Herb-master

Galathir, Herb-master of the Houses of Healing in The Lord of the Rings Online
Gondorian
Herb-master
Biographical Information
Location	Minas Tirith (Houses of Healing)
Language	Westron
Birth	Late Third Age
Physical Description
Gender	Male

”

If your pack has not been found, then you must send for the herb-master of this House. And he will tell you that he did not know that the herb you desire had any virtues, but that it is called westmansweed by the vulgar, and galenas by the noble ... and after adding a few half-forgotten rhymes that he does not understand, he will regretfully inform you that there is none in the House, and he will leave you to reflect on the history of tongues.

Aragorn to Merry in The Return of the King, "The Houses of Healing"

The herb-master was a title given to an unnamed character who served in the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith. He was well-versed in herb-lore, particularly the many names given to different plants, as well as their uses. He disapproved of the old rhymes still repeated by the older women such as Ioreth, referring to such verses as garbled and doggerel. When Aragorn sent Ioreth to acquire athelas for use in healing those suffering from the Black Shadow, she apparently notified the herb-master, who arrived and proceeded to irritate both Aragorn and Gandalf by listing off various names of the plant they sought, before eventually declaring that there was none kept in the Houses of Healing, on account of its not having any virtues known to the Gondorians, save for its mention in the black breath verse, which he thought likely to be meaningless. Gandalf, in his irritation, sent him to find "some old man of less lore and more wisdom" who still kept athelas. Aragorn, also annoyed, later made a joking remark about the herb-master's unhelpful tendencies to Merry, who had misplaced the pack containing his pipeweed.

The character of the herb-master appears much the same in the earlier drafts of The Houses of Healing, aside from the fact that some of the herb-names which he mentions were later altered by Tolkien (e.g., asea aranaite to asëa aranion).

Portrayal in adaptations

2015: The Lord of the Rings Online:

The Herb-master is named Galathir. According to Ioreth, he possesses great skill as a healer but has lost sight of his shortcomings and grown reliant on his own concoctions, which often heal one ill by replacing it with another. One Galathir's apprentices travels with the player and relays that he is a wise teacher, but his tasks are often far more daunting that he thinks them. Dspite knowing of a great collection of knowledge about the plants of Middle-earth, Galathir forbids his apprentices from studying it, dismissing it as anecdotes of specimens not seen in his age.

Prior to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields Galathir sends the player to restock on healing herbs before the siege. After the battle, Galathir decides to give the wounded soldiers an infusion which, according to Aragorn, would add to their suffering at best and hasten their end at worst. Aragorn shoos Galathir from the High Hall of the Houses of Healing and asks the player to gather up the infusions placed by him. When the apprentice accompanying the player returns from the wild with new findings, Galathir disagrees with her conclusions and tries to dismiss her before she quits on her own.