Gilraen

Family

Gilraen was born in T.A. 2907, the daughter of Dírhael and Ivorwen, a couple of the Dúnedain of the North who were themselves descended from Aranarth, the first Chieftain, and so from the kings of Arthedain. Both of her parents had some measure of the foresight that ran in the blood of Númenor. She was called the Fair, and was well known among her people for her beauty.

Marriage

In 2929 Arathorn II, the heir of the Chieftain Arador, asked to marry her. Dírhael was against it: Gilraen was twenty-two, young by the custom of the Dúnedain, and he foresaw that Arathorn, though hardy, would be short-lived. Ivorwen took the other side and said that if the marriage was made soon, hope might come of it for their people, and that if it was delayed it would not come at all. Her counsel prevailed. Arathorn became Chieftain the next year on the death of his father, and on 1 March 2931 Gilraen bore their only child, Aragorn.

Widowhood in Rivendell

Dírhael's fear was fulfilled in 2933, when Arathorn was killed by an Orc-arrow. Gilraen, a widow at twenty-six, took the two-year-old boy to Rivendell. Elrond received him as a foster-son and named him Estel, and mother and child lived in Elrond's house, with the boy's lineage kept secret even from himself, since Sauron was seeking the heirs of Isildur. Gilraen dwelt there through Aragorn's whole boyhood. When he was twenty, and Elrond had told him his true name and he had met Arwen, she saw what had happened to him before he had said a word of it, and warned him that he had set his heart on something far above his station, unless he could win it against every likelihood.

Return to her people and death

After Aragorn went out into the wild, Gilraen went back to her own people in Eriador, and she stayed with them through the long years of his labours in the East and South. He came to see her when he could. In 3007, near the end of her life, he visited her once more before setting out on a new errand, and she told him that she doubted she would see him again. She had grown old before her time under the weight of a long widowhood and long fear, and the darkness she felt gathering over Middle-earth she did not think she could face. Her last words to her son, which the Dúnedain remembered, were that she had given hope to her people and kept none for herself. She died before the spring of 3007. Aragorn was crowned twelve years later.

Died among the Dúnedain in Eriador in T.A. 3007, shortly after her last meeting with Aragorn.