A Dictionary of Tolkien

by David Day

  Gollum

  Ghoul and former Hobbit. Gollum was once a Hobbit of the Stoor strain called Sméagol, who was born not far from Gladden Fields in the Vales of Anduin. In 2463 of the Third Age, Sméagol’s cousin Déagol found the One Ring while fishing and Sméagol immediately murdered him for it. The power of the Ring lengthened Sméagol’s life, yet it warped him beyond recognition. Thereafter, he was called Gollum because of the nasty, guttural sounds he made when trying to speak. He became a ghoulish being who shunned light and lived by foul murder and eating unclean meat. He found comfort in dark pools in deep caverns. His skin became hairless, black and clammy, and his body thin and gaunt. His head was like a skull and his eyes bulged like those of a fish. His teeth grew long like Orc fangs, and his Hobbit feet grew flat and webbed. For nearly five centuries, Gollum lived hidden in caverns beneath the Misty Mountains.

  Then, in 2941, the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins made a fateful visit to his cavern and took the One Ring from Gollum. In 3019, Gollum at last hunted down Frodo Baggins, the new Ringbearer, but try as he might, he could not overcome him. For a time Frodo almost seemed able to tame Gollum, but Gollum lived by treachery. So it was at the final moment, when the power of the Ring overcame even the good Frodo upon Mount Doom, Gollum attacked the Ringbearer on the edge of the Cracks of Doom. Summoning all his evil strength, Gollum won the Ring by biting off Frodo’s finger, but at that moment of victory, he toppled backwards with his precious prize down into the fiery bowels of the Earth.

  Golodhrim

  In the First Age of the Sun, the Noldor came out of the Undying Lands and entered Beleriand. There they were greeted by the Grey-elves, who, in the Sindar tongue, called the Noldor the Golodhrim.

  Gondolin

  When the Noldor Elves of Eldamar returned to Middle-earth and entered Beleriand in the year 52 of the First Age of the Sun, Prince Turgon found a stronghold and a secret valley in which to build an Elven city safe from the evil forces of Morgoth. This city was Gondolin, the “Hidden Kingdom”, in the valley of Tumladen within Echarioth, the Encircling Mountains, to the north of the forests of Doriath, the realm of the Grey Elves. Within the natural barriers of the Encircling Mountains, Gondolin was also protected by the vigilance of the Great Eagles who destroyed or drove off all spies and servants of Morgoth. So defended, for over fifty years the Noldor secretly built the white stone city of Gondolin, meaning “hidden stone”, on the hill of Amon Gwareth. Gondolin’s name in the High Elven tongue was Ondolindë, meaning “stone song”, and being modelled on Tirion, the first city of Eldamar, it was the most beautiful city of the Noldor on Middle-earth. For five centuries Gondolin prospered while one by one the other Elven kingdoms of Beleriand were destroyed. Then, in the year 511 Gondolin was betrayed and its secret passes were revealed to Morgoth. The Dark Enemy sent a huge force of Orcs, Trolls, Dragons and Balrogs into the Hidden Kingdom. Terrible were the battles beneath its walls, but finally Gondolin was overrun and its people slaughtered. The last of the High Elf kingdoms of Beleriand, the towers of Gondolin were torn down and the ruined walls and foundations scorched black with Dragon fire.

  Gondor

  Founded in the year 3320 of the Second Age by Elendil the Númenórean, Gondor was the South Kingdom of the Dúnedain of Middle-earth. Elendil ruled as High King from the North Kingdom of Arnor while his two sons, Isildur and Anárion, ruled jointly in Gondor. However, after Elendil’s death in 3441, Isildur and his heirs became the kings of Arnor, while Anárion’s heirs ruled as the kings of Gondor until the year 2050 of the Third Age when the line failed. For over nine centuries after this time, Gondor was governed by the Ruling Stewards. Gondor’s chief cities were Minas Anor, Minas Ithil, Osgiliath, and the ports of Pelargir and Dol Amroth. By the first millennium of the Third Age Gondor’s realm included the fiefs of Anórien, Ithilien, Lebennin, Anfalas, Belfalas, Calenardhon, Enedwaith, South Gondor, and most of Rhovanion as far east as the Sea of Rhûn. From its beginning Gondor (and Arnor) were rivals of Sauron the Ring Lord of Mordor and his many allies. Because of this, Gondor was invaded many times by Easterling armies out of Rhûn and Southron armies from Harad. During the first two millennia the worst blows to Gondor’s power were caused by the civil war of 1432 and the Great Plague of 1636. These were followed by the bloody Wainrider Invasions of 1851 and 1954. So weakened was Gondor that in the year 2002 Sauron’s servants, the Nazgûl Ring Wraiths, took the city of Minas Ithil in Gondor’s heartland. For over a thousand years it was held by dark powers and was renamed Minas Morgul. At the time of the War of the Ring, exhausted by centuries of conflict though it was, Gondor was the last hope for the Free Peoples of Middle-earth in resisting total dominion by Sauron. At the end of the war, Mordor was destroyed and the kingship of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor restored by Aragorn, the true heir of Isildur. As King Elessar, he ruled well into the Fourth Age, restoring Gondor to its former glory.

