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Vidumavi

Meaning: wood-maiden

Other Names: Galadwen

Location(s): Northeast Rhovanion, Gondor

Race/Species: Man

Type/Kind: Rohirrim

Dates: died 1344 [1332?] III

Parents: Vidugavia (King of Rhovanion)

Spouse: Valacar (King of Gondor)

Children:
Vinitharya (King Eldacar of Gondor),
other unnamed children

Description:
Rómendacil showed especial favour to Vidugavia.... He called himself King of Rhovanion, and was indeed the most powerful of the Northern princes, though his own realm lay between Greenwood and the River Celduin. In 1250 Rómendacil sent his son Valacar as an ambassador to dwell for a while with Vidugavia ... He grew to love the Northern lands and people, and he married Vidumavi, daughter of Vidugavia. ...

The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion

After the birth of Vinitharya this version continues:

Romendakil gave his consent to the marriage. He could not forbid it or refuse to recognize it without earning the enmity of Vidugavia. Indeed all the Northmen would have been angered.... He therefore waited in patience until 1260, and then he recalled Valakar.... Valakar returned to Gondor with his wife and children.... They were welcomed, and at that time all seemed well ...

Valakar gave to his son the name Eldakar, for public use in Gondor; and his wife bore herself wisely and endeared herself to all those who knew her. She learned well the speech and manners of Gondor, and was willing to be called by the name Galadwen, a rendering of her Northern name into the Sindarin tongue. She was a fair and noble lady of high courage, which she imparted to her children; but though she lived to a great age, as such was reckoned among her people, she died in 1344 [in one copy > 1332].

The Peoples of Middle-Earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 1, Ch 9, The Making of Appendix A: The Realms in Exile

Etymology

It is an interesting fact, not referred to I believe in any of my father's writings, that the names of the early kings and princes of the Northmen and the Éothéod are Gothic in form, not Old English (Anglo-Saxon) as in the case of Léod, Eorl, and the later Rohirrim. Vidugavia is Latinized in spelling, representing Gothic Widugauja ("wood-dweller"), a recorded Gothic name, and similarly Vidumavi Gothic Widumawi ("wood-maiden"). ... Since, as is explained in Appendix F (II), the language of Rohan was "made to resemble ancient English," the names of the ancestors of the Rohirrim are cast into the forms of the earliest recorded Germanic language.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: Notes, Note 6

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 12Dec04

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