The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  The primary act of Arthedain’s first King, Amlaith, eldest son of Eärendur, was to remove the capital from Elendil’s city of Annúminas to the more strategic site of Fornost Erain (Norbury of the Kings) on the North Downs. As the senior kingdom of the three, Arthedain kept possession of two of the three Seeing-stones (palantíri) of the North: the Stones of Emyn Beraid (Tower Hills) and of Annúminas. For many years Arthedain was at peace – apart from disputes with Rhudaur and, less often, Cardolan. But with the establishment of the evil realm of Angmar (c. 1300 Third Age), this last Kingdom of the Dúnedain of the North became gravely imperilled.

  In wars that lasted over seven hundred years, Arthedain, sometimes in alliance with Cardolan, fought bitterly against encroachment by Angmar and Rhudaur. After Cardolan was ravaged in 1409 the Kings at Fornost fought on, often with aid from Elvenfolk of Lindon and Rivendell, until the final disaster in 1974 – when the Witch-king of Angmar captured Fornost and drove King Arvedui north to perish in the icy wastes of Forochel. With him died the last Númenorean Kingdom in the North of Middle-earth.

  Arthórien – A wooded region between the rivers Aros and Celon in East Beleriand, peopled only by Nandor (Green-elves).

  Arvedui ‘Last-king’ (Sind.) – From 1964–74 Third Age, the fifteenth and, as his name signifies, last King of Arthedain, longest surviving successor state to the old realm of Arnor. At his birth the following words were spoken of him by the royal counsellor: ‘Arvedui you shall call him, for he will be the last in Arthedain. Though a choice will come to the Dúnedain, and if they take the one that seems less hopeful, then your son will change his name and become king of a great realm.’13 (See MALBETH THE SEER.) On the death of King Ondoher of Gondor, together with his sons Artamir and Faramir (in 1944 Third Age), Arvedui claimed the crown of Gondor. By this time a man of full age though not yet King of Arthedain, Arvedui made this claim as the husband of the only surviving child of Ondoher (Fíriel, whom he had married four years previously) and as the Heir of Elendil, whose son, Isildur, said Arvedui, ‘did not relinquish his royalty in Gondor, nor intend that the realm of Elendil should be divided for ever.’14 But Gondor made no reply, and the Crown was granted to a victorious general instead.

  In 1974 Third Age, in the tenth year of Arvedui’s reign, the power of the neighbouring Witch-realm of Angmar arose again and, before the winter was over, the Witch-king descended once more upon Arthedain and captured Fornost. Together with a handful of loyal guards, Arvedui escaped in the nick of time into the far North, seeking aid from the snow-dwellers of the great ice-bay of Forochel. In the spring Círdan the Shipwright, hearing of the King’s plight, sent a ship north to rescue him. But the winter was not quite yet ended, and the Elf-ship bearing Arvedui was driven back into the pack-ice by a wild storm which rose unlooked-for in the night. So perished Arvedui Last-king, and with him the Kingdom of Arthedain.15

  Arvegil – From 1670–1743 Third Age, the eleventh King of Arthedain.

  Arveleg I – From 1356–1409 Third Age, the eighth King of Arthedain, son of Argeleb I. When his father was slain by invading forces of Angmar and Rhudaur in 1356, Arveleg rallied the Dúnedain and, aided by an Elf-host from Lindon, drove away the invaders from the fortified line of Weather Hills. For fifty years Arveleg maintained the eastern ramparts against Angmar, falling in the invasion of 1409, in a final unsuccessful defence of AMON SÛL. Angmar was later driven back by forces from Lindon and Rivendell.

  Arveleg II – From 1743–1813 Third Age, the twelfth King of Arthedain.

  Arvernien – The southernmost part of West Beleriand, a hilly region of fair woods (see NIMBRETHIL), bordered on the east by the Mouths of Sirion, and on the west and south by the Great Sea and the Bay of Balar. Its south-western promontory was Cape Balar. Here Eärendil the Mariner built the ship Vingilot, of birch-wood from the forests of Arvernien.

  Arwen Evenstar – The daughter of Elrond Halfelven and Celebrían, daughter of Galadriel. She was born in the year 241 Third Age in Rivendell; and so great was her loveliness that in her, it was said, the likeness of LÚTHIEN TINÚVIEL had returned to earth. To the children of Elrond was appointed the Choice of the Half-elven: to become of mortal kind and die in Middle-earth, or to take ship into the West with Elrond when the time came for the Three Rings to pass away. For many years Arwen Undómiel (‘Evenstar’) dwelt among her mother’s kin, in Lothlórien, to the east of the Misty Mountains. It was here that she fell in love with Aragorn II of the Dúnedain, and so made her Choice. Thus the Doom of Lúthien was indeed shared by Arwen Evenstar.

