A Dictionary of Tolkien

by David Day

  Elrond and Elros

  Half-elven princes of Beleriand. Born in Arvernien on the coast of Beleriand in 542 of the First Age of the Sun, Elrond and Elros were the twin sons of Eärendil and Elwing. After the War of Wrath, as the sons of a mortal hero and an Elven princess, the Valar allowed the brothers to choose their fates. Elros chose to be mortal, although he was granted a life span of five centuries.

  At the beginning of the Second Age, Elros led the surviving Edain to Númenor and became their first king. Elros took the name of Tar-Minyatur and rule Númenor from the year 32 to 442. He built the royal palace and citadel of Armenelos. Elrond chose to be an immortal Elven prince and lived in Lindon at the beginning of the Second Age. In 1695, he was sent by High King Gil-galad to help defend Eregion during the War of Sauron and the Elves. However, when Eregion was overrun in 1697, Elrond led the survivors to the foothills of the Misty Mountains where he founded Rivendell, which was called “Imladris” in Elvish. In the Last Alliance of Elves and Men at the end of the Second Age, Elrond was Gil-galad’s herald. Before Gil-galad died, he gave Elrond the Ring Vilya, which was the “ring of air” and the greatest of the Three Elven Rings.

  In the year 100 of the Third Age, Elrond married Celebrían, the daughter of Galadriel, and the couple had three children: Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen. Through the Third Age, Master Elrond Half-Elven, as he was called, gave whatever help he could to the Dúnedain, and the heirs of Arnor were often raised under his protection in Rivendell. One such heir was Aragorn II, who was fostered by Elrond. In 2980, Aragorn met Arwen in Lothlórien. The couple fell in love, but Elrond forbade their marriage until Aragorn became High King of Arnor and Gondor. With Elrond’s guidance, the Fellowship of the Ring was formed in 3018 in Rivendell, and the Quest of the Ring set. After the One Ring was destroyed and Aragorn assumed his kingship and married Arwen, the Third Age ended with Elrond sailing across the sea to the Undying Lands.

  Elven-Smiths

  In the Third and Fourth Ages of the Sun, legends of Men and Dwarves spoke widely of the Elven-smiths, a vanished race that once lived in Eregion, to the west of the Mountains of Mist. These were Noldorin Elves, who were more properly named the Gwaith-i-Mírdain. It was they who forged the great Rings of Power which for two Ages of the Sun loosed so much terror upon the lands of Middle-earth.

  Elves

  In the very hour that Varda, the Lady of the Heavens, rekindled the bright Stars above Middle-earth, the Children of Eru awoke by the Mere of Cuiviénen, the “water of awakening”. These people were the Quendi, who are called Elves, and when they came into being the first thing they perceived was the light of new Stars. So it is that of all things, Elves love starlight best and worship Varda, whom they know as Elentári, Queen of the Stars, over all Valar. And further, when the new light entered the eyes of Elves in that awakening moment, it was held there, so that ever after it shone from those eyes.

  Thus, Eru, the One, whom the Earthborn know as Ilúvatar, created the fairest race that ever was made and the wisest. Ilúvatar declared that Elves would have and make more beauty than any earthly creatures and they would possess the greatest happiness and deepest sorrow. They would be immortal and ageless, so they might live as long as the Earth lived. They would never know sickness and pestilence, but their bodies would be like the Earth in substance and could be destroyed. They could be slain with fire or steel in war, be murdered, and even die of great grief.

  Their size would be the same as that of Men, who were still to be created, but Elves would be stronger in spirit and limb, and would not grow weak with age, but became only wiser and more fair.

  Though far lesser beings in stature and might than the god-like Valar, Elves share the nature of those powers more than the Secondborn race of Men do. It is said that Elves always walk in a light that is like the glow of the Moon, just below the rim of the Earth. Their hair is like spun gold or woven silver or polished jet, and starlight glimmers all about them, on their hair, eyes, silken clothes and jewelled hands. There is always light on the Elven face, and the sound of their voices is various and beautiful and subtle as water. Of all their arts they excel best in speech, song and poetry. Elves were the first of all people on Earth to speak with voices and no earthly creatures before them sang. And justly they call themselves the Quendi, the “speakers”, for they taught the spoken arts to all races on Middle-earth.

