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Celebrimbor was a Ñoldorin prince and the last in the line of the House of Fëanor, who lived in Middle-earth. He was a ruler of Eregion in the Second Age, and a master smith. He is remembered primarily for his creation of the Three Rings of Power: Nenya, Vilya, and Narya, but also he made the second Elfstone for Galadriel, who later gave it to Aragorn.


First Age

Celebrimbor as a child with his parents in Valinor, by Filat

Celebrimbor was the son of Curufin, who was the fifth son of Fëanor (son of Finwë and his first wife Miriel) and Nerdanel.[3] In the First Age, he fought in the battles of Dagor-nuin-Giliath and Dagor Aglareb. After fighting in the Dagor Bragollach, he lived with his father and uncle in Nargothrond, staying even after Curufin's exile. He later fought bravely in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and in the Sack of Nargothrond, though after escaping the latter he traveled to Gondolin. He would fight in and survive both the Fall of Gondolin and the War of Wrath. Unlike some of his kin, he remained in Middle-earth afterwards.

Second Age

Celebrimbor and Annatar forging the Rings

Celebrimbor settled in Eregion in the Second Age and started dealing with the Dwarves of the realm of Khazad-dûm. In SA 1500, Sauron, calling himself Annatar ("Lord of Gifts"), befriended the Ñoldor of Eregion. He claimed to be an emissary of the Valar, especially Aulë, and instructed them in the art of ring-making.[4] Celebrimbor distrusted him, but the smiths of Eregion were deceived. Under the guidance and instruction of Sauron, the smiths openly made rings to learn the craft, but unbeknownst to them, the craft taught by Sauron incorporated a binding magic into the rings.

In secret, Sauron forged the One Ring, a master ring that would rule all the lesser rings, to enable him to rule Middle-earth via its influence over those who used the other rings. When Sauron placed the One Ring on his finger, claiming dominance over all the Rings of Power and their bearers, the elves knew his true identity and intentions. Celebrimbor and the elves of Eregion defied Sauron by withholding the other rings from him. The greatest of the rings (aside from the One Ring) were created by Celebrimbor himself, and these were never touched by Sauron and thus were uncorrupted by him, although they were still subject to the One Ring. These were the three Rings of the Elves, the fairest of the Rings of Power. Celebrimbor named them Vilya, Narya, and Nenya after the principal Middle-earth elements of air, fire and water, respectively. He sent the three rings away for safekeeping: Vilya and Narya to Gil-galad in Lindon; and Nenya to Galadriel in Lórien. Celebrimbor also sent the mightiest of the seven to Durin III of Khazad-dûm.

The death of Celebrimbor

Sauron retaliated by attacking Eregion, laying waste to the realm. Celebrimbor was captured in the chaos and was forced, under torture, to disclose the locations of the lesser rings, but he would not reveal the whereabouts of the three greatest of them that he had sent away for safekeeping. Celebrimbor died from his torment; his body was shot with arrows and hung upon a pole, and was later paraded as a banner when Sauron attacked the Grey Havens.[5] He was the last direct descendant of the line of Fëanor, save perhaps for his father's brother Maglor, whose fate is unknown and is said by some legends to still wander the shores of the Sea. It is unknown whether he married or had children.


His father-name was Telperinquar, which means "Silver-fist" or "Hand of silver" in Quenya. It comes from the words telpë ("silver") and quár ("fist"). His mother-name remains unknown. The name Celebrimbor is the Sindarin translation of his father-name, which comes from celeb ("silver") and baur ("fist").[6][7]


Unlike both his father and his grandfather, Celebrimbor was portrayed as being both selfless and kind, and was neither prideful nor covetous of that which he created. He was described to have an "almost Dwarvish obsession with crafts";[5] he became a famous artificer and smith in both Gondolin and Eregion. His love for crafts took him to Eregion, where he was introduced to a precious metal and called it mithril. Mithril was mined by Dwarves in their nearby Mine Realm of Khazad-dûm, later named Moria. Great friendship with the Dwarves of Moria developed, and skills and secrets were shared between the two peoples for many years via the high road which was built between the two realms. But a long period of peace would not last, for upon realizing the trap which Sauron had devised for him, Celebrimbor was filled with anxiety and fear for his people, and was later described as the heroic defender of Eregion.[8]

Important works

House of Fëanor

The Heraldic Device of the House of Fëanor


Other versions of the legendarium

In some accounts, Celebrimbor was a Sindar Elf instead, and an ancestor of Daeron who used the Feanorian script.[8]

Later, Celebrimbor was changed to a Ñoldor who had survived the Fall of Gondolin.[10]

In Unfinished Tales, a statement claims Celebrimbor to be one of the Teleri who accompanied Celeborn to exile.

