by David Day
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Ilmarë
Maia handmaid of Varda. Ilmarë is the greatest of the Maiar maiden spirits, and most loved by the Elves. As the handmaid of Varda, the Queen of the Heavens, she is guardian spirit of the stars.
Ilmarin
Atop the Taniquetil, the highest mountain in the Undying Lands, stands Ilmarin, the “mansion of the high air”, the home of the King and Queen of the Valar: Manwë the Lord of the Air and Varda the Lady of the Stars. Here, those servants and messengers called the Great Eagles come and go upon command. Within the vast domed halls of Ilmarin, in Olympian splendour, Manwë and Varda sit upon burnished thrones from which they can look down upon all the lands of Arda.
Imrahil
Dúnedain prince of Dol Amroth. Of mixed Dúnedain and Elvish blood, during the War of the Ring, Prince Imrahil was a champion of the Battle of Pelennor Fields, and temporarily took over the rule of the White Tower of Gondor after Denethor II’s death. As one of the Captains of the West, he fought before the Black Gates of Mordor. His daughter the Princess Lothíriel married Éomer, the King of Rohan.
Ingwë
Elven king of Eldamar. Ingwë was the High King of the Vanyar Elves, the first kindred to undertake the Great Journey to the Undying Lands. They were the first to settle in Eldamar, although they were later joined by the Noldor and Teleri. Of all the Elves, the Vanyar were most loved by Manwë, and so Ingwë finally led his people into Valinor where they settled at the foot of the sacred mountain of Taniquetil.
Iron Hills
After the Dragon invasions forced the Dwarves out of the gold-rich Grey Mountains, a part of those people led by Grór travelled eastward in Rhovanion and settled in the Iron Hills in 2590 of the Third Age. The Dwarves of the Iron Hills fought in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, and indeed, at the gates of Moria in the final Battle of Azalnulbizar in 2799 their arrival at the last moment proved the decisive blow, crushing the Orc legions. Then too, in the year 2941, an army of Dwarves from the Iron Hills led by Dáin came to the aid of Thorin Oakenshield in a successful defence of the Kingdom under the Mountain at Erebor after the death of Smaug the Golden. In this Battle of Five Armies Thorin was slain. Dáin, his kinsman, became King of Erebor and many of his people came to repopulate the Kingdom under the Mountain.
Iron Mountains
During the Ages of the Lamps Melkor went into the north of Middle-earth and raised up a mighty range of high mountains covered in snow and ice. These mountains were the Iron Mountains, called the “Ered Engrin” in Elvish. The Iron Mountains were the first defences of Melkor’s fortress kingdom of Utumno which was built in the eastern parts. It also defended his armoury of Angband which was built during the Ages of Darkness, and was to be found in the west. Here were found many of Melkor’s greatest servants: Balrogs, Vampires, Great Spiders, Werewolves and Dragons. Not content with the towering heights of the Iron Mountains as they were first conceived, Melkor raised the great volcanic peak of Thangorodrim as Angband’s chief defence. However, this was all in vain, for at the end of the First Age of the Sun, Thangorodrim, Angband and the Iron Mountains were all broken in the War of Wrath. The Iron Mountains and all the evil spirits within them were destroyed and finally sank into the sea.
Isengard
The strategic fortress of Isengard lay at the southern end of the Misty Mountains near the source of the River Isen and was in a commanding position above the Gap of Rohan and the Fords of Isen. It was through this gap that the main North-South Road made its way between the Misty Mountains and the White Mountains. The fortress was built by Gondor near the beginning of the Third Age. The fortress’s main defence was a large natural ring-wall of stone enclosing a flat plain. This ring-wall accounted for the fortress name of Isengard, meaning “iron-fence”, on which were built huge gates and additional defences. However, in the centre of the fortress stood the tower of Isengard built of four pillars of unbreakable black stone. This tower was over five hundred feet tall and was called Orthanc, the “forked-tower”, because of its pronged spire. Isengard and Orthanc housed one of the seven palantíri stones. Through the Third Age, the power of Gondor faded and Isengard was abandoned. In about 2700 the Dunlendings took possession of it, but they were driven out by the Rohirrim in 2759. At that time, the Wizard Saruman was given the keys to Orthanc and permission to occupy Isengard by the Steward of Gondor. In 2963 he began to refortify it and fill it with Dunlendings, Orcs, Wolves, Half-orcs, and Uruk-hai. During the War of the Ring, the mighty army Saruman had built in Isengard was entirely destroyed at the Battle of Hornburg and those few that remained behind were also destroyed when the Ents of Fangorn Forest attacked and literally tore down the walls of Isengard with their bare hands. Unable to entirely destroy the tower of Isengard, the Ents then dammed the Isen River and its waters engulfed the tower and all of Isengard, until Saruman surrendered. After the War of the Ring, the Ents tore out all the defences of Isengard and planted the Watchwood, and thereafter called the place the Tree-garth of Orthanc.
