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Elrond

Meaning: star-dome

Other Names:
Peredhel
Master Elrond
Elrond Half-elven

Location(s):
Havens of Sirion
Lindon
Imladris
Undying Lands

Race/Species: Peredhil

Title(s):
Herald of Gil-galad
Master of Imladris
Bearer of Vilya

Dates:
I 532 - III 29 September 3021 (sailed to the Undying Lands)

Parents:
father: Eärendil
mother: Elwing

Siblings:
Elros (twin)

Spouse:
Celebrían

Children:
Elladan and Elrohir (twins)
Arwen

Description:

Elrond, son of Eärendil of Gondolin and Elwing of Doriath, and brother of Elros, first King of Númenor, is the founder and lord of Imladris:

Table of Contents:
Description
Family Relationships
Talents and Skills
History
Etymology

Description
The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars. Venerable he seemed as a king crowned with many winters, and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fulness of his strength. He was the Lord of Rivendell and mighty among both Elves and Men.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 1, Many Meetings

[There] were still some people who had both elves and heroes of the North for ancestors, and Elrond the master of the house was their chief. He was as noble and as fair in face as an elf-lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves, and as kind as summer.

The Hobbit, Ch 3, A Short Rest

Now Elros and Elrond his brother were descended from the Three Houses of the Edain, but in part also both from the Eldar and the Maiar.... The Valar indeed may not withdraw the gift of death, which comes to Men from Ilúvatar, but in the matter of the Half-elven Ilúvatar gave to them the judgement; and they judged that to the sons of Eärendil should be given choice of their own destiny. And Elrond chose to remain with the Firstborn, and to him the life of the Firstborn was granted. But to Elros, who chose to be a king of Men, still a great span of years was allotted...; and all his line..., had long life even according to the measure of the Númenóreans.

The Silmarillion, Akallabêth

At the end of the First Age the Valar gave to the Half-elven an irrevocable choice to which kindred they would belong. Elrond chose to be of Elven-kind, and became a master of wisdom. To him therefore was granted the same grace as to those of the High Elves that still lingered in Middle-earth: that when weary at last of the mortal lands they could take ship from the Grey Havens and pass into the Uttermost West; and this grace continued after the change of the world. But to the children of Elrond a choice was also appointed: to pass with him from the circles of the world; or if they remained, to become mortal and die in Middle-earth.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Númenor

In all the days of the Third Age, after the fall of Gil-galad, Master Elrond abode in Imladris, and he gathered there many Elves, and other folk of wisdom and power from among all the kindreds of Middle-earth, and he preserved through many lives of Men the memory of all that had been fair; and the house of Elrond was a refuge for the weary and the oppressed, and a treasury of good counsel and wise lore.

The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

Elrond symbolises throughout the ancient wisdom, and his House represents Lore — the preservation in reverent memory of all tradition concerning the good, wise and beautiful. It is not a scene of action but of reflection. Thus it is a place visited on the way to all deeds or 'adventures'. It may prove to be on the direct road (as in The Hobbit); but it may be necessary to go from there in a wholly unexpected course. So necessarily in The Lord of the Rings, having escaped to Elrond from the imminent pursuit of present evil, the hero departs in a wholly new direction: to go and face it at its source.

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Edited by Humphrey Carpenter, Letter 131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951 (estimated)


Family Relationships
In Middle-earth dwelt... Elrond Half-elven, who chose, as was granted to him, to be numbered among the Eldar; but Elros his brother chose to abide with Men. And from these brethren alone has come among Men the blood of the Firstborn and a strain of the spirits divine that were before Arda; for they were the sons of Elwing, Dior's daughter, Lúthien's son, child of Thingol and Melian; and Eärendil their father was the son of Idril Celebrindal, Turgon's daughter of Gondolin.

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 24, Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath

So it was that Frodo saw... Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Lúthien had come on earth again.... Long she had been in the land of her mother's kin, in Lórien..., and was but lately returned to Rivendell.... But her brothers, Elladan and Elrohir, were out upon errantry: for they rode often far afield with the Rangers of the North, forgetting never their mother's torment in the dens of the orcs.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 1, Many Meetings

... Elrond Half-elven,... brother of Elros first king of Númenor.

