Isildur

One name out of ancient history hangs over the whole of The Fellowship of the Ring. Isildur is a lord of the Men of Westernesse, son of Elendil, living an age before Bilbo and Frodo in the years of the great war against Sauron. Gandalf's account in the second chapter places him at the war's turning point: when the Dark Lord was overthrown, it was Isildur who cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand. Because of that stroke the Ring survived in the world, and because of it the tale of the Third Age happens at all. To the wise his name is bound to the Ring, in lore and in warning, and the loremasters of Rivendell keep the records of his house. He stands in the histories as the king of old whose single deed joins the deep past of Middle-earth to the quiet present of the Shire.