Egalmoth was the grandson of Morwen, daughter of Steward Belecthor I, and thus a cousin to Steward Ecthelion I. When Ecthelion died with no other heirs, Egalmoth ascended to the Stewardship. His wife was the weaver Hareth, who outfitted him and all their children in the finest clothes in all Minas Tirith. During Ecthelion’s rule, King Déor of Rohan struggled to drive off the Dunlendings from the occupied Rings of Isengard, but as the orcs renewed their war with Gondor, Egalmoth was unable to send aid to his allies.
The son of Egalmoth and Hareth was Beren, named for the famed hero of the First Age. Upon succeeding his father, Beren spent much of his rule fighting the Corsairs of Umbar who assailed Gondor’s coasts. He struggled to defend his people and support them amid the harsh Long Winter, but before spring his son Beregond overcame the invaders, at last enabling Gondor to send aid to Rohan’s struggle against the Dunlendings. When the wars were over, the wizard Curunír suddenly appeared and requested leave to dwell in Isengard. Beren gladly gave him the key of Orthanc, relieved to have such a powerful ally at his border.
Beren’s son Beregond was the greatest captain since the time of Steward Boromir, and ruled Gondor in a time of recovery from the fierce wars of his father’s days. As his strengths lay in battle, Beregond relied on his mother Gildis to help him put the realm back in order. His wife Bregil was also eager to join in this work, and through the collaboration of the two sharp-minded women, Beregond saw his realm through new prosperity. When a new threat arose in the form of orcs invading the White Mountains after their defeat in the distant War of the Dwarves and Orcs, Beregond called upon his captains to eradicate them. Asdihil, Prince of Dol Amroth, perished in this effort, but the campaign was successful and Beregond once again proved his military might in making his lands safe.
Belecthor II, the only child of Beregond and Bregil, inherited a great legacy from his father but lived in a time of relative peace. Gondor enjoyed a period of growth, allowing for Belecthor to engage in a dramatic romance with his flighty wife Thúliel, who was drawn often to the sea and would leave him and their children for years at a time. Nonetheless, the two loved one another, and Thúliel always returned. Belecthor was the last of his line to pass the age of 100, living to be 120; his son Thorondir would proclaim that he may have lived longer had not Thúliel’s own death sapped him of his will to live.
Thorondir himself lived only to the age of 100, ruling a scant 10 years in total. Upon his father’s death, the White Tree of Gondor also perished, and Thorondir could find no seedling. At the advice of his wife Helheth, who despite her harsh name was a kind and giving woman, Thorondir decided to leave the dead Tree standing “until the King comes.” Such a time would, he believed, never come, and in this declaration Thorondir implied that the reign of the Stewards would never end, not even with the withering of the White Tree.
The son of Thorondir and Helheth was Túrin II, named for his ancestor of the same name. Unlike Túrin I, this Túrin was a man of great wisdom and a gentle heart; he loved his spouse Eregil deeply, and supported them even when he struggled to understand their discomfort with the role of Lady they had to play in public. In Túrin’s time, trouble once again stirred in Gondor, and when Sauron sent the Haradrim to cross the river Poros and attack the land thereabout, he rode to battle with King Folcwine of Rohan. Though the battle was won, Folcwine’s twin sons Folcred and Fastred were slain, and the heir of Prince Angharas of Dol Amroth was grievously wounded. Orcs also stirred themselves to violence, infesting Ithilien to the point where the last of its inhabitants deserted their homes. Túrin fortified the isle of Cair Andros to defend Anórien, and oversaw the building of secret refuges in Ithilien, occupied by a force of soldiers he named the Rangers of the South, led first by his son Turgon and Prince Angelimir of Dol Amroth.
After the chaos of his father’s time, Turgon was blessed with a peacefully uneventful rule of 39 years. Near the end of his life, Sauron declared himself openly in Mordor, but Turgon, wearied by the death of his wife Mírdholen whom he had adored and lavished with great jewels, left his son Ecthelion II to deal with this rising threat.
