Only Hardcore Fans (And Aragorn) Know LotR's Eeriest Female Character, And It's Not Galadriel

Tolkien's universe is one of the most elaborate and detailed fantasy universes.

So it is not surprising that many stories and characters did not make it into the movies. But some characters are so curious that it is impossible not to talk about them.

And one of such eccentric characters is Queen Beruthiel with her ten cats.

Beruthiel's story was so intimidating that Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, originally included a reference to her in the movie, but the scene was eventually cut out.

When the Fellowship of the Ring travels through dark and terrible Moria in the first movie, Aragorn says:

"[Gandalf] has led us in here against our fears, but he will lead us out again, at whatever cost to himself. He is surer of finding the way home in a blind night than the cats of Queen Beruthiel."

Beruthiel was a Black Numenorean. She became the wife of King of Gondor Tarannon Falastur, most likely for diplomatic reasons, and the marriage was unsuccessful.

Her husband built a house for her near Pelargir, but since she hated the noise and smell of the sea, she settled in the Gondor capital Osgiliath, in the royal palace.

She could not stand all things bright and beautiful, so the Queen dressed only in black and silver.

Around her garden she displayed many "perverse and strange" sculptures and kept nine black cats and one white by her side, with the help of which she was able to find out what people most wanted to hide.

All Gondorians feared and hated the Queen's spies. The white cat was sent by Beruthiel to follow the nine and torment them.

Probably because of the Queen's reticence, secrecy and malice, Tarannon ordered her name erased from the Book of Kings and sent his wife out of Gondor with the cats.

She was put on a ship – one cat sat on the top of the mast and the other on the bow of the ship.

No one has seen the woman since, but human memory is not only stored in books, and Queen Beruthiel's cats have become proverbial forever.

It is of her and her animals that Aragorn speaks during his journey through Moria.