The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  Belfalas – The name given to both the greatest bay in western Middle-earth and an adjacent coastal province of Gondor, a cape which thrust into the Bay of Belfalas from north of the Anduin delta. The chief city of the province was the sea-washed tower of Dol Amroth, with its ancient Elf-havens on the shores below.

  Belladonna Baggins – The well-to-do and reputedly eccentric wife of Bungo and mother of Bilbo Baggins. She was a child of Gerontius, ‘the Old Took’.

  Bell Gamgee – Wife of Hamfast Gamgee (‘the Gaffer’), and the mother of Samwise.

  Belmarie – A poetic invention in the Hobbit style, supposedly a name of Elvish origin. It occurs in the poem ‘Errantry’,7 and refers to a fanciful Elf-kingdom.

  Belthil ‘Holy-light’ (Sind.) – The name given by King Turgon of Gondolin to the Image he wrought of the Tree Telperion; it stood in the Tower of the King, together with its sister-tree, Glingal, the Image of Laurelin the Golden. Both were destroyed in the sack of Gondolin.

  Belthronding – The name given by Beleg the Elf to his great bow.

  Béma – The name given in the Northern Mannish tongue to the Vala Araw (Sind.), whose High-elven name was Oromë.

  Bent World – A term for Earth, in its later (and current) ‘marred’ aspect as a spherical body; as opposed to the ‘Straight World’ of remote antiquity.

  Bëor (the Old) – The name given by his people to Balan, chieftain of the First House of the Edain, after he had abdicated his chieftainship (in favour of his son Baran) in order to go to Nargothrond and serve the Elven-king Finrod. He was the first of the Edain to take service with one of the Noldor. (Bëor means ‘vassal’ in the Mannish tongue of that time.) Bëor, or Balan, had been the leader of the first Mannish people ever to enter Beleriand; and from the moment he first spoke with Finrod, his allegiance to the Eldar seems never to have been in doubt. For this reason members of his House were afterwards treated with great honour by the Eldar. He was a forefather of all the heroes and Elf-friends among the Edain. Bëor died in his 84th year.

  Beorn – In the late Third Age, Beorn was the chieftain of the clan of Northern Men whose traditional duty it was to maintain the trade routes from Eriador to Wilderland, particularly over the high pass of the Misty Mountains and across the Ford of Carrock. Bilbo Baggins attributed many strange characteristics to Beorn; whatever the truth of these stories, he was certainly a Man of ursine strength, fiery temper and a suspicious nature.

  Like all his clan, the Beornings, he hated Orcs even more than strangers, and thus later came to play a vital role in the Battle of Five Armies, where his opportune arrival and berserker rage helped to overthrow the Goblin army. Beorn personally slew Bolg, the chief of the Orcs. The Beornings were akin to the Éothéod and to the Men of the Vales of Anduin; their language was a Northern dialect related to that of Dale.

  Beornings – See BEORN above.

  Bereg – One of the great-grandsons of Bëor the Old, a leader of a fragment of the First House of the Edain who were afraid to settle in Beleriand and who returned over the Blue Mountains into Eriador.

  Beregar – The father of ERENDIS of Númenor. He was descended from the First House of the Edain.

  Beregond – From 2763–2811 Third Age, the twentieth Ruling Steward of Gondor, and one of the greatest soldiers in her history. In 2758–59, while still heir to the Stewardship, he defeated a long-prepared attack by the Corsairs of Umbar and simultaneously sent aid to Rohan, which was then suffering grievously from the effects of the Long Winter and Dunlending invasion.

  Also the name of a man-at-arms in the Third Company of the Guard of the Citadel at Minas Tirith, and a friend of Peregrin the Halfling. He was devoted to Faramir (son of Steward Denethor II) for whom he ‘risked all, to save him from death’.8 For his decisiveness and moral courage, Beregond was afterwards honoured by the King and appointed Captain of Faramir’s personal guard.

