The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  Erulaitalë ‘Praise of Eru’ (Q.) – The Midsummer Festival in Númenor.

  Erusen – This ancient word translates as ‘Children-of-God’, and refers to Men and Elves, for whom the world (Arda) was created. Eruhíni Ilúvataro (Q.) carries the same meaning.

  Eryn Galen – GREENWOOD THE GREAT.

  Eryn Lasgalen – For most of the Third Age this mighty forest east of the Misty Mountains was known as Mirkwood, although its original name had been Greenwood the Great. This change of name was gradual, and was largely due to the evil influence of Dol Guldur in the south of the Forest. But after the end of the Third Age, the Elves of Lórien crossed the Great River and destroyed Dol Guldur; Celeborn of Lórien and Thranduil of Northern Mirkwood then met in the midst of the Forest and renamed it Eryn Lasgalen ‘The Wood of Greenleaves’ (Sind.).

  Eryn Vorn ‘Black Woods’ (Sind.) – The wooded Cape of Minhiriath, south of the Baranduin estuary.

  Esgalduin ‘Veiled-river’ (Sind.) – The Enchanted River of Doriath. It rose from two sources in the Mountains of Terror, and flowed south, then west; in the north dividing Nan Dungortheb from Dor Dînen, and in the south forming a boundary between the forests of Neldoreth and Region.

  Esgaroth – The Lake-town of the River Running, built upon stilts in the shallows of the Long Lake. When the nearby town of Dale was destroyed by Smaug the Dragon in 2770 Third Age, many of the Men who had dwelt there went south and swelled the numbers of the lake colony. Most of the trade (in wine and food) between Dorwinion (near the Inland Sea of Rhûn) and the kingdom of the Wood-elves in Mirkwood then passed through the lake-dwellers’ ken. Esgaroth, therefore, in addition to its fishermen, had merchants and riverboatmen, who charged modest fees for speeding this commercial traffic.

  As such, the town prospered under its burgesses, until the arousal of the Dragon almost two hundred years later. Smaug flew south to raze the Lake-town, but though he caused great damage, the Dragon was himself slain by Bard of Esgaroth, heir of the Kings of Dale. A great part of the Lake-town’s inhabitants then returned to the mountains and rebuilt Dale, and Bard became their king. Esgaroth continued to prosper.

  Esmeralda Brandybuck – The wife of Saradoc Brandybuck and the mother of Meriadoc, later Master of Buckland and a Counsellor of the North-kingdom.

  Essë – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘name’; also the title of the Tengwa (or ‘letter’) number 31, one of the ‘additional’ Tengwar. It represented the sound z. See also ÁRE.

  Estë ‘Rest’ (Q.) – A Queen of the Valar, the spouse of Irmo (Lórien). She is the Healer, dressed in grey, who brings peace to the wounded and afflicted. She wakes only at nightfall, and sleeps by day on an island in the Lake of Lorellin, in her spouse’s domain of Lórien, in Valimar. In the hierarchy of the seven Valier (Valar Queens), Estë is named fourth, after Nienna and before Vairë. Her spouse Irmo is one of the two Fëantúri (Mandos is his brother), and is the Master of Dreams and Visions.

  Estel – The Sindarin name for ‘Hope’, by which Aragorn II was known in his youth, before Elrond revealed to him his true name and lineage.

  Estelmo – The Esquire of Elendur the son of Isildur, and one of only three Dúnedain to survive the disaster of the Gladden Fields (Year 2 Third Age). He was clubbed on the head and left for dead.

  Estolad ‘The Camp’ (Sind.) – The name given by Men (in the newly learned tongue of the Grey-elves) to the region of East Beleriand where the Edain first settled. It lay east of the river Celon, and south of the wood of Nan Elmoth, and was chosen on the advice of Finrod Felagund of the Noldor. For at that time the Edain, new-come in the West, were dwelling in an encampment on Ossiriand, the land of the Green-elves – who did not at all desire their presence. The first tribe of the Edain to settle in Estolad were the house led by Bëor the Old (though Bëor himself afterwards went away to Nargothrond); a year or so afterwards, the encampment was swelled by the arrival of the most numerous of the Adûnaic peoples: the Third House, led by Marach Aradan.

  The conjoined Houses of Men were not to dwell long in this remote region. Hearing of their (long-foretold) presence in western Middle-earth, some of the princes of the Noldor (notably those Elves of the houses of Fingolfin and Finarfin) invited the newcomers to leave Estolad and hold lands further north, as allies and friends of the High-elves. This they did. The First House went to Dorthonion, and the Third, the People of Marach, to Dor-lómin. However, Estolad was not deserted, for many remnants of kindreds remained. This mongrelised clan of Men lingered in Estolad for another century, but were finally driven out in the years of Morgoth’s triumph.

