The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  It was indeed the only possible strategy (see WAR OF THE GREAT JEWELS); and for many years and centuries it succeeded in penning the power of Morgoth into the far North. But as a policy it was essentially defensive, and Morgoth was always allowed to plot in secret. Worse, the Siege could be actively pressed only from the south and west, which left vast areas in the north and east available to the Enemy for the discreet movement of armies. Nor was the Siege pressed on a tactical (i.e. close-range) level; fifty leagues of open steppe separated the Gates of Angband from the linked chain of Elven-kingdoms, leagues in which the vast if unwieldy hordes of Morgoth were ultimately able to prevail over the dwindling and little-replenished ranks of the Eldar. Worst of all, the Siege was effective – and the military force of the Eldar and their allies coherent – only so long as all held true and acted as one army. And this happened less often than Fingolfin envisaged. Yet for all these drawbacks Fingolfin’s was the only possible strategy available to the Elves, and though he lived only to see it crumble away in ruin – dying as a result in fury and despair – for four centuries and more it served the Noldor well.

  Fingolfin was proclaimed High King of the Noldor in the first Year of the Sun. In that same year he had looked on the doors of Angband, afterwards returning to Mithrim – to meet again Fëanor, as he had supposed. But Fëanor was dead. And memories were still fresh among Fingolfin and his people of the terrible crossing from Aman. For a while an alliance between the two hosts seemed less likely than a battle, but Fingon son of Fingolfin had meanwhile performed the heroic feat of rescuing Maedhros the eldest son of Fëanor from torment upon Thangorodrim, and Maedhros in humility and sincerity now offered the High-kingship to Fingolfin, his father’s half-brother.

  Fingolfin and his people now occupied Hithlum and Mithrim as their realm. His elder son Fingon held the neighbouring land of Dor-lómin; but Turgon the younger went across the Echoing Mountains to Nevrast, and with him went Ar-Feiniel his sister. These were but three of the realms founded by the Noldor in those days, the first twenty years of the Sun, for the Sons of Fëanor likewise founded kingdoms in a great barrier line across the north – a barrier against Morgoth. And Fingolfin was High King of all. In the 21st year after his setting foot in Middle-earth he held a great feast, the Feast of Reunion, to which all Elves, of whatever kin, were invited.

  Four centuries passed, years not altogether free from war, for time and again Morgoth made trial of Fingolfin’s strength and purpose – and each time the High King’s strategy and warcraft destroyed his armies. After the Dagor Aglareb Fingolfin had drawn the bonds of the Siege tighter, and his forces now patrolled as far as the borders of Angband. Nonetheless Morgoth had by now finished preparing the gigantic blow with which he meant to break free of the constraints of Fingolfin for ever. He unleashed the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame, in which the Elves’ cavalry was destroyed on the burning plains of Ard-galen, while their foot-soldiers were thrown back with loss into Hithlum and Mithrim. Their allies, the Edain, were likewise defeated and driven, for the most part, from the North. Perceiving the onset of the very disaster he had long feared – from the day he had first gazed on the real might of Angband – Fingolfin the High King rode forth in madness from the rags of his army and clove through the Orcs to reach the Gates of Angband. There he challenged the Enemy to single combat. But despite his courage, there could be only one result of such a fight. Fingolfin perished; and the High-kingship of the Noldor in Middle-earth then passed to his eldest son, Fingon.

  Fingon (the Valiant) – The elder son of Fingolfin of the Noldor, brother of Turgon and Aredhel Ar-Feiniel. Like his father, he was one of the mightiest – and, as his name implies, most valiant – of all the High-elves of Middle-earth; and in his time he succeeded to the High-kingship of all the Noldor in Exile. But he did so at a time when fortune had turned irrevocably against the Eldar in their war against Morgoth, and he had reigned as High King for only fifteen years when Morgoth unleashed the final battle, in which the ruin of the Elves and the Edain was at last accomplished. In this final battle, the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Fingon died, slain by a Balrog.

