by David Day
In the Third Age of the Sun, Gwaihir, the Windlord, ruled over the Eagles of Middle-earth. Though he was not the size of even the least of the Eagles of the First Age, by the measure of the Third Age he was the greatest of his time. Gwaihir’s people, the Eagles of the Misty Mountains, were fierce and much feared by the Dark Powers. The long tale of the Quest of the Ring and the War tells how Gwaihir, with his brother Landroval and one named Meneldor the Swift, often advanced in battle with the Eagle host. The Eagles of the Misty Mountains did many great deeds. They helped to achieve the death of the Dragon of Erebor and, later, the defeat of the Orcs in the Battle of Five Armies. They also rescued the Wizard Gandalf and the Hobbit Ringbearers and fought in the last battle of the Ring War before the Black Gate of Mordor.
Eärendil
Half-elven Dragon-slayer. Eärendil the Mariner was the son of the Edain lord, Tuor, and the Elven lady, Idril of Gondolin. Eärendil was born in the year 504 of the First Age in Gondolin, but grew up in the Elven haven of Arvernien. He became the Lord of Arvernien and married Elwing, the Elven daughter of King Dior and the inheritor of the Silmaril. They had two sons: Elrond and Elros. For Eärendil, whose name means “sea lover”, Círdan built a miraculous ship called Vingilot. While he was at sea, Arvernien was attacked and Elwing was forced to flee. Seeing no means to escape she threw herself and the Silmaril into the sea. Ulmo, the Ocean Lord, saved her by transforming her into a sea bird and allowing her to fly to Eärendil. The couple used the power and light of the Silmaril to find their way to the Undying Lands, to ask the aid of the Valar. In response, the Valar and Maiar host, along with the Elves of Eldamar, came out of the Undying Lands in the War of Wrath. It ended in the Great Battle, in which Eärendil the Mariner also fought. With the Silmaril bound to his brow, and his magical ship given the power of flight, Eärendil slew Ancalagon the Black, the greatest Dragon the world has ever known. After the end of the First Age, Eärendil led the surviving Edain to the new island kingdom of Númenor. Ever after, Eärendil was destined to sail Vingilot through the firmament. Called the Evening Star and the “flame of the west”, the Silmaril on his brow shone down from the night sky forever after.
East Elves
At the time of the Rekindling of the Stars, all Elves lived in the East of Middle-earth. But in time the Lord of Forests, the huntsman Oromë of the Valarian race, came to the Elves and brought the summons to leave that land.
Many heeded Oromë’s call and travelled to the West where they were variously called West Elves and Eldar. Those who remained were named East Elves or the Avari, the “unwilling”, who feared the Great Journey to the Undying Lands.
Easterlings
In the First Age of the Sun, all Men arose first in the eastern lands of Middle-earth. Some went to the West, but those who remained in the East lived under the dark shadow of Melkor the Enemy and turned to evil ways. These people were called the Easterlings and their land was called Rhûn.
After a time, some of these Men left the East and went to the Elf-lands of Beleriand. These Easterlings were not a tall people, but broad, strong of limb, and swarthy-skinned with dark eyes and hair. They mostly proved untrustworthy and in war betrayed their allies the Elves to Morgoth. Few names of these Men were passed on in histories, but Ulfang the Black and his sons Ulfast, Ulworth and Uldor, earned fame by virtue of committing the greatest treachery. For in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, Ulfang and his people turned upon their Elf allies in the midst of battle and slew them from behind; by this act the tide of battle was turned and the Elves were broken. However, not all Easterlings were unfaithful and one named Bór, and his sons Borlad, Borlach and Borthand, fought nobly to the death on behalf of Elves in that Age.
Yet, ever after, the Easterling people kept this alliance with Morgoth or his mighty servant Sauron, and came always in war against the noble descendants of the Edain. Through the Ages of the Sun the Easterlings became a confederacy of many kingdoms and races. In the Third Age many Easterling people came out of Rhûn. Among them were the fierce Balchoth and the chariot warriors called Wainriders. Then too, farther south in Harad, there lived many war-like Men who had come from the East of Middle-earth long before.
At Sauron’s command the Easterlings sent warriors into the War of the Ring. Upon Pelennor Fields innumerable companies of armoured Easterlings, bearded like Dwarves and armed with great two-handed axes, battled fiercely and died. Others too met their end when the Black Gate was broken and Sauron’s kingdom of Mordor was destroyed.
