Other forms: gladdened, gladdens
To gladden is to make somebody happy. Gladden the heart, it gladdens me, a sight to gladden anybody.
It survives almost entirely in gladden the heart, which is deliberately old-fashioned and usually warm. The -en ending makes a verb from an adjective, as in sweeten, harden and darken, and it is one of the oldest patterns in English.
1verbgladdenTo make somebody happy.
“The sight of the first spring flowers always gladdens my grandfather.”
gladden is a cheering.
From glad + -en.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire