Gladden

The Gladden River in The Lord of the Rings Online

The river Gladden was a river of Rhovanion and a tributary to the Anduin.

History

The river was a short but important river of the Vales of Anduin. Beginning as two unnamed streams in the Hithaeglir, it flowed eastwards towards the Great River Anduin, which it met in a series of marshes called the Gladden Fields.

After the War of the Last Alliance, Isildur, heir of Elendil and bearer of the One Ring, was assailed by Orcs near the Gladden Fields, and the One Ring was lost here in the Gladden river.

Much later, during the Third Age, some Stoors lived near the streams of Gladden, and from them came Déagol, who found the Ring, and was killed by Sméagol (Gollum), who long held the Ring. Gollum eventually followed the stream up to its source, ending up in forgotten caves near Goblin-town. Saruman searched the Gladden extensively during his search for the Ring, but although he discovered the container which had held it and the Elendilmir, the Ring itself was long gone.

Names

The Gladden was called Sîr Ninglor ('River Goldwater') by the Elves.^{[citation needed]}

In adaptations

In The Lord of the Rings Online, the Gladden River as it drops from the Misty Mountains flows through the ruins of "Kidzul-kâlah", an abandoned outpost of Khazad-dûm. Immediately past it, the river forms the large lake "Gladdenmere", from which it drops into the Gladden Fields through the "Gladden Falls" waterfall.

The present course of the Gladden River is not natural. During the fighting at the end of the Second Age, massive quakes shook the Misty Mountains. At Kidzul-kâlah, new passages opened leading deep below the surface, where Nameless things dwelt. The River-maiden of Gladden, "Gultháva", sensed the approach of evil that was about to corrupt her waters. She bade the dwarves leave, and called forth the waters to flood their mines. The waters of the Gladden did not drown the Nameless creatures as she hoped, but their spread to the surface was halted. The changed course of the Gladden carried the sediment downstream, choking the Gladdenmere until its banks overflowed. Water poured over the cliff, flooding the valley and submerging its roads. In this way, the Gladden Fields became a wide marsh of reeds and dark pools. In time the level of the lake was restored, and the Gladden Falls became the narrow torrent that can be observed in the present day.

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Bengali	গ্লাদ্দীন
Chinese	格拉頓
Danish	Gladdenfloden
Finnish	Kurjenmiekka
French	Rivière aux Iris
German	Schwertel
Hebrew	סיפנים
Japanese	あやめ川
Persian	گلادن
Serbian (Cyrillic)	Гладен
Serbian (Latin)	Gladen