Caradhril was born in the Gondorian province of Anfalas, in a poor coastal village to a fisherman and his wife. He was the youngest of three, and he followed his two elder brothers about from an early age, desperate to learn everything that they knew. There were weeks when the skies would darken, and everyone would escape further away from the coasts, waiting miserably for the chance to practice their livelihood again. Other times the storms would come unexpectedly, and then after there would be funerals and mourning. 

Occasionally men and women would travel to the home of Lord Golasgil to search for employment in his guard, but nobody so grand would ever think to come down to the village. Caradhril sometimes tried to imagine what Golasgil was like, and if he was very much like the Kings in the stories. 

His best friend was a girl his own age named Morliniel. They shared a love of stories and a knowledge of the outdoors, and an ability to shake off the teasing that both endured for such a friendship. 

When Lin's father healed enough to support her family once again, the pair saw an opportunity to wander abroad, and took it. Far to the North they traveled, seeing and learning much along the way. Including the fact that Elves are impossibly pretty, and that Caradhril owes Lin a drink for doubting her.