  Gondor Men

  Of the Dúnedain who made kingdoms upon Middle-earth, the most famous were the Gondor Men of the South Kingdom. Isildur and Anárion raised the white towers of Gondor in the year 3320 of the Second Age of the Sun, after fleeing from the destruction of Númenor with their father Elendil, who then built the North Kingdom of Arnor.

  The tale of Gondor is long and glorious. The “Annals of Kings and Rulers” tell how, at the height of their power, the Gondor kings ruled all the lands of Middle-earth west of the Sea of Rhûn, between the rivers Celebrant and Harnen. Even when the kingdom of Gondor was in decline, its rulers held all the fiefs and territories of Anórien, Ithilien, Lebennin, Lossarnach, Lamedon, Anfalas, Tolfalas, Belfalas and Calenardhon.

  Within Gondor there were five cities of the first rank, two of which were great ports: ancient Pelargir, upon the delta of the Great River Anduin, and Dol Amroth, the citadel that ruled the coastal fiefs upon the Bay of Belfalas. There were three great cities in the centre of Gondor. They stood upon a vast plain between the White Mountains in the west and the Mountains of Mordor in the East. The eastern city was Minas Ithil, the “tower of the Moon”, the city of the west was Minas Anor, the “tower of the Sun”, and the greatest city of them all was Osgiliath, the “citadel of the Stars”. Osgiliath was the capital of Gondor and was built upon both banks of the Great River Anduin; the city’s two parts were joined by the wide white stone bridge.

  The kingdom of Gondor was often attacked in the Third Age and it suffered a great many troubles. In the year 1432 a long civil war began; in 1636 a Great Plague struck; and between 1851 and 1954 the Wainriders invaded. In 2002, Minas Ithil fell to the Nazgûl and the Orcs. Thereafter, it was always an evil place and was renamed Minas Morgul. In 2475, the great Orcs, the Uruk-hai, came out of Mordor and in vast legions overpowered a weakened Osgiliath, setting fire to much of it and demolishing its great stone bridge over the Anduin.

  In this way the realm of Gondor had been much diminished in the years before the War of the Ring. Of the three great cities at its centre, only Minas Anor remained unbroken. The Tower of the Sun stood against the gathering darkness in Mordor, Morgul, Rhûn and Harad for many centuries. It seemed that this last city of Gondor was the only power that withstood a vast conspiracy of evil, for the Dúnedain Kingdom of the North had fallen and the Elves seemed little concerned with the affairs of Middle-earth. Yet in this grim time, when little hope remained and the might of Sauron had no bounds, Gondor’s Men won their greatest fame.

  For within the kingdom of Gondor there stood knights who were like the great warriors of old and in Minas Anor they still wore the high crowned helms of silver and mithril fitted with the wide white wings of seabirds. Their robes and mail were black, their armour and arms were silver; on their sable surcoats was the emblem of Gondor: a white blossoming tree under seven stars and a silver crown. In the days of the War of the Ring, though these knights were fewer than were wished for, they were of great valour, and allies came from unexpected places in the moment of need.

  According to the “Red Book of Westmarch”, at the
time of the War of the Ring, Gondor was ruled by the Steward Denethor II, for the line of kings had failed long ago. Though a strong and able Man, Denethor foolishly sought to fight Sauron with sorcerous weapons. Therefore, he sent his elder son, Boromir, in search of the One Ring, and, though Boromir was one of the Nine who went on the Quest of the Ring, he failed in his mission and perished. Denethor was afterwards without hope, the more so when his second son, Faramir, was given an apparently deadly wound by the Nazgûl. Deluded by Sauron and in despair for the kingdom of Gondor, Denethor ended his own life. Yet Faramir recovered and when the Dúnedain chieftain of the North, called Aragorn, came to Gondor, Faramir recognized him as the rightful king of all the Dúnedain. So, in its time of greatest peril, the king returned, and with him came such allies that, in the Battle of Pelennor Fields, the forces of Morgul, Harad and Rhûn were crushed, and before the Black Gate of Mordor, the hand of Sauron was forced in a gambit whereby his power was ended for ever.