Another earlier version had Celebrimbor revolting against Galadriel after she and Celeborn established Eregion[5]. Celebrimbor and Galadriel were later reconciled once Sauron's trickery was revealed.

Portrayal in adaptations

Video games

Celebrimbor as portrayed in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Celebrimbor appears in the video games Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, as the wraith assisting the ranger Talion in destroying the forces of Sauron. Developers have revealed that he assists Talion due to the guilt he feels for creating the Rings of Power, and thus he feels ultimately responsible for the trouble Middle-earth is in. However, the Celebrimbor that appears in the game differs from the Tolkien Celebrimbor in that he not only makes the three Elf rings, but he crafts all of the Rings of Power, and when captured helps Sauron reforge the One Ring (via the inscription of the lettering of the Ring upon it) and assists him in creating the Nazgûl by accompanying Sauron to the men who eventually would become the Nine; he also gave the Ring a will of its own. However, once Sauron's intentions were revealed to him, he stole the One Ring and used it to command an army of orcs and Uruks to fight Sauron and lay claim over Mordor. However, using the Ring, Celebrimbor revealed to have developed a superiority complex and an insane obsession with taking everything from the dark lord for himself, so much so, that even Sauron himself could see the darkness within his heart, going so far as to believe that Sauron had already killed his family and was lying that he would spare them. In a final battle, Celebrimbor used the Ring's power to defeat Sauron. However the Ring wanted to return to the Dark Lord, and so it slipped off of Celebrimbor's finger and onto Sauron's, breaking Celebrimbor's control over his orc army. Captured by Sauron, the elf was then tortured as punishment, such as witnessing his family tortured and killed in front of him, before finally being beaten to death with his own Mithril hammer by Sauron.

Celebrimbor's weapon in the game

When the game takes place and the protagonist, Talion, is slain in a blood-ritual, Celebrimbor is bound to the ranger, which allows Talion to return from the dead (in addition to many other abilities). He has no memory of his past, not even remembering his own name until they find an artifact that belonged to him (with the assistance of Gollum,) and with each artifact they find more of his memory is restored. Gollum eventually abandons them, leaving them to find the last artifact in Udûn on their own. They also assist a low ranking captain named Ratbag advance through the ranks until he advances to Warchief, and kill all other warchiefs (leaving Ratbag in charge of all the uruks in Udûn), which leads to his demise after he is blamed for failing to prevent the destruction of a monument to Sauron by the Hammer of Sauron, a Black Captain and a lieutenant of the Black Hand of Sauron (the leader of the uruks in Sauron's stead). Talion (and Celebrimbor) is approached by Lithariel, the daughter of the Queen of the Tribesmen of Núrnen, who claims her mother has summoned Talion to her chambers.

Their job finished in Udûn, they make their way to Núrnen and have an audience with Queen Marwen (who looks similar to King Théoden when he was enchanted by Saruman), who gives them another artifact from Celebrimbor's past.

This artifact gives the wraith and his host their key to confronting the Black Hand: branding. They begin building their army by branding the captains and warchiefs of Núrnen (and optionally Udûn), thus enabling them to confront the Black Hand at his fortress of Ered Glamhoth, the strength of his forces depending on how many warchiefs and captains he branded. They return to the queen to tell her they are prepared to leave when suddenly the Queen begins forcing Celebrimbor out of Talion, saying that they can defeat Sauron "together." As Talion dies, he tells Lithariel, Marwen's daughter, to break the Queen's staff, and when it breaks, the Queen becomes youthful again, and reveals she went to the Istari Saruman for assistance in helping her people survive Sauron's onslaught. Celebrimbor suspects that Saruman may have gone rogue, and may be desiring the One for himself. Marwen nonetheless assists Talion by acquiring them a smuggler, which they use to go to the Black Hand's fortress.

When Talion enters the fortress, a skeleton bound to a pole by rope begins talking directly to Talion, and Celebrimbor reveals that the Tower of Sauron, another Black Captain and the Black Hand's right hand, is responsible for this, and thus is here in the Black Hand's stead. Talion approaches the Black Hand's throne, and as he looks for the Tower, the Black Captain appears in the throne, and reveals the Black Hand went looking for Talion. He addresses Celebrimbor directly, telling him Sauron forgives him and, if he casts off that "corpse" and becomes one with him, he will have his dreams fulfilled. Celebrimbor rebukes the Tower, saying that Talion and the wraith will never surrender.

