History Awesome / TheSilmarillion

** When Glaurung crushed down the Dwarf Lord Azaghaˆl, he [[DyingMomentOfAwesome drove his dagger into the beast's belly even as he died]], sending it screaming back to Morgoth, basically saving every other elf or human warrior from a fiery death. Yes, he made a dragon scurry away ''with just a dagger''.

* The Dwarves of Belegost proved their mettle during Unnumbered Tears, by halting Glaurung and his dragon brood in their tracks where not even the mightiest of the Eldar or the Fathers of Men could, and they actually manage to wound the Father of Dragons with their terrible greataxes.
** When Glaurung crushed down the Dwarf Lord Azaghal, he [[DyingMomentOfAwesome drove his dagger into the beast's belly even as he died]], sending it screaming back to Morgoth, basically saving every other elf or human warrior from a fiery death. Yes, he made a dragon scurry away ''with just a dagger''.
** And as a sign of how dangerous dwarves are when avenging their kin, when the Dwarves gathered up Azaghal's body and marched from the field for his funeral, their fury was so great that none of Melkor's army even bothered to get in their way.

* And then, in the presence of Morgoth and his entire court, all hope utterly crushed for any sort of victory, what does Húrin do? In the face of an offer of "mercy" from Morgoth, he not only refuses, but ''mocks him''. Even in the face of a horrific curse upon all his family and descendants of misery and tragedy that Morgoth would ''make him watch''.

* Every time the Fathers of Men took up arms, it resulted in a Moment of Awesome. No, seriously. Just leaf through the pages & locate the deaths of all prominent human warriors. In almost all of these cases, they fell fighting in rear guard actions, making face-meltingly awesome last stands, or conducting guerrilla campaigns deep behind enemy lines. Morgoth's main foe might have been the Noldor, but it was these puny, short lived mortals who caused him the most trouble.
* The children of Bor deserve a mention. The rest of the Easterlings might have turned traitor, but these stalwarts stayed true to their allies, the folk of Maedhros. In fact the sons of Bor made sure to take down the traitorous children of Ulfang down with them during Unnumbered Tears, proving that there is nobility, courage & honor to be found even amongst men not belonging to the lofty Houses of the Atanatari.
* The Battle of Unnumbered Tears was the greatest defeat of the Noldor. Every step of that battle was planned out entirely by Morgoth, but even then the narrative acknowledges that the sheer ''power'' of the allied Elven, Human and Dwarven forces almost won against evil. Had one or two things been different that day, the First Age may have ended very differently.

* Tuor arriving to the shore and seeing Belegaer, the Sundering Sea, as the first Man ever.

* Ecthelion and Glorfindel's exploits during the fall of Gondolin. The former managed to bring down Gothmog himself, while the latter made it possible for some of the citizens to escape by slaying another unnamed Balrog. [[DyingMomentofAwesome Both of the elves perished in the process.]]

** Even after all the misery this ultimately led to, the Dúnedain still thought this was awesome. When Gondor controlled the city of Umbar, they built a monument to Pharazôn, marking the spot where Sauron submitted to him. He might have been a jerk, but in that one moment, he was ''their'' jerk, and the savior of Middle-earth.
* Facing defeat at the hands of Ar-Pharazôn, Sauron concocts a risky BatmanGambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be taken back to Númenor, through charisma and his silver tongue, he eventually became one of Ar-Pharazôn's closest advisers, which let him turn the Númenóreans from being God's chosen to worshipers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Númenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Númenor, of which only those few faithful survived. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Númenor sank, and was unable to take a fair form ever again), but it still worked in the end.
* Ar-Pharazôn and the Great Armament sailing against Valinor. Even though you know it's going to end poorly, and that the Númenoreans have already fallen so far, it's hard not to feel a sense of pride (the Númenoreans still being Human and all) at this line:

** The Númenoreans were in many ways, the perfect combination of Elves and Men. At the peak, in terms of power (physical, military, mental) they were likely in the same ballpark as the fresh-off-the-boat Noldor who invaded Middle Earth nearly 600 years prior. When the Great Armament set sail to Valinor, even at their lowest point, they were still so strong and intimidating that, the possibility of them attacking Tol Eressëa frightened the Elves living there to the point of fleeing the city.
* As awesome the Númenoreans confidence was though, not even that can stand against [[{{God}} Eru Freakin’ Ilúvatar]]. For a majority of the Silmarillion Eru has been hands off with His creation, but here [[BewareTheNiceOnes He is so enraged]] at the arrogance and cruelty before Him, [[DivineIntervention He takes direct action]]. In what is essentially a mix of the sinking of Atlantis and the Great Flood, Eru ''blows up'' Númenor and sinks its remains into the sea, [[GodIsGood whilst still holding compassion]] towards the few goodly Númenoreans whom he guides to safety. Eru did not forget Sauron’s treacherous hand in all this either, [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty smiting the foul Maia so badly he was never able to take a fair form again!]] Additionally, Sauron did not see it coming ''at all''; Eru's intervention happens just as Sauron thinks his victory is complete and Middle-earth will become his playground.

** For that matter, while it might be [[KickTheSonOfABitch a little vindictive]], seeing how [[{{Satan}} Morgoth]], [[BlatantLies Master of the Fates of Arda]] and mightiest being in all Middle-Earth, ends his existence [[DirtyCoward on his knees]] [[VillainsWantMercy and begging for mercy]] before he gets his long-overdue punishment, is pretty satisfying.

* As awesome the Númenoreans confidence was though, not even that can stand against [[{{God}} Eru Freakin’ Ilúvatar]]. For a majority of the Silmarillion Eru has been hands off with His creation, but here [[BewareTheNiceOnes He is so enraged]] at the arrogance and cruelty before Him, [[DivineIntervention He takes direct action]]. In what is essentially a mix of the sinking of Atlantis and the Great Flood, Eru ''blows up'' Númenor and sinks its remains into the sea, [[GodIsGood whilst still holding compassion]] towards the few goodly Númenoreans whom he guides to safety. Eru did not forget Sauron’s treacherous hand in all this either, [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty smiting the foul Maia so badly he was never able to take a fair form again!]] Additionally, Sauron did not see it coming *at all*; Eru's intervention happens just as Sauron thinks his victory is complete and Middle-earth will become his playground.

* As awesome the Númenoreans confidence was though, not even that can stand against [[{{God}} Eru Freakin’ Ilúvatar]]. For a majority of the Silmarillion Eru has been hands off with His creation, but here [[BewareTheNiceOnes He is so enraged]] at the arrogance and cruelty before Him, [[DivineIntervention He takes direct action]]. In what is essentially a mix of the sinking of Atlantis and the Great Flood, Eru ''blows up'' Númenor and sinks its remains into the sea, [[GodIsGood whilst still holding compassion]] towards the few goodly Númenoreans whom he guides to safety. Eru did not forget Sauron’s treacherous hand in all this either, [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty smiting the foul maiar so badly he was never able to take a fair form again!]]

** When Glaurung crushed down the Dwarf Lord Azaghal, he [[DyingMomentOfAwesome drove his dagger into the beast's belly even as he died]], sending it screaming back to Morgoth, basically saving every other elf or human warrior from a fiery death. Yes, he made a dragon fly away ''with just a dagger''.

* His brother Huor's last stand in the same battle. Huor kills ''seventy'' trolls single-handedly with his battleaxe.