Who is Morwen?

[Eruwen]

I've seen this name on RPG's, but I thought someone made it up. Then I saw it on the cast list for ROTK. Some girl named Robyn Malcolm is playing her in that movie. I don't remember her from the books. Can anyone clarify if this is just a made up person for the movie or if she really was in ROTK?

[Iarwain]

Morwen, who definately should not be in the movies, was the mother of Turin Turambar in the First Age. You would only recognize her name if you had read the Silmarillion. She has a very heart wrenching story. Her son (Turin) leaves her at a fairly young age to go in search of help from Thingol, the king of Doriath. Eventually, she travels in search of him with her daughter, but reaches thingol and finds him newly departed. She eventually goes looking again, but is then put under some sort of enchantment by Glaurung, the first dragon. She eventually finds her way, and meets her long lost husband Hurin minutes before her death. The story is one of the greatest of Middle-Earth, and is much more complex than I have described it here. READ THE SILMARILLION!!!!!


Iarwain

[Beren87]

Ah, Morwen is the mother of Theoden. She was a Dunadan of Gondor.

[Tar-Palantir]

I was able to search this out, as I had not heard of Morwen either.

Per LOTR and Unfinished Tales, Morwen of Lossnarch was Theoden's mother, and kinswoman of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth. She was of high Numenorean descent. (This explains Aragorn's observation that Eomer is a kinsman from afar.)

Strictly speaking, Morwen must have been long dead by the time of the War of the Ring. It seems unlikely that the movie would have a flashback showing Theoden's youth long before the timeline of the War.

Although "Morwen" is a name foreign to the Rohirrim, it would be considered a name of honor, and so later generations may have used it.

Unfinished Tales also has the dramatic story of the Oath of Eorl on Elendil's tomb on top of Halifirien, and mentions that this Oath was renewed by Eomer to Aragorn, since Eorl had sworn only in the presence of the Steward, not the King.

It is plausible that this scene of Eomer's oath could be added to Return of the King, giving the characters something to do on the ride from Gondor to Rohan with Theoden's bier, besides getting saddle sore

[Beren87]

I could see PJ doing a 'lil "life flashing before his eyes" type thing at Theoden's death. Plus, he already has changed enough, it wouldn't be strange for him to include Morwen in.

Or, he could have just made up a character.

[Diamond18]

I thought Morwen (in the movie, now, I know about Turin and Theoden's mother) was the mother of Freya and Éothain, the two little kids who rode to Edoras. In the cast list on imdb.com they said "Morwen, Refugee of Rohan."

Does "Morwen" mean "Black woman"?

[Beren87]

Morwen is Sindarin for Dark Lady.

[Diamond18]

Ah, thank you. I'm bad at the languages...

[Inderjit Sanghera]

So Morwen was that old lady who took up so much screen time with her useless(ish) sub-plot. I mean come on, if we got rid of that, and Faramir's role-change then we coudl've put the cleansing of Isengard in for a sec. It's funny becuase at first, when I read the cast list, I was thinking why on earth Morwen of F.A was in L.O.T.R.

[ February 03, 2003: Message edited by: Inderjit Sanghera ]

[Lalaith]

A list of cats? My, they *did* go off topic in TTT, didn't they. smilies/wink.gif

[Inderjit Sanghera]

Stupid typos.

Speaking of cats and Middle-earth , is it me or did J.R.R dislike cats? (In BoLT 2, Sauron was a cat, though a giant Panther liek one at that.) Does anyone know why or if J.R.R hated them?

[Manardariel]

What?? I liked the *useless subplot*, seriously. I thought it was good because you could get the impression that war means heroic battle and elves skating down steps on shields. The *useless sublot* showed that war also means fear, families driven apart, and many, many lost lifes. Maybe something we should remeber these days.

[InklingElf]

Morwen...Now that I think more of the name, ofcourse it means dark lady but look at the mor in Morwen. Since she was mortal I was thinking of the 'mor' to mean 'mortal' and 'wen' is simply lady.

So it could be Mortal Lady. Heh-whata concept. I think i'll just use it to remember that Morwen is mortal...::shrugs::