Coriantumr (last Jaredite king)

Lore & Background

Coriantumr reigned as king over the Jaredites. During his reign, the prophet Ether prophesied destruction unless the people repented, but Coriantumr and his family rejected the call. Ether was cast out and recorded events from a cave. A massive war erupted, with many conspiring to kill Coriantumr. He fought back, but was wounded and taken captive by Shared, only to be rescued by his sons. After Shared was slain, Coriantumr fought Gilead, then Lib, and finally Shiz. The conflict escalated until nearly two million people died. Coriantumr briefly repented and offered the kingdom to Shiz, but refused to surrender himself. The final battle occurred at the Hill Ramah, where Coriantumr decapitated Shiz. With all other Jaredites dead, Coriantumr wandered until he was discovered by the people of Zarahemla (remnant of the Mulekites). He lived with them for nine months before dying.

Reader's Guide

Coriantumr's story serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of rejecting prophetic warnings and persisting in wickedness. His arc has been interpreted as a tragic hero pattern similar to that of King Saul, and he has been the subject of literary works, including a poetic drama by Clinton F. Larson and a poem by James Goldberg that links him to generational sin. The site of his final battle, Hill Ramah, is sometimes conflated with the Hill Cumorah, where the Nephites were later destroyed. His encounter with the Mulekites marks the end of the Jaredite civilization and the beginning of a new people's inheritance of the land.

Did You Know?

• Coriantumr was one of only two Jaredites left alive after the final battle, the other being the prophet Ether.
• He offered his kingdom to Shiz in exchange for peace, but refused to turn himself over to be killed.
• After the war, Coriantumr wandered until he was found by the people of Zarahemla, a remnant of the Mulekites.
• He lived with the Mulekites for nine months before dying.

A Throne Under Constant Siege

Coriantumr's kingship was defined less by governance than by perpetual warfare against those who coveted his crown. Throughout his reign, a relentless succession of challengers rose against him—Shared, who defeated and captured the king before Coriantumr's sons rescued him; Gilead, who seized the throne and held it for two years while Coriantumr recruited new warriors; and Lib, a conspirator in secret combinations who wounded the king's arm in combat. Each usurper met a violent end, yet their deaths only spawned the next rebellion. Shiz, Lib's brother, escalated the destruction by torching cities and slaughtering men, women, and children, the stench of the dead so overpowering it sickened the populace. The cumulative toll of these campaigns approached two million lives lost. Coriantumr, described as knowledgeable in the art of battle, repeatedly rallied forces and pursued enemies across the Valley of Gilgal, the Plains of Heshlon, the wilderness of Akish, and the plains of Agosh. His reign thus became a grim chronicle of a man who could defend his throne through superior martial skill yet could never restore peace to the realm he ruled.

The Last Stand at Hill Ramah

After years of unending bloodshed, Coriantumr grew weary of the carnage and turned toward repentance. He composed a letter to Shiz, pleading for an end to the slaughter and even offering to surrender the kingdom entirely. Shiz accepted the proposal but attached a condition: Coriantumr must hand himself over to be executed. The king refused, and both armies converged on the Hill Ramah for what would become the final engagement. As the battle ground on, the ranks thinned dramatically until only three individuals remained standing—Coriantumr, Shiz, and the prophet Ether, who had long since retreated to a cave to chronicle the events. The two leaders locked in personal combat until Shiz, weakened by blood loss, collapsed. Seizing the moment, Coriantumr severed his rival's head, ending the war. With that single act, a civilization stretching back one or two thousand years was extinguished. The once-great Jaredite nation, its people, its cities, and its institutions, ceased to exist in a single afternoon on a hilltop.

Defiance of the Prophet and the Prophecy of Ruin

The spiritual dimension of Coriantumr's story is anchored in his repeated rejection of divine counsel. The prophet Ether, acting under God's direction, delivered warnings to the Jaredite people, but his words fell on deaf ears and he was ultimately cast out of the community. A specific prophecy of destruction was pronounced against Coriantumr's household. Ether took refuge in a cave, where he recorded the unfolding catastrophe. When the king was wounded in battle, Ether confronted him with a stark ultimatum: the Lord would spare Coriantumr and his family if they repented, but otherwise they would be utterly destroyed and a different people would inherit the land. Coriantumr would be the final survivor to witness that inheritance. Rather than humble himself, the king attempted to kill the prophet, who narrowly escaped. Only near the very end of the war, after nearly two million lives had been lost, did Coriantumr's heart soften enough for him to write a plea to Shiz and offer the throne. His late repentance, however, could not undo the annihilation already set in motion.

Coriantumr in Literature and Scholarship

Coriantumr has attracted sustained attention from literary scholars and poets who see in his narrative a universal archetype of civilizational collapse. Folklorist Bruce Rosenberg identified in the king a 'Martyred Hero' trapped in a tragic predicament, drawing a direct parallel to the biblical King Saul—so close, in fact, that Rosenberg calls Coriantumr Saul's doppelgänger. BYU English professor Clinton F. Larson dramatized the king's final days in a 1961 poetic work published alongside a companion piece titled Coriantumr and Moroni, in which Coriantumr delivers what scholar Edward Whitley describes as an expansive, scenery-chewing soliloquy as he watches his civilization crumble. Poet James Goldberg, in his anthology A Book of Lamentations, frames Coriantumr as a representative figure for generational sin, intertextually echoing T. S. Eliot's 'The Hollow Men' through a threefold refrain about humanity's capacity to choose death. Charles W. Dunn's epic The Master's Other Sheep depicts the final battle and notably identifies Hill Ramah with Hill Cumorah, a conflation echoed in a poem published in the LDS Church's Ensign magazine.