Huor
the silent; the father of Tuor
Name and Lineage
Huor — the younger brother of Húrin, of the House of Hador, lord of the marches of Dor-lómin; husband of Rían of the House of Hador, and father of Tuor — the grandfather of Eärendil. He is known as the “silent” of the two brothers, the quieter, whose doom was gentler and their issue far greater.
The Brothers in Gondolin
As boys, Húrin and Huor, when hunting the wilds beyond the marches, were lost and driven far; by the counsel of Ulmo the great Eagle Thorondor found them and bore them to the hidden valley, where for a year they dwelt in secret with Turgon in Gondolin, bound to silence by his command. Their vision of the hidden city, and the doom its hidden glory laid upon their line, sowed the seed of the later prophecy long remembered in the North. found their way through the passes to the hidden vale, and dwelt a while in Gondolin; Turgon, against all reason, kept them and loved them — and when they departed, the king’s eagles bore them — the account: they went out by the secret way, and Huor, “the eldest”, said words that came true — the prophecy of the house: “from the houses of Húrin and Huor shall spring” — the seed of the line that would one day sail the sea.
The Nirnaeth and the Prophecy
At the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Huor stood beside his brother in the last rearguard; he was slain by the enemies (the orc-arrows) in the very thick of the hopeless fight — the text. His death (unknowing) fulfils his own prophecy: his son Tuor born in sorrow, who at last came to Gondolin as the messenger of Ulmo.
Significance
Huor is the quiet hinge of the great line: brother of the Steadfast, father of Tuor, grandfather of Eärendil — the one whose seeming-brief life carried the hope that the Quenta unfolds through Gondolin to the star of the morning.