Berúthiel

Beruthiel, by Maureval
Berúthiel
Biographical information
Titles	Queen of Gondor
Birth	Early Third Age
Rule	Sometime between 830 and 913 of the Third Age
Death	Unknown
Realms	Inland city, Pelargir, King's House
Spouse	Tarannon
Weapon	Cats
Physical description
Race	Men
Culture	Dúnedain (Black Númenóreans), Gondorians

Berúthiel was a Queen of Gondor, the wife of King Tarannon of Gondor, who ruled from 830 until 913 in the early Third Age. She was noted for being "nefarious, solitary, and loveless" and wearing plain black and silver garments. She and Tarannon had no children.

Biography

Berúthiel was a Black Númenórean, from an inland city located somewhere within Harad, possibly to the south of Umbar.

Tarannon's reason for marrying Berúthiel is untold.

Berúthiel loathed the sounds and the smells of the sea, fish, and the gulls. She also hated the house that Tarannon had built below Pelargir on arches that stood in the water of the Ethir Anduin. As a result, she lived in the King's House in Osgiliath instead. Berúthiel hated all colors and elaborate adornments, wearing only plain black and silver garments. Though she lived in bare chambers in the King's Housise, she decorated its gardens with tormented sculptures beneath cypresses and yews.

Berúthiel loathed cats also, but they became attracted to her because of this. They followed her around, and eventually, she took advantage of their company by enslaving and torturing them for her amusement. Of the cats that she kept as her slaves: there were ten of them: nine black and one white. Berúthiel trained the cats to go on evil errands throughout the night to spy on her enemies sometimes or to terrify them at other times, in order to discover the dark secrets of Gondor so that she knew the things that men wished the most to keep hidden. She sent the white cat to spy on the black ones to torment them. Berúthiel was said to somehow be able to converse with them or read their memories. Her cats were infamous among the Men of Gondor. All were afraid of them, daring to even touch them, and cursing whenever they saw them.

Somehow, the childlessness of Tarannon was associated with the cats of Queen Berúthiel, though how the cats had affected Tarannon is untold.

Eventually, Tarannon exiled Berúthiel from Gondor and her name was erased from the Book of the Kings. He had her set adrift at sea before a north wind on a ship alone that "was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow" and Berúthiel went back to live in the inland city.

Legacy

No wars with Umbar or Harad are mentioned during the reign of King Tarannon. It is possible that the setting Berúthiel on a ship that was last seen flying past Umbar offended the realm that Berúthiel was from. The conquest of Umbar took place during the reign of King Eärnil twenty-three years after the death of King Tarannon.

Despite the erasure of her name from the Book of the Kings, Berúthiel and her cats were so notorious that they were held in the memory of Men for centuries; Aragorn alluded to them more than 2,000 years after her exile, referring to her cats as being able to find their way in the dark extremely well.

Etymology

The name Berúthiel is Sindarin, though its meaning is not glossed. Paul Strack proposes that it might mean "Angry Queen", possibly a combination of ber(eth) ("queen", "spouse"; "supreme", "sublime"), rúth ("wrath", "anger"), and -iel ("daughter" or "feminine suffix"). Despite this, since the Black Númenóreans did not use the Elven tongues, it is probable that this name was likely given to her by the Men of Gondor, meaning that her real name is unknown.

In other versions

In an earlier version of what would later become the chapter "A Journey in the Dark", it was the narrator rather than Aragorn II who mentioned the cats of Queen Berúthiel. This first version of the sentence referred simply to cats in general with no reference to Berúthiel. The second version of the sentence referred to "the cat of Benish Armon", before the reference was changed to "the cats of Queen Tamar", with a slight revision from Tamar ("Smith") to Margoliantë Berúthiel, before dropping Margoliantë and keeping Berúthiel.

Christopher Tolkien mentioned in a note in the Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth that the part of the "unique manuscript" that comes before Berúthiel's exile is "almost wholly illegible", meaning that the connection between Tarannon's childlessness and the cats of Queen Berúthiel remains unknown.

