Timeline Event
Valacar of Gondor weds Vidumavi of Rhovanion (estimated date)
Event Type: Genealogical
Age: 3rd Age - The Kings
Year: 1254
Description:
In 1250 Rómendacil sent his son Valacar as an ambassador to dwell for a while with Vidugavia [King of Rhovanion] and make himself acquainted with the language, manners, and policies of the Northmen. But Valacar far exceeded his father's designs. He grew to love the Northern lands and people, and he married Vidumavi, daughter of Vidugavia. It was some years before he returned.
The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion
Rómendakil 1 gave his consent to the marriage. He could not forbid it or refuse to recognize it without earning the enmity of Vidugavia. Indeed all the Northmen would have been angered, and those in his service would have been no longer to be trusted. He therefore waited in patience until 1260, and then he recalled Valakar, 1 saying that it was now time that he took part in the councils of the realm and the command of its armies. Valakar returned to Gondor with his wife and children; and with them came a household of noble men and women of the North. They were welcomed, and at that time all seemed well. Nonetheless in this marriage lay the seeds of the first great evil that befell Gondor: the civil war of the Kin-strife, which brought loss and ruin upon the realm that was never fully repaired.
The Peoples of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 1, Ch 9, The Making of Appendix A: The Realms in Exile
For the high men of Gondor already looked askance at the Northmen among them; and it was a thing unheard of before that the heir to the crown, or any son of the King, should wed one of lesser and alien race.... His queen had been a fair and noble lady, but short-lived according to the fate of lesser Men, and the Dúnedain feared that her descendants would prove the same.
The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion
Notes
The date is an estimate, set to precede the event Eldacar of Gondor born as Vinitharya in Rhovanion.
1 This text is from one of Tolkien's early drafts; the name is an earlier version of the proper name as published in The Lord of the Rings.
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 12Dec04, 19Jul14
