Bregor son of Boromir was a descendant of the House of Bëor, the first of the Three Houses of the Edain to enter Beleriand. His father Boromir had been granted the lordship of Ladros in Dorthonion, and Bregor succeeded Boromir to become lord in turn. Bregor evidently possessed a great bow, known to history as the Bow of Bregor, though in fact we have no direct records of the bow from Bregor's own time. Just seven years after Bregor's death, Morgoth broke the Siege of Angband and overwhelmed the lands of Dorthonion, including Ladros, leaving Bregor's grandson Beren as the only survivor. Though Ladros fell under the power of Sauron, at that time a lieutenant and servant of Morgoth, the Bow of Bregor was nonetheless preserved.1
Long afterward, following the defeat of Morgoth in the War of Wrath, the Men of the Edain travelled across the Sea to establish the new land of Númenor, and the Bow of Bregor was one of the heirlooms that they took with them. In Númenor, it was kept as one of the most precious treasures of the Dúnedain (alongside Thingol's sword Aranrúth, Tuor's axe Dramborleg, and the Ring of Barahir). It thus survived in Númenor through most of the Second Age, until the time of the Downfall in II 3319, when all these heirlooms (save the Ring of Barahir) were drowned by the Sea. The Bow of Bregor was thus some three and a half thousand years old when it was destroyed in the Downfall.
Notes
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We're given no account of how the bow survived the fall of Ladros, but it was probably carried away by Emeldir the Manhearted. Emeldir was the wife of Bregor's son Barahir, and when the fall of Ladros seemed inevitable, she led many of her people away to safety in the Forest of Brethil. We're told that Emeldir gave weapons to those of her people who could use them, and perhaps the Bow of Bregor was among these.
Emeldir's escape from Ladros must surely be the most likely means by which the bow survived, but it is not the only possibility. If Emeldir did not take the bow with her, then it would have been kept by her husband, Bregor's surviving son Barahir, who lived for a time as an outlaw in his own land. Barahir was eventually slain by Sauron's forces, but the bow might have been recovered by his son Beren, and if this was the case, then Beren would have carried the bow with him out of Dorthonion and into Doriath. We know that he took his father's famous Ring with him on that journey, so it does not seem impossible that he might also have carried the bow of his grandfather Bregor. If he did so, however, the bow receives no mention in any of the histories of Beren and his deeds.
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- Updated 22 June 2022
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