  Ascar ‘Rushing’ (Sind.) – The northernmost of the six tributaries of the Gelion, in Ossiriand. It was afterwards called Rathlóriel (‘Golden-bed’), because of the treasure of Doriath that was lost in its waters.

  Asëa aranion ‘King’s-leaf’ (Q.) – A healing plant known in Gondor as ‘kingsfoil’ and in the north as athelas (Sind.).

  Asfaloth – The swift white steed of GLORFINDEL, Noldorin Elf of Rivendell.

  Asgon – A Man of Dor-lómin; he aided the escape from that land of Túrin after the slaying of Brodda the cruel Easterling.

  Ash[y] Mountains – The Ered Lithui, northern rampart of Mordor, which ran east from the Black Gate into the southlands of Rhûn. Upon a spur which jutted south from the inner wall stood Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower of Sauron.

  Asta ‘month’ (Q.) – The name given by Númenorean loremasters to the new unit of calendar-computation devised by them early in the Second Age and subsequently incorporated into the Kings’ Reckoning system – which was eventually adopted by many of the people living in the Westlands of Middle-earth during the last half of the Third Age.

  The asta was equal to one-twelfth of the solar year, which the Númenoreans divided into ten astar of 30 days each and two of 31. In both the later Stewards’ Reckoning and the New Reckoning of the Fourth Age, all the astar had 30 days; however, in all three reckoning-systems there were also 3 to 5 additional days which did not fall into any asta.

  Astaldo ‘Valiant’ (Q.) – A title of the Vala TULKAS.

  Astron – In the Shire Reckoning, the fourth month of the year, roughly equivalent to our April. In Bree this month was known as Chithing.

  Atalantë ‘The Downfallen’ (Q.) – The High-elven equivalent of the Adûnaic word Akallabêth, applied to the land of Númenor after its inundation.

  Note: the close resemblance between this Quenya word and the name Atlantis – particularly noteworthy because both are names of vanished, inundated civilisations – may be considered a fit subject for comment. For if the linguistic and historical identification of Atalantë with Atlantis is sustainable, then the Fall of Númenor – and, by cross-dating, all other events spoken of in this Companion – can actually be dated in modern historical terms.

  The Atlantis myth comes down to us from the Athenian, Plato; who had it (he said) from the writings of an earlier Greek sage, Solon – who had reportedly heard the story in Egypt, during his travels in the sixth century BC. In the Egyptian’s story, as reported by Solon, the fall of Atlantis was dated positively to a period 9,000 years earlier. Therefore, if the connection is accepted between Atalantë and Atlantis, and if the other details of the story are likewise taken at face value, the fall of Atlantis/Númenor took place in, or can be computed to, the ending of the last ice age, approximately 11,000 BC, nowadays thought to have witnessed world inundations on a massive scale.

  See also AVALLÓNË.

  Atanamir (Tar-Atanamir) ‘Jewel-of-Men’ (Q.) – From 2029–2291 Second Age, the thirteenth King of Númenor. During Atanamir’s reign the exploitation of the coastlands and forests of Middle-earth grew still more relentless. Moreover he was one of the first openly to protest the Ban of the Valar, which was held by Númenoreans to deny Men the Gift (or Doom) of immortality. As a result, messengers were sent from the West to Númenor, to soothe their spirits and explain the Ban of the Valar. But Atanamir was not soothed. Númenor later split into factions, a situation which eventually brought about civi
l war – and the final fall of the Land of the Star. He was one of those few Númenorean rulers who clung to the Sceptre until death took them.

  Atanatar I – From 667–748 Third Age, the tenth King of Gondor.

  Atanatar II Alcarin (‘The Glorious’) – From 1149–1226 Third Age, the sixteenth King of Gondor. When he inherited the realm from his father Hyarmendacil I, Gondor was at the peak of her might. The succession of the four imperial ‘Ship-kings’, culminating in the mighty Hyarmendacil, had scattered the enemies of the Dúnedain, and no foe dared to contest the will of the Men of the West. Atanatar II, unlike his renowned forbears, did little to maintain the power that had passed to him, preferring to squander the tremendous wealth of Gondor in idle pursuits and ostentatious luxury.

