by David Day
In the First Age of the Sun the Werewolf race was bred. The mightiest was Draugluin, their sire and lord. These were not, however, true Wolves but tortured spirits held within the Wolf-form. Their power was great for they were favourites of Sauron the Maia. They came to him in legions and united in the lands of Beleriand. From the Noldor they took the tower of Tol Sirion, which was later named Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the “isle of Werewolves”, and there they made a kingdom of evil.
Though by the Third Age of the Sun Wolves were lesser beings than those of the early Ages, they remained a dreaded race. The “Chronicle of the Westlands” tells of a race of White Wolves that came out of the Northern Waste during the Fell Winter of 2911 and stained the snows of Eriador with the blood of Men. The “Red Book of Westmarch” tells much of the Wargs, a breed of Wolf that in Rhovanion made a pact with the Orcs of the Misty Mountains and carried that breed of Orcs, called the Wolf-riders, into battle on their backs. And though indeed the Wargs alone were much feared, this alliance with Orcs was a greater evil yet. Indeed, in the famous Battle of Five Armies, the strongest element of the Orkish forces was its cavalry, mounted on great Wargs.
The greatest Wolf legend is about Carcharoth, the Red Maw, who in the First Age of the Sun was reared by Morgoth on living flesh and filled with great powers. So Carcharoth, who was also named Anfauglir, the “jaws of thirst”, grew to a huge size and his strength seemed without comparison. His eyes were like red coals and his teeth were like the poisoned spears of an Orc legion. Carcharoth was guardian of the Gates of Angband and none could pass him by strength of body alone. The walls of Angband were sheer and dread; chasms of serpents lay on either side of the road and Carcharoth lay unsleeping before the Gate.
In the Quest of the Silmaril, Carcharoth bit off Beren’s hand at Angband’s Gate and swallowed the Silmaril, which burned him with a fierce fire. In his torment Carcharoth slew Elves and Men as his accursed flesh was consumed by the fire; yet his power became greater still. For Carcharoth’s wrath was like the self-destroying unquenchable flame of a shooting Star. But at last he met the one he was long doomed to battle: Huan, the Wolfhound of the Valar. And, though he bit Huan with venomous teeth and thereby ensured that Huan’s death would soon follow, Carcharoth was slain by the might of the Valarian Wolfhound near the sweet waters of Esgalduin.
Wood-Elves
In most of the woodlands of Middle-earth, east of the Misty Mountains that had not been wholly consumed by the evils of Morgoth and Sauron, lived the remnant of the Avari, the people who had refused the Great Journey to the West. These people, who were called Wood-elves or more often Silvan Elves, had dwindled with the rising of Morgoth’s power in the East. To survive, they became wise in the ways of the sheltering forests and hid themselves from their enemies. They were wise in woodlore, and their eyes were bright as all Elves’ with starlight. They were not a powerful people like their High Eldar kindred, but they were greater than Men or any race that followed them.
Although the histories of Arda tell little of the fate of the Wood-elves and are mostly concerned with the Eldar, many tales are told of two realms of these lesser Elves. In the Second Age of the Sun the Sindar lord Thranduil came out of Lindon and crossed over the Misty Mountains. He discovered many Wood-elves in the forest of Greenwood the Great (which was later named Mirkwood). There Thranduil was made king of the Woodland Realm of these Elves. In a similar way, Galadriel the Noldor noblewoman and Celeborn the Sindar lord came to the Wood-elves of Lothlórien, who made them king and queen of the Golden Wood.
Woodmen
In the Third Age of the Sun there lived in Mirkwood a people who were called the Woodmen of Mirkwood and who were descended from the Northmen. In alliance with the Beornings and the Elves of the Woodland Realm, they fought the evil that had come in that Age to Dol Guldur in the south of Mirkwood. From that place came Orcs, Spiders and Wolves in legion, and the battle to cleanse that great forest was long and dreadful. In the War of the Ring this struggle was named the Battle under the Trees. Through the north ran the Elves, Woodmen and Beornings, destroying the evil minions of Dol Guldur as fire through straw. The Elves of Lothlórien took Dol Guldur, and broke its walls and destroyed its dungeons. So, at the end of the Age, the forest was cleansed and renamed the Wood of Greenleaves, and the lands between the north realm of the Wood-elves and the south woods called East Lórien were given to the Woodmen and the Beornings to keep as their reward and their proper right.
Worms
The most powerful creatures that Morgoth ever bred in Arda were the Great Worms that came out of the Pits of Angband in the First Age of the Sun. Morgoth armed these creatures with scales of iron, mighty teeth and claws, and great powers of flame and sorcery. Men and Elves called these ancient Worms of Morgoth Dragons and they were among the most fearful of beings in all the histories of Middle-earth.
