The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  Note: the Horn of Buckland, given by Éomer of Rohan to Meriadoc of the Shire, was part of Scatha’s Hoard.

  Framsburg – A hill-fort of the Éothéod, built near the sources of Anduin by Fram, Frumgar’s son. It was subsequently abandoned when the Riders of Éothéod emigrated south to their new land of Rohan.

  Frár – A Dwarf of Erebor and a member of Balin’s ill-fated expedition to Moria. In 2994 Third Age, five years after the colony had proudly proclaimed Balin ‘Lord of Moria’, Orcs attacked and, according to the Book of Mazarbul, Frár then fell in defence of the Second Hall.

  Fréa – From 2645–59 Third Age, the fourth King of Rohan. He was the fourth child of Aldor the Old, and was himself already aged when he came to the kingship.

  Fréaláf Hildeson – From 2759–98 Third Age, the tenth King of Rohan and the first of the Second Line. He was born in 2726, the son of Hild, sister of Helm Hammerhand, ninth King (and last of the First Line).

  During the Long Winter (2758–9), Rohan suffered grievously, not only from famine but from invasion by Dunlendings led by Wulf, son of Freca. Wulf captured Meduseld after slaying Helm’s older son Haleth; and Helm himself perished (along with his younger son Háma) during the subsequent siege of the Hornburg. But Fréaláf and many others had meanwhile retreated into the Dunharrow; and with the thaw, he secretly descended from the mountains with a small band of comrades and recaptured Edoras, slaying Wulf and avenging his kin.

  Fréawine – From 2659–80 Third Age, the fifth King of Rohan.

  Freca – One of the chieftains of Rohan during Helm Hammerhand’s reign. His possession of wide lands near the river Adorn gave Freca virtual independence of the King, and he grew contemptuous of Helm’s authority. In 2754 Third Age, he deigned to attend one of Helm’s councils, but only for the purpose of procuring a marriage between the King’s daughter and his own son Wulf. Helm refused – for in addition to his other defects, (it was said that) Freca had much Dunlendish blood in his veins. Insults followed and Freca was slain by Helm’s own hand. Freca’s followers then made alliance with the Dunlendings and four years later invaded the Mark in great strength.

  Fredegar Bolger – Frodo Baggins’ distant relative and close friend. Although he took no part in their journey, Fredegar greatly assisted Frodo’s party by concealing their departure from the Shire as long as possible, thus (unknowingly) putting himself in great danger.

  Later, during Saruman’s occupation of the Shire, Fredegar rekindled his courage and organised a resistance movement in the Brockenborings, in the northern part of the Eastfarthing. When finally captured by Saruman’s men, Fredegar was imprisoned in the Michel Delving lockholes until eventually released by his returning friends. He was harshly treated during this incarceration and lost both a great deal of weight and his (hitherto well-merited) nickname of ‘Fatty’.

  Free Fair – The seven-yearly event held on the White Downs near Michel Delving in the Shire, during the three days of Lithe (Midsummer). Among the other attractions of the Fair was the election of the Mayor of Michel Delving, the Shire’s most important official.

  Free Folk, Free Peoples – Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Hobbits and Men.

  Frerin – A Dwarf of Erebor; the younger son of Thráin II, and brother of Thorin Oakenshield and Dís (mother of Fíli and Kíli). With his father, brother, sister and grandfather (King Thrór), Frerin escaped the attack on Erebor made by Smaug the Golden in 2770 Third Age, afterwards going into exile with his family.

  As is recounted elsewhere (see WAR OF THE DWARVES AND ORCS), the ignoble death of Thrór brought all Seven Houses of Dwarves together for a war of