A Drûg or Drúadan who lived in the region of the Forest of Brethil during the late First Age. He was skilled in the healing of wounds, and had special knowledge of the venoms used by Orcs.
At a time of Orc-raids in the woods of Brethil, he took to watching the home of his friend Barach of the Folk of Haleth. According to the tale of The Faithful Stone, he was called away from Barach's house for some days to help his injured kin, and left behind a 'watch-stone': a figure carved in the shape of a Drúadan. While he was away, Barach's house was attacked by Orcs who attempted to set it ablaze, but they were beaten off by a mysterious Drûg.
Barach afterwards discovered that it was the watch-stone itself that had somehow come to life and saved his family from the Orcs, though it had been badly burned and broken in putting out the flames. Because of the power Aghan had put into the stone, he too suffered some of these burns, though they were already healing when he returned to Barach's house the following day.
Notes
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We have very little evidence on which to base dating for Aghan. Certain details in the story of The Faithful Stone in which he appears, particularly regarding Orc-raids into Brethil, suggest a date near the end of the fifth century of the Years of the Sun, though the date of I 490 given here is necessarily approximate.
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2 |
Aghan's name seems to come from the (unrecorded) language of his own people, and thus is not directly interpretable. The -ghan element might conceivably have some relation to the Elvish root Ʒan- meaning 'Man' (it was not unknown to find Elvish elements in Mannish languages, though whether that is the case here is unknown).
This ghan element was persistent in the names of Drúedain, to the extent that we find it used by one of Aghan's people, Ghân-buri-Ghân, in the Drúadan Forest thousands of years after Aghan's time. Whatever its meaning, then, the syllable ghan seems to have been particularly significant among the Drúedain.
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- Updated 14 October 2022
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