Summary

• Elrond lived for over 6000 years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
• Elrond was one of High King Gil-galad's most trusted confidants.
• Elrond opposed Sauron in many wars throughout Middle-earth's history.

Lord Elrond Half-elven was a major character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings novels, and Peter Jackson's film adaptations gave him an even larger role to play in both stories. Yet, as an immortal Elf, the adventures of Bilbo and Frodo made up only a tiny fraction of Elrond's life. By the time Thorin Oakenshield's Company first entered Rivendell, as shown in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Elrond was already well over 6000 years old. He had seen the defeat of the first Dark Lord and the rise of another, the formation and destruction of countless civilizations, the passing of two ages of Middle-earth, and the deaths of many whom he held dear. The Lord of the Rings provided a few details regarding Elrond's life before the events of the novel, but most of the information about his history came from The Silmarillion, which outlined the history of Middle-earth, starting before the formation of the universe itself.

Unlike some characters in The Lord of the Rings, Elrond did not predate the universe. He and his twin brother Elros were born in the year F.A. 532 when the Dark Lord Morgoth ruled over much of Middle-earth. He was the child of Eärendil and Elwing, but he did not get a chance to know either of his parents well. When he was only six years old, the sons of Fëanor attacked his birthplace, the Havens of Sirion, in an attempt to steal one of the Silmarils. They kidnapped Elrond and Elros, presumably to use as bargaining chips. This plan failed because Eärendil was at sea during the attack, and Elwing fled with the Silmaril to join him; the two survived, but they never returned to Middle-earth. Maglor, one of these sons of Fëanor, took pity on the children and adopted them, but this, too, was short-lived. After the defeat of Morgoth, Maglor stole another of the Silmarils, but its holy light burned his evil hands. He threw the Silmaril into the sea and sailed away, never to be seen again -- an unfortunate trend for Elrond's parental figures.

The Dark Lord Sauron Tried to Deceive Elrond

Films Including Gandalf	Release Year	Director(s)	Actor
The Hobbit	1977	Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass	Cyril Ritchard
The Lord of the Rings	1978	Ralph Bakshi	André Morell
The Return of the King	1980	Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass	Paul Frees
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	2001	Peter Jackson	Hugo Weaving
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	2002	Peter Jackson	Hugo Weaving
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	Peter Jackson	Hugo Weaving
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	2012	Peter Jackson	Hugo Weaving
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies	2014	Peter Jackson	Hugo Weaving
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power	2022	J. A. Bayona, Wayne Che Yip, and Charlotte Brändström	Robert Aramayo

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Near the end of the First Age, when Elrond was no older than 58, the members of the Half-elven family needed to choose if they wanted to live the rest of their lives as immortal Elves or as mortal Men. Elrond chose to be an Elf, and he stayed in Lindon as an Elf-lord under the rule of High King Gil-galad. Though Elrond was young and inexperienced for an Elf, he was wise beyond his years. He became one of Gil-galad's most trusted confidants, going on to serve as the High King's herald and vice-regent. Elros instead chose to be a Man, and he journeyed to Númenor, becoming its first king. This made Elrond a distant relative of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings, as Elros was the progenitor of the royal lines of Arnor and Gondor. Tolkien wrote little about Elrond from that point until around the year S.A. 1200. That was when Sauron -- under the fair guise of Annatar, the Lord of Gifts -- began to enact his plan with the Rings of Power.

Sauron hoped to bend the most important figures in Middle-earth to his will by distributing the Rings of Power among them and then using the One Ring to control them. As the most politically powerful Elf, Gil-galad was one of Sauron's prime targets, but due in part to Elrond's wisdom, he did not fall for the Dark Lord's ruse. In the section "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" from The Silmarillion, Tolkien wrote, "Only to Lindon [Sauron] did not come, for Gil-galad and Elrond doubted him and his fair-seeming, and though they knew not who in truth he was they would not admit him to that land." This forced Sauron to enact his plan in Eregion instead. Sauron twisted this to his advantage by using Elrond's rejection to sow seeds of doubt among the other Elves. Later in the same passage, Sauron says, "A mighty king is Gil-galad, and wise in all lore is Master Elrond, and yet they will not aid me... in my labors. Can it be that they do not desire to see other lands become as blissful as their own?"

