When Bronwyn's pyre cools, the Pelargians gather up the remains and raise a barrow over them, as the Haladin once did for the Lady Haleth, who also led her people from their beleaguered home to safer lands. Bronwyn's barrow stands on a rise overlooking the city, in a fair green place where the herbs of her trade flourish.

Before leaving Pelargir, Arondir scattered the rest of the alfirin seeds upon the barrow, and there they grow still, a white beacon above the walls.

bronwyn, healer, single mum, killer of orcs

Promise Me 🍂🍃

I finally drew them actually kissing, and it’s the angle we all deserved.

Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn in The Rings of Power s1 (x9)

I love how dramatic Elrond, Arwen, and Aragorn were about mortal and elven relations and meanwhile Arondir’s friend is here telling him, “you know you have vastly different life spans” and Arondir’s like, “I knowwwww..” 

Like he’s just so unbothered. No dramatics, no soliloquy, just, “fuck it we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” 

Men are so mad that The Rings of Power has multiple women of power as lead characters and are frothing at the mouth for one or more of them to suffer so that the male characters have growth or to further their storylines.

And it's always fucking Bronwyn they want to suffer, so Theo can turn evil.

Like go fuck yourself. It's exhausting. The show embraces women and their stories as independent from men, while allowing the male characters to have influence on those storylines. But that's never good enough.

Take This Heart of Gold by Mandolin Orange

Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn, Part Two

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

for @moonatoms

Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER | 1.05 “Partings”

Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn // TLOTR: The Rings of Power

for @artbyhurricanyounot

SOUTHLANDERS + PREPARING FOR BATTLE // 01x06 // UDÛN

Arondir + Bronwyn // Ismael Cruz Córdova and Nazanin Boniadi

Season 1, Episode 6: Udûn

Name Meanings in The Rings of Power: Bronwyn

Up next in our look at the meaning of show-only characters from The Rings of Power is our girl Bronwyn!

Now, personally, I think an Elvish origin for Bronwyn is less likely than other characters, mostly due to the spelling (which we'll get into later). However, that doesn't mean that the writing team didn't sneak any Easter eggs into her name, so I'll be taking a look at possible Sindarin roots anyways.

The first portion of her name, "bron", doesn't have a direct translation from Sindarin, but it is similar to brona "to survive", bronad "survival", and bronwe "lasting quality, faith." Extrapolating from this, I think it's reasonable to assume that these words all derive from a root word bron, which is semantically related to all the others. Alternatively, her name could be a combination of bronwe and the suffix -wen "woman, maiden" that has been simplified as "Bronwewen" is rather cumbersome to say. Over time, the name would have been shortened to "Bronwen", and the variant in spelling may have come from humans adapting the name to suit their own naming conventions-- think of other human names like Eowyn and Theodwyn.

Regardless of which option is correct, if Bronwyn's name does come from an Elvish origin, it likely means something along the lines of "faithful maiden" or "lasting maiden", which I think is very apt. Bronwyn literally holds her entire community together with her bare hands, she's definitely a survivor!

Now, here comes the tricky part-- it would be easy to conclude that Bronwyn is just a Westronized version of an Elvish name if we never saw the original -wen used as a suffix in human names, but we do! Morwen, wife of King Thengel of Rohan, has the -wen suffix in her name. She is from Gondor, so there's a possibility that they don't Westronize the suffix because of a greater Elvish influence via the Numenorians. So the results here are inconclusive.

Interestingly, I can't find any easy explanation for where the "bron" in Bronwyn could have come from in regards to a Germanic origin. This is notable, because from what I've seen so far most of the Southlanders have names that contain either Old English or Old Norse elements. As noted above, the -wyn suffix, as seen in other human names, is Old English for "joy" or "delight".

The most definitive real world translation for Bronwyn comes from the Welsh bron "breast" and gwen "white, fair, or blessed." Using a less literal meaning for "breast", this translates to "fair-hearted, pure of heart." Which is another great meaning for her! Bronwyn is, in many ways, the soul of the remaining Southlanders. Her line that she gives to Theo about "light and high beauty" is from Samwise Gamgee, who has goodness coming out of his pores. That's not an association that the writers would have given to just anyone-- it speaks a lot to Bronwyn's character that she was the one to say it.

There's one last option. Some consider Bronwyn and its alternative spelling Bronwen to be derived from the Welsh Branwen, meaning "white raven" or "beautiful raven". I may write more on this later, but let's hope this isn't the origin of her name! In Welsh mythology, Branwen comes to a very sad end and dies of grief, and given the air of doom surrounding elf and human couples we can only hope that she and Arondir get a happier ending.

More name meaning analyses: Arondir | Halbrand