Elladan and Elrohir

Elladan
Race Half-elven
Information
Book(s) The Lord of the Rings
Elrohir
Race Half-elven
Information
Book(s) The Lord of the Rings

Elladan and Elrohir are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the sons of Elrond Half-elven and Celebrían and older brothers of Arwen.

Appearances

Literature

Elladan and Elrohir were born in T.A. 139, the sons of Elrond, the lord of Rivendell, and Celebrían, the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn of Lothlórien. They have one younger sister, Arwen.

Tolkien does not call them twins, though they are described as being so similar that "few could tell them apart: dark-haired, grey-eyed, and their faces elven-fair, clad alike in bright mail beneath cloaks of silver-grey".[1] Foster concludes that they were identical twins.[2]

In T.A. 2509 Celebrían was travelling to her parents when she was captured by Orcs and tortured. Elladan and Elrohir rescued her, and their father healed her wounds, but she lost all joy and departed Middle-earth. Ever since, they held a special grudge against Orcs because of their mother's suffering at the Orcs' hands.

The brothers were friends and companions-in-arms of the Rangers of the North, and helped defend the remnants of Arnor from evil after the fracturing and fall of the Northern Kingdom. During the War of the Ring, they fought alongside Aragorn in the battle of the Pelennor Fields in Gondor and in the Battle of the Morannon. Aragorn's victories made him King of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor, and enabled him to marry their sister. They attended both the coronation and the wedding.

Like their sister and father, the brothers faced the Half-elven choice between mortality and immortality, expressed by whether they would remain in Middle-earth or pass to Valinor in the West. Their father chose to pass to the West at the end of the Third Age, but their sister chose to remain. Tolkien never wrote what choices the brothers made. While they remained in Rivendell with Celeborn for a time after their father's departure, Tolkien noted that they were allowed to delay their choices.[3]

Internal lineage

Adaptations

Elladan and Elrohir make an appearance in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, at the very end when Aragorn is crowned and also sitting behind Elrond at the council in Rivendell. They also appear in the related The Lord of the Rings Trading Card. They feature as miniatures in The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, in which their character profiles maintain that they are twins. Moreover, they appear in the PC-game The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, standing in the Trollshaws, west of the Ford of Bruinen and they are main characters in The Lord of the Rings: The War in the North released in 2011. They appear also in the 2009 fan film Born of Hope. Finally they appear in the 2011 Warner Bros. PC-game The Lord of the Rings: War in the North as NPCs.

Names and titles

The names Elladan and Elrohir can be loosely translated as "Elf-Man" and indicate the brothers' dual descent from both Elves and Men.

The element el is often translated as "star" and the Elves were called the Eldar, or "People of the Stars."

Elladan includes the element adan, the singular of Edain (the fathers of Men who became the Númenóreans). "Adan", strictly speaking, is "man", but in usage, it means Númenórean, advanced man, wise man, as in Dúnedain. There is also overlap with the word "dan" meaning "wright or smith". (Examples of this are Círdan [singular name, ship-wright] and Mírdain [plural name, jewel-smiths]). So the highest, most knowing sort of man is what is implied here - a man of lore and craft, significant ideas in the Tolkien universe.

Elrohir contains the word rohir meaning "horse-lord" or "knight." The name Elrohir may be translated as "Elf-knight" or "Elf-rider", alternatively "Star-knight" or "Star-rider", as El- can be translated as both Elf and Star

(This echoes the Dioscuri/Gemini twins of Greek and Roman mythology - among these two, Castor was a great horseman).

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Return of the King, "The Passing of the Grey Company".
  2. ↑ Foster, Robert. "Elladan". The Complete Guide to Middle-earth. Ballantine Books. p. 144. ISBN 0-345-44976-2.
  3. ↑ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien; Letter 153
  • "Elladan and Elrohir". Tolkien Gateway.
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