The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Presumably originally raised at the same time as Minas Anor, before the end of the Second Age, or perhaps durings its rebuilding in III 420; continued to exist into the Fourth Age
Location
North of the White Tower within the Citadel of Minas Tirith (earlier Minas Anor)
Race
Division
Culture
Pronunciation
mere'thrond
Meaning
'(Great) feast hall'
Other names

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About this entry:

  • Updated 10 March 2024
  • Updates planned: 1

The Great Hall of Feasts within the Citadel on the highest tier of the city of Minas Tirith. It stood beside the tall White Tower on the northern side,1 so that it would be seen to the tower's right by one entering the Citadel through Minas Tirith's Seventh Gate.

Merethrond must have been used by the Ruling Stewards to entertain their guests at least since the building of the Tower of Ecthelion in III 2698, and perhaps even back to the time of King Calimehtar, who built the first White Tower in the Citadel of Gondor. Nonetheless, our only specific record of the hall is in the days after the War of the Ring, when the new King Elessar held a feast there on 15 July2 III 3019, in preparation for his riding out for Edoras with the funeral procession of Théoden.


Notes

1

The Lord of the Rings provides almost no detail about Merethrond other than its mere existence, but the arrangement of structures within the Citadel is shown on a rough sketch-map created by Tolkien. It is on that rough map that these descriptions are based.

2

The date of the feast is not in fact given in the published Lord of the Rings (though it is implied, because Éomer arrived in Minas Tirith on 18 July, and the feast took place three days earlier). The date of 15 July does explicitly appear in Tolkien's preparatory notes for the Tale of Years, but that date did not find its way into the published text.

See also...

Great Hall of Feasts

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 10 March 2024
  • Updates planned: 1

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