Pen-arduin

From Tolkien Gateway
Pen-arduin
Dwelling
General Information
Other namesPen-Arduin
LocationEmyn Arnen, South Ithilien
TypeDwelling
DescriptionSmall grey-stone house and arbour on a hill-slope facing west.
People and History
InhabitantsBorlas
Two old servants[1]
CreatedFourth Age
EventsDiscussion of the Dark Tree

Pen-arduin was the dwelling of Borlas that was located within the Emyn Arnen of South Ithilien.

History[edit | edit source]

Pen-arduin was a small grey-stone house that was located atop the hills of Arnen, which was the region where his father, Beregond, had moved to after becoming the Captain of the White Company at the beginning of the Fourth Age. The house had a fenced arbour which lay slightly below it near the steep east bank of the Anduin. At the central point of Borlas's garden was a tree which Borlas called Neldor. Sometime during Borlas's life, Pen-arduin started being used in connection with his name: Borlas of Pen-arduin.[2]

One day, when Borlas cought a youth named Saelon stealing an unripe apple from the orchard, he brought the boy inside Pen-arduin, explaining to him that stealing unripe fruit solely to play with before tossing it aside was "Orcs' work". While Saelon eventually grew out of petty thievery, he harbored thoughts of revenge and sometimes thought about cutting down all of the trees in Pen-arduin, but never went though with the thought.[2]

Sometime during the year Fo.A. 220, Borlas was trimming a whistle of green willow with a sharp nail-knife at the arbour of Pen-arduin in the late afternoon. During which, Saelon came upon him and they began having a discussion about the nature of evil. Soon afterwards, Borlas talked rhetorically to his tree, Neldor, before deciding to go inside his house.[2]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

Pen-arduin appears to be a Sindarin name. Its meaning is not glossed, but Paul Strack and David Salo suggest a combination of pend ("fall"), ar(a)- ("royal"), and duin ("river").[3][4]

Other versions of the legendarium[edit | edit source]

In The History of Middle-earth Index, Pen-arduin was written as Pen-Arduin, though it is unknown whether or not this is an intentional change.[5]

References