  Gonnhirrim

  Dwarves were wondrous stonemasons and quarries. Long and deep they worked within mountains to unlock treasure hoards of metals, both precious and base, and jewels of great beauty. Their vast kingdoms of Belegost, Nogrod and Khazad-dûm, which were built in Middle-earth in the Ages of Starlight, were famous, but most renowned among Elves was the Dwarves’ work on the hidden Kingdom of the Grey-elves, which was named Menegroth, the Thousand Caves. Dwarf craftsmen carved a place there which was like a forest grotto of glittering beauty, with many fountains and streams and lights of crystal. For this deed Grey-elves named them Gonnhirrim, “masters of stone”.

  Gorbag

  Uruk-hai of Minas Morgul. During the War of the Ring, Gorbag was a captain of a company of Morgul Orcs who became involved in a fight with another company of Orcs over possession of Frodo Baggins’ mithril coat. The Tower Orcs led by the Uruk-hai, Shagrat, were victorious and Gorbag was killed.

  Gorcrows

  Ancient Hobbit folklore spoke of the swamplands where evil phantoms called Mewlips dwelt. In these haunted marshes there was also an evil breed of blackbird, the Gorcrow. Gorcrows were carrion birds and lived close alongside the Mewlips, the remains of whose prey they devoured.

  Gorgoroth

  The mountains and cliffs of northern Beleriand above the vales of the Sirion River and the Grey-Elf kingdom of Doriath were called the Gorgoroth or the “Mountains of Terror”. These precipices – running east and west – dropped from the high plateau of Dorthonian, the “land of pines”, which lay to the north. Gorgoroth gained its name because that monstrous evil being called Ungoliant with her terrible brood of Giant Spiders made their home in the valley at the base of these mountains. The histories of Beleriand tell us that the Edain hero Beren was the only person to attempt a crossing of the Gorgoroth and survive. Long after Beleriand had sunk into the sea, when Sauron the Ring Lord founded his evil kingdom of Mordor, he called that part of his realm around Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower, upon which rained the volcanic ash of Mount Doom, the Plateau of Gorgoroth. It was a large and desolate plateau blighted with many Orc pits where none but the blackest and most vile thorns and brambles grew beneath the grey skies. It was across this dreadful land that Frodo Baggins the Ringbearer made his weary way to reach the fires of Mount Doom, where alone he might unmake the One Ring.

  Gorgûn

  The tales of Elves relate how the evil race of Orcs came into the forests of Middle-earth. These creatures were known as the Gorgûn to the ancient primitive Men called the Woses, who inhabited the Forest of Druadan, which lies in the shadow of the White Mountains.

  Gothmog

  Balrog of Angband. Mightiest of Morgoth’s lieutenants, Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs, was a Maia spirit of fire in his origin. Along with the other Balrogs, he revolted with Morgoth against the Valar and made war on them and the Elves. At his master’s bidding he slew High King Fëanor before the gates of Angband. Throughout the Wars of Beleriand, Gothmog wreaked terrible vengeance with his whips of fire and his black axe. During the Battle of Unnumbered Tears he slew Fingon and captured Húrin. In the year 511 of the First Age he successfully led the forces of darkness against Gondolin. Leading the Balrog host, the Orc and Dragon legions, and surrounded by his body-guard of Trolls, Gothmog overwhelmed the defenders of the last Noldor kingdom. During the sack of the city itself, Gothmog slew and was slain by the Noldor Elf Ecthelion, the high-captain of Gondolin.

  Green-elves

  In Ossiriand, in the lost realm of Beleriand, lived the Green-elves in the last Age of Starlight and the First Age of the Sun. These Elves wore garments of forest green so that they might be invisible to their foes in the woodland. In the High Elven tongue they were named the Laiquendi. They were not a great or powerful people, but by their knowledge of the land they survived while the mightiest Eldar fell to Melkor and his servants.

  Greenwood the Great

  The greatest forest of Rhovanion and the vales of the Great River Anduin were known as Greenwood the Great. The Woodland Realm of the Elf King Thranduil was to be found in the northeast of the forest, but in the year 1050 of the Third Age another power entered the southmost part of Greenwood and built a citadel called Dol Guldur. This was Sauron the Ring Lord and the Nazgûl who came in secret and rapidly corrupted this once beautiful forest which became infested with evil magic, Orcs, Wargs and huge Spiders. So great was Sauron’s influence that for two thousand years Greenwood was called Mirkwood because of the shadow of evil which so darkened the place. Fortunately, by the end of the War of the Ring, the evil of Dol Guldur was eliminated by an army of Elves from the Woodland Realm in the north and another army out of Lothlórien in the south. Thereafter, this place was renamed Eryn Lasgalen, the “Forest of Green Leaves”.

