Lalaith

Lineage

Urwen was born in Dor-lómin in F.A. 466, the daughter of Húrin, lord of the House of Hador, and Morwen of the House of Bëor. She was golden-haired like her father's people and blue-eyed, and she was so full of laughter that the household called her Lalaith, the name of the bright stream that ran down from the hills past Húrin's hall. Her brother Túrin, two years older, loved her more than anyone.

Death

In the spring of F.A. 469 a plague came into Hithlum on an evil wind out of the north, which the people called the Evil Breath, and many children died of it. Túrin caught it and lived; Urwen caught it and died, aged three. Morwen would not let anyone weep in her hearing, and Túrin was kept from his sister in her illness and not told of her death until it was over. It was to the lame servant Sador that he went to ask what death meant, and from him that he learned that she was gone beyond all finding.

Legacy

Lalaith's death was the first blow of the doom that lay over Húrin's house, and the tale of the Children of Húrin begins with it. Túrin never spoke of her by the name Urwen afterward, and when years later he gave his memoryless sister the name Níniel, Maid of Tears, the contrast with the sister called Laughter was part of the tragedy.

Died of the plague called the Evil Breath in F.A. 469, aged three.