  During his later life in Middle-earth Fingon reigned in Mithrim, ceding his former principality of Dor-lómin to a House of the Edain, friendly to his kin. He is remembered above all as the Elf who achieved the epic feat of rescuing a kinsman (Maedhros son of Fëanor) from torment upon Thangorodrim. For this Fingon is named The Valiant. He never wedded, and was succeeded as High King of the Noldor in Exile by his younger brother Turgon King of Gondolin.

  Finrod Felagund – The Friend of Men, called also The Faithful and Lord of Caves; the founder of Nargothrond and Companion of Beren. His memory is exalted in the tales both of Elves, of whom he was one of the noblest to walk the earth, and Men, towards whom he always behaved as a benefactor. For the sake of one Man Finrod laid down his life in Middle-earth.

  Finrod was the eldest son of Finarfin. His three brothers were Orodreth, Angrod and Aegnor; and his sister was Galadriel. The children of Finarfin – though not Finarfin himself – came back to Middle-earth in the Elder Days, and waged war upon Morgoth in company with the Houses of Fingolfin and Fëanor; though only half their people had followed them to Middle-earth. Finrod was the great friend of Turgon, and into the minds of both Elves came dreams (sent at the bidding of the Vala Ulmo), warning them against dark days to come, and putting into their minds the thought of the needs of that future time. And while Turgon founded the Hidden City of Gondolin, as is told elsewhere, Finrod, having learned, from his kinsman Thingol of Doriath, of the Dwarf-delved Caves of Narog in West Beleriand, founded there the city of Nargothrond. He was afterwards called Felagund, ‘Cavehewer’ in the Dwarvish tongue.

  It was Finrod, first of all High-elves, who discovered the race of Men, though their arrival had long been prophesied among the Eldar. The Men he encountered were Edain, of the kindred of Balan (Bëor) of the First House of the Edain, as this people were afterwards known; and though Finrod is called ‘Friend of Men’, it was with this kindred of Men in particular that his fate was woven. Balan entered Finrod’s service – the first of all the Edain to serve a prince of the Noldor. Barahir, his descendant, fought at Finrod’s side at the Dagor Bragollach, and indeed saved his life. Barahir’s son Beren thus had a claim on Finrod’s aid, and Finrod honoured the pledge and accompanied Beren on his Quest, relinquishing his kingship to do so.

  But this first attempt to steal a Silmaril was doomed to bitter failure. All the Companions of the Quest were caught and imprisoned, by Sauron the servant of Morgoth, in the tower of Tol-in-Gaurhoth (formerly Tol Sirion) which guarded the Pass of Sirion. There Finrod was slain, by a werewolf, defending his friend Beren from the monster. Thus he repaid the debt, and so passed into the West for ever. Finrod Felagund never wedded, and was succeeded at Nargothrond by his brother Orodreth.

  Finwë – The first King of the Noldorin Elves, and one of the four princes (the other three were Ingwë, Olwë and Elwë) who led the Eldar on the Great Journey out of Middle-earth into the Far West. He was the father of Fëanor, Fingolfin and Finarfin, and thus the founder of one of the most royal Houses of the Eldar. But he was slain, in Aman, by Melkor (Morgoth), and thus was spared the shame which afterwards came upon his House, when two of his sons rebelled against the Valar and returned to Middle-earth, to make vengeful war upon Melkor.

  Alone of the High-elven kings of old, Finwë wedded twice. His first wife was Míriel of the Noldor, who bore him Curufinwë, afterwards called Fëanor. But this birthing so taxed her body and spirit that of her own will she died soon afterwards, and passed for ever to the Halls of Mandos. Finwë then wedded one of the Vanyar, Indis the Fair, a kinswoman of Ingwë (who was High King of all the Elves of Aman). This second wedding did not please Fëanor, and by it was created a division in the House of Finwë that bore fruit in after years. Yet Finwë loved Fëanor best of all his three sons – or perhaps it was the memory of Míriel Serindë that he loved. At all events, when Fëanor f
irst went against the will of the Valar, and was banished as a result from Tirion where Finwë ruled, Finwë himself quitted the city upon the hill of Túna and went to live in Formenos, the fortress to the north which Fëanor had built for himself; and Finwë’s second son Fingolfin ruled the city of Tirion in his place. So it was that when Melkor came to take the Silmarils from Fëanor’s armoury – having already left the Two Trees dying on the mount of Ezellohar – Finwë resisted him, but was struck down. And in the deeds which followed this murder (for such it was) Finwë’s house was laid low, and two of his three sons were slain, even as he had been, and by the same foe, and for the same cause.