  The commencement of Gondor’s slow decline can thus be attributed to Alcarin, though in his day such an eventuality seemed unthinkable. During his reign the Crown of Gondor, once a simple Númenorean war-helm, was replaced by a jewelled crown of mithril and other precious metals. Such was Atanatar Alcarin’s concept of kingship.

  Atanatári ‘Fathers-of-Men’ (Q.) – One of the oldest Elvish names for Men, and used only of the first of the Edain to enter Beleriand. It was a title of ceremony rather than a figure of speech.

  Atandil ‘Friend-of-Men’ (Q.) – A title awarded to Finrod Felagund.

  Atani – See EDAIN.

  Atendëa – The leap-year in the Númenorean calendar (Kings’ Reckoning). The name means ‘double-middle’, so called because the extra day was allowed for by doubling Mid-year’s Day (loëndë).

  Athelas – A plant of great healing virtue brought to Middle-earth, it is said, by the Númenoreans of the Second Age. It grew sparsely in the North and only in places where the Men of Westernesse had passed. The plant was certainly known in Númenor, where the Valinorean name asëa aranion was used; but in Gondor, where this ‘kingsfoil’ grew abundantly, its healing properties were unknown and the leaves were esteemed only for their refreshing scent.

  ‘Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth’ – Also titled Of Death and the Children of Eru, and the Marring of Men; a prose narrative of a debate said to have taken place shortly before the Dagor Bragollach, between ANDRETH of the First House of the Edain and Finrod son of Finwë of the Noldor. It has been written down many times and in many forms, but fundamentally takes the form of a debate concerning the respective fates of Elves and Men, which comes about as a result of Finrod’s grief and wonderment at the short lives of Men. It soon becomes clear that Andreth is articulating a well of bitterness which fills her people concerning their short lives (and uncertain fate) compared with those of the Eldar; and as the debate continues, she also reveals another motive for her sorrow: her own love for one of the High-elves, none other than Aegnor brother of Finrod, which, she knows, can never be returned. Meanwhile Finrod, deeply moved, attempts to reassure her – and perhaps, to some extent, himself – on all these points; but his success is only partial and when the debate draws to a close a residue of uncertainty concerning these matters remains.16

  Aulë the Smith – One of the great Valar; the Lord of all material things, or of things made by craft; oldest and greatest of loremasters and the most skilful of all artisans; the Maker of the Dwarves. Aulë was the Spouse of Yavanna Kementári, the Vala who made all things that grow or have ever grown upon the earth, and together they did much to shape the face of the world in its Beginning.

  Aulendil ‘Lover-of-Aulë’ (Q.) – A name adopted by Sauron in the early years of the Second Age when he would put on a fair form and walk among Elves and Men. It was not entirely untrue: in earliest times, before his seduction by Melkor, Sauron had once been one of the Maiar of Aulë.

  Avallónë – The Haven of the Eldar in Tol Eressëa, the ‘Lonely Isle’ off the shores of Valinor, founded by the Teleri when they dwelt for a while in that island before completing the Great Journey to Aman the Blessed. It was built anew by those returning Exiles who came back from Middle-earth at the end of the First Age. Avallónë was said to be visible to ‘the farsighted’ from the summit of the holy mountain Meneltarma in Númenor.

  Note: few will have overlooked the close resemblance between the names Avallónë, which is a Quenya (Elvish) word, and Avalon, a Celtic (Mannish) name meaning, it is said, ‘Isle of Apples’. Both are indeed traditionally applied to faraway islands in the West, unreachable save by those appointed to make the journey. In (Celtic) British mythology, King Arthur is said to have been borne away in a barge draped with black samite to the Isle of Avalon, there to recover from the (mortal) wound sustained by him at the Battle of Camlann. See also ATALANTË.

  Avari ‘the Unwilling’ (Q.) – The name given in Elvish tradition to those of the ancient Quendi of Middle-earth who, when summoned by Oromë the Vala to make the Great Journey to Valinor, refused; and dwelt in Middle-earth ever after. They were sometimes known as the East-elves. The only one of them ever to be mentioned in records was EÖL the Smith. See also ELVES.

  Avathar ‘Shadows’ (Q.) – Like ARAMAN, this was the name of a barren wilderness on the eastern shores of Aman, a narrow, bleak, cold region between the Mountains of Defence (the Pelóri) and the Sea. Araman lay to the north of Eldamar, Avathar to the south.