Isildur
Dúnedain king of Gondor. In 3319 of the Second Age, the Númenórean prince Isildur, his brother Anárion, his father Elendil and their followers, escaped the Downfall of Númenor. In Middle-earth, Isildur and Anárion built Pelargir, Minas Ithil, Minas Anor and Osgiliath in the south, and ruled jointly as kings of Gondor. As Lord of Ithilien, Isildur lived in Minas Ithil until 3429 when Sauron seized the city. He fled to his father’s northern kingdom of Arnor, leaving his brother to defend the rest of Gondor. He returned in 3434 with the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, which destroyed Sauron’s army at the Battle of Dagorlad. However, both his father and brother had died in the conflict. In 3341, Isildur finally overcame Sauron by cutting the One Ring from his hand. After this victory, Isildur succumbed to the power of the One Ring by refusing to destroy it. Two years later, Isildur was ambushed by a horde of Orcs in the Gladden Fields. He attempted to escape by using the One Ring’s power of invisibility to cross the river. However, the One Ring slipped from his finger in the water, and the Orcs killed him.
Istari
After a thousand years had passed in the Third Age of the Sun, an Elven ship came out of the Western Sea and sailed to the Grey Havens. Upon that ship were five aged Men with long white beards and great cloaks. They were cloaks of various colours, and each Man wore a tall pointed hat, high black traveller’s boots, and carried a long staff. These were the Istari, whom Men called Wizards; their hats and staffs were their signs of office. They were an order and a brotherhood sent to Middle-earth from the Undying Lands, for it was perceived that a great evil was growing in Mortal Lands.
Though the Istari came secretly and in humble form, in the beginning, before their arrival in Middle-earth, they were mighty spirits. They were Maiar, spirits older than the World itself, and of that first race that came from the mind of Ilúvatar in the Timeless Halls. Yet in the diminished World of Middle-earth in the Third Age they were forbidden to come forth in power as Maiar. They were limited to the form of Men and the power found within the mortal World.
Although five Istari are said to have come to Middle-earth, two play no part in the histories of the Westlands that have come to Men, for the others were said to have gone to the far east of Middle-earth. These two were the Ithryn Luin, “The Blue Wizards”, and though it is known that they were called Alatar and Pallando in the Undying Lands and were chosen by the Vala Oromë the Horseman, nothing else is known of their lives and deeds.
Most famous and praised of the Istari is Gandalf the Grey, who by the Elves was called Mithrandir, by the Dwarves, Tharkûn, and Incánus by the Haradrim. As a Maia, in the Undying Lands he was named Olórin and was accounted wisest of his people. At that time he resided in the gardens of Lórien, the Master of Visions and Dreams, and also went often to the house of Nienna, the Weeper. Tutored by the Vala Lórien in the Gardens, Olórin’s wisdom for many Ages grew greater still. Also, counselled by Nienna in her house, which looks out on the Walls of the Night, to his wisdom w
as added pity and endurance beyond hope.
Of all the Istari Gandalf is counted the greatest, for by his wisdom the free peoples of Middle-earth were guided to victory over the Dark Lord Sauron, who wished to enslave them. In this Gandalf was aided by Narya, the Elven-ring of Fire, that Círdan, lord of the Grey Havens, gave him, for Narya had power to make Men brave and resolute. By Gandalf’s instigation, Smaug the Dragon was slain and the battles of Five Armies, the Hornburg and Pelennor Fields were won. By Gandalf’s hand alone the Balrog of Moria was destroyed. Yet his greatest deed of all was his discovery of the One Ring and his guiding of the Ringbearer to the place of its destruction. By this action the Ring was unmade, and Sauron and all his servants and all his kingdoms were brought to utter ruin. Gandalf’s task upon Middle-earth was completed by this one act and so the Third Age ended with Gandalf’s departure to the Undying Lands.