  Ethir Anduin ‘Mouths of Anduin’ (Sind.) – The delta of the Great River, where it flowed into the Bay of Belfalas in six broad streams.

  Ethring – The small township built on either side of the river Ringló in Gondor; there, the road from Morthond to Pelargir forded the stream.

  Ethuil ‘Spring’ (Sind.) – The first season of the Eldarin loa (year). The (older) Quenya name was tuilë.

  Ettendales – See ETTENMOORS below.

  Ettenmoors – A wild and remote region of northern Eriador, haunted by Trolls; it lay north of Rivendell and south of the realm of Angmar.

  Ever-cold – A translation of the Sindarin name Himring.

  Evereven – A poetic reference to the Eternal Twilight of Valinor and Eldamar, used (in the First Age) after Morgoth’s poisoning of the Two Trees had removed their Light from the Undying Lands.

  Evermind – A translation of the Northern Mannish word simbelmynë, being the name given in Rohan to the white grave-flowers of the Barrowfield near Edoras. Also called alfirin.

  Exiles – The High-elves of Middle-earth, the NOLDOR.

  Ezellohar – One of the (untranslated) names in Elven tradition for the green mound which stood before the western gate of the city of Valimar (or Valmar), in Valinor. Another was Corollairë. Here grew – and for many Ages stood in glory – the Two Trees of the Valar, raised from the green earth of Ezellohar by the enchantments of Yavanna Kementári.

  Faelivrin – An admiring name (which means ‘Ivrin’s Daysheen’ in the Sindarin tongue) given to FINDUILAS daughter of Orodreth, the Heir of Finrod, by Gwindor, a prince of Nargothrond.

  Faerie – The ‘Perilous Realm’, the land of the Elves, as reported in mortal tradition. It is essentially a poetic term, for mortals are entirely unacquainted with these regions, and their interpretations can only be mere approximations of an unimaginable (for mortals) state of existence. Thus, in Bilbo’s There and Back Again,1 the term Faerie (together with Aerie) is used as a fanciful name for imagined Elf-kingdoms, somewhere vaguely in the West.

  Fairbairns of the Towers – The descendants of Samwise Gamgee’s daughter, Elanor ‘the Fair’, traced through her eldest son Elfstan Fairbairn. Early in the Fourth Age, her family moved to Undertowers, on the slopes of the Tower Hills in the Westmarch of the Shire. They were later made Wardens of Westmarch, and eventually assumed the custodianship of the famous Red Book – charged with the duties of compiling, copying and safekeeping of one of the principal record-sources of the Third Age.

  Fairë ‘Spirit [in general]’ (Q.; Sind. faer) – See also FËA.

  Fair Elves – A translation of the Quenya name Vanyar, meaning the First (and Highest) Kindred of the Eldar, who came to Valinor in the Beginning of Days and dwelt there ever after, unlike the ‘Deep-elves’ and the ‘Grey-elves’, both also Eldarin Kindreds. The Vanyar had golden hair.

  Fair Folk-The Elves.

  Faithful – The Faithful of Númenor; the small group of families who, despite increasing persecution, continued to hold to the ancient Elvish traditions and tongues throughout the gradual estrangement of their people from the Eldar and the Valar. They lived mainly in the province of Andúnië, in the most westerly part of the island.

  Like most Númenoreans, the Faithful were great mariners; and in 2350 Second Age, after many journeys back to Middle-earth, they established their own haven there, at Pelagir, on the lower A
nduin. When Númenor was eventually destroyed (in the year 3319), a number of the Faithful escaped the disaster and sailed back to Middle-earth in nine of their ships, bearing a seedling of the White Tree and the seven palantíri. Led by Elendil the Tall, son of Amandil, last Lord of Andúnië, they then founded the Dúnedain Realms in Exile, Arnor and Gondor, in the Westlands of Middle-earth.

  Falas ‘Coastland’ (Sind.) – A name for any coastal region (e.g. Belfalas ‘The coasts of Bel’; Anfalas ‘Long-beach’), but in its earliest proper sense, for the shorelands of West Beleriand: the abode of the Falathrim, the ‘Coast-elves’, a Telerin kindred who dwelt in this region, mainly at their two fortified Havens of Eglarest and Brithombar, throughout much of the First Age.

