The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Presumably brought to Middle-earth sometime in the Second Age
Location
Galenas was a name used in Gondor
Origins
Brought across the Great Sea by the voyagers of Númenor
Race
Division
Culture
Meaning
Uncertain, but galen is likely 'green'
Other names
Sometimes known simply as galenas, and also as Halflings' Leaf, Leaf, Pipe-weed, Tobacco, Westmansweed
Note
This is the same plant (evidently a variety of tobacco) used as pipe-weed in the northern lands, though the Gondorians gave no thought to smoking its leaves, and merely admired the scent of its flowers

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About this entry:

  • Updated 30 October 2008
  • This entry is complete

Sweet Galenas

A Gondorian name for pipe-weed

One of many names for the plant known to the Hobbits as pipe-weed, the source of the Leaf they smoked in their pipes. Though the 'art' of pipe-smoking belonged to the Hobbits, the plant itself came originally from Gondor in the warm south.

It was brought there by the ancestors of the Gondorians, the Númenóreans, from their island home in the west, and from them acquired its common Gondorian name, westmansweed. Its more noble name in that region, however, was galenas or, in full, sweet galenas. This comes from galen, the Elvish word for 'green': indeed, in the earliest drafts of The Lord of the Rings it is actually referred to as 'green' galenas.


See also...

Leaf, Westmansweed

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 30 October 2008
  • This entry is complete

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