The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

In [Elrond's] house were harboured the Heirs of Isildur, in childhood and old age, because of the kinship of their blood with Elrond himself....

The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

Aragorn was only two years old when Arathorn... was slain....

Then Aragorn, being now the Heir of Isildur, was taken with his mother to dwell in the house of Elrond; and Elrond took the place of his father and came to love him as a son of his own.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen


Talents and Skills
Elrond... became a master of wisdom.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Númenor

... Master Elrond foretold that [Narsil] would not be [forged anew] until the Ruling Ring should be found again and Sauron should return....

The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

'Elrond is a master of healing....'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 1, Many Meetings

'Who made the flood?' asked Frodo.

'Elrond commanded it,' answered Gandalf. 'The river of this valley is under his power, and it will rise in anger when he has great need to bar the Ford.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 1, Many Meetings

[Thorin's company], helped by the wise advice of Elrond..., took the right road to the right pass.

The Hobbit, Ch 4, Over Hill and Under Hill

Elrond knew all about runes of every kind. That day he looked at the swords they had brought from the trolls' lair...: 'These are... very old.... This, Thorin, the runes name Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver in the ancient tongue of Gondolin....'

The Hobbit, Ch 3, A Short Rest

'Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them,' said Elrond, 'not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were written....'

The Hobbit, Ch 3, A Short Rest


History
Elrond paused a while and sighed. 'I remember well the splendour of their banners [of the Last Alliance],' he said. 'It recalled to me the glory of the Elder Days and the hosts of Beleriand, so many great princes and captains were assembled. And yet not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so.'

'You remember?' said Frodo, speaking his thought aloud in his astonishment. 'But I thought,' he stammered as Elrond turned towards him, 'I thought that the fall of Gil-galad was a long age ago.'

'So it was indeed,' answered Elrond gravely. 'But my memory reaches back even to the Elder Days.... I have seen three ages in the West of the world, and many defeats, and many fruitless victories.

'I was the herald of Gil-galad and marched with his host. I was at the Battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate of Mordor, where we had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-galad and the Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil, none could withstand. I beheld the last combat on the slopes of Orodruin, where Gil-galad died, and Elendil fell, and Narsil broke beneath him; but Sauron himself was overthrown, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand with the hilt-shard of his father's sword, and took it for his own.'

At this the stranger, Boromir, broke in. 'So that is what became of the Ring!' he cried.... 'Isildur took it! That is tidings indeed.'

'Alas! yes,' said Elrond. 'Isildur took it, as should not have been. It should have been cast then into Orodruin's fire nigh at hand where it was made. But few marked what Isildur did. He alone stood by his father in that last mortal contest; and by Gil-galad only Círdan stood, and I. But Isildur would not listen to our counsel.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 2, The Council of Elrond


Etymology
Now Elrond was a word for the firmament, the starry dome as it appeared like a roof to Arda; and it was given by Elwing in memory of the great Hall of the Throne of Elwë in the midst of his stronghold of Menegroth that was called the Menelrond [heaven-dome]....

The Peoples of Middle-Earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 2, Ch 12, The Problem of Ros

êl, elen  'star'. According to Elvish legend, ele was a primitive exclamation 'behold!' made by the Elves when they first saw the stars. From this origin derived the ancient words êl and elen, meaning 'star', and the adjectives elda and elena, meaning 'of the stars'.... The Sindarin equivalent of Elda was Edhel (plural Edhil)...; but the strictly corresponding form was Eledh, which occurs in Eledhwen....

rond  meant a vaulted or arched roof, or a large hall or chamber so roofed; so Nargothrond..., Hadhodrond, Aglarond. It could be applied to the heavens, hence the name Elrond 'star-dome'.

The Silmarillion, Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names

Contributors:
Ying, 05Jan03
Loquacious, 04Jan03
Jay of Lasgalen, 8Oct07
Elena Tiriel 13Aug07

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