Ioreth was the oldest of the women who served in the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith, a talkative woman who told everyone what she knew and a good deal that she did not. She was in the Houses when the wounded were carried in from the Pelennor: Faramir, struck down by the Black Breath, Éowyn, and Merry, who had struck the Witch-king.1
The healers could do nothing for them. Ioreth said that there was an old saying in her lore, that the hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and that by this the rightful king would be known. Gandalf heard her, and sent for Aragorn.1
Aragorn came, cloaked as a Ranger, and asked for athelas. Neither Ioreth nor the herb-master of the Houses knew the name. Aragorn said that it was kingsfoil, and Bergil ran to fetch the leaves. He crushed them, the House was filled with a fresh clear smell, and the wounded woke and were healed.1
Ioreth saw the king's power in what followed, and was full of talk of it afterwards.1
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
- Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 8, “The Houses of Healing”