Húrin of Emyn Arnen

Húrin of Emyn Arnen is the earliest of Gondor's Stewards to have his name recorded in history. He served under King Minardil, and though we know little of his life, it is certain that his actions had a tremendous effect on the future history of Middle-earth. He was a Man of noble Númenórean descent, the founder of the House of Húrin from which Minardil's heirs came by tradition to select their own Stewards. By the time of the loss of Gondor's last King, Eärnur, some four centuries later, the Stewardship had become a powerful hereditary institution, ready to take over in place of the Kings.

To lay the groundwork for such an achievement, Húrin must have provided some great service to the state of Gondor, but what that service might have been is not hinted at in The Lord of the Rings. However, the untimely death of his King, Minardil, followed almost immediately by the ravages of the Dark Plague, leave room for speculation that it was the efforts of Húrin that directed Gondor through this dark time in its history. A short passage in The History of Middle-earth seems to confirm this: '...[Húrin] had laboured greatly for the ordering of the realm in the disastrous days of the plague, when King Telemnar died within two years of the slaying of King Minardil by the Corsairs.' (Vol. XII The Peoples of Middle-earth I 7 The Heirs of Elendil).