Saeros

At Thingol's court

Saeros was one of the Nandor who had come into Doriath from Ossiriand and risen to be a counsellor of Thingol. The published texts describe him as proud and quick to scorn those he thought beneath him, and he resented the standing that the mortal foster-son Túrin had won in Menegroth. He was also a friend of the minstrel Daeron and shared his dislike of the Men who had begun to come within the Girdle.

The quarrel

In F.A. 484 Túrin came back to Menegroth from the northern marches, travel-worn and grim, and sat unbidden in Saeros's place at the king's table. Saeros baited him about his rough looks and then about the women of Hithlum, asking whether they ran wild like deer, clad only in their hair. Túrin threw a drinking-cup in his face and wounded him. Mablung, who was present, tried to calm both, and the matter might have ended there.

Death

The next morning Saeros waylaid Túrin in the woods with a drawn sword and a shield. Túrin disarmed him, stripped him and drove him naked through the forest like a hunted animal, until Saeros, fleeing in terror, came to the ravine where the Esgalduin runs deep between rocks, tried to leap it and fell to his death on the stones. Mablung came upon them too late to prevent it. Túrin refused to go back to the king for judgement and left Doriath, though Thingol, when he heard the full story from Beleg and the Elf-maiden Nellas, judged Túrin blameless and pardoned him. Saeros's spite thus set in motion the whole of Túrin's later wandering, from the outlaws of the Teiglin to Nargothrond and Brethil.

Fell to his death in the gorge of the Esgalduin in F.A. 484 while fleeing from Túrin.