Baranor

We have very little basis for estimating Baranor's dates. We know that he was the father of Beregond, who was a Guardsman in Minas Tirith at the time of the War of the Ring, and so the most that we can realistically surmise is that he must have lived during the closing decades of the Third Age. It isn't even clear from our sole reference whether Baranor was still alive at the time of the War of the Ring, although the balance of probabilities suggest that he would probably have seen the War, and quite possibly lived on into the early Fourth Age.

The derivation of the name Baranor is not explained, and is rather obscure. It can perhaps be broken down into the combination bara + nor, and the fact each of these Elvish elements can be interpreted as 'fiery' or 'fire' does tend to hint that this is the intended meaning.

To complicate matters, the name Baranor also appears for a character during the First Age, a grandson of Bëor the Old. That earlier Baranor derived his name from his father Baran, which implies that it combines baran + or rather than bara + nor. This earlier use of the name apparently came from the language of the Bëorians rather than from Elvish. On this reading, Baranor of Gondor would have been named for an ancient member of the Edain, and his name would therefore have no meaningful Elvish interpretation.

Iorlas' relation to Baranor can only be surmised from indirect references. Baranor's grandson Bergil (son of Beregond) referred to Iorlas as his uncle, and so he must have been the brother of one of Bergil's parents. The genealogy shown above takes Iorlas as the brother of Beregond (and therefore son of Baranor), though it is possible that he was in fact the brother of Beregond's unnamed wife.