Wormtongue
Northman of Rohan. During the time of the War of the Ring, Gríma Wormtongue was the deformed chief counsellor of King Théoden of Rohan. Secretly, he was a servant and spy of Saruman who steadily undermined the old king and enfeebled him with the Wizard’s evil spells. After Gandalf cured Théoden, Wormtongue fled to Isengard, where both he and Saruman were eventually captured and overthrown by the Ents. Afterwards, he travelled with Saruman to the Shire where he turned on his master and killed him. In turn, the pathetic creature was immediately slain by Hobbits.
Woses
In the War of the Ring a strange primitive folk named the Woses came to aid the Rohirrim and Dúnedain in breaking the Siege of Gondor. These wild woodland people lived in the ancient Forest of Druadan, which was in Anórien, below the White Mountains. They knew wood-craft better than any Man, for they had lived as naked animals invisibly among the trees for many Ages and cared not for the company of other peoples. They were weather-worn, short-legged, thick-armed and stumpy-bodied. The Men of Gondor called the Woses the Wildmen of Druadan and believed that they were descended from the even more ancient Púkel-Men. In the First Age of the Sun these were the people who lived in harmony with the Haladin in Beleriand, who called them Drûgs. To the Elves they were known as the Drúedain; to the Orcs they were the Oghor-hai and to the Rohirrim the Rógin.
By the end of the Third Age, Orcs, Wolves and other malevolent creatures often came into Druadan. Though the Woses drove them away, often with poison arrows and darts, the evil beings always returned. So it was that, though the Woses desired no part in the affairs of Men beyond their forest, their chieftain, who was named Ghân-buri-Ghân, offered to help the Rohirrim reach the Battle of Pelennor Fields. For, in a victory for the Rohirrim and the Dúnedain in Gondor, the Woses saw some release from this continual woodland warfare.
When victory did indeed come and the Dark Lord’s Orc legions were destroyed, King Elessar of the Reunited Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor granted that the Druadan Forest would for ever be the inalienable country of the Woses to govern and to rule as they saw fit.
Yy Zz
Yavanna
Vala, Queen of the Earth. Yavanna is the spouse of Aulë the Smith, and the elder sister of Vána the Ever-young. Yavanna watches over the growth of all living things. Tall as a cypress tree and always garbed in green she is called Yavanna Kementári, which is “the fruitful queen of the earth”. She is the mother of the harvest. Yavanna planted the seeds of all plants on Arda, and made the vast forests and pastures of the world. She conceived the protectors of the forests, the “tree shepherds” called Ents, and made the White Tree of the Eldar in Tirion. Her greatest work, however, was the creation of the incomparable Trees of Light, which for twenty thousand years lit all the lands of Valinor with their brilliance. And it was her powers which brought forth the last flower and fruit of those Trees that became the Moon and the Sun. Yavanna’s vast pastures and gardens are to be found in southern Valinor where they border the Woods of Oromë. Her gardens supply the magical flowers from which is made the nectar of the gods, miruvóre.
Yavannamirë
When Númenor was
newly made, the Elves of Tol Eressëa came upon their ships bearing gifts. Among the finest of these gifts were many fragrant evergreen trees which gave forth flower and fruit in the Undying Lands. On Númenor there grew up forests of these wonderful, scented trees. Among the finest were the Yavannamirë, named in honour of Yavanna, the Valarian Queen of the Earth. The name means “Jewel of Yavanna” and besides its fragrant wood, bark and evergreen leaf, the tree produced a luscious, round and scarlet fruit.
Yrch
Near the end of that time known as the Peace of Arda, the Sindarin Elves of King Thingol and Queen Melian found in the East an evil they had not known before. The woodlands and mountains on their borders began to stir with evil beings for which they had no name. These beings were the terrible Goblin people, who were destined always to be the chief servants and harbingers of evil powers. In the Sindarin tongue they were named Yrch, in imitation of their own word for themselves: Uruks. In later Ages they became known as Orcs in the common language of Westron.
The Nandor and Laiquendi fled before these dark creatures, who were armed with weapons of steel. But King Thingol, with warriors in bright Dwarf-mail and tall helms, went to war against the Yrch and slaughtered them until the battle grounds were covered with their black blood. The Yrch fled from Beleriand and never crossed the Blue Mountains again until the time of the return of Morgoth the Enemy, their creator and master, from the Undying Lands in the West.
Zirak-zigil
Midway along the Misty Mountain range stands the peak of Zirak-zigil, one of the three great mountains beneath which the Dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm was delved. It was also called Silvertine by Men and Celebdil by the Elves. Within the pinnacle of Zirak-zigil – at the top of the Endless Stair – was the chamber called Durin’s Tower.
It was here at the end of the Third Age during the Quest of the Ring that the Wizard Gandalf the Grey did battle with the Balrog of Moria. In this Battle of the Peak, the Endless Stair and Durin’s Tower were destroyed, but from that great height Gandalf overcame the Balrog and cast him down into the abyss below.