Morwen

Lineage

Morwen was born in F.A. 443 in Dorthonion, the daughter of Baragund, son of Bregolas of the House of Bëor. Her cousin Rían, daughter of Baragund's brother Belegund, was raised with her. When the Dagor Bragollach destroyed Dorthonion in 455, Emeldir led the two girls with the other women and children over the mountains to Dor-lómin, where Morwen grew up among the House of Hador. She was dark-haired and grey-eyed, tall and so beautiful that the Elves called her Eledhwen, Elfsheen, and she carried a pride and gravity that set her apart from the laughing people of Hador.

Wife of Húrin

In F.A. 463 she married Húrin, the new lord of Dor-lómin, and went to his hall. Their son Túrin was born in 464 and their daughter Urwen, called Lalaith, in 466. When the plague of the Evil Breath came out of Angband in 469, Lalaith died of it. Morwen did not weep in front of anyone, and it was said that after that time her heart was harder and more silent. She and Húrin were happy nonetheless, and in the spring of 472 Húrin went to war leaving her pregnant with Nienor.

Under the Easterlings

Húrin never came back from the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. Morgoth gave Hithlum to the Easterlings, who seized the land and enslaved the people of Hador. Morwen alone was left untouched. The invaders were afraid of her: she was too proud to approach and too like an Elf, and they whispered that she was a witch. She lived poor and unprotected in Húrin's hall, with only the lame servant Sador and a few faithful retainers, and with secret gifts sent by her kinswoman Aerin, whom the Easterling Brodda had forced into marriage.

Fearing that Túrin would be enslaved or killed as the heir of Hador, Morwen sent him away in the autumn of 473 with two old servants to seek the protection of Thingol in Doriath. She would not go herself, being close to childbirth and unwilling to beg. With Túrin she sent the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin, the heirloom of Hador's house. Nienor was born that winter, and Morwen stayed on in Dor-lómin for more than twenty years, refusing every later summons to come to Doriath, so that Thingol's messengers went back and forth with gifts and pleas she would not accept.

Doriath and the search for Túrin

In F.A. 494 the Easterlings' oppression grew worse, and news came that a great captain had arisen in Nargothrond whom some called the Black Sword. Morwen at last left Dor-lómin with Nienor and came to Doriath, where Thingol and Melian received them, and learned that Túrin had left the kingdom years before. When Nargothrond fell in 495 and rumours reached Doriath that the Black Sword had been Túrin, Morwen would not be held back. Against Thingol's advice she rode out in 496 to find her son, and Nienor, forbidden to go, rode in disguise among the escort that Mablung led after her.

At the hill of Amon Ethir near the ruined city Glaurung came out of the river in a mist, the horses bolted, and the company was scattered. Morwen was lost, and no one in Doriath ever learned what had become of her. She wandered for years, ageing and half out of her wits, through the wild lands south of Brethil.

Death

In F.A. 501 Húrin, freed from Angband, came to Cabed-en-Aras where the standing stone marked the grave of Túrin and the death of Nienor. He found Morwen there, sitting against the stone, old and worn out. She knew him, and she asked him whether he knew how Nienor had found their son, and he could not tell her. She died as the sun set, and he buried her on the west side of the stone. The Silmarillion records that her grave was not defiled by Morgoth afterward, and that even when Beleriand drowned the stone of the Children of Húrin stood on an island above the sea.

Legacy

Morwen is the hardest and most unyielding of the mortal women of the First Age. Her pride kept her alive under the Easterlings and kept her son from them, but it also kept her from the refuge that Thingol offered, and the delay bound her and Nienor into the doom of Túrin. She is remembered in the tale as the woman whom even Morgoth's servants dared not touch.

Lost in Glaurung's mist near Nargothrond in F.A. 496; wandered for five years and died at the grave of her children in F.A. 501, in Húrin's arms.