Inspiration

In an interview in 1966, J.R.R. Tolkien compared Berúthiel to the giantess Skadi of Thrymheim in Jötunheim, from Norse mythology. He stated that Berúthiel was "rather like Skadi the giantess who came to the gods in Valhalla, demanding a recompense for the accidental death of her father. She wanted a husband. The gods all lined up behind a curtain, and she selected the pair of feet that appealed to her most. She thought she’d got Baldur, the beautiful god, but it turned out to be Njord the sea-god, and after she’d married him she got absolutely fed up with the sea-side life, and the gulls kept her awake, and finally she went back to live in Jötunheim". Since King Tarannon had Berúthiel set on a ship and set adrift on the sea before a north wind and the ship was last seen flying past Umbar and since the went back to live in the inland city, it is possible that she went back to the inland city within this ship and that this inland city was to the south of Umbar. Being the descendents of the King's Men, most of the Black Númenóreans lived in Umbar and in other former Númenórean colonies in the south of Middle-earth. Despite this, it is unknown how deep the comparisons to Skadi goes, whether Tolkien only compared them generally or if Berúthiel's whole story is a “retelling” of the story of Skadi.

In adaptations

Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game

Berúthiel makes an appearance in this game as a "wizard" character.

Middle-earth Role Playing

Berúthiel is mentioned along with her abandoned name, Margoliantë Berúthiel, within the MERP supplement The Realm of Bellakar, from the Other Hands 29/30 double issue. In addition, one of Berúthiel's abandoned names appears as the name of a cult within "The Cult of Benish Armon" MERP supplement of Other Hands 6/7.

The Lord of the Rings Online

While neither Berúthiel nor her cats make direct appearances, there is a type of enemy that the player faces called Spying Cats. They appear during the undead Tarannon's fight in the Silent Street instance. Should the player attack Tarannon, the cats give off the "Watchful Spies" effect which reflects 50% of the damage back onto the player. In addition, some of Tarannon's combat lines mention Berúthiel and how she had tormented him when he lived.

See also

• Daughter of Berúthiel

House of Anárion

Elendil

Isildur

Anárion

House of Isildur

Three older sisters

Meneldil

Cemendur

Eärendil

Anardil

Ostoher

Rómendacil I

Turambar

Atanatar I

Siriondil

Berúthiel

Tarannon

Tarciryan

Eärnil I

Ciryandil

Hyarmendacil I

Atanatar II

Narmacil I

Calmacil

Vidugavia

Rómendacil II

Calimehtar

Vidumavi

Valacar

Child

Eldacar

Castamir

Ornendil

Aldamir

Sons

Vinyarion

Angamaitë

Sangahyando

Minardil

Telemnar

Minastan

Children

Tarondor

Telumehtar

Narmacil II

Arciryas

Calimehtar

Calimmacil

Siriondil

Ondoher

House of Isildur

Daughter

Artamir

Faramir

Fíriel

Arvedui

Minohtar

Eärnil II

Chieftains of the Dúnedain of the North

Eärnur

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Albanian	Mbretëresha Berúthiel
Afrikaans	Koningin Berúthiel
Catalan	Berúthiel Reina
Cebuano	Rayna Berúthiel
Chichewa	Mfumukazi Berúthiel
Croatian	Kraljica Berúthiel
Czech	královna Berúthiel
Danish	Dronning Berúthiel
Dutch	Koningin Berúthiel
Esperanto	Reĝino Berúthiel
German	Königin Beruthiel
Hebrew	קווין ברותיאל
Hmong	Poj huab tais Berúthiel
Hungarian	Királyné Berúthiel
Korean	베루시엘
Latin	Regina Berúthiel
Polish	Królowa Beruthiel
Portuguese	Rainha Berúthiel
Russian	Короле́ва Беру́тиэль
Serbian	Краљица Берутјела (Cyrillic) Kraljica Berutjela (Latin)
Slovak	Kráľovná Berúthiel
Spanish	Reina Berúthiel
Swedish	Drottning Berúthiel
Turkish	Kraliçe Berúthiel
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Королеви Берутіель