The Union of Maedhros
the last great league of the Elves and Men; the making of the Nirnaeth
The Alliance
The Union of Maedhros — the last great league of the Elves (and the Edain) against Morgoth — was the plan of Maedhros, the eldest son of Fëanor, in the years after the Dagor Bragollach: to draw together — the Noldor (of all three houses), the Sindar of Doriath, the Edain, even the Dwarves of Belegost/Nogrod — into a single overwhelming attack that should finish the Enemy’s power. His agents — an alliance
The Course to the Nirnaeth
- The gathering: For years he “wove his counsel” — the successes (the friendship of the East, the help of the Dwarves) and the failures — above all Thingol's refusal to join (and the mistrust of the Oath), and the hidden Doom.
- The realm’s grudge: The alliance was built in dependence on the Easterlings of Ulfang (sworn to Maedhros) whose betrayal was prepared; and on the “enmity” — “the curse”
- The battle: In 472 the Union marched — and the destruction at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (the treachery of Ulfang’s sons, the turning of the battle, the death of Fingon, the capture of Húrin) was the Union’s and the age’s doom: —.
Significance
The Union is the “last alliance” (the prototype of the later Last Alliance of the Second Age) — the supreme effort whose failure concludes the active war-capacity of the Free Peoples and hands the age to its long dusk; its collapse is the moral/strategic crisis that the hidden realms and the tragic tales then fill.