Melian (Middle-earth)

Melian
Tolkien's legendarium character
Aliases	Queen of Doriath
Race	Ainur
Gender	female
Book(s)	The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin

Melian [ˈmeli.an] the Maia is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. She appears in The Silmarillion, the epic poem The Lay of Leithian and the novel The Children of Húrin.

A visual description of Melian is given in the Lay of Leithian:

There Melian came, the Lady grey,

and dark and long her tresses lay,
beneath her silver girdle seat

She is a Maia of the race of the Ainur, akin to Yavanna. Before the First Age, in the Years of the Trees, she left the gardens of Lórien and went to Middle-earth, and there she fell in love with the Elven-king Elu Thingol, King Greymantle, and with him ruled the kingdom of Doriath. She had a child with Thingol, a daughter named Lúthien, said to be the fairest and most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar. Melian's line of descent is the half-elven and Kings of Númenor.

Her name Melian means Beloved in Tolkien's invented language of Sindarin. In Quenya, another of Tolkien's languages, it translates to "Melyanna", either "Dear Gift" or "Gift of Love" (Q. melya, "dear, lovely" < Q. mel-, "love"; Q. anna, "gift").

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