Gràinne

Dúnedain Axe Maiden

When the Númenóreans returned to Middle-earth, they encountered fair-haired Dunlendings living by the Gwathló river whom they called the "Gwathuirim."  Azulzîr of the Númenóreans sired a child with Slanmar, a woman of a Gwathuirim clan that bred horses, the Ar Mhuin. 

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The union was looked upon with disfavor by the Ar Mhuin clan because they resented the Númenóreans for deforesting their land to feed their nearby riverside citadel Tharbad.  Slanmar and Azulzîr were separated by the conflict, and a daughter was subsequently born to Slanmar, Gràinne Ar Mhuin. 

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The fate of Azulzîr was unknown, even to Slanmar.  Shortly after Gràinne was born, the Gwathuirim settlement was flooded and as the Ar Mhuin migrated east, the Gond, a savage clan of Dunlendings of the Enedwaith, attacked the Ar Mhuin, separating Slanmar from her child, and keeping the Dúnadan girl Gràinne as their own.  They named the child Djerhul, "tearful," and never spoke of the forgoil, or "straw-headed" Ar Mhuin.  Though she grew to a young woman with the Gond, Djerhul never forgot the image of her mother, or the Gwathló River.  When she came of age, she slew a fell Warg that killed one of the Gond's warriors and won her freedom.