Character Bios
Huan
Meaning: Great hound? (an = great, tall, large)
Location(s): Valinor, Beleriand
Race/Species: Beasts & Monsters
Type/Kind: N/A
Title(s): Hound of Valinor
Dates: Age of Trees - I, c 468
Description:
Huan was a Hound of Orome, "a wolf-hound, tireless, grey and fierce/he grew; his gleaming eyes would pierce/ all shadows and all mist, the scent/moons old he found through fen and bent." (The Lays of Beleriand. HoMe 3, The Lay of Leithian, Canto VIII)
In his baying "was heard the voice of the horns of Orome", left Valinor in the company of Celegorm, but turned away from him to aid Lúthien (and later also Beren). "Huan the hound was true of heart, and the love of Lúthien had fallen upon him in the first hour of their meeting." Huan was obviously a sentient being: "He comprehended the speech of all things with voice; but it was permitted to him thrice only ere his death to speak with words." He was large enough for Lúthien to ride on his back, and he was a "swift and tireless" runner. Huan defeated Wolf-Sauron but Morgoth's evil wolf Carcharoth became his bane.
(The Silmarillion, QS, Ch. 19 - Of Beren and Lúthien)
Contributors:
Finch, 01.12.03