The War of the Ring broke the hold of the Dark Power over the Easterlings forever. So when King Elessar was crowned in Gondor, and in the Fourth Age came to Rhûn, the Easterlings sued for peace. This Elessar granted, and for long years after that treaty there was peace in the Westlands and in the lands of Harad and Rhûn.
Echoing Mountains
When the host of the Noldor King Fëanor returned to Middle-earth in their quest for the Silmarils, they first landed in a northern wasteland called Lammoth that was walled off from the rest of Beleriand by the Ered Lómin, the Echoing Mountains. Fortunately, the mountain range was cleft by the sea at the Firth of Drengist, and by this means the Noldor Elves made their way into Hithlum in northern Beleriand. The Echoing Mountains were called by that name because of their startling acoustic quality which resulted in the empty wastes of Lammoth being greatly amplified and echoed in the mountains above.
Edain
Of the Men of the First Age, those counted greatest were the Edain. They were the first Men to come out of the East into Beleriand, where the High Elves had made many kingdoms. Most were strong and brave Men, and the tales of that time tell of many great deeds.
These Men first entered Beleriand in three hosts led by the chieftains Bëor, Haldad and Marach, and these hosts became the Three Houses of Edain. Because the Elves were called the Firstborn Children of Ilúvatar, the Noldor in Beleriand called these Men the Atani, which means the “Secondborn”, and filled them with immense knowledge. Much that is counted great and noble in all Men had its beginning in the Noldor masters. In the space of quite a short time the common tongue of Beleriand became Sindarin, the language of the Grey-elves, and Quenya words were little used. This is why the Atani were most often called the Edain in all the written lore of Beleriand for such is the Sindarin form of Secondborn.
Of the Three Houses, the House of Bëor (which was later named the House of Húrin) was the first to meet the Noldorin Elves. Of all Men they were most like the Noldor, who loved them greatly. Their hair was dark and their bright eyes were grey. They were eager-minded, swift to learn and great in strength. Those of the Second House were named the Haladin and the People of Haleth; they were a forest-dwelling people, smallest in number and in stature of the Three Houses. The Third House was the House of Hador, whose people were golden-haired and blue-eyed and they were the most numerous of the Edain.
Many heroes arose among the Edain. Hador Lórindol, which is “goldenhead”, was named peer of Elf-lords and lord of Dor-lómin. Húrin the Steadfast was the mighty warrior who slew seventy Trolls in battle. As is told in the “Narn i Hîn Húrin” Húrin’s son was Túrin Turambar, who wore the heirloom of his people, the Dwarf-wrought Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin, and carried the Black Sword called Gurthang. With these weapons, and by strength and stealth, Túrin slew Glaurung, the Father of Dragons.
Of all the deeds of Men within the Spheres of the World, the greatest were those of Beren Erchamion, who was married to the Elven-princess Lúthien Tinúviel, the fairest daughter of the World. For Beren was the hero who, with the knife Angrist, cut a Silmaril from Morgoth’s Iron Crown.
In the histories of Elves there were but two other unions of Edain and Elves. Tuor wed Idril, daughter of Turgon, Noldor lord of Gondolin. Because of this, it is claimed that Tuor is the only Man to have been taken into the Undying Lands and permitted to dwell there. The son of Tuor and Idril, Eärendil the Mariner, wed the Sindar princess Elwing. It was Eärendil who sailed the flying ship “Vingilot” a
nd carried the Silmaril, the flame of the blue star of twilight. In the Great Battle, Eärendil in his ship called “Vingilot” also slew the winged Fire-drake Ancalagon the Black.
The remnant of the Edain were led out of Middle-earth by the guiding light of Eärendil in the Second Age, for the Edain were rewarded by the Valar for their suffering. Strengthened in body and mind and granted long life, they were led to the land of Númenór, which lay in the Western Sea between Middle-earth and the Undying Lands. At this time they were renamed the Dúnedain, the “Edain of the West”, and they lived there for the Second Age of the Sun and were counted the wisest and greatest of Men ever to walk the lands of Middle-earth.
Edhil
In the dialects of the Elven peoples, there arose various names by which they knew themselves. Among these was the term Edhil, by which the Sindar called all Elves.
