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Rivendell (Sindarin: Imladris) is an Elven outpost in Middle-earth, a fictional realm created by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was established and ruled by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth (four or five thousand years before the events of The Lord of the Rings). In addition to Elrond and his family, notable Elves who lived there included Glorfindel and Erestor.

Rivendell is a direct translation or calque of the Sindarin name Imladris, both meaning "deep valley of the cleft".

Etymology [link]

Rivendell is also called "Imladris" in Sindarin and "Karningul" in Westron. The name Rivendell is formed by two English elements: "riven" and "dell" meaning split, cloven and valley respectively, making the whole word purport "deeply cloven valley". It is also referred to as The Last Homely House west of the Mountains, alluding to the wilderland that lies beyond the Misty Mountains.

Geography [link]

Rivendell is located at the edge of a narrow gorge of the river Bruinen (one of the main approaches to Rivendell comes from a nearby ford of Bruinen), but well hidden in the moorlands and foothills of the Hithaeglir or the Misty Mountains.

The climate is cool-temperate and semi-continental with moderately warm summers, fairly snowy — but not frigid — winters and moderate precipitation. Seasons are more pronounced than in areas further west, such as the Shire, but less extreme than the places east of the Misty Mountains. Like Hobbiton, it is located at about the same latitude as Tolkien's hometown Oxford.^[1]

Rivendell was founded in Second Age 1697 when a force sent by Gil-galad from Lindon and led by Elrond rescued the refugees of Eregion from Sauron's army and was driven into the hills of Rhudaur. Sauron's forces subsequently laid siege to the refuge for three years until a relief army sent by Gil-galad attacked the besieging force in conjunction with the defenders and annihilated it. Rivendell was next attacked in the fourteenth century of the Third Age when the Armies of the Witch-king of Angmar attacked the refuge. After some years they were driven off when reinforcements were sent from Lothlórien. Rivendell is protected by the powers of its lord, Elrond Half-elven, and his ring Vilya.

In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins stopped off at Rivendell with the dwarves on the way to the Lonely Mountain and also on the way back to the Shire with Gandalf.

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins and his Hobbit companions journeyed to Rivendell, where they met with Bilbo, who had retired there after his 111th birthday, spending his time on his memoirs, There and Back Again. Several other Elves, Dwarves and Men also arrived at Rivendell on separate errands; at the Council of Elrond they learned that all of their errands were related to the fate of the One Ring, and they should decide what to do about it. In the end, it was the Hobbits who influenced the decision.

Elrond lived in Rivendell with his family — his wife Celebrían, their sons Elladan and Elrohir and their daughter Arwen. Elrond also fostered the young Aragorn, who dwelt with them in secret until adulthood. However, Celebrían was captured and tormented by Orcs, and received a poisoned wound. Her sons rescued her; but her experiences under the orcs left her so traumatized that eventually she left Middle-earth for Valinor. Arwen lived with her maternal grandparents Galadriel and Celeborn in their realm of Lórien for a time, but moved back to Rivendell; she eventually left Rivendell to become Aragorn's queen after he was crowned king of Gondor.

At the beginning of the Fourth Age Elrond left Rivendell and for a while it was lived in by Elladan and Elrohir, joined later by Celeborn. It is not known when Rivendell was finally abandoned.

Inspiration [link]

The physical appearance of the valley of Rivendell may be based upon the Lauterbrunnental in Switzerland, where J. R. R. Tolkien had hiked in 1911.^[2] In Peter Jackson's movie The Fellowship of the Ring, the filming location for Rivendell was Kaitoke Regional Park in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, though the extensive array of waterfalls was added with CGI.

Legacy [link]

In the period of counterculture in the Western World of the 1960s and 1970s, a commune called Maos Lyst (Mao's Delight) was founded in Denmark in 1968, its inhabitants replacing their surnames with Kløvedal, Danish for Rivendell, inspired by Tolkien's Elven outpost. ^[3] Several of them later became well-known cultural personalities in the country.

The Canadian progressive rock band Rush memorializes Rivendell in the song Rivendell on their second studio album Fly By Night. The song focuses on the tranquility and seemingly endless time a weary traveler could find there.

The Austrian folk band Rivendell takes the material for their lyrics almost entirely from Tolkien's books.

See also [link]

• Narsil

Notes [link]

Works cited [link]

• Dickerson, Matthew (2006). "Rivendell". In Drout, Michael D. C.. J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. pp. 573–574. ISBN 0-415-96942-5. 

External links [link]

• Rivendell at the Tolkien Gateway