  Falastur ‘Lord-of-the-Coasts’ (Sind.+Q.) – The imposing title adopted by Tarannon, twelfth King of Gondor (from 890–913 Third Age) and the first of that realm’s four renowned ‘Ship-kings’. His actual victories were comparatively modest in the light of the achievements of his immediate successors – Hyarmendacil in particular. But, as Captain of the Hosts, Tarannon succeeded nonetheless in extending the rule and reach of Gondor along the shorelands west and south of the Anduin, thus re-establishing the ancient Númenorean sea-power (to a limited degree). To commemorate these conquests, he laid down Gondor’s first permanent fleet and took the crown in the name of Falastur.

  Falathar – One of the three faithful companions of Eärendil. See AERANDIR.

  Falathrim ‘Coast-Elves’ (Sind.) – An Elven-people: the Eldar of western Beleriand, originally part of the main host of the Teleri who had come last of all to the coastal lands of Middle-earth, in the days of the Great Journey. There the last of the many sunderings of the Teleri took place, when this people passed over Sea, leaving behind two subdivisions of their kindred: the Eglath, who remained to search for Elwë their lord, lost years before in Nan Elmoth, and who subsequently became the Elves of Doriath; and the Teleri who then dwelt on the coasts, declining to depart with the main host because of their love for the sea-lands of Beleriand – and because of the entreaties of the Sea-Maia Ossë, who did not desire them to vanish out of his domain for ever. From these earliest days the Falathrim were led by CÍRDAN THE SHIPWRIGHT, and dwelt chiefly in the two ancient Havens of Eglarest and Brithombar. In the lore of the Elves, they are accounted ‘Grey-elves’ (Sindar), and Úmanyar, but not Moriquendi, for those that survived the turmoils of three Ages of Middle-earth came in the end into the Far West, to the long home appointed for all those of Eldarin race. Their last dwelling in Middle-earth was the Haven of Mithlond; and Círdan himself was the last of all Elves to leave the ‘Hither Shores’.

  ‘The Fall of Gil-galad’ – The name given in the Common Speech to an Elvish lay, composed in Lindon or Rivendell early in the Third Age (the original title is unknown), and now no longer extant. At least one copy was evidently kept in Rivendell, for both Aragorn and Bilbo – and, surprisingly, Sam Gamgee – had an acquaintance with the poem. Bilbo probably brought a copy away with him on his return from Erebor via Elrond’s house, later translating it at Bag End, where the sharp-eared Sam doubtless picked up a few stanzas.

  Gil-galad was no less than the last High-elven King of Middle-earth, and the Lay concerns his long fight against the power of Sauron through the Second Age. This culminated in the Last Alliance, the (first) overthrow of Sauron and the death of the mighty Gil-galad:

  the last whose realm was fair and free

  between the Mountains and the Sea.2

  Fall of the Noldor – A translation of the Quenya title Noldolantë; being the name of the long lay or song composed by Maglor the second son of Fëanor, in the time between the Fall of Morgoth and his own death, when he wandered, half-mad, on the wild coasts of Middle-earth. Its subject was the making of the Silmarils, the rebellion of Fëanor, the Curse of Mandos – and all the evil deeds which followed after, bringing ruin upon the Deep-elves. Maglor and Maedhros, the two eldest sons of Fëanor, were the only two of the seven brethren ever to repent in any measure of their Oath. Both slew themselves at the end of the First Age, but one copy at least of the Noldolantë survived (probably in Rivendell), and so came to be one of the chief source-references of the Quenta Silmarillion.

  Fallohides – One of the three breeds or clans of Hobbits. Unlike the other two, Harfoots and Stoors, the Fallohides were ‘more friendly with Elves than the other Hobbits were, and had more skill in language and song than in handcrafts; and of old they preferred hunting to tilling.’3 They were also noticeably fairer of colouring than other Hobbits, often taller, (sometimes) slimmer, and were frequently found in some leadership capacity, being characteristically more adventurous than others of their people. They were also the least numerous. Marcho and Blanco, who led the Crossing of the Baranduin and the founding of the Shire (1601 Third Age, Year 1 Shire Reckoning) were scions of this excellent stock.

  Falls of Ivrin – The EITHEL IVRIN.

  Falls of Sirion – The greatest fall or cataract on the river Sirion, where the marshes formed by the confluence of the Aros with the Sirion in flat country suddenly emptied over a precipice into a foaming basin – which was itself drained by means of underground courses, reappearing nearly ten miles downstream at the Gates of Sirion.

  Falmari ‘Elves-of-the-Crested-Waves’ (Q.) – More familiarly ‘Sea-elves’. A name given in Aman to those of the Telerin Elves who came first across the Sea, by way of Eressëa, to the Undying Lands, on whose shores they afterwards dwelt, at Alqualondë: the People of Olwë.