  In the First Age of Starlight, after the Fall of Utumno and the defeat of Melkor the Dark Enemy, the Valar called the Elves to the Undying Lands of the West. This was before the Rising of the Sun and the Moon when only the Stars lit Middle-earth, and the Valar wished to protect the Elves from the darkness and the lurking evil that Melkor had left behind.

  And so, in the Undying Lands which lie beyond the seas of the West, the Valar prepared a place named Eldamar, meaning “elven home”, where it was foretold that in time the Elves would build cities with domes of silver, streets of gold and stairs of crystal.

  In this way the Elves were first divided, for not all the Elven People wished to leave Middle-earth and enter the Eternal Light of the Undying Lands. At the bidding of the Valar a great number when to the West, and these were called the Eldar, the “people of the Stars”, but others stayed for love of starlight and were called Avari, the “unwilling”. Though they were skilled in the ways of nature and, like their kindred, were immortal, they were a lesser people. They mostly remained in eastern lands where the power of Melkor was greatest and so they dwindled.

  The Eldar were also known as the People of the Great Journey for they had travelled westwards across the pathless lands of Middle-earth towards the Great Sea for many years. Of these Elven people there were Three Kindred, ruled by three kings. The first was the Vanyar, and Ingwë was their king; the second the Noldor, with Finwë as their lord; and the third was the Teleri who were ruled by Elwë Singollo. The Vanyar and Noldor reached Belegaer, the Sea of the West, long before the Teleri, and Ulmo, Lord of the Waters, came to them and set them on an island that was like a vast ship. He then drew the two hosts over the sea to the Undying Lands, to Eldamar, the place that the Valar had prepared for them.

  The fate of the Teleri was different from their kindred and they separated into various races. Because the Teleri were the most numerous of all the kindred, their passage was slowest. Many turned back from the Journey, and amongst these were the Nandor, the Laiquendi, the Sindar, and the Falathrim. Elwë, the High King, was himself lost and he remained in Middle-earth. However, most of the Teleri pushed westwards, taking Olwë, Elwë’s brother, as their king, and they reached the Great Sea. There they awaited Ulmo, who at last took them to Eldamar.

  In Eldamar, the Vanyar and Noldor built a great city named Tirion on the hill of Túna, while on the shore the Teleri built the Haven of Swans, which in their language was Alqualondë. These cities of the Elves of Eldamar were the fairest in all the World.

  In Middle-earth, the Sindar (who were called Grey-elves), through the teachings and the light of Melian the Maia, grew mightier than all the other Elves in Mortal Lands. An enchanted kingdom with great power was made in the Wood of Doriath and it was the greatest kingdom amongst the Eldar who did not see the Trees of the Valar. With the help of the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, the Sindar built Menegroth, called the Thousand Caves, for it was a city beneath a mountain. Yet it was like a forest hung with golden lanterns. Through its galleries could be heard bird song and the laughter of crustal water flowing in silver fountains.

  These were the great Ages of the Eldar, both in Middle-earth and in the Undying Lands. It was during this time that the Noldor prince Fëanor wrought the Silmarils three jewels like diamonds that shone with a flame that was a form of life itself and shone too with the living Light of the Trees of the Valar.

  At this time, the lies that Melkor had spread bore fruit, and there was strife and war. With the Great Spider, Ungoliant, Melkor came and destroyed the Trees, and Light went from the Undying Lands for ever. During the Long Night that followed, M
elkor stole the Silmarils and with Ungoliant fled across Helcaraxë, the “grinding ice”, and returned to Middle-earth and the dark Pits of Angband, his great armoury.

  Fëanor swore vengeance and the Noldor pursued Melkor to Middle-earth. In doing this they became a cursed people, for they captured the Swan ships of the Teleri of Alqualondë and slew their Elven brothers. This was the first Kinslaying among Elves. With the ships of the Teleri the Noldor crossed Belegaer, the Great Sea, while the Noldor led by Fingolfin, in an act of great courage, dared to cross Helcaraxë, on foot.