Edoras
For the last five centuries of the Third Age of the Sun, the capital city of the Horsemen of Rohan was Edoras. It was built in the twenty-sixth century by the first two kings of the Rohirrim, Eorl and Brego, at the foot of the White Mountains. The name is a translation of the Rohirrim word for “the courts” as this was the royal city, and contained the great feast-hall of Meduseld, the court of the king. From the high ground of Edoras, built as a hill-fort with a stockade and dyke, the kings looked out onto the great horse plains that made up the kingdom of Rohan.
Eglath
In the story of the Great Journey of the Elves in the Ages of Stars, there is the tale of how the Third Kindred, the Teleri, lost their king, Elwë Singollo. In the Forest of Nan Elmoth in the lands of Beleriand, he fell under an enchantment. And though they searched for the king for many years, the Teleri could not find him and finally they took Elwë’s brother as king and went again westwards towards the Undying Lands. But many would not leave Nan Elmoth and stayed for the love of Elwë Singollo, though many more years passed. These were the Elves called the Eglath; they were divided from their kindred for ever and their name was Elvish for the “forsaken”. In the end, their faithfulness had its reward, for their king did return. He was now called Elu Thingol or King Greymantle, and he was greatly changed. A great light shone about him, and with him he brought the source of his enchantment, his queen, Melian the Maia. With the return of the king and the blessing of the new queen a great destiny came to the Elgath. Ever afterwards they were named the Sindar, the Grey-elves, and in the years of Stars they were held to be mightiest of people in Middle-earth.
Ekkaia
From their beginning to the end of the Second Age of the Sun after the Change of the World that came with the sinking of Númenor, the continents of Arda were believed to have been encompassed by Ekkaia, the Encircling Sea. Ekkaia was a vast river-like ocean that flowed around the furthest limits of the Arda, from the Door of Night to the west of the Undying Lands, through the icy regions north of the great continents, on past the furthest eastern continent and the Gates of the Morning in the west, then southward through the uncharted regions of the south until it returned to where it began in the west. After the Change of the World and the removal of the Undying Lands from Arda, Ekkaia was reshaped and its waters intermingled with the other seas.
Elanor
In the Third Age of the Sun, there grew a fair winter flower in the land of Lothlórien. This flower was called Elanor, which means “star-sun”, and its bloom was Star-shaped and golden. The histories of Middle-earth link Elanor to the “Tale of Aragorn and Arwen”. Both Elanor the Gold Star and Niphredil the White Star grew thickest on Cerin Amroth, the mound on which Aragorn, the mortal lord of the Dúnedain, and Arwen Undómiel, the daughter of Elrond Half-elven, plighted their troth. Arwen cast her lot with the race of mortal Men and, after the War of the Ring, Aragorn and Arwen were wed. Though her life was happy, soon after Aragorn died Arwen too perished, choosing the hill of Cerin Amroth as the place of her final rest.
Eldalië
After a time spent in the great Mere of the East called Cuiviénen in Middle-earth, the Elves were given a great choice. Either they must continue to abide in the East and know only starlight or they must make a Great Journey and come to the Land of Eternal Light in the Uttermost West. The Elves who in the First Age of Starlight chose the Great Journey out of Middle-earth to the Undying Lands were named the Eldalië, the people of the Eldar. They were of Three Kindred: the Vanyar, the Noldor and the Teleri, and much is told of them in song and tale.
Eldamar
The lands of the Eldar, or High Elves, in the Undying Lands were called Eldamar, the “elvenhome”. Here the greatest of the Elves from among the three kindred of the Vanyar, Noldor and Teleri people lived with the mighty Valarian powers. Eldamar was that part of the Undying Lands east of Valinor and west of the Great Sea. It was founded in the Second Age of the Trees of the Valar when the first Eldar arrived in the Undying Lands. Its territories were on both sides of the looming Pelóri Mountains and included vast fertile lands west of the mountains lit eternally by the Trees of Light, the Calacirya, or Pass of Light – the coastal lands west of the mountains lit only by starlight on the Bay of Eldamar – and the great island of Tol Eressëa. Here were a multitude of cities and settlements, but Tirion, built on the hill of Túna in the midst of the Pass of Light, was the first city of the Vanyar and Noldor, and the greatest. There was also the Noldor stronghold of Formenos in the land of light, and the Teleri cities of the Sea Elves of Alqualondë on the coast, and Avallónë on Tol Eressëa. The lands and cities of Eldamar were wealthy and beautiful beyond comparison. Their cities were built with precious stones and precious metals. Its crops of grain and fruits were bountiful and its people happy, resourceful and wise. It was claimed that even the shores of Eldamar were strewn with diamonds, opals and pale crystals. After the disaster of Númenor and the Change of the World at the end of the Second Age of the Sun, Eldamar, along with the rest of the Undying Lands, was taken out of the circles of the world, and beyond the understanding of mortals.
