Elwing

Dior was her son.

Elwing was his daughter and had in her keeping the Silmaril.

Idril Celebrindal was the daughter of Turgon, king of the hidden city of Gondolin.

Tuor was the son of Huor of the house of Hador, the third house of the Edain, and the most renowned in the wars with Morgoth.

Eärendil the Mariner was their son.

Eärendil wedded Elwing, and with the power of the Silmaril, passed the shadows and came to the uttermost west, and speaking as ambassador of both elves and men, obtained the help by which Morgoth was overthrown.

Eärendil was not permitted to return to mortal lands, and his ship bearing the Silmaril was set to sail in the heavens as a star, and a sign of hope to the dwellers in Middle-earth oppressed by the great enemy or his servants.

The Silmarilli alone preserved the ancient light of the two trees of Alinor before Morgoth poisoned them, but the other two were lost at the end of the First Age.

Now, like Elrond's name, this one starts with El, which just means star.

It's the same element in Elwing, Elendil, Elbereth, and a good deal else besides.

But then they diverge.

Elrond is usually read as Stardome or the Vault of Heaven from Rond, that vaulted roof word that we spent time on during Fortress Week when we covered Aglarond.

There's literally an essay called The Problem of Ross.

So, take the foam with a small grain of sea salt.

Part of what tangled him up, I suspect, is who else has a name like that? Their mother is Elwing, which is read as Starspray.

El, again, plus a word for the foam that blows off the top of a wave.

And there was, I think it was Aronruth, right? Maybe I'm mispronouncing that.

The sword of Thingol that was passed on through Elwing to the kings of Numenor.

Right.

Aronruth was the name of the sword.

I feel like it's being made here by kind of drawing this connection between Galadriel and Elrond is this.

In one iteration of Galadriel that Tolkien wrote about, Galadriel and Celeborn most likely escaped from the ruin of Doriath and would have been instrumental in helping Elwing escape with the Silmaril as well.

Elwing we know being the... mother of Elrond, and she would have been with Elwing in their journey to the mouth of the river Sirion.

So it's really kind of nice to think about the fact that Galadriel could have been instrumental in Elrond's even being born and existing if she brought Elwing out of this ruin of Doriath and got her to a place where she could be united with Eärendil.

And yeah, there's real deep background kind of subtextual between these characters that I think is being referenced here and drawn from to kind of build this relationship and friendship between them that I think is really, really meaningful here.

And that's all I've got on my number three.

We can go back further into mythological territory.

Not only does Aragorn descend from a mighty line of kings, traced back through both the north and south kingdoms, and the lost kingdom of Numenor to the west, but we can trace Aragorn back to Erendil the Mariner and Elwing.

To call Erendil a legendary hero is an understatement.

Through these figures we can go back further to Thingol and the Maia Melian.