  As the “Quenta Silmarillion” tells, so began the War of the Jewels. The Noldor pursued Melkor and named him Morgoth, the “Dark Enemy of the World”. The war was bitter and terrible and, of those Eldar who were in Middle-earth, few survived that struggle. Finally, the Valar and many Eldar in the Undying Lands came and, in the War of Wrath, crushed Morgoth the Enemy for ever. But in that war Beleriand was destroyed and was covered by the waves of the vast sea. The great kingdoms of that place disappeared for ever, as did the Elven cities of Menegroth, Nargothrond and Gondolin. Only one small part of Ossiriand, Lindon, survived the deluge. There the last Eldar kingdom in Middle-earth remained in the first years of the Second Age of the Sun. Most of the Eldar who survived the War of Wrath returned West and were brought by the white ships of the Teleri to Tol Eressëa in the Bay of Eldamar. There they built the haven of Avallónë. Meanwhile, those Men who had aided the Eldar against Morgoth went to an island named Númenórë.

  Yet still, for a while, some Eldar remained in Mortal Lands. One such was Gil-galad and he was last of all the High Kings of the Eldar in Middle-earth. His reign lasted as long as the Second Age of the Sun and his kingdom of Lindon survived until the Fourth Age. Some Noldor and Sindar lords joined the Silvan Elves and made themselves kingdoms: Thranduil made Greenwood the Great his Woodland Realm and Celeborn and Galadriel ruled Lothlórien, the Golden Wood. In that Age the greatest of the Eldarin colonies was Eregion, which Men named Hollin, where many great nobles of the Noldor went. They were named the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, but in later days they were called the Elven-smiths. And it was to them that Sauron the Maia, greatest servant of Morgoth, came in disguise. Celebrimbor, the greatest Elven-smith of Middle-earth and grandson of Fëanor, who made the Silmarils, lived in Hollin. At his order and with his skill the Rings of Power were made, and because of them and the One Ring that Sauron forged, the War of Sauron and the Elves was waged and many other wars.

  The evil battles of Sauron’s War were terrible. Celebrimbor perished and his land was ruined, and Gil-galad sent Elrond and many warriors from Lindon to the aid of the people of Eregion. Those Elves who survived the destruction of Eregion fled to Imladris (which in the Third Age was called Rivendell) and hid from the terror, and they took as their lord Elrond Half-elven. But, though the Elves were not strong enough to break the power of the Dark Lord as long as he held the One Ring, their allies, the Númenóreans, had grown mighty in the West. The Númenóreans came in their ships to Lindon and drove Sauron from the lands of the West. In a later time still, they came again, and captured the Dark Lord himself and in chains took him across the sea to their lands.

  There Sauron remained until all the lands of Númenórë were swallowed up by the Sea of Belegaer, and there came the Change of the World when Undying Lands of Valinor and Eldamar were removed from the Circles of the World. Mortal Lands became closed in on themselves and the Undying Lands were set apart, unreachable except by the white Elven-ships.

  But in that Second Age of the Sun there was still Sauron, Lord of the Rings, to deal with. For he had escaped the Downfall of Númenor and had returned to his kingdom of Mordor. Therefore, the Last Alliance of Elves and Men was made. They broke Mordor and Barad-dûr, his tower, and took his Ring from him. He and his servants perished and went into the shadows, but Gil-galad, the last High King of the Elves in Middle-earth, was also killed, as were nearly all the great lords of the Númenóreans.

  There still remained a few Eldar to watch over the lands that the race of Men was slowly coming to possess. In the Third Age, the Eldar in Middle-earth were but a shadow of their former presence. Lindon remained but stood mostly apart from the strife of Middle-earth, and Círdan, lord of the Grey Havens, was held highest among them. The concerns of Elves seemed largely their own in all but one matter: that of the Lord of the Rings, who came to Mordor once again and sent his servants, the Nazgûl, out over the land. Then the Elves and the descendants of the Númenóreans once more fought in that which is called the War of the Ring. The One Ring in that time was destroyed. Mordor fell again, and finally, Sauron vanished for ever, as did his servants and his hold on all evil in the World was broken. In the Fourth Age, in the time of the dominion of Men, the last of the Eldar sailed the last white ship that Círdan of the Grey Havens made, out upon the Straight Road. And thus these People of the Stars passed away for ever to that place beyond the reach of mortals, save in ancient tale and perhaps in the dreams of children.

  Elwë Singollo

  Elven king of the Teleri. Elwë was one of the three kings of the Elves who led their people on the Great Journey to the Undying Lands. However, in Beleriand he abandoned the Journey and founded the realm of the Grey-elves. He was called King Thingol and his tale is told under that name.

