A great-grandson of Castamir, who had usurped the throne of Gondor. After the rightful King, Eldacar, had regained his realm, Castamir's sons fled to Umbar, where they formed a refuge and base for the enemies of Gondor. Sangahyando was one of their descendants, and with another, Angamaitë, he led a raid on Pelargir nearly two hundred years after their grandfathers had been driven from that city into exile. Their raid was a stunning success, and they succeeded in slaying Gondor's King at that time, Minardil.
Sangahyando's name is not easy to translate into English. The conventional translation is 'throng-cleaver', but 'throng' is only an approximate translation of Quenya sanga. In this context, a sanga was a body of soldiers in close formation, so Sangahyando's name refers to him cutting into his enemies' defences.
Notes
1 |
III 1634 is the date of the Corsair raid on Pelargir in which King Minardil of Gondor was slain. We know that Sangahyando was one of the leaders of the Corsairs in that raid, so he must have been extant in that year, but beyond that we have no specific dates of his birth or death.
|
2 |
Sangahyando's name is normally translated into English as 'throng-cleaver', but that does not quite capture the meaning of the original. The Quenya word sanga, a 'press' or 'throng' of people, was used in a military sense to describe a closely packed body of soldiers. The fuller meaning of Sangahyando, then, would be something like 'one who cuts through the formations of his enemies'.
|
3 |
We have no detail about the descent of Sangahyando, except that both he and Angamaitë were known to be great-grandsons of the usurper Castamir. The fact that Sangahyando and Angamaitë were both prominent rulers among the Corsairs implies that they were brothers descended through the male line (as shown above) but this is not in fact certain. In principle they may have been only distantly related, descended through different lines from Castamir, though this does not seem likely.
|
Indexes:
About this entry:
- Updated 17 December 2018
- This entry is complete
For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.
Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 2004, 2016, 2018. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ.
SHARE
