind already he managed to get to the very brink. Of course, had Gollum not been there things would have gone horribly, but, remember that he didn’t choose to destroy the ring, the ring destroyed him and was carried along to it’s own doom.

Sam never failed to stand by his friend and had the strength to give the ring back to Frodo even after feeling it’s power, AND he was the force behind revitalizing the Shire after the war.

Bilbo carried the ring for years, keeping it safely hidden, even if he didn’t know he was doing so, and ultimately walked away from it, which was probably the hardest thing he ever had to do.

20

:slight_smile:
Actually, the dots over the ë are not required, they’re just a reminder to English speakers that there are no silent e’s in Quenya. Doesn’t change the pronunciation.