Hírilorn

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In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional universe of Middle-earth, Hírilorn (which means "Tree of the Lady") was a great beech-tree in northern Doriath, in which Lúthien Tinúviel, most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar, was imprisoned to be prevented from leaving Doriath, after she decided to free her beloved Beren who lay in the dungeons of Tol-in-Gaurhoth without hope of rescue.

Hírilorn stood not far from the gates of Menegroth, the capital of the kingdom Doriath. The mighty beech was the greatest of all the trees in the Forest of Neldoreth, the beech-forest which was the northern half of the Fenced Land. It had three trunks, equal in girth, smooth in rind, and exceeding tall; no branches grew from them for a great height above the ground.

Lúthien, when learning that Beren had been thrown into a dark pit without hope of rescue, and knowing that her father and king Elu Thingol would not allow her to leave, sought the aid of Daeron, telling him about her plans to fly from Doriath for coming herself to help Beren — but Daeron betrayed her purpose, and a wooden house from which she should not escape was built far aloft between the shafts of Hírilorn, and there Lúthien was made to dwell.

Lúthien escaped by putting forth her arts of enchantment, wrapping her beauty in her long hair as in a dark and shadowy cloak, laden with a spell of sleep she used to lull the guards.


The word "neldor" (beech) — as in the beech-forest’s name "Neldoreth" — seems ambiguous, being derived from "nelde" (three) and "orn" (tree), so it seems to be the proper (or just another) name of Hírilorn itself.