Failing to deceive Celebrimbor, he reveals to Talion that the Ringmaker deceived Talion by pretending that the Black Hand of Sauron placed a curse on them, binding them together, where in reality Cerebrimbor chose Talion as his "host" and could have released him at any time. Talion insists that the Tower stand up and fight, to which the Tower obliges. He creates illusions of himself, forcing Talion to drain the illusions to sap the Tower of his power.

After the illusions are eliminated, Talion hears his wife Ioreth singing, and when he gets close to her, his wife is revealed as the Tower, who attempts to brand Talion. However, the ranger overpowers him and brutally kills him, stabbing him with his son's dagger, Acharn, four times in the heart, before shoving his sword, Urfael, into the Tower's laughing mouth. After the Tower's death, Talion reveals his anger at Celebrimbor for his deceit, saying he wanted to be with his wife and son instead of being alone alive. Celebrimbor points out though that the ranger wanted revenge, and thus he gave him the means to do so. The Ringmaker does admit that he can leave Talion, if he wants. Yet before they can part ways, the wraith says that they must finish what they started by killing their true target: the Black Hand. Talion reluctantly agrees, and the pair set sail for Núrnen once more.

However, they find the Queen's palace sacked, and blood on the throne. The queen's crown, however, was left, and when Talion picks it up, another set of Celebrimbor's memories are returned to him. They figure the Black Hand has them in Udûn, preparing an exchange for Celebrimbor for the Queen and her daughter. They arrive in the now-dark, ashed filled Udûn, where they find the Black Hand's elite guards standing watch for the duo. When the Talion arrives at the Black Gate riding a Caragor, his branded Uruks and warchiefs are already fighting the rank and file Uruks. Then finally, with a warchief and a set of captains, the Talons of the Black Hand reveal themselves, along with a host of rank and file uruks. To Talion's sadness, The Talons reveal that they slaughtered all of the Núrnen tribesman, including Lithariel and Queen Marwen. After a brutal fight, the Talons are defeated, and the remaining branded Uruks that assisted Talion remain behind to fight the Black Hand's forces. Meanwhile, the Gravewalker climbs the Black Gate, and find the Black Hand waiting for him. Then quite subtly, the Black Captain lures the wraith duo in and unleashes a blast of energy that gives Celebrimbor more of his memories: his confrontation with Sauron in the fields of Udûn ending in failure, the return of Sauron's ring, and the brutal murders of Celebrimbor's family before his eyes, before being murdered himself. This gives Celebrimbor more power as a result. The Black Hand tells Celebrimbor that when he originally performed the blood ritual in an attempt to absorb his spirit into the Black Hand's corporeal form (thus reforming an avatar of Sauron, though he would not be at full strength), he gave him a choice: to stand by Sauron's side. He then tells the grave-walker duo that Talion and Celebrimbor have no choice in the matter, and surprisingly performs the blood ritual on himself, absorbing Celebrimbor into the Black Hand and forming the avatar of Sauron. Sauron tries to kill the already dying Talion, but as Sauron is about to deliver the finishing blow, Celebrimbor uses his energy to temporarily stun Sauron. This gives Talion the chance he needed to kill the avatar of Sauron, and thus the Black Hand, with his sword.

Talion relieved that he has finally exacted vengeance for his family, sees Celebrimbor waiting, ready to go to the afterlife together. Talion, however, insists that together they should use their powers to combat Sauron, because they both know as long as his Ring exists, he will return again, no matter in what form. Celebrimbor insists that fighting Sauron is mortally impossible, because he tried once long ago and it couldn't be done. Talion asks the Ringmaker if he could die knowing there was chance that they could defeat Sauron, but they didn't take it. Celebrimbor simply disappears, and doesn't answer. Talion, looking at Udûn's red sun, declares to himself and the wraith that it's time for them to forge new ring, as his eyes glow with the wraith's power.

The two then travel to Mount Doom, and proceed to forge a new ring. Upon its completion, Celebrimbor is separated from Talion by Shelob, and Talion takes the new ring to survive without the wraith. He later finds him in Shelob's lair within Cirith Ungol, and gives her the new ring in exchange for Celebrimbor. The elven wraith dislikes this exchange however, but Shelob's natural powers amplified by the ring prove to be too strong to fight, and thus the duo shifts their attention to a new target; The Palantíri in Minas Ithil.

