Vidumavi

Other Names: Galadwen - This was her name translated into Sindarin and it would became her preferred Gondorian name.
Nicknames: Those dearest to her call her Mavi.
Date of birth: Third Age – 1231
Date of death: 1322 (aged 101 years)
Species: Mortal – Northmen.
Place of Birth: Rhovania.
Home: Rhovania, and then later Osgiliath in Gondor.
Type of home: Warm, safe and loving. Her father’s court was a prosperous and powerful one.
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Straight
Height: 5' 10"
Build: Slender

Appearance: Blonde hair falls to her waist. She has clear blue eyes, bright with wit and humour. She is fair and has a noble bearing.

Dress Style: Vidumavi’s dress style is similar to that of Rhovanian women at that time. She wears a long tunic under an overdress that may be embroidered or decorated with brooches of gold and brightly coloured strands of beads. She wears formal garb for state occasions or high feast days and simpler, plainer fare when tending her gardens or fields.

Personality: Vidumavi has a warm nature. She is clever, generous and kind. Hers is a quiet humour and she rarely speaks in anger. She has a gentle soul. Only the unwise or hasty would mistake this as meekness. She is compassionate and insightful. Vidmavi is said to possess a high courage and she is curious by nature. She is observant and thoughtful.

Skills: Vidumavi is well educated in her father’s court, policies and strategies. She is often called upon to provide counsel to her father and she is a persuasive and skilled negotiator. Vidumavi is a gifted student of language, culture and people. She has learned all the sagas, poems, lays and history of her people. What Vidumavi loves best of all, though, is the growing of green things. Her greatest skills lies in tending and caring for all things that grow, from forests and woods, to the gardens and fields of her people.

Family Background: Vidumavi is the daughter of Prince Vidugavia. Her father is a powerful man, who styles himself as the King of Rhovanion. He is influential enough to foster alliances with the Regent of Gondor and the other princes, though not all, of Rhovania.

Other Close Relationships: Vidumavi’s companions are Shieldmaidens. The Order have watched over her, protected her, since Vidumavi was a young girl and she trusts them as much as they trust her. Her closest friends are the children of nobles in her father’s court.

Role: As princess, Vidumavi has various official functions and duties in her father’s court. Her father relies on her counsel and, when he is away to battle or war, she leads his court in his stead.

Attitude to Religion: Her kin, and certainly the Order, venerate the Valar known as Béma . The Elves and Dúnedain know him as Oromë (the Great Hunter). Vidumavi, though, venerates an additional Valar: Yavanna. She feels closest to Yavanna when walking the forests and woods.

Favorite Pastimes: Caring and tending to her gardens and plants is her chief pursuit whenever time allows it. She enjoys poetry and song and has a lovely, clear singing voice. She also enjoys studying people and learning.

Sense of Humour: Vidumavi has a quiet sense of humour and may often be observed smiling to herself at something she has heard or observed. She prefers to laugh with people and avoids mockery. She is not sarcastic or cruel.

Best childhood memory: Walking the gardens and woods with her mother, falling asleep as her father read to her of an evening...Vidumavi has many fond childhood memories.

Worst childhood memory: Her mother's death (a fever none could heal)

Best adult memory: Her father returning victorious from war, safe and hale after battle with the Easterlings.

Worst adult memory: The first year her father was away at war, when the harvest almost failed.

Primary goal: Vidumavi’s primary goal is to care for and protect her father’s people and those she loves. She takes her duties very seriously.

Deepest fear: Disappointing or failing her people.

Formative Years: Vidumavi was born at a time that her father, the Prince Vidugavia, began to style himself as King of Rhovanion. She was surrounded by those who loved her and cared for her, none more so than her doting parents. Vidumavi’s birth was celebrated by her father’s people and further afield. For the fact that the self-styled King of Rhovanion had a daughter was not missed by the other thanes and princes of the vast Northmen realm. Prince Vidugavia was a charismatic and ambitious man who had built a powerful and wealthy court around him.

Try as they might for a male heir, her mother fell into a terrible fever after miscarrying her third child and did not recover. Vidumavi was seven years old when her mother passed away, leaving her father grief stricken at the loss of his beloved wife. Aware of the broader context, the nobles of his court summoned the Order of Shieldmaidens. To them they charged the responsibility to protect and care for the young princess, lest a rival perceive an opportunity. Try as they might in later years to convince the Prince to take a new bride, he steadfastly refused.

