Emeldir was born to the line Bëor the Old, descended through five generations from Bëor's younger son Belen. She was the daughter of a Man named Beren, and at the time of her birth in I 406, the people of her House held the land of Dorthonion as a fief under the Eldar. She married Barahir, also descendant of Bëor, but through the line of Bëor's elder son Balan, and they had a son, whom they named Beren after Emeldir's father.
From a time even before Men came to Beleriand, the Eldar had maintained the Siege of Angband in the North, containing the power of Morgoth. In the year I 455, without any warning, this Siege suddenly failed. Rivers of fire flooded out across the plains northward of Emeldir's home in Dorthonion, and soon afterward, the forests of that land fell under the Dark Lord's power.
Emeldir's husband Barahir and her son Beren resolved to remain in their homeland and, with a small band of followers, to resist the invaders. Emeldir herself - named the 'Manhearted' - had a strong and determined temperament, and wished to join her family in their fight. Instead, she was persuaded to take change of the women and children of Dorthonion and to bring them to safety if she could.
Emeldir led her charges into the mountains5 that surrounded her homeland, following dangerous paths that led them eventually down into the lowlands and then to the relative safety of the Forest of Brethil. There they were welcomed by the Haladin, and there many of Emeldir's followers remained, while others journeyed on westward to the lands of the House of Hador in Dor-lómin.
Among these refugees were two young girls, Morwen and Rían, who would later play important roles of their own in history. Of Emeldir herself, we hear nothing more after her party reached Brethil. Perhaps she chose to remain there, or perhaps she went on to Dor-lómin. It is known that she never saw her husband or son again. Barahir had been slain soon after Emeldir left Dorthonion, but her son Beren would go on to become one of the great heroes of the First Age.
Notes
1 |
Emeldir lived until at least the year I 455, when she would have been 49 year old. This was the year of the Dagor Bragollach in which she led the women and children of Dorthonion to safety in Brethil. She evidently survived the journey, but of her subsequent life in Brethil we have no record.
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2 |
Emeldir's name is not explained, but it seems to contain the old element dír meaning 'man'. This is a clue that Emeldir might be taken from her title 'Manhearted' (or, more precisely, that Emeldir's title 'the Manhearted' was actually a translation of her name). Emel- is not attested as 'heart' (its more usual translation was 'mother') though this perhaps represents an indirect connection with the root-word mel- for 'love' or 'friendship'. So, Emeldir as an Elvish form of 'Manhearted' cannot be taken as certain, but it would follow a common pattern of English titles representing translations of Elvish names.
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3 |
Presumably Emeldir named her famous and heroic son Beren after her father. The elder Beren is much less well-known than his grandson, and he only receives a passing mention in the index to the published Silmarillion. He was a great-great-grandson of Bëor the Old, being descended from Bëor's younger son Belen.
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4 |
In a genealogy of the House of Bëor given in volume XI of The History of Middle-earth, Emeldir's name is marked with a note as '(dtr. & third child)'. This is our only mention of her siblings (and indeed the note gives us no real clues as to whether they were brothers or sisters) but it does seem that the elder Beren had at least three children, of whom Emeldir was the youngest.
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5 |
Emeldir's route through the mountains is not described in any detail. The Silmarillion says only that, '...she led them into the mountains that lay behind...' (Quenta Silmarillion 18, Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin), but 'behind' is ambiguous here. Given that she eventually found her way to Brethil, then her most likely path would have been westward through Dorthonion, and then southward through the mountains using the Pass of Anach. At least, this would have been the most direct way toward the Forest of Brethil, though one fraught with difficulty and danger.
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