  Fire of Doom – The volcanic furnace in the ‘Chambers of Fire’ (the Sammath Naur) in the cone of Orodruin.

  Fíriel ‘Mortal-woman’ (Sind.) – The daughter of King Ondoher of Gondor, and the wife of Arvedui ‘Last-king’ of Arthedain. After the death of Ondoher and his sons, Arvedui claimed the crown of Gondor, basing part of his case on his marriage to Fíriel. However, his claim was rejected, and the crown was instead awarded to a victorious general (albeit of royal blood), Eärnil II.

  Fíriel is also the name of the central figure in one of the more reflective Hobbit-poems, ‘The Last Ship’, collected and published as No. 16 in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

  Though rustic and given to rhetorical jokes, Hobbit-verse occasionally bids fair to glimpse things deeper than were generally known in the Shire. Nevertheless, the obvious allegorical content of ‘The Last Ship’ indicates that in origin it is not, in fact, a Hobbit poem at all. For Hobbits did not, as a rule, care for allegory, and verse-advice in the Shire normally took a more practical form. In its original form, therefore, this particular verse almost certainly came from Gondor.

  In the poem, Fíriel is watching for the dawn, somewhere near the mouth of a river in Gondor. She runs through the grass to the riverbank just in time to hear the silvery notes of Elf-harps and singing:

  like wind-voices keen and young

  and far bells ringing.

  Three Elf-kings and their retinue sail majestically past in a swan-ship, on their way ‘over-Sea’ to the Undying Lands. They summon Fíriel to join them, but her feet sink in the clay of the riverbank and she realises that she must remain behind and accept her (mortal) fate.

  The poem dates from the early Fourth Age, from a time when Elves were indeed sailing West in greater numbers than before.

  Note: the -iel suffix in names of Sindarin form usually indicates femininity, e.g. Fíriel, Berúthiel, Galadriel. The High-elven equivalent was -ë, -ën, e.g. Telperiën, Vanimeldë, Silmariën. (The Grey-elven suffix -wen meant specifically ‘maiden’, e.g. Morwen, ‘Dark-maid’, and Arwen, ‘Royal-maid’.)

  Firiendale – The cleft from which the Mering Stream arose.

  Firienfeld – In Rohan, the name for the guarded upland meadow where stood the mysterious Dunharrow.

  Firienwood – This small forest marked part of the border between the realms of Gondor and Rohan, nestling up against the knees of the White Mountains where the fens of Rohan’s Eastfold blended into the pastureland of Anórien. The traveller from Edoras to Mundburg (Minas Tirith) passed along a road through the wood, while above him on his right rose the HALIFIRIEN, the northernmost of Gondor’s seven beacon-hills. It was called the ‘whispering wood’.

  Firimar ‘Mortals’ (Sind.) – One of the Elves’ early names for the race of Men.

  Firith – The Sindarin word for ‘fading’, as applied to the fourth of the six ‘seasons’ of the Eldarin ‘loa’ or year. The Quenya term was quellë (or lasse-lanta).

  First Age – The assembly of a comparative chronology of the First Age – the ‘Elder Days’ of the Elves – has long carried virtually insuperable problems for the scholar, not the least of which has been the absolute dearth of precise information of the kind which compilers need in order successfully to impose systems of dating upon hitherto-undated epochs. Great events were known to have taken place, but their accurate location within a time-scale itself related to the existing time-scales of Middle-earth (such as The Tale of Years) has, until now, been impossible to achieve.