Vidumavi, as sole descendant of her royal father, is educated accordingly. She learns how to use a bow and to ride. She can fight if she must, though she will not be and does not expect to be called to battle. She learns their histories, sagas, lays and poems. She learns her father’s policies, strategies and court. She is a quick student, thoughtful and insightful, and as the years pass, her father finds that he can turn to her for counsel.

It is customary for Rhovanion women to wed at 17 years of age, but history intervenes. When she is 17 years old, the prince and Regent of Gondor calls to her father for aid against their ancient foes. Minalcar’s need is dire and her father rides to aid with much of their strength to do war with the Easterlings. For two years, Vidumavi must watch over his court in her father’s absence. She is young for such a responsibility and the first year proves particularly difficult when fields of grain somehow catch fire just before the harvest.

Such is the blaze that the smoke threatens other crops and the prospect of food shortages during winter looms large. Vidumavi’s actions ensure that none starve and much of the harvest is able to be taken. Still it is a hard winter, and even the princess must go without meals, to make it through.

Just how the fire started remains unknown, but there are some who point to her father’s rivals seizing an opportunity to exploit his absence and weaken him. Others suggest Easterlings were responsible for it. After winter, in the early spring, emissaries are sent to court. Vidumavi receives each warmly, despite the suspicions, and ensures that they do not see just how fearsome it had been. The second year of her father’s absence is without such calamities of the first and this is much to Vidumavi’s relief.

Prince Vidugavia returns from war 2 years later, hale and well, and no one is as pleased as Vidumavi to have her father home once more. But, the number returning with him is much reduced. The Prince explains that he had agreed to allow a considerable number of their finest warriors, including Shieldmaidens, to remain in the service of the Regent of Gondor in exchange for an alliance with the southern realm that will greatly benefit their own people.

Those Rhovanions in Gondor would remain fiercely loyal to their Rhovanion prince. Even so, having the Gondorians look askance at them was not easy, particularly for the Shieldmaidens in their number.

Two years pass, and in that time her father receives but does not accept offers of marriage for his daughter. He perceives a greatness in her that the offers cannot hope to match.

In 1250 Prince Minalcar sends his own son to their court as his ambassador. Vidumavi is 19 years of age when a young Prince Valacar, aged 56 (young for his longer lived people), arrives at her father’s court, to learn the language, customs and policies of her people. There is a great deal of curiosity as to just what this Gondorian princeling is really about, both within Prince Vidgavia’s court and further afield, amongst his allies and rivals in Rhovanion.

Other Notes: Princess Vidumavi does not expect to secede her father for this is contrary to her people’s customs and culture. Already, her father has nominated a suitable male heir – his nephew. There is no ill will between Vidumavi or her cousin.

She is aware that her father has received several offers of marriage. She expects that a decision will made in the interests of her father’s people.

Historical Notes:

Princess Vidumavi and Prince Valacar marry in Rhovanion. Whether their fathers anticipated or intended this is unclear. It seems unlikely that her father would have allowed the wedding to proceed if he opposed it. The disposition of Valacar’s father, however, is open to speculation.

Following their wedding, Princess Vidumavi bears Valacar a son in 1255. She would be aged 24 years old at the time of Eldacar’s birth whilst his father would be 61 years old. They name their son Vinitharya, in his mother’s tongue. By now, Prince Vidugavia and his people have accepted Valacar as their own and the birth of his son is an occasion of much joy.

Prince Valacar is recalled by his father to Gondor in 1260. Having come of age in his people’s reckoning, the Regent expected him to take part in the councils of the realm and the command of its armies. Valacar brings Vidumavi with him, along with their children and household of noble men and women from Rhovanion.

Vidumavi (aged 29 years old) and young Vinitharya (aged 5 years old) are welcomed in Gondor and given Gondorian names for use. Vinitharya was given the name Eldacar and his mother agreed to be called Galadwen (a translation of her name into Sindarin). She soon set about learning the language, customs, manners and culture of Gondor and did so well.

Over time, the people of Gondor came to love the Rhovanion princess as one their own. She was known as fair, noble and of high courage which she passed onto her children.

Just how many children she and Valacar had is not established. It seems likely there is at least one more child, likely a daughter. When and where that second child was born, their name and fate, remains unwritten.

Vidumavi dies in 1332, aged 101 years, before her husband ascends the throne. This is of great age for her own people, and yet is short by her adopted people’s reckoning. Vidumavi is mourned by Gondor and Rhovania both. She does not live to see the terrible strife that follows as her son nears his father’s throne in future years.