For better or worse, The Lord of the Rings is a very “manly” story. Every page features swords, armor and other weaponry. Meanwhile, battlefield heroics, sacrifices and a sense of impending doom pervade the entire trilogy. However, in the midst of all that, Tolkien emphasized several love stories integral to the Lord of the Rings story. For instance, Arwen sacrificed her Elvish immortality to be with Aragorn, Galadriel and Celeborn spent thousands of years together and Samwise Gamgee made sure to marry Rosie Cotton when he got back to the Shire.
Unfortunately, not every love story in The Lord of the Rings had a happy ending. Anyone who has seen the films or read the book knows that Elrond was very fond of his daughter, Arwen. Yet, fans never saw Elrond’s wife, and there’s a tragic reason for that. Here’s what we know about Celebrían.
Elrond would have been too young to participate in the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, but he was a prominent Elf in the Second Age and was there when Isildur took the One Ring from Sauron. He even served as both vice-regent and herald for High King Gil-glad, who will appear in Amazon’s Rings of Power. So, when Sauron attacked Eregion in SA 1695, Gil-galad sent Elrond with an army to aid Celebrimbor. The army was too small to defeat Sauron, but under Elrond’s command, they rescued Celeborn (who was married to Galadriel) and sheltered in the valley that would become Rivendell.
During the war, Galadriel stayed in Lothlorien, but after the sacking of Eregion, she went to Rivendell to find her husband. Galadriel’s daughter, Celebrían, went with her, and that was the first time that Elrond saw and fell in love with Celebrían. He said nothing at the time, but nearly 1800 years later, they were married in 109 of the Third Age. Little gets revealed about their happy union other than that Celebrían bore three children for Elrond. The only other story involving Celebrían was her unfortunate demise in the year 2509 of the Third Age, which was nearly 500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings.
In that tragic year, Celebrían decided to travel to Lothlorien to visit her mother. But when she was traveling over the Misty Mountains through the Redhorn Pass, her escort was waylaid by Orcs. The suddenness of the attack scattered her guards, and the Orcs carried her away. Celebrían’s sons, Elladan and Elrohir, pursued the Orcs, killed them and rescued their mother. However, they were too late, as the Orcs had already tormented her and given her a poisonous wound.
The twins brought their mother back to Rivendell, where Elrond was able to save her from the poison. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. According to The Lord of the Rings’ Appendix A, Celebrían “lost all delight in Middle-earth, and the next year went to the Havens and passed over the Sea.” In other words, Celebrían could not overcome the disturbing memories of her torture and decided to return to Valinor, leaving Elrond alone in Middle-earth. And maybe that’s why Elrond was so fond of his daughter, as he had already tragically lost his wife to the evils of Middle-earth.
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