Another of the Istari is Radagast the Brown, who lived in Rhosgobel in the Vales of Anduin. He played a part in the White Council, which was formed to stand against Sauron, but it seemed his greatest concern was with the Kelvar and Olvar of Middle-earth and little is told of him in the chronicles of that time. He was wiser than any Man in all things concerning herbs and beasts, for his Elvish name was Aiwendil and he was a spirit faithful to Yavanna, the Queen of the Earth. It is said he spoke the many tongues of birds. Even the Beornings and Woodmen of Mirkwood and the mighty Ent guardians of the Forest of Fangorn spoke with reverence of the wisdom of Radagast the Brown, for in forest-lore he had no equal.
Last named of the Istari is Saruman the White, whom Elves called Curunír, “Man of skill”. When the Istari were formed, Saruman was counted the greatest of the Order. For many centuries Saruman wandered the lands of Middle-earth and eagerly sought to destroy Sauron the Dark Lord, but after a time he grew proud and desired power for himself. In the year 2759, Saruman came to Isengard, and Beren, the Ruling Steward of Gondor, granted him the key to the tower of Orthanc, for it was thought the Istari would aid the Men of Gondor and the Rohirrim in war against the Orcs, Easterlings and Dunlendings. However, Saruman made a mighty place of evil power there and summoned Orc legions and Uruk-hai, Half-orcs and Dunlendings to him. In Isengard he flew the standard of his tyranny, the black banner marked with a ghostly white hand. In his pride he grew foolish, until he was ensnared by Sauron, who commanded sorcery far greater than his own. So the greatest of the Istari who had come to destroy the Dark Lord became one of his agents. Yet Saruman’s power was annihilated by the wrath of the Ents, the valour of the Rohirrim and Huorns, and the wisdom of Gandalf. Isengard was destroyed by the Ents, his army was exterminated by the Rohirrim and Huorns, and his staff was broken and his sorcerous power was taken by Gandalf. So low did Saruman fall that in his defeat he looked for petty vengeance in the tiny realm of the Shire, where the Hobbits, the least of his enemies, resided. Here in a pathetic bid for domination Saruman was bested by the Hobbits and slain by his own servant, Gríma Wormtongue. When Saruman died, his body shrivelled to a form without flesh. It swiftly became skin, skull and bones wrapped in a ragged cloak, and from it rose a grey mist in a column. For a moment, it is said, this grey form of Saruman’s Maia spirit stood over his mortal remains, but a wind came and it vanished.
Kelvar
Before Elves and Men entered the World all things were called either Kelvar or Olvar. Kelvar were animals and living creatures that moved, and Olvar were living things that grew and were rooted to the Earth. Kelvar were granted swiftness of foot and subtlety of mind with which they might elude destruction, while the Olvar were granted powerful guardian spirits.
Khamûl
Nazgûl or Ringwraith. Khamûl was an Easterling king who came under Sauron’s influence during the Second Age of the Sun and was given one of the Nine Rings of Mortal Men. Sometimes called the Black Easterling or the Shadow of the East, Khamûl was second only to the Witch-king in rank among the Nazgûl. He fought for Sauron until the Ring Lord was overthrown at the end of the Second Age. In the Third Age, Khamûl appears to have been Sauron’s chief lieutenant in Mirkwood from about 1100. Certainly, after 2951, Khamûl was the master of Dol Guldur. During the Quest of the Ring, Khamûl was the Dark Rider who entered Hobbiton, and then pursued Frodo Baggins and nearly caught him at Bucklebury Ferry. Through the War of the Ring, the Ringwraiths brought despair to the enemies of Sauron. After the destruction of the Witch-king at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, Khamûl became the new captain of the Ringwraiths. Khamûl was among the surviving eight Ringwraiths who flew on their Winged Beasts into the battle before the Black Gate. However, all their evil power came to nothing, for once the One Ring was destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom, all of Sauron’s empire was ended. Khamûl the Black Easterling and the Shadow of the East and the other Wraiths were sent shrieking into the shadows forever after.
Khand
To the southeast of Mordor lay a barbarous land called Khand which during the Third Age had allied itself with Sauron the Ring Lord. Although little is told of this land, its people were known to be fierce warriors called the Variags who with the Easterlings and the Haradrim had long been under the evil influence of Sauron and often came at his bidding to make war on the land of Gondor. In the year 1944, the Variags of Khand came to war, along with the Haradrim, but were defeated at the Battle of Poros Crossing by the forces of Gondor. Over a thousand years later during the War of the Ring, the Variags again came forth, first at the bidding of the Witch-king of Morgul to Pelennor Fields and then at Sauron’s command to the Black Gate. Both of these battles ended in disaster for the men of Khand, and during the Fourth Age they were forced to sue for peace with King Elessar and live in peace with their neighbours.
