Berúthiel

Queen Berúthiel, wife of Tarannon (TA 830-913), the twelth King of Gondor.

A shadowy figure in the history of Gondor, it was said that she dwelt in Osgiliath, in the House of the King. A hateful lonely woman, she lived apart from the world in the company of her ten cats, which, legend has it, she sent abroad to 'discover all the dark secrets of Gondor'. Cursed and hated by the people, Berúthiel was exiled by the King, and set adrift on a ship in the company of her beloved cats. Legend also tells how: 'The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.'

Berúthiel's name was stricken from the records of Gondor, but her name lived on; her cats were proverbial for finding their way home.