The Ring of Barahir
the heirloom of the Elf-friends; the token of Finrod's friendship
Name and Nature
The Ring of Barahir — “the ring of Finrod” — is the great heirloom-ring of the Elf-friends: a ring of the House of Finarfin
The Gift
In the ruin of the Dagor Bragollach,
Finrod (last of the Noldor kings to be saved from the Orcs by Men) — rescued by Barahir and his men — gave Barahir his ring in token of eternal friendship and pledge of aid: — the Oath of the friendship that made the Alliance of Elves and Men.
The Descent
From Barahir it passed to his son
Beren (who took it when he escaped the massacre of his father’s company —), who wore it in the great quest, and through the ages it became the heirloom of the heirs of Elendil (the Kings of Arnor and Gondor, borne to Aragorn in the later age) — “the token that… the line of the Elf-friends… never failed”.
Significance
The Ring of Barahir is the emblem of the great alliance — the little circle of gold that binds the two houses (Noldor and Edain) in sworn friendship, and the only object of the age that passes, intact and hallowed, through every generation of the kings: “the ring of Finrod… the earliest heirloom of the Dúnedain”. Its meaning: faithfulness, the token that no doom can unmake a true oath.