  Beren Erchamion – The noblest and most high-destined of all the heroic Edain of the First Age was Beren, son of Barahir. His name is indissolubly linked with that of the Lady Lúthien Tinúviel, who shared both his deeds and – to the sorrow of the Elves – his fate. The Tale of Beren and Lúthien was long preserved, the chief source being the Sindarin ‘lay’ composed in Beleriand by Grey-elven minstrels before the ending of the Elder Days. The Lay of Leithian (‘Release from Bondage’) is a long work – so long that only Elrond himself was said to have remembered it in full.9

  It begins with Beren’s father Barahir, and of his friendship with the Elven-king Finrod of Nargothrond, whose life he saved at the Battle of Sudden Flame. To Barahir, Finrod gave his ring, as a token of gratitude. Barahir was slain shortly afterwards, by Orcs, who captured this jewel; but his son Beren avenged him, regaining the heirloom. He then fled the wreck of Dorthonion, crossing the forbidding Mountains of Terror and fighting off the attacks of monstrous spiders, before reaching the hidden forest of Neldoreth, in Doriath. There he beheld, dancing ‘to music of a pipe unseen’,

  Tinúviel the elven-fair,

  Immortal maiden elven-wise10

  Lúthien swiftly fled when he appeared; but then Beren called her by her elven-name, Tinúviel, meaning ‘Nightingale’.

  And doom fell on Tinúviel

  That in his arms lay glistening.11

  Lúthien was the daughter of Thingol Greycloak, King of this land of Doriath into which Beren, fleeing from peril, had chanced to wander. Beside the waters of the Elven-river Esgalduin they plighted their troth.

  Many were the hardships they endured together in the years that followed. Beren’s suit was not pleasing to Thingol, who sent him on an impossible quest to be rid of him. Beren was taken by the forces of the Enemy, and imprisoned. But Lúthien rescued him, and after many further adventures they entered Angband itself and recaptured one of the three Silmarils – as Thingol had bidden. This was afterwards accounted the greatest deed of the Elder Days.

  But Beren was slain in the hour of triumph by the Wolf Carcharoth, guardian of the Gates of Angband; and he died in the arms of Lúthien who, in her grief, also chose to accept mortality and die in Middle-earth, so that she might follow him. They were both reborn by the Grace of the Valar, and lived out mortal lifespans elsewhere in Beleriand. Their Line continued through their son Dior Eluchîl to Elwing; and handed down with the ancestry was the Silmaril, greatest heirloom and trophy of the House of Thingol.

  Note: the name Erchamion (‘One-handed’) refers to Beren’s mutilation by the Wolf Carcharoth.

  Beren (of Gondor) – From 2743–63 Third Age, the nineteenth Ruling Steward of Gondor; father of Beregond, leading warrior of the day. It was he who gave the keys of Isengard, then an ancient but deserted fortress of Gondor, to Saruman the Wise, hoping to have the great Wizard’s aid in defending the northern provinces and allied territories (especially Rohan, gravely weakened by invasion, hardship and famine).

  Bereth – The sister of Baragund and Belegund of the First House of the Edain. She was the ancestress of the lady Erendis who wedded King Tar-Aldarion of Númenor.

  Berúthiel – A queen of Gondor, the loveless, childless and misanthropic wife of the first of Gondor’s ‘ship-kings’, Tarannon. She was of malign disposition, and much feared because of her cats – nine black and one white – which acted as her spies. Tarannon is said to have repudiated her and cast her adrift on the Great Sea (together with her cats).12

  Beryl – An emerald.

  Bifur, Bofur and Bombur – Three of the thirteen Dwarves who, in 2941 Third Age, undertook the Quest of the Dragon of Erebor, as companions of Thorin Oakenshield. Unlike the other Dwarves of the company, these three were not of Durin’s line.

  ‘Big People’ – Hobbit-parlance for Men.

  Bilbo Baggins – One of the most remarkable Hobbits of his or any other day. It is a tribute to the gentle nature of this kindly old Hobbit that he is as much remembered for his scholarship and abundant generosity as for courage and ‘adventurous’ tendencies.

  Bilbo’s hitherto-hidden sk
ills of authorship came to light when, after returning from his epic Journey to the East (2941–42 Third Age), he sat down in his comfortable ancestral hole and proceeded to write, in a somewhat untidy hand, a clear if self-deprecating account of the events leading up to the Battle of Five Armies and the restoration of the Dwarf-kingship of Erebor. In these events Bilbo himself, of course, played a most prominent part, earning great credit with Dwarves, Wizards and Elves (not to mention the modest fortune pressed upon him for his future comfort).

  During the course of these adventures, Bilbo gained possession of the One Ring. This curious incident – so unlike the other events of the expedition, though not unrelated to them – is described in great detail in Bilbo’s book.13 It is as if Bilbo had wished to establish his claim to the Ring as being beyond all doubt, so precise is his accounting of the scene in the dim lower caverns of the orc-mines, with the Ring in his pocket like a leaden weight as he fought for his life with words.

