A visored steel helm, embossed and embellished with gold, that bore as its crest the head of Glaurung the Dragon. It was made originally for Azaghâl of Belegost, who gave it as a gift to Maedhros, who in turn passed it on to his cousin Fingon. When Fingon made Hador the Lord of Dor-lómin, he granted the Dragon-helm to the new lord, and indeed legend tells that only Hador and his son Galdor had the strength to bear the mighty helm.
There was at least one other Man strong enough the bear the helm: Galdor's grandson Túrin. He often wore the Dragon-helm to war, and took one of his many names from it: Gorthol, the Dread Helm. The last clear record of the Dragon-helm is during Túrin's time dwelling on Amon Rûdh. There he was betrayed and captured by Orcs, so the helm was presumably lost or stolen by Morgoth's servants, though we have no clear account of its fate. All we can say for sure is that after that point, the great heirloom of the House of Hador is lost to history.2
Notes
1 |
We know that the Dragon-helm was originally made for Azaghâl of Belegost. Azaghâl fought and died in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (in I 472), so - given that Dwarves typically lived for around two hundred and fifty years - the absolute earliest the Helm could have been made would be about the year I 225. However, allowing for the fact that Azaghâl must have been fully grown to use the Helm (which was notoriously heavy), and that he was clearly still a capable fighter during the Nirnaeth, a date of around I 300 seems to be the earliest that the Helm could practically have been made.
This estimate corresponds fairly well to the unsuccessful assault on Beleriand by Glaurung in I 260, which saw him driven back to Angband. The mocking image of Glaurung on the Helm was likely inspired by these events, which would have been in recent memory at the time it was made. |
2 |
According to comments in Unfinished Tales, Tolkien didn't intend to end the story of the Dragon-helm with Túrin's capture in the fall of Dor-Cúarthol. Instead, the helm was somehow to find its way to Nargothrond (implying that it was carried off by the Orcs, and then recaptured from them). According to this scheme, Túrin wore it at the Battle of Tumhalad, and was thus able to survive that battle. This intended continuation of the story of the Dragon-helm never found its way into a narrative form, however, and the Silmarillion makes no mention of it after Túrin's capture on Amon Rûdh.
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- Updated 12 April 2011
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