After the city's eventual fall, Sauron sends 8 ringwraiths to force the new ring from Shelob. Realizing the danger that keeping the ring would cause to both her and to Middle-earth, she returns the ring to its forgers. The ranger and the wraith then proceed to Nurnen, where they use the ring's power to build an army and take over the region; Subsequently, they are betrayed by an ally in the process, only to exact revenge on him with utter cruelty. Of course, Celebrimbor's cruelty hints to Talion that the ring's power is starting to affect the elf's sanity.

Celebrimbor, by Weta Workshop

Eventually, after conquering most of Sauron's domain, defeating a Balrog with the help of Carnan, a nature spirit, and finding out the identities of some of the Nazgul, the duo takes their army and march towards Barad-dûr, only to be stopped by one of the ringwraiths, Isildur. Upon his defeat, Talion decides to end the fallen hero's torment, and permanently kills him. However, Celebrimbor considers this an act of betrayal; he reveals that his plan has gone from simple revenge to tyranny, as he plans on brainwashing Sauron and ruling Middle-earth through him. As Talion objects to this plan, the wraith abandons the ranger's body and takes over Eltariel's, leaving Talion to bleed to death.

As Talion picks up Isildur's ring, he becomes a ringwraith and decided to take back Minas Morgul, whilst Celebrimbor and his new host face Sauron. Eventually, Sauron, in his Annatar form, finds himself on his knees, and Celebrimbor begins to brand him. Sauron pulls out a blade and slices off Eltariel's fingers, just like Isildur had done to him centuries earlier. With Sauron now having the upper hand, he consumes the wraith, but with adverse effects; they both become the flaming eye of Sauron, locked into a battle of wills. The two fought until the One Ring was destroyed in the War of the Ring, wherein the Dark Lord Sauron was finally defeated.

However, Celebrimbor did not fade from middle-earth as Sauron did, for, like Sauron, he had poured his own life force into his own ring. Thus, Celebrimbor was freed and the New Ring, now worn by the Elven assassin Eltariel, started expressing a desire to return to its creator...

Celebrimbor is voiced by Alastair Duncan.[11]


Foreign Language Translated name
Amharic ጨለብሪምቦር
Arabic كيليبريمبور
Armenian Կելեբրիմբոր
Belarusian Cyrillic Келебрымбар
Bengali কালেবৃম্বর
Bosnian Kelebrimbor
Bulgarian Cyrillic Келебримбор
Catalan Celebrímbor
Chinese (Hong Kong) 凱勒布理鵬
Croatian Kelebrimbor
Georgian ქელებრიმბორი
Greek Κελεμπρίμπορ
Gujarati ચેલેબ્રિમ્બોર
Hebrew קלברימבור
Hindi केलेब्रिम्बोर
Japanese ケレブリンボール
Kannada ಕೆಲೆಬ್ರಿಎಂಬಾರ್
Kazakh Келебрімбор (Cyrillic) Kelebrimbor (Latin)
Korean 켈레브림보르
Kyrgyz Cyrillic Кэлэбримбор
Lithuanian Kurufin
Macedonian Cyrillic Келебримбор
Marathi केलेब्रिम्बोर
Mongolian Cyrillic Кэлэбримбор
Nepalese केलेब्रिम्बोर
Pashto چېلېبریمبور
Persian کله‌بریمبور
Polish Kelebrimbor
Russian Келебримбор
Sanskrit केलेब्रिम्बोर
Serbian Келебримбор (Cyrillic) Kelebrimbor (Latin)
Sinhalese චෙලෙබ්‍රිඹොර්
Tajik Cyrillic Келебримбор
Tamil கேலெப்ரிம்பொர்
Telugu చెలెబ్రిమ్బొర
Thai เคเลบริมบอร์
Turkish Kelebrimbor
Ukrainian Cyrillic Келебримбор
Urdu کیلیبرامباور ?
Uzbek Челебримбор (Cyrillic) Celebrimbor (Latin)
Yiddish שעלעברימבאָר ?
Lord of Eregion
Preceded by
Celebrimbor Succeeded by
None, Eregion laid waste
SA 1350-SA 1697


  2. The History of Middle-earth, Vol. XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, VI: "The Tale of Years of the Second Age"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Unfinished Tales, Part Two: The Second Age, chapter IV: "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn, and of Amroth King of Lórien"
  7. Parma Eldalamberon, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien"
  8. 8.0 8.1 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, chapter X: "Of Dwarves and Men"
  10. The History of Middle-earth, Vol. XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, chapter X: "Of Dwarves and Men", The Atani and their Languages, Notes
  11. FORTÉ, M. (2014, August 7). TROY BAKER AND ALASTAIR DUNCAN TALK MIDDLE-EARTH- SHADOW OF MORDOR. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from