  Fana ‘Veil’ (Q.) – See FANUILOS.

  Fangorn – This Sindarin word meaning ‘Beard-of-Tree’ is used in the Red Book to mean both the great Forest which stood on the eastern side of the Misty Mountains, and the venerable Guardian Ent who ruled that strange country.

  It is not clear whether the Forest was named after the Ent, or the other way about; however, it is certain that both were of exceedingly great age. Fangorn himself claimed that the Wood had seen over three Ages of the outside world. Indeed, both Treebeard’s Forest and the Old Forest near the Shire were the last remaining enclaves of the great woods of the Elder Days, and both contained deep vales from which the Great Darkness had never been lifted. Treebeard put it another way:

  Taurelilómëa-tumbalemorna Tumbaletaurëa Lómëanor4

  (‘Forestmanyshadowed-deepvalleyblack

  Deepvalleyforested Gloomyland)’5

  was the old Ent’s particular expression for those dark regions. This translates (very approximately) as: ‘there is a black shadow in the deep dales of the forest.’ It is delivered in a typically Entish agglomeration of Elvish (Quenya) words – Taurë, tumbo and lómë are the original forms of the Quenya names for ‘forest’, ‘[deep]-valley’ and ‘many-shadowed’ respectively.

  Fantasie – A poetic invention in the Elvish style which appears in Bilbo’s poem ‘Errantry’. See also AERIE; BELMARIE; FAERIE.

  Fanuidhol ‘Cloudy-head’ (Sind.) – The Elves’ name for the southernmost of the three mountains of Moria. The word is derived from the ancient Grey-elven element fan-, fanui- ‘cloudy’ (and from the older Quenya fana- ‘veil’).

  Fanuidhol was known as Bundushathûr to the Dwarves and Cloudyhead to Western Men.

  Fanuilos – One of the ceremonial titles of ELBERETH, in her aspect as divine or demiurgic intercessary. In this role she was often thought of as standing on the slopes of Mount Oiolossë, radiant with inner (divine) light, arms uplifted as she listened to invocations for aid from Men and Elves.

  Note: the Quenya element fana referred to the fanar, or ‘veils’, with which the Valar clothed themselves when dealing with Elves and Men. (These ‘veils’ were in essence their physical manifestations.) The full title Fanuilos means ‘Bright [Angelic]-Figure-EverWhite’, as the suffix -los refers to the brightness of fallen snow (cf. Lossoth, ‘Snow-people’).

  Faramir – One of the two sons of King Ondoher of Gondor, slain, in battle with the Wainriders’ Confederacy, in 1944 Third Age. The death of t
he King and his two sons in this battle resulted in the crown of Gondor being awarded to a victorious captain, who took the royal title Eärnil II.

  Also the name of the Prince of Ithilien, Lord of Emyn Arnen and Steward to King Elessar of Gondor and Arnor. Faramir was the son of Denethor II, twenty-sixth and last of the Ruling Stewards – before the events of the War of the Ring brought about the return of the King and the transference of Gondor’s rule. He succeeded his father during the Siege of Minas Tirith (March, 3019), and he ordered the affairs of the City until the crowning of King Elessar in May, when he was given the princedom of Ithilien.

  Faramir was also the younger brother of Boromir (of the Fellowship of the Ring), and was like him in many ways, though not all. For while Faramir took pleasure in music and lore, his brother thought only of battles and great deeds. Nevertheless the needs of that time were such that Boromir was esteemed the higher of the two, especially in the eyes of their father. In the event both Boromir and Denethor died in the War of the Ring, and Faramir was badly wounded but was later healed. In this way he came to the Stewardship.

  Despite his father’s opinion, Faramir was in no way Boromir’s inferior as a warrior, and he spent much of the war on especially dangerous duty in Ithilien, then occupied by forces of the Dark Lord. Immediately before Sauron’s long-awaited assault on Minas Tirith, Faramir hurried back across the Anduin and took charge of the outer defences of the City. While leading the rear-guard in the final retreat from the out-wall on March 12th, he was struck by an arrow and fell in a dark swoon. For three nights he lay in peril until healed at last by the King’s own hand.

  Later, Faramir was well rewarded for his valour and loyalty, and the Office of Steward – and the title of Prince of Ithilien – was given to him and his heirs in perpetuity. He afterwards wedded the Lady Éowyn of Rohan and they dwelt together in Emyn Arnen during the years of King Elessar’s rule. Faramir died in Year 83 Fourth Age and was succeeded – both as Prince of Ithilien and as Steward of Gondor – by his son Elboron.6