Tuor was the son of Huor and Rían, though he was raised by the Grey-elves of Mithrim. His father died before he was born, and his mother died of grief shortly after giving birth to him, leaving him in the care of the elf Annael. When Easterlings occupied the lands of Hithlum, Annael and his kin, the Folk of the Swan, retreated into the caves of Androth, where Tuor spent his youth. Living among the elves, Tuor learned many skills of song and craft, but Annael was careful to teach him all he could of his Mannish heritage as well.
Though he loved his elvish foster-family, Tuor also yearned to be among his own kind, and he was eager to make war upon the orcs and Incomers who had taken the lands of his fathers. Fearing for his safety, Annael forbade him and instead resolved to flee to the Havens of Sirion where the Falathrim elves lived freely. But as the Folk of the Swan set out, they were assailed by their enemies and forced to scattered into the night.
While Annael regrouped with most of his people, Tuor refused to flee from the fight and had been taken captive by Lorgan, a chieftain of the Easterlings in Dor-lómin. Not knowing what had become of his mortal foster-son and believing it likely he was already dead, Annael sorrowfully turned south, leading his people to their intended destination. But Tuor lived, and endured three years of thralldom under Lorgan’s foot, treated all the more cruelly for the knowledge of his heritage as the rightful lord of the land Lorgan claimed as his own.
When sent into the woods on an errand, Tuor at last saw his opportunity for escape, slaying his guards and fleeing to the caves of Androth. The elves were long gone, and Tuor endured another four years as a lone outlaw, killing orcs and Easterlings and accumulating a price upon his head. All the while, Tuor searched for the Gate of the Noldor, by which Annael had intended to escape Hithlum unnoticed, and finally the Vala Ylmir sent him a sign leading him to that secret mountain pass. On his journey, he met Gelmir and Arminas, messengers sent by Círdan to Nargothrond delivering a warning from Ylmir himself. From them Tuor heard of Gondolin, the hidden kingdom of the Noldor of which Annael had whispered on occasion, and a new curiosity sparked within him to discover that secret city as well.
Gelmir and Arminas showed Tuor the path through the mountains to Nevrast, a long-abandoned settlement of the Noldor. Upon his arrival, he became the first of the Edain to reach the shores of the great western sea, and a sea-longing awoke within him that he would carry for the rest of his life. He lingered by the shore until autumn, before Ylmir sent him a sign in the form of seven swans that urged him southward to Vinyamar, the crumbling capital city of Nevrast. Within these halls he found a sword, armor, and a shield bearing the device of a swan on a blue field, and taking up these arms he felt the hand of fate upon him.
Led by premonition to the seashore, Tuor walked through a great storm where he at last met Ylmir face to face. The Vala instructed him to seek the city of Gondolin and deliver a message to its king; to aid him in this quest, Ylmir gave him a cloak that had the power to hide him from his foes, and a companion to guide him on his journey. This was Voronwë, a mariner from Gondolin who had sailed out west seeking aid from the Valar that would not come. All his companions perished in the raging storms of Yssion, but Ylmir spared him and carried him safely back to land. Upon hearing Tuor speak the words of Ylmir, Voronwë agreed to guide Tuor to the hidden gates of Gondolin, even knowing that to bring a mortal outsider to the city was an offense punishable by death.
Voronwë led Tuor through lands desolated by the recent passing of Glaurung, including the ruined Pools of Ivrin where once Ylmir’s magic had made the cool waters sing. While there, they saw a figure in black, crying out the name of Finduilas, but they knew not the significance of this strange occurance. After enduring a bitter winter, the only bright moments of which were the evenings that Voronwë instructed Tuor in Quenya, they at last reached the gates of Gondolin, where they were taken as prisoners by Elemmakil, a dear friend and companion of Voronwë before his journey. Rather than slaying them as the law dictated, Elemmakil delivered them to Lord Ecthelion of the Silver Fountain, who recognized the arms Tuor bore and welcomed them into the city with honor.
Tuor was brought before King Turukáno, where the words of Ylmir—or, as the Noldor knew him, Ulmo—poured forth from his lips. He warned Turukáno that the Doom of the Noldor was nearing its fulfillment, Gondolin should be abandoned, and a last great alliance should be formed against Morgoth to defeat his evils forever. But Turukáno had grown proud and complacent, refusing to heed Ulmo’s words; yet he welcomed Tuor to Gondolin, where he grew to high status and prominence among its people.
In Gondolin, Tuor fell in love with and married Turukáno’s daughter Itarillë Telpevontál in the second Union of Elves and Men. In becoming her husband, he also became the Lord of the House of the Wing, a title that hearkened back to his youth among the Folk of the Swan. Itarillë bore Tuor a son, Eärendil Ardamírë, who was the light of the city and adored by all. But soon Ulmo’s prophecy came true, for Gondolin was betrayed by Itarillë’s cousin Maeglin and was destroyed in a great battle. Tuor and his family escaped through the secret passage they had been building ever since Tuor’s arrival, and together they took up the mantle of leadership in the wake of King Turukáno’s death.
Journeying south, the exiles of Gondolin stayed for a time in the woods of Nan-tathren, where the music of Ulmo flowed through the willow-streams and awoke sea-longing within both Tuor and young Eärendil. There Tuor composed a song, “The Horns of Ylmir,” in honor of the Vala who had led him on this difficult and rewarding journey, and Itarillë knew then that the fates of her family would reach beyond Beleriand and perhaps even beyond Arda.
The remnant of the Gondolindrim eventually reached the Havens of Sirion, where they settled amongst refugees from the other fallen elf-kingdoms, Nargothrond and Doriath, as well as a few survivors from the Three Houses of the Edian. There Tuor met Gelmir and Arminas once more, and most joyously of all, reunited with Annael his foster-father. At Sirion, Eärendil grew into a man, but living so close to the sea was a torment for Tuor, who yearned more every day to set sail for the Undying Lands, the realm of his wife’s birth.
When Eärendil was full-grown, Tuor built the ship Eärrámë, waiting only for his son to be married before he departed. The day of Eärendil and Elwing of Doriath’s wedding was bittersweet, for the very next morn Tuor and Idril set sail upon the Eärrámë seeking Valinor. Before she left, Idril gave her son a parting gift: the enchanted stone known as the Elessar, made first for her uncle Fingon and then crafted into a necklace for her own wedding. She had named her child Ardamírë in part for this jewel, which though it held not the fate of Arda as did the Silmarils, had a great power within it for healing that she trusted her son could bring to Middle-earth.
None in Beleriand ever heard of the fate of Tuor and Idril, but the legends of the Edain say that they arrived safely in Aman and that Tuor alone of Men was counted among the Eldar as an immortal being. But the elves tell a different tale: that their journey was long and harrowing, and when they at last arrived it was long after Eärendil had ascended upon Vingilótë into the sky, and that though his time in the Undying Lands lengthened his lifespan Tuor did indeed die, passing on to receive the Gift of Men, leaving Idril to return to Tirion, the city of her birth. Yet the truth of their fates is lost to history, and it may be that they perished upon the waves—though for one so blessed by Ulmo Núron, a joyous resolution of some nature can be safely assumed.