  However the later publication of several extremely important pieces of ancient literature, many of which provide exactly this kind of cross-datable information, has reversed the situation. By cross-dating – that is, by comparison work – a perfectly adequate chronology of the six-century period which we may term ‘the Years of the Sun’, i.e. the late First Age, can now be compiled. But before the onset of this period, the further back we go into the past the more the haziness increases, until before long we find ourselves dealing with quantities of elapsed time so vast that they make all Man-made dating systems seem quite absurdly inappropriate. For this compelling reason the following chronological table does not attempt to assign year-values to, or within, these remote epochs, though brief summaries of the great events they contain are included. All, however, may be assumed to involve spans of years greater by far than the gulf of time which lies between those days and ours.

  I have deliberately chosen not to follow the example of Prehistorians who, as all know, assign ancient year-values in reverse order, thus leaving their time-scale conveniently open-ended. It is an effective system, provided it can be made to mesh smoothly with the known dates at the beginning of the New Age (which, of course, run in the proper, forwards, direction). In other words, Year One of the Old Age must be made to precede – by one year – Year One of the New Age. But when Year One (Old Age) is itself unsurely located – as is the case here – then the entire raison d’être of the reverse-dating system becomes undermined, and the system itself becomes inapplicable, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, the closing years of the First Age (i.e. all events postdating the fall of Gondolin) are the least-known of all; in fact they can only be estimated. And as a result the otherwise splendid system of reverse-order-dating must be rejected.

  Luckily, the first Year of the Sun provides the necessary ‘fixed point’ from which to commence a Chronology proper (without such a fixed point no chronology at all would be possible, unless it was open-ended at both ends). For this year is the earliest date belonging to our relative list (of course, it cannot be located in absolute terms, but all the dates which follow are computed directly from it, until after the fall of Gondolin, when we enter an area of uncertainty). I am therefore obliged to commence the Chronology proper at this point. I have assigned succeeding year-values in ascending order, according to measurable elapsed time.

  Although most of the given dates are believed accurate to within a very small margin, some are necessarily of a more tentative nature. I have enclosed these within parentheses.

  THE FIRST AGE

  The Spring of Arda. First war with Melkor, who is defeated. The Valar come to Almaren; raising of Illuin and Ormal. Return of Melkor and delving of Utumno, the Pit. Second War with Melkor: Almaren is destroyed and the Lamps are cast down. Founding of Valinor and raising of the Mountains of Defence. Beginning of the Great Darkness and founding of Angband.

  The Years of the Trees. Yavanna Kementári makes the Two Trees of Valinor; beginning of the Count of Time. After many ages the Quendi awake in Cuiviénen. For the sake of the Quendi the Valar make war upon Melkor. Battle of the Powers and destruction of Utumno; Melkor is imprisoned. The Eldar make the Great Journey from Cuiviénen to Aman. Foundation of Doriath in Middle-earth. Birth, in Eldamar, of Fëanor. Dwarves appear in the Blue Mountains. Building of Menegroth. Birth, in Menegroth, of Lúthien. The Nandor come to Beleriand. Release from Mandos of Melkor; he subverts the Noldor. Death of the Two Trees and slaying of Finwë. Theft of the Silmarils. Rebellion of Fëanor.

  The Sunless Year. The Kinslaying at Alqualondë and Curse of Mandos. First Battle of Beleriand. Fëanor comes to Middle-earth; he burns the Telerin ships at Losgar, abandoning Fingolfin in Araman. Battle-under-Stars in the North: Fëanor is slain. Rising of Isil (the Moon). Fingolfin and his hosts cross the northern icefields into Middle-earth after gre
at hardship. Capture of Maedhros son of Fëanor, by treachery. He is tormented upon Thangorodrim.

  Years of the Sun.

  1

  Rising of Anar (the Sun). Concealment of Valinor. Awakening of the Atani (Men) in eastern Middle-earth. Fingon son of Fingolfin rescues Maedhros from Thangorodrim. Fingolfin proclaimed High King in Exile.

  2–20

  Foundation of the Noldorin kingdoms of Beleriand.

  21

  The Feast of Reunion.

  50

  Foundation of Nargothrond.

  55

  Dagor Aglareb; the Noldor set the Siege of Angband.

  58

  Turgon begins the building of Gondolin.