  After the Ring had passed out of his possession, Bilbo changed his mind about the accuracy of this part of the tale. But he never altered the manuscript he had written some sixty years before; so it is only in Frodo’s narrative that we later hear of Bilbo’s remorse concerning this single (but significant) untruth.

  At all events, the old Hobbit slipped quietly away to Rivendell in his eleventy-first (IIIth) year, leaving his estate – and the Ring – to Frodo. There, dwelling in peace with Elrond and the High-elves, he spent much time studying Elvish Books of Lore. The total of his very considerable labours in this field has yielded some of the most remarkable scholarship in all Hobbit history. Thus Bilbo’s ‘Translations from the Elvish’ is a typically modest title for the three large red volumes crammed with so much of the history of the First Age, when Hobbits apparently did not exist at all.

  Bilbo travelled very little after his retirement to Rivendell and in company with the Three Rings, he finally passed over Sea at the ending of the Third Age, his years in Middle-earth then totalling one hundred and thirty-one. Bilbo was thus the longest-lived Hobbit in history, always generous to a fault and long remembered for his wryly humorous personality as well as for his deeds and other accomplishments. His adoption of the orphaned Frodo Baggins was an act of great philanthropy, well repaid. Unlike most Hobbits, neither Bilbo nor Frodo ever married, and their heirs were Samwise Gamgee and his family.

  Bilbo Gamgee – Tenth child and fifth son of Master Samwise of Bag End.

  Bill (the pony) – A gaunt, half-starved animal purchased in Bree by Barliman Butterbur, innkeeper of The Prancing Pony, on 30th September 3019 Third Age, to replace others stolen from Meriadoc Brandybuck during the previous night. His poor condition was due to the treatment meted out by his previous owner. However, under the loving care of Samwise Gamgee, Bill flourished and proved of great value to the Company as a pack-animal, although he was later parted from them outside the doors of Moria. Yet despite Sam’s sorrowful apprehensions, Bill eventually succeeded in making his way back to Bree, where he was stabled and fed for a time at The Prancing Pony. He was later reunited with Samwise.

  Bill Ferny – A Man of Bree; a shifty, unpleasant sort of person, remembered with distaste. Ill-favoured from birth, Ferny later became involved (in a subordinate way) with the machinations of Isengard. He did his best to hinder the Company of the Ring at The Prancing Pony, afterwards being ejected by the Bree-folk and working more openly for Saruman as warden of the Buckland Gate. His fate is not recorded.

  Bindbale Wood – A wood near Rushock Bog in the Northfarthing of the Shire.

  ‘Biter’ – See ‘BEATER’ AND ‘BITER’.

  Black Breath – An evil essence given off by the Nazgûl. Its effects were to render the victims feverish and delirious with dark, despairing dreams and no will to live. Few remedies were sufficient.

  Black Captain – An epithet used in Gondor for the fell Lord of Minas Morgul, leader of the Nine Riders, King of the Nazgûl, in his aspect as a warlord of irresistible cruelty, power and terror. In the North, Men had known him as the WITCH-KING of Angmar. Ruler, Sorcerer and Ringwraith, he was greatly to be feared.

  Black Easterling – Khamûl, second in command of the Nazgûl.

  Black Foe (of the World) – A translation of the name Morgoth, first applied to the renegade Vala Melkor by Fëanor.

  Black Gate – A translation of the Sindarin word Morannon; the main pass into the land of Mordor. The Black Gate was situated where the Ashy Mountains and the Ephel Dúath joined hands south of the great field of ancient Dagorlad. There, a defile (Cirith Gorgor) leading between the two mountain walls was stopped, at its mouth, by a vast wall of stone stretching from cliff to cliff; this wall was pierced by a single gate with great doors of iron. Set upon guardian-hills to either side of the Morannon – and high above the wall – rose the ‘Towers of the Teeth’, Narchost and Carchost, which had originally been built by Gondor to watch over Mordor and prohibit the entry (or exit) of evil things. But the watch failed and the Towers were re-occupied by the servants of Sauron.

  Black Land – A translation of Mordor (Sind.).

