The detail shown here is extracted from a more extensive genealogical chart in volume 11 of The History of Middle-earth, featuring several characters who do not appear in the canonical works. Belemir was the great-grandson of Bëor through Bëor's younger son Belen, and Adanel was the daughter of Malach Aradan. Emeldir is stated in that source to have been Beren's third child, but the names of his other children are not given.
Not to be confused with Beren Erchamion, his famous grandson of the same name, this elder Beren was a descendant of two of the Houses of the Edain. His father was Belemir, a great-grandson of Bëor the Old (through Bëor's younger son Belen, and so Beren was descended from a minor branch of the House of Bëor). His mother was Adanel, a daughter of Malach Aradan, and so Beren could also claim descent from the house later known as the House of Hador.2
Of Beren's life we know very little, except that he was born in the year I 374, and had at least three children. Among these was Emeldir, who wed Barahir and was the mother of the famous Beren One-hand of the Quest of the Silmaril (who was evidently named for his grandfather). The elder Beren was born in about the time when the House of Bëor were migrating from Estolad to Dorthonion, but Beren's marriage to Adanel suggests that he himself remained in Estolad for some time (because Adanel's grandfather Marach and many of his people remained there). Beren's daughter Emeldir removed to dwell in Dorthonion (where her husband Barahir was lord) and so it is at least possible that Beren and Adanel also removed to that land in later life.
Our references to Beren's life are extremely limited, and indeed his only strictly canonical mention is in a parenthetical comment to the Silmarillion's index entry for his daughter Emeldir. We do have a little more information in volume XI of The History of Middle-earth, and that source is the basis for most of the commentary given here.
Notes
1 |
Beren's birthdate is not given in any canonical source. The date given here comes from a genealogical chart in volume XI of The History of Middle-earth. |
2 |
The family of the Edain descended of Marach and his son Malach are commonly referred to as the 'House of Hador' after Hador Lórindol, one of the family's most illustrious members. Hador belonged to a later generation of the house, and was in fact born sixteen years after Beren. In Beren's time, then, the term 'House of Hador' had not yet come into being, and so Beren himself would have spoken of his mother's house as the 'Folk of Marach', or Nothlir Maracha.
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- Updated 4 November 2021
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