Given the scope of Tolkien’s work, there are a lot of places and characters that appear in only a few of his stories, either as minor characters or as names in a genealogy chart. Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell, is one of the few characters that appear in most of the stories related to theLord of the Ringsalong with being an important figure in the famous trilogy.
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By the timeThe Fellowship of the Ringbegins, Elrond was already thousands of years old and had witnessed virtually all of the most important events in Middle-earth history since the time he was born. That’s some detail about Elrond’s history that only book readers know, and there are many more.
6The Great-Grandson Of Beren & Luthien
Elrond was born into an honored and prestigious house, and his powerful family and friends are some of the reasons he survived for such a long time. Beren and Luthien were the heroes of one of Tolkien’s earliest works,Beren and Luthien, whotold the story of how they wrested a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown.
Their son was Dior, and his youngest child Elwing was Elrond’s mother. Elwing had inherited the Silmaril from her grandmother and the remaining sons of Feanor would stop at nothing to retrieve their father’s property. In an attempt to calm their wrath and save her children Elrond and Elros,Elwing and her husband Eärendilrisked a dangerous journey across the sea to return the Silmaril in return for the Valar’s protection.
5Galadriel’s Son-In-Law
Galadriel was born during the time of the Two Trees, was close friends with Melian the Maia, and is one of the oldest beings in Middle-earth by the time of the Council of Elrond. Galadriel and her husband Celeborn had one daughter, Celebrían.
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Celebrian married Elrond hundreds of years before the trilogy series fans all know and love took place, but she’s not present in any of the literature or media of later periods. After being attacked, tortured, and poisoned by orcs during a journey between Rivendell and Lorien, Middle-earth no longer had any meaning to her and sheleft for the Grey Havensearly in the Third Age.
4The Host Of Celeborn
At the end ofThe Return of the King,there’s a scene that includes both Galadriel and her husband departing together on a boat to the Grey Havens with Elrond. However, the timeline for certain departures in the books was different.
Elrond isn’t that oldcompared to other creatures that livein Middle-earth, which is one of the reasons he is revered among his peers but isn’t the most powerful of the Noldor or High Elves. Celeborn stayed behind in Rivendell to take Elrond’s place as Lorekeeper. He was one of the last of the elves to leave Middle-earth along with Cirdan the Shipwright.
3Has Three Children
The movies use the stereotype of the brooding father more with Elrond, and it never explicitly says so but suggests that Arwen is his only child as a way to up the stakes. She is his only daughter, so it’s not completely a lie, but he also has two older sons, the twins Elladan and Elrohir.
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Arwen spent most of her time in Lorien with her grandmother, but Elladan and Elrohir stayed with their father in Imladris. They were famous for their heroic deeds slaying orcs in the wild and were responsible for rescuing Celebrian.
2The Halfelven
This is another quirk of Elrond’s family that goes back to the story of Beren and Luthien and the recovery of a Silmaril. His parents kept the jewel for a while but always had to keep it moving to hide it from the sons of Feanor. For a time it rested in Galadriel’s Mirror in Lothlorien, and the Light of Eärendil that Galadriel gives Frodo is filled with the same water.
Elwing and Eärendil were both half-elven, descended from different branches of the same House of Beor, but it was not until the Silmaril was returned that their house would have the choice between human death and elf immortality.Elrond chose the path of the elves, but his brother Elros chose to live as a human. He married a mortal woman and reigned as the first king of Númenor for more than 400 years.
1Protected The Dúnedain
The movies have some hints and easter eggs forthose who know their lore and read the books, with the iconography and sets in Rivendell tracing the long line of the lost kings of Numenor lost in the wilderness. The extended versions have Aragorn visiting his mother’s grave and hints at his destiny as a marked man by the enemies of the Dúnedain, but this is as much information as the movies give the viewer.
Although it seems like Elrond offered shelter to the exiled family more out of kindness, it had been his duty to aid and succor all of the descendent of Isildur and their allies for hundreds of years. Aragorn might have been the first to be fostered within the home for most of his life as opposed to a welcome guest, and this shows in the books in which Elrond is portrayed as a more kindly father figure.
