Derry Dol, Indeed

[Gwaihir the Windlord]

Personally, I think this 'river-woman's daughter' thing isn't being thought about properly at all.

As Amarie corectly says, we have never seen the River-woman. We don't know who this mysterious person is, where she came from, or -- most importantly -- whether she is in fact a real person in the common sense of the word. After all, we don't know.

Thinking along these lines, the River-woman could in fact be Goldberry's Maia superior (her a kind of hand-maiden type servant in the Withywindle) -- alternatively, she could be the river itself. Therefore Goldberry could be what Firnantoonion said. Any imaginable explanation, actually, that has her as an independant (non-biological 'daughter' of the 'river-woman') anomalous creature of Ea (or Maia, perhaps) can be really considered. (Especially when you consider that have little but our own imaginations to go on.)

Hmm... certainly the idea of Goldberry, unless she is an Elf (pretty unlikely too, although possible) being someone's literal daughter does not fit into it all, and in a way (as I somewhat vaguely talked about in the 'anomalies' thread) that I do not find palatable.