  Black Númenoreans – During the first millennium of Númenor’s rise to power, many of the Dúnedain who dwelt there began to return to Middle-earth, for although the Western Seas had been forbidden to them by the Ban of the Valar, great territories lay still unconquered in Middle-earth. These early explorers and harbour-builders were followed in later days by other Númenoreans, more restless and not averse to taking lordships over lesser men. Many coastal areas of Middle-earth were seized by these so-called ‘Black Númenoreans’ and brought under their subjection. Among them arose nine great princes, each of whom was cultivated by Sauron the Great. He gave a Ring of Power to each lord. In accepting and wearing the rings they thus fell into his trap and became RING-WRAITHS, enslaved to him for ever.

  With Sauron’s fall at the end of the Second Age this renegade strain of Númenor dwindled, mingling their blood with lesser races. In 933 Third Age, Umbar, the oldest of their coastal realms, fell to Gondor; and the followers of Elendil erected on a headland there a great monument in memory of Ar-Pharazôn’s triumph over Sauron the Great. But in the course of the many wars of the Age, Umbar was taken again by the enemies of Gondor and remained for many years afterwards an independent state, bitterly hostile to Gondor and a refuge for her foes.

  Black Pit – Translation of Moria (Sind.): an Elvish name for the great Dwarf-city under the Misty Mountains; also known as Hadhodrond. It was not an admiring name.

  Black Riders – The Nazgûl, the Nine RINGWRAITHS, undying servants of Sauron, Lord of the Rings. They were so-called because they were invariably mounted on beasts of black colour, whether horse or other, more fell creature.

  Blackroot – A translation of Morthond (Sind.); name of the long, cold river which emerged from the White Mountains high in the Vale of the same name, and flowed south to the Sea.

  Black Shadow – The name given in Gondor to the sickness which emanated from the Ringwraiths. See BLACK BREATH.

  Black Speech – This unpleasant tongue developed out of Sauron’s desire, early in the Accursed Years, to devise a single language for use by all his servants. But the minds of not all his creatures were able to grasp such a concept and, after Sauron’s first overthrow at the end of the Second Age, this ancient tongue was forgotten by all but the Ringwraiths.

  Few specimens are extant: it is not a language scholars willingly record. The most famous example is the Ring-inscription.

  Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul

  ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul

  The word nazg (‘ring’) can also be found in the ancient name Nazgûl ‘Ringwraiths’; and the element burzum (‘darkness’) can similarly be seen in the Orcs’ name for the Barad-dûr: Lugbúrz (‘dark-tower’). Sauron revived the use of this language on his second arising in the Third Age, but only he and his most immediate lieutenants used it in its original form. Other versions were greatly debased.

&nb
sp; Black Sword (of Nargothrond) – A translation of Mormegil (Sind.); the admiring title bestowed upon the warrior Túrin Turambar by folk of West Beleriand during the years in which he fought for the elven-city of Nargothrond. Túrin was so-called because of the sword GURTHANG he bore.

  Black Years – An epithet for the ACCURSED YEARS; the period from the middle of the Second Age to the dawning of the Third, when Sauron of Mordor enslaved much of western Middle-earth. The Black Years ended with his first overthrow (3441 Second Age). Also called by the Elves ‘the Days of Flight’.

  Bladorthin – As the Dwarves of Erebor recorded, Bladorthin was a ruler or king of Elves who ordered a sheaf of new spears from the smiths of Erebor in the days before the coming of the Dragon. Unfortunately he died before delivery of the weapons and his heirs did not choose to honour the agreement. The spears were therefore kept in hoard by the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain.

  Blanco – See MARCHO AND BLANCO.

  Blessed Realm – An Elvish term for the Undying Lands or Uttermost West. The oldest recorded name for Valinor was Aman.

  Blooting – The Bree word for the eleventh month of the year, roughly corresponding to our November. The Shire word was Blotmath (pronounced ‘Blommath’).

  Blotmath – See BLOOTING above.

  Blue Mountains – A translation of Ered Luin (Sind.). This high, windy range marked the westernmost boundary of Eriador and the easternmost of Beleriand. The Ered Luin were first crossed by the Eldar, passing West on their way to the Sea far back in the First Age. But the Elder Days ended in a cataclysm which drowned the lands and shook the mountains to their foundations; and the Ered Luin were then divided into two separate ranges by a gulf of the inrushing Sea. Icy colds gripped the northern chain. During the Third Age few folk dwelt in these inhospitable mountains, save a handful of Dwarves who maintained settlements in the eastern foothills. Also called Ered Lindon, the ‘Mountains of Lindon’, by the Noldor.