Imrahil

Lineage

Imrahil was the son of Adrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth, the twenty-second prince of a house that traced itself to Elendil's followers and, by tradition, to the Elves: the story in Dol Amroth was that a forefather of the line had married an Elf-maiden of Lórien, and Legolas, seeing Imrahil, remarked that Elvish blood showed in him. He was born in 2955 and succeeded his father in 3010. His sister Finduilas married the Steward Denethor II in 2976 and bore Boromir and Faramir, so that the Prince was uncle to the Steward's sons. Dol Amroth, on the coast of Belfalas, was the strongest of the fiefs of Gondor, and its swan-knights were the finest cavalry the realm had.

The War of the Ring

When the fiefs were summoned to the defence of Minas Tirith in March 3019, Imrahil came with a company of seven hundred knights and men-at-arms, fully armed and mounted, the only lord to bring anything like his full strength, and the city cheered him above all the others. On 13 March, when Faramir's retreat from the causeway forts across the Pelennor was collapsing under the Nazgûl, Imrahil led his knights out of the Gate to cover it, drove the enemy back, and brought Faramir in over his own saddle-bow with the Southron dart in him.

In the siege and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields he was, after Gandalf, the chief captain of the city. When the Gate was broken and Gandalf went to the tombs, it was Imrahil who led the sortie that met the Rohirrim's charge, and it was he who found Éowyn lying beside Théoden and saw from the mist on his vambrace that she still breathed, so that she was carried to the Houses of Healing instead of being left for dead. He and Éomer fought together through the afternoon, and he saw Aragorn's standard unfurled on the ships.

Lord of the City

With Denethor dead and Faramir near death, the rule of Minas Tirith fell to the Prince, and he governed it in the days after the battle. He took part in the last debate of the captains and, though he laughed at the folly of marching seven thousand men against Mordor, he agreed with Gandalf that it must be done and rode in the host with three thousand of Gondor's foot. At the Black Gate he stood among the captains who received the Mouth of Sauron, and in the battle that followed he commanded the men of Gondor on the hill. After the fall of Sauron he rode back to the city with the army and stood at Aragorn's side at the coronation, and it was Faramir and Imrahil, the Steward and the Prince, who met the king at the Gate.

Later life and legacy

Imrahil's daughter Lothíriel married King Éomer of Rohan, binding Dol Amroth to the Mark; his son Elphir succeeded him. He served King Elessar as the first lord of Gondor and died in Fo.A. 34. He is remembered as the ideal of a Gondorian lord: brave, courteous, fair in face and wise in counsel, the man who held the city together in the hours when the Steward's house had failed.

Died in Fo.A. 34 as Prince of Dol Amroth; succeeded by his son Elphir.