  Elwing

  Elven princess of Doriath. Elwing the White was the beautiful daughter of King Dior and Queen Nimloth of Doriath. She was the only member of her family to survive the sacking of Menegroth by the Noldor in the year 509 of the First Age of the Sun. With her inheritance, the Silmaril, she found sanctuary in the harbour of Arvernien. There she met and married Eärendil the Mariner and gave birth to twin sons: Elrond and Elros. But when the Noldor learned where the Silmaril was hidden, they attacked again. Seeing no means of escape, Elwing threw herself and the Silmaril into the sea. At that moment, Ulmo, the Valarian Ocean Lord, intervened and transformed Elwing into a white sea bird. With the Silmaril in her beak she flew across the sea to find Eärendil. They managed to find their way through the Shadowy Seas to the Undying Lands, so that Eärendil might beg the Valar to intervene in the Wars of Beleriand. After the War of Wrath Eärendil, with the Silmaril bound to his brow, was placed in the firmament by the Valar. He sailed his ship across the sky and was known as the Morning Star. Thereafter, Elwing made her home in a tower on the northern coast of Eldamar, and each night as Eärendil’s ship drew near the western horizon, Elwing – as a white bird – flew from her tower to join her husband.

  Enchanted Isles

  After Melkor the Vala and Ungoliant the Giant Spider extinguished the light of the world by destroying the Trees of the Valar, Manwë and the other Valar built many fortifications and defences in the Undying Lands for fear of the return of these evil beings and their legions. Among the most effective was the vast chain of islands along the eastern coast of the Undying Lands. These were the Enchanted Isles and the waters about them were called the Shadowy Seas. The islands were enchanted by the power of a mighty spell: its maze of waterways confounded all mariners’ means of reckoning, and if sailors landed on the islands themselves, they immediately fell down into a deep and eternal sleep.

  Engwar

  At the time the race of Men first came into the World, the Elves were much amazed. Compared with Elves, Men were a frail race, unable to withstand the harsh elements, illness or old age. So the Avari, the Elves of the East, taught skills to many of these Men that they might live without deprivation and fear. However, the Elves still found that these people faded quickly, as they were mortal beings; the Elves could hardly learn the worth of a Man before he would be dead with the frost of age. Most terrible and mysterious to Elves were the sicknesses of the body that swept through the race of Men like flames in a wheat field. When these plagues came to Men they perished, while no Elf could ever know such evil. One of the names, therefore, that Elves called Men was given with great pity: the Engwar, which in the Elven tongue means the “sickly”.

  Ents
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  During the War of the Ring the strange forest giants called Ents came in battle against the Orcs and Men of Isengard. Half Men, half trees, they were fourteen feet tall, and the eldest had lived in Middle-earth for nine Ages of Stars and the Sun.

  Lord of the Ents was Fangorn who in the common tongue was called Treebeard. He was huge and ancient, for he belonged to the tallest and strongest race born into the World. Like oak or beech was the huge rough-barked trunk of Treebeard, while his branch-like arms were smooth and his seven-fingered hands were gnarled. Treebeard’s peculiar, almost neckless head was tall and thick as his trunk. His brown eyes were large and wise and seemed to glint with a green light. His wild grey beard was like a thatch of twigs and moss. He was made of the fibre of trees, yet he moved swiftly on unbending legs with feet like living roots, swaying and stretching like a long-legged wading bird.

  Elvish histories tell how, when Varda, Queen of the Heavens, rekindled the Stars and the Elves awoke, the Ents also awoke in the Great Forests of Arda. They came from the thoughts of Yavanna, Queen of the Earth, and were her Shepherds of Trees. Shepherds and guardians they proved to be, for if roused to anger, Entish wrath was terrible and they could crush stone and steel with their hands alone. Justly they were feared, but they were also gentle and wise. They loved the trees and all the Olvar and guarded them from evil.

  At the time of their awakening Ents could not speak, but the Elves taught them that art, and they loved it greatly. They delighted in learning many tongues, even the short chirping languages of Men. Dearest of all they loved the language they had devised themselves that none but Ents ever mastered. It rolled deep and full from their tongues as slow thunder or the timeless booming of waves on forgotten shores. In the slow passing of Entish time they formed their thoughts in unhurried meditation, and framed them into speech as undisturbed and rolling as the changing seasons.