Eldar
According to the tales that have reached the ears of Men, and by what is written in the books that Men might read, the history of the Eldar is largely the history of the Elven race. In the First Age of Stars, when Oromë the Huntsman of the Valar discovered the Elves in the east lands of Middle-earth, he looked at them in wonder and named them the Eldar, the “people of the Stars”. At this time all Elves were named Eldar, but later this name was taken only by those who had accepted the summons of the Valar to the West and undertook the Great Journey to the Undying Lands. Those who remained were named the Avari, the “unwilling”, and they stayed for love of Middle-earth, or because they distrusted the promise of the Land of Eternal Light.
So the Eldar were a chosen people and they were divided into Three Kindred: The Vanyar, the Noldor and the Teleri. The Journey was, however, long and perilous and many Eldar did not reach the Undying Lands; they were named the Umanyar, “those not of Aman”. Among them were the Nandor, the Sindar, the Falathrim and the Laiquendi. But the greater number did reach the Journey’s end and came to the Undying Lands in the days of the Trees of the Valar. There they took that land named Eldamar, which had been set apart for them, built fine cities and became a great people.
Even in the years of strife and darkness that came with their hopeless war against Morgoth the Enemy, the “Quenta Silmarillion” tells of their great deeds, which blaze in that dark history, and for many Ages the kingdoms of the Eldar flourished in both Middle-earth and the Undying Lands. Much of this is told in the tale of the Elves, the histories of the many sundered Teleri, and in the “Noldolantë” which Maglor sang.
Elendil
Dúnedain king of Arnor and Gondor. Elendil was a Númenórean prince of Andúnie. After the Downfall of Númenor in the year 3319 of the Second Age, Elendil and his sons, Isildur and Anárion, sailed their nine ships to Middle-earth and established the Dúnedain kingdoms of Middle-earth. Called Elendil the Tall, he chose to live in the north kingdom of Arnor, where he ruled as the
first High King of Arnor and Gondor, while his sons lived in the south kingdom of Gondor. In 3429 of the Second Age, Sauron attacked the Dúnedain realms. The following year, the Last Alliance of Elves and Men was formed. Gil-galad, the last High King of Elves on Middle-earth, joined forces with Elendil’s Dúnedain. At the Battle of Dagorlad in 3434, Sauron’s army was defeated but the Ring Lord fled into Mordor. In the seven-year siege that followed, Anárion was killed. Although Elendil and Gil-galad finally managed to overthrow Sauron in a duel before the Dark Tower, they were also slain in the struggle. It was left to Isildur to take his father’s broken sword, Narsil, and cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand.
Elendili
The “Akallabêth” tells how when the Númenóreans foolishly went to war against the Powers of Arda in the Undying Lands, all their country was cast down and destroyed. However, before the Downfall, nine ships sailed away from that doomed land. These were the ships of the Elendili, the “faithful”, and the Elf-friends, who repudiated the ways of the Númenóreans and sailed to Middle-earth. There Elendil the Tall and his two sons made the kingdoms of the Dúnedain in the North in Arnor and in the South in Gondor.
Elladan and Elrohir
Elven princes of Rivendell. Elladan and Elrohir were the identical twin sons of Master Elrond of Rivendell and Princess Celebrían of Lothlórien. Born in the year 139 of the Third Age, the twin brothers were just a century older than their beautiful sister, Arwen. For most of their lives, they remained within the hidden Elven kingdoms of Rivendell and Lothlórien, but in the year 2509 their mother was attacked by Orcs. Although the brothers soon rescued her, Celebrían received a poison wound that none could cure, and finally had to set sail to the Undying Lands. For the rest of the Age, the brothers allied themselves with the Rangers of the Dúnedain and vengefully hunted Orcs wherever they could find them. During the War of the Ring, the twins rode with the Rangers of the North to join Aragorn in Rohan. They fought alongside Aragorn through all the major battles of the war, until the last confrontation before the Black Gate of Mordor. The brothers appear to have remained in Rivendell long after the departure of Elrond and other Elven nobles, and no tale survives which tells whether they chose to remain among mortals or make that final journey on the Elven ships to the Undying Lands.