  Azaghâl – A Dwarf-king of the first Age, Lord of Belegost in the Blue Mountains. He marched in alliance with the Eldar and the Edain to the Battle of Numberless Tears. In one of the most heroic deeds of that dreadful fight, Azaghâl contained the first onslaught of the Dragon Glaurung by means of the valour (and armour) of his warriors, defeating the Worm (who might otherwise have slain many more of the Eldar and the Edain) at the cost of his own life.

  Azanulbizar – This vale, known to the Elves as Nanduhirion and to Men as the Dimrill Dale, lay below the East-gate of Moria between two outstretched arms of the Misty Mountains. It was a sacred place to the Dwarves of Durin’s House for many reasons, not least for the grievous loss of life which the Dwarves suffered in the BATTLE OF AZANULBIZAR against the Orcs of Azog (2799 Third Age). The numbers of the slain were so great that the Dwarves were unable to lay their dead in stone as was their custom; instead, they were compelled to burn the bodies of their kin.

  The valley contained many places greatly revered by Dwarves of Moria, whose Kingdom had, in the days of its power, included these lands beyond the Gate. Here were to be found Kibil-nâla (the source of the Silverlode river), Kheled-zarâm (the Mirrormere) and Durin’s Stone, an ancient pillar which marked the place where Durin the Deathless himself first gazed into the lake to see a crown of stars reflected round his head. Durin founded the Kingdom of Moria in the caves overlooking the vale and its lake; it was later Dwarves who bored westward until they reached the far side of the Misty Mountains and the lands of southern Eriador.

  Ázë – A Quenya word for ‘sunlight,’ but more properly, the title of the Fëanorean Tengwa number 31, in its earliest form. In later times the value of this Tengwa altered, from the z sound (for those languages which needed such a phonetic), to an r (árë), and later to esse (‘name’), when the letter’s value became further modified to represent the ss sound. In this later form it was called árë and written in the same way.

  Ázë nuquerna – The reversed form of Tengwa number 31, allotted the number 32 in the Fëanorean system. Its use was identical to that of ázë. Reversed letters were employed to add visual felicitousness to written passages.

  Azog – A chieftain among the tribe of Orcs which occupied the deserted Dwarf-realm of Moria in the 28th century of the Third Age. Azog’s murder and decapitation of the Dwarf Thrór, Heir of Durin, was the event which signalled the commencement of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, in which the Dwarves had the victory ‘through their strength, and their matchless weapons, and the fire of their anger, as they hunted for Azog in every [orc-] den under mountain.’17 Azog was slain at the Battle of Azanulbizar (in 2799 Third Age) by Dáin Ironfoot. His orc-head was then set on a stake, with a purse of small money – which Azog himself had insolently offer
ed as weregild for the death of Thrór – stuffed into his mouth.

  Note: Azog’s son, the equally formidable Bolg of the North, led the Orcs at the Battle of Five Armies (2941).

  Bag End – The ancestral dwelling of the well-to-do Hobbit family of Baggins, originally built into the Hill of Hobbiton by Bungo Baggins, father of Bilbo. It was the ‘manor-hole’ of the villages of Hobbiton and Bywater, and was rather more magnificent than common village smials. Its desirability caused great friction between Bilbo and his cousins, the Sackville-Bagginses: on one notable occasion he returned (in 2942 Third Age) from a long absence to find them actually in possession of the place, his death having been conveniently presumed. Rumours quickly spread around his neighbourhood that the tunnels of Bag End were stuffed with sacks of treasure. Needless to say, such stories were wild exaggerations of the (fairly) modest wealth Bilbo had earned as reward for his services to the Dwarves of Erebor. The luxurious hole was eventually sold to the persistent Sackville-Baggins by Frodo, Bilbo’s heir, before his own flight from the Shire in the year 3011. However, after his return the following year, Bag End once more became Frodo’s residence; and upon his final departure two years later, his entire estate, including his home, passed to Samwise Gamgee.

  Baggins – An ancient family of repute in the Shire. There was said to be a strong Fallohidish strain in the Baggins clan – but Hobbits said this of all families (such as Tooks and Brandybucks) who were noted for ‘adventurous’ tendencies. The most illustrious members of this family were of course Bilbo and his heir Frodo.

  Bagshot Row – A residential lane on the Hill of Hobbiton which ran alongside the Party Field. Number Three was the residence of Hamfast Gamgee and his son Samwise, gardeners to the Baggins family. Destroyed by the agents of Saruman during the War of the Ring, it was later restored as New Row (and old Hamfast to Number Three).