Information About

Lorien




This article is about the Lórien of , see Lorian .


In J.R.R. Tolkien 's fictional Arda (ancient Earth ), two places were known as Lórien, both exceptionally beautiful. The first was the gardens of the Vala Irmo in Valinor (Irmo sometimes being called Lórien himself). The second was a forest in the continent of Middle-earth , centred at the juncture or 'naith' of the Rivers Celebrant and Anduin .


ORIGINS


Like those of Northern Mirkwood , the people of Lothlórien were mostly Silvan Elves of Nandor in descent, who were originally of all the Eldar those who most closely resembled the lost Avari of the east. As such, their earlier settlements lay scattered throughout the wide forests on both sides of the upper Anduin, having originally lingered there upon refusing the crossing of the Hithaeglir in very ancient times.


FIRST CROSSING OF ANDUIN


Before the end of the , who became their first lord, as well as Galadriel and Celeborn , who also crossed the mountains and the Anduin to join these southern Nandor after the destruction of Eregion during the War Of The Elves And Sauron . Ultimately, Amdír led an army out of the forest as part of the Last Alliance Of Elves And Men , just as Oropher , another Sindarin lord, led the Silvan Elves of the north in the same victory over Sauron , so it can be assumed that both northern and southern woodland realms had been founded by then.


SECOND CROSSING


With the gradual return of Sauron's malign influence to the forest east of Anduin, the northern Silvan Elves led by Thranduil son of Oropher moved even further north to escape it, and those of the south returned west across the Anduin, although without their last Sindarin lord Amroth son of Amdír, who departed for to Edhellond after his lover Nimrodel had fled there.

The southern Silvan Elves then took Galadriel and Celeborn as their new Lord and Lady: the forest west of the river had been originally known by its Silvan names Laurelindórinan (Land of the Valley of Singing Gold) and '''Lórinand''' (Golden Valley), but was renamed '''Lothlórien''' (Lórien of the Blossom) in memory of the Lórien the exiled Galadriel had left behind long before in Aman .

The name was often shortened to Lórien. (The latter can be translated "Land of Gold", although it carried within it also the meaning of "dream". Treebeard referred to it as "The Dreamflower".) Other, later names given to the land included the much later Rohirric name Dwimordene (from ''dwimor'' "phantom", an allusion to the perceived magic of the Elves), and the Westron name '''The Golden Wood'''.

This 'magic' was later revealed as being that of Galadriel's is if Sauron himself, the master of all the Rings of Power, had come there.

Lothlórien was famous for having the largest trees in Middle-earth, and for long was also the only place in Middle-earth where the Golden Mallorn tree grew, brought there from Valinor by Lady Galadriel. (Later, a mallorn was planted in the Shire, a gift of Galadriel to Sam Gamgee .)


THE THIRD CROSSING


Following the departure of Galadriel for , Celeborn and Galadriel's granddaughter, Lothlórien itself was deserted.