Khazâd
In the mountain heart, Aulë the Smith made the race that called itself the Khazâd. These people, who Men and Elves called Dwarves, were strong and proud, but they were also a stunted and unlovely race. Yet Dwarves were the most gifted masons and carvers of stone the World had ever seen, and their great halls and delvings beneath the mountains were counted amongst the greatest wonders of Middle-earth. The most far-famed of their dwellings was the kingdom of Khazad-dûm, which in the Third Age of the Sun was called Moria.
Khazad-dûm
The most ancient and famous of all Dwarf kingdoms was Khazad-dûm, meaning “dwarf mansion”, the ancestral home of Durin the Deathless, the first of the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves. Durin began the delvings of Khazad-dûm after discovering natural caves on the eastern side of the Misty Mountains, above the beautiful valley of Azalnulbizar. Through five Ages of Stars and three Ages of the Sun the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm were prosperous and delved a network of caverns through to the western side of the Misty Mountains. After the destruction of Beleriand, many Dwarves fled from the ruin of Nogrod and Belegost to Khazad-dûm, and its population grew, as did its wealth when the rare and magical metal called mithril was discovered in its mines. In the Second Age of the Sun, these were the Dwarves who had a long friendship with the Elven-smiths of Eregion, who forged the Rings of Power. But in the Accursed Years of Sauron’s dominion in the Second Age, the Dwarves closed their great doors to the world, and so avoided the devastations of the War of Sauron and the Elves and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. At this time, the great mansion was renamed Moria, the “dark chasm”. Yet still the Dwarves quarried and worked the forges beneath the Misty Mountains until 1980 of the Third Age. In that year the Dwarves delved too deep beneath Mount Barazinbar and an entombed Balrog was released within the halls of Khazad-dûm. So terrible was the Balrog’s strength and wrath that the Dwarves were either slain or driven from their kingdom. When the Fellowship of the Ring entered Moria at the end of the Third Age it was a chasm of darkness that had long been abandoned by the Dwarves. Its treasures had been stripped by Orkish hordes and through its barren corridors there still walked the Balrog and many bands of Orcs and Trolls. However, the reign of the Balrog ended when, after a series of duels in the Hall of Mazarbul, on Durin’s Bridge, and the Endle
ss Stair, the Wizard Gandalf finally overcame the monster and threw it from the top of Durin’s Tower on the high peak of Zirak-zigil.
Kíli
Dwarf of Thorin and Company. Kíli embarked on the Quest of the Lonely Mountain in 2941 of the Third Age, which resulted in the death of Smaug the Dragon and the re-establishment of the Dwarf-kingdom under the Mountain. As the son of Thorin’s sister, Dís, Kíli was fiercely loyal to his uncle. Both Kíli and his brother Fíli were killed in the Battle of Five Armies while defending Thorin Oakenshield.
Kine of Araw
Of the animals of forest and field, there were many that Oromë, the Horseman of the Valar, brought to Middle-earth. One breed of these animals was called the Kine of Araw by the Men of Gondor (Araw being the Sindarin name for Oromë). These Kine were the legendary wild white oxen that lived near the Inland Sea of Rhûn. Their long horns were much prized. In Gondor one such ox horn was made into a silver-mounted hunting horn by the first of the Ruling Stewards, Vorondil the Hunter; this was the heirloom called the Horn of the Stewards, which was destroyed in the War of the Ring.
Kingsfoil
From the lost land of the Númenóreans, a herb was brought to Middle-earth that for a long while was used as a simple folk-cure for mild pains of the head and body. In the Grey-elven tongue it was named Athelas, but Men called it Kingsfoil, for their legends told of its magical healing properties in the hands of the Númenórean kings.
Kirinki
In the lands of Númenor lived a small bird about the size of a wren, but covered in brilliant scarlet plumage and gifted with a beautiful piping voice. This bird was called the Kirinki.
Kraken
According to the most ancient tales, Melkor, that most evil of powers, in his kingdom of Utumno in Middle-earth bred many terrible creatures for which there are no names in the Time of Darkness before Varda rekindled the Stars. In the following Ages these creatures were a bane on the land and in dark waters to those who lived peacefully in the World.