Elrond Founded One of Middle-earth's Most Important Kingdoms

• Elrond was a descendant of Elu Thingol, the Elven King of Doriath.
• Elrond's great-great-grandmother was a Maia, the same type of divine spirit as Gandalf.
• Tolkien provided several possible translations of Elrond's name; according to The Silmarillion, it meant "Star-dome" in the Elvish language of Sindarin.

A few hundred years later, Sauron forged the One Ring and went to war with the Elves. Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth detailed Elrond's involvement in this war. When Sauron attacked Eregion in S.A. 1697, Gil-Galad sent a battalion of Elves under the command of Elrond to aid their allies in the east. Even with these reinforcements from Lindon, Sauron's army outnumbered and overwhelmed the Elves of Eregion. Though Elrond was unable to stop the "ruin and devastation" of the realm, he managed to lead the survivors to safety with some help from the Dwarves of Moria. Rather than returning to Lindon, Elrond decided to establish a new stronghold for the Elves. He followed the Misty Mountains northward towards the valley of the river Bruinen, where he founded the Elven realm of Rivendell.

After the fall of Eregion, Sauron went on to conquer most of Eriador, the northwestern portion of Middle-earth. By S.A. 1699, Lindon and Rivendell were the final two bastions of the Elves in the region, and they were both under siege. After enduring Sauron's assault for a year, all seemed lost, but hope was on the horizon. In S.A. 1700, Tar-Minastir -- a descendant of Elros -- sent the forces of Númenor to aid the Elven realms. Together, the Elves and the Númenóreans soundly defeated the Dark Lord and forced him to retreat to Mordor. Sauron had reclaimed many Rings of Power in his conquest of Eriador, including those that he would give to the nine future Nazgûl from The Lord of the Rings, but the three Elven Rings remained in the possession of Gil-galad and Círdan. The Elves believed that their Rings of Power would be safest if they were kept far apart from each other, so Gil-galad gave his ring away to the leaders of other Elven realms.

Elrond Was Well-Prepared for Sauron's Inevitable Return

• The Elves referred to Rivendell as Imladris, its Sindarin name.
• The Rivendell scenes in Jackson's trilogy were filmed at Kaitoke Regional Park in New Zealand.
• Elrond did not appear in the novel version of The Two Towers, but he did appear in Jackson's film.

Gil-galad entrusted Elrond with Vilya, the Ring of Air. Using it, Elrond was able to keep Rivendell relatively safe for the rest of his time in Middle-earth. Near the end of the Second Age, Elrond and the other Elves of Rivendell participated in the War of the Last Alliance, in which Isildur destroyed Sauron's body and claimed the One Ring for himself. Like in the prologue of Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring film, Elrond tries and fails to convince Isildur to destroy the One Ring, although this confrontation does not occur at the Cracks of Doom in the novel. Sauron's defeat ushered in the Third Age of Middle-earth, and for over 1000 years following the War of the Last Alliance, Elrond lived a peaceful life. He married Celebrían, the daughter of Galadriel, and had three children: Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen.

The Witch-king's forces attacked Rivendell during the Angmar War around the year T.A. 1400, but they accomplished little. After the fall of Arnor, Elrond began preparing for Isildur's heir to one day reclaim the throne. He kept the shards of Narsil safe in Rivendell, and he fostered the Dúnedain, such as Aragorn. In T.A. 2463, Elrond, Galadriel, Círdan, Gandalf, and Saruman formed the White Council to prevent Sauron's return. This was the last major event in Elrond's life before the events of The Hobbit, as just a few hundred years later, he welcomed Thorin's Company to his realm. The full story of Elrond's life explains his personality in The Lord of the Rings. He had millennia of wisdom and experience, but he was also jaded from a life of war and tragedy.