Sador is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 from J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

's Middle-earth

Middle-earth

Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....

 legendarium

Legendarium

Legendary may refer to:*A hagiography, or study of the lives of saints and other religious figures**The South English Legendary, a Middle English legendary*A legend-Entertainment:*Legendary, an album by Kaysha*Legendary...

. He was the serving-man of Húrin

Húrin

Húrin is a fictional character in the Middle-earth legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien. He is introduced in The Silmarillion as a hero of Men during the First Age, said to be the greatest warrior of both the Edain and all the other Men in Middle-earth...

 of Dor-lómin and a friend of his son Túrin Turambar

Túrin Turambar

Túrin Turambar is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. "Turambar and the Foalókë", begun in 1917, is the first appearance of Túrin in the legendarium. J.R.R...

.

In his youth Sador was a woodman, but when in the Battle of Sudden Flame

Dagor Bragollach

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, the Dagor Bragollach was the fourth battle of the Wars of Beleriand...

 suddenly broke out, he was summoned by Fingolfin

Fingolfin

Fingolfin is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, appearing in The Silmarillion.-Internal history:He was a High King of the Noldor in Beleriand, second eldest son of Finwë, full brother of Finarfin, and half-brother of Fëanor, who was the eldest of Finwë's sons. His mother was...

 the High King of the Noldor

Noldor

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Noldor are Elves of the Second Clan who migrated to Valinor and lived in Eldamar. The Noldor are called Golodhrim or Gódhellim in Sindarin, and Goldoi by Teleri of Tol Eressëa. The singular form of the Quenya noun is Noldo and the adjective is Noldorin...

. He arrived too late to participate in the battle, but bore back the bier of Hador

Hador

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Hador was a Lord of Men during the First Age.- Biography :Hador, also called in Sindarin Lórindol because he had fair blond hair, was the great-great-grandson of Marach, one of the leaders of the Atanatári, and ruled over the Folk of Marach which later became...

 his lord and later went for a soldier. Sador defended Barad Eithel in the assault of Y.S. 462, but afterwards his "love of battle was sated," and he returned to his work in the forest as a woodwright but accidentally cut off his right foot with an axe.

Sador remained in the service of Húrin as a woodcrafter, making or mending things of little worth that were needed in the house. Túrin called him Labadal which translates into hopafoot from Sindarin

Sindarin

Sindarin is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called the Eledhrim or Edhellim in Sindarin....

, one of the languages Tolkien created. Túrin did not call him Labadal in scorn, but in pity, and Sador was not displeased. He would tell Túrin tales of his youth, carve figures of men and beasts and teach such morals as "Give with a free hand, but give only your own."

He was of small account, as he was slow with his tasks and spent much time "on trifles unbidden". Yet the pity that Túrin gave him made Húrin esteem Sador, and he was set to carve a chair for Húrin's hall with the elven knife that Túrin gave him. Sador revered the Elves

Elf (Middle-earth)

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...

, but regretted their meeting with Men

Man (Middle-earth)

The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender...

: "In their light we are dimmed, or we burn with too quick a flame, and the weight of our doom lies the heavier on us."

Sador remained in the house of Morwen

Morwen

Morwen is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. She is featured in The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin and The Wanderings of Húrin.-Character overview:...

 after the Nírnaeth Arnoediad

Nirnaeth Arnoediad

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium of Middle-earth, the Nírnaeth Arnoediad or Unnumbered Tears was the climactic Fifth Battle in the Wars of Beleriand.-The Fifth Battle as told in The Silmarillion:...

, and though the Easterlings

Easterlings (First Age)

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Easterlings of the First Age were Men who lived in the east of Middle-earth, and mostly fought under Morgoth...

 had not enslaved him, he regretted that he was unable to join the battle and die a valiant death. After the departure of Túrin and later Morwen he went begging and was often sheltered in the house of Aerin

Aerin

Aerin is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. She was a woman of the Folk of Hador and related to Húrin Thalion...

. There he met Túrin returning from Nargothrond

Nargothrond

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Nargothrond , called Nulukkhizdīn by the Dwarves, was the stronghold built by Finrod Felagund...

, and participated in the rebellion against the Easterlings he had raised. Sador was then mortally wounded and died.

Other versions of the legendarium

Originally Tolkien conceived Sador as a common man of Dor-lómin, presumably of the Folk of Hador, and this is presented in the narrative of the Narn i Chîn Húrin

Narn i Chîn Húrin

A portion of the Narn i Chîn Húrin or The Tale of the Children of Húrin is a part of the book Unfinished Tales by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is a prose version of an earlier narrative poem called The Lay of the Children of Húrin...

. But in a late work a new idea entered, that Sador must be one of the Drúedain

Drúedain

The Drúedain are a fictional race of Men which were counted amongst the Edain, who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age, and were friendly to the Elves. They are part of the Middle-earth legendarium, created by J. R. R. Tolkien....

 and thus serve as an additional "backward link between The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...

and The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...

." Tolkien also proposed that the Drúedain of the household of Húrin followed him from Brethil after his sojourn there, but this would conflict with the story of Sador's late coming to Dagor Bragollach: the battle occurred in Y.S. 455, but Húrin left Brethil in 459. Tolkien also spelt the name as Sadog, but supposedly this was a slip of memory.