  Grey-elves

  Of all the Úmanyar, the Elves of the Journey who never saw the Light of the Trees, the mightiest were the Sindar, or “Grey-elves”. These people were ruled by one who had seen the Light and they were protected by one who was handmaid to the Powers that made the Trees. The king of the Grey-elves was Elwë Singollo, which in the tongue of the Grey-elves was Elu Thingol, “King Greymantle”. Thingol was the tallest of all the Elves and his hair was silver. His queen was Melian the Maia, and Ages before the coming of the Sun these two made a kingdom in the Wood of Doriath, and therein built a great city named Menegroth. So long as Melian was queen and Thingol lived, the Sindar were a prosperous and happy people. But when Thingol was drawn into the War of the Jewels and lost his life and his queen went away, the enchantment was broken, as were the people.

  Grey Havens

  Last of the havens of the Elves on Middle-earth was the town and harbour known as the Grey Havens, the domain of the Falathrim of Lord Círdan. Called Mithlond in Elvish, the Grey Havens were settled and built at the beginning of the Second Age of the Sun on the upper reaches of the Gulf of Lune and at the mouth of the Lune River. For two ages it was the chief port of the Elves of Middle-earth, and from this haven all the great and good of that race who survived the conflicts of Middle-earth sailed out on Círdan’s magical white ships to the Undying Lands. In the Fourth Age, many of those who were numbered among the heroes of the War of the Ring also made this vast westward journey, until finally Círdan himself, with the last of the Eldar of Middle-earth, took the last Elven ship out of the Grey Havens beyond the circles of the word to the Undying Lands of the immortals.

  Grey Mountains

  Just to the north of the great forest of Mirkwood there is a chain of mountains which runs east-west and marks the northern limit of Rhovanion. The most northerly source of Anduin, the Great River, these are the Grey Mountains, which are called Ered Mithrin in Elvish. From the year 2000 in the Third Age, this was a refuge and home to the Dwarves of Durin’s Line. Here they became immensely wealthy because of the enormous quantities of gold they found and for five centuries they prospered. During the twenty-sixth century, the fame of wealth to be found in the Grey Mountains reached the ears of the Cold-drakes, who attacked mercilessly. Though the
Dwarves’ defence was valiant, they were overwhelmed and the gold-rich mountains were left entirely to the Cold-drakes.

  Grishnákh

  Orc of Mordor. During the War of the Ring, Grishnákh was the captain of the horde that attacked the Fellowship of the Ring, and slew Boromir. Grishnákh and his band then took captive Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, who he believed could lead him to the One Ring. As treacherous as he was evil, Grishnákh wished to possess the One Ring himself, and so snatched the captive Hobbits from the Isengard Orcs who guarded them. For the Hobbits it was a blessing in disguise. That evening the Orc camp was wiped out by the Horsemen of Rohan, who then killed Grishnákh, and allowed the Hobbits to escape.

  Gwaihir the Windlord

  Eagle of the Misty Mountains. At the end of the Third Age of the Sun, Gwaihir was the largest and most powerful Eagle of his day. He was the King of All Birds and a special friend to the Wizards and Elves, particularly after Gandalf healed him after he received a poisoned wound. During the Quest of Erebor in 2941, Gwaihir and his Eagles rescued Thorin and Company from Orc attack. During the Battle of Five Armies before Erebor, Gwaihir and his Eagles played a critical role in turning the tide of the battle. During the War of the Ring, Gwaihir freed Gandalf from Isengard, and later carried him down from the peak of Zirak-zigil after his battle with the mighty Balrog of Moria.

  During the last battle of the war, before the Black Gate of Mordor, Gwaihir and his brother Landroval led all the Eagles of the North against the Ringwraiths, just as the One Ring was being destroyed. Then Gwaihir and his brother, Landroval, flew to the slopes of Mount Doom where they rescued Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee.

  Gwaith-i-Mírdain

  In the year 750 of the Second Age of the Sun, many Noldor left Lindon and went to Eriador. Their lord was Celebrimbor, the greatest Elven-smith in Mortal Lands; he was the grandson of Fëanor, who made the Great Jewels, the Silmarils. In the Sindarin tongue the people of Celebrimbor were named the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, the “people of the jewel-smiths”.