Celebrían

Daughter of the Lord and Lady

Celebrían was the only child of Galadriel of the Noldor and Celeborn of the Sindar, born in the Second Age. The published texts do not fix the year or place; Unfinished Tales suggests that she was with her parents in Eregion before its fall and later in Lothlórien, and that Galadriel and Celeborn spent long years in Imladris after the Last Alliance, during which Celebrían and Elrond came to love each other. Her name means silver queen.

Lady of Rivendell

In T.A. 109 Celebrían married Elrond Half-elven and went to live in Rivendell. Their twin sons Elladan and Elrohir were born in T.A. 130, and their daughter Arwen in 241, in whom the beauty of Lúthien was said to have returned. For four centuries she was the lady of the Last Homely House, and she travelled often over the mountains to visit her parents in Lórien.

The Redhorn Pass

In T.A. 2509, on one such journey, her company was ambushed by Orcs in the Redhorn Pass beneath Caradhras. Her escort was scattered and she was taken. The Orcs tormented her and gave her a poisoned wound before Elladan and Elrohir found the lair and rescued her. Elrond healed the wound, but the fear and the memory could not be healed in Middle-earth, and she lost all delight in it.

The passing West

In T.A. 2510 Celebrían went to the Grey Havens and sailed to the Undying Lands, leaving her husband and children behind. Elrond did not remarry and was not reunited with her until he himself sailed in T.A. 3021. Her sons, according to the Appendices, never forgot; they rode with the Rangers of the North and hunted Orcs in the mountains for the rest of the Age, and the choice she made cast a long shadow over Elrond's own reluctance to see Arwen part from him.

Legacy

Celebrían is a figure in the background of the Third Age, known chiefly through her family: the wife of Elrond, the mother of the sons who rode the Paths of the Dead, the mother of the Queen of the Reunited Kingdom, the link that bound Rivendell and Lórien into one house. Her wounding and departure are among the very few personal griefs of Elrond that the texts record, and they show plainly what the Orcs and the Shadow meant even to those who could not be killed by them.

Sailed into the West in T.A. 2510, unable to find healing in Middle-earth after her captivity.