Ring of Isildur

A name for Sauron's Ruling Ring, given after Isildur took it from the defeated Sauron at the end of the War of the Last Alliance. In the combat that ended that War, Sauron was finally overthrown, but Gil-galad and Elendil were slain. Elendil's son Isildur claimed the Ring for himself, against the advice of Elrond and Círdan.

The Ring was nearly two thousand years old at that time, but Isildur held it for less than two. He took it with him when he rode from Gondor to Annúminas, his capital in the North, but on the road he was attacked by a force of Orcs. He attempted to use the Ring's power of invisibility to escape, but it slipped from his finger as he floundered in Anduin and, becoming visible, he was shot by the Orcs. Because it had brought about his death, the Ring was more usually known as 'Isildur's Bane', but it was still occasionally called the Ring of Isildur even at the end of the Third Age.