Boldog

Boldog is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, appearing in Lays of Beleriand.

"Boldog he sent, but Boldog was slain:

strange ye were not in Boldog's train."

As told in the Lays of Beleriand, Boldog, a formidable Orc Captain, by direct command of Morgoth, led a host of Orcs on a great razzia to ravage the realm of Doriath and capture Lúthien, the daughter of its King Thingol and Queen Melian, the Maia. Boldog drove his Host south over the highlands of Dorthonion and through the enchanted forest of Taur-nu-Fuin following the Orcs' Road of Haste into the Pass of Anach, which cut down the mountains of Ered Gorgoroth and across the shadowed valley of Nan Dungortheb. There, the Orc-host reached the border of Doriath. To meet the deadly threat posed by Boldog's invasion in force, Thingol mustered his full might with his two great Captains, Beleg and Mablung. He led the army of Sindarin Elves beyond the North March of Doriath. Thingol and Boldog met in single combat in the midst of the battle. Thingol wielded his Dwarf-forged sword, Aranrúth, while Boldog fought with an iron spear of some note that was later used by Mablung in the Hunt of the Wolf. Thingol slew Boldog, the Orc-host was utterly defeated and the remnants destroyed by being driven into Taur-nu-Fuin.

The Battle of the North March was the culminating battle of a series of attacks in Morgoth's campaign against Doriath following his victories in the Dagor Bragollach, Battle of Sudden Flame, the fourth Great Battle of Beleriand that broke the Siege of Angband. Other battles and events around Doriath included Beleg's victory in Brethil over an Orc-legion and the defeat of the Orc-army in East Beleriand as well as Lúthien's triumph over Sauron at Tol Sirion and the taking of the Silmaril from Morgoth's Crown in Angband by Beren and Lúthien. In contrast with Morgoth's success in the Dagor Bragollach, his campaign against Doriath was a series of setbacks and defeats at the hands of Thingol and his forces which inspired resistance and restored hope to the free peoples of Beleriand.

Details of Boldog's Raid are scattered through numerous texts and versions of texts but not included in The Silmarillion as published by Christopher Tolkien. No aspect of it is in serious contradiction with the general story, however, and its presence in such primary Middle-earth sources, as the Lay of Leithian is intended to be, argues for its continued inclusion. Boldog's independent command of a Host of Orcs with its formidable objectives indicates that he is several cuts above most other Orc Captains and Champions and it is thought elsewhere in the sources that he is of some lesser order of the Maiar serving Morgoth.

Boldog is one of only three Orcs (the others being Bolg and Azog) to have been named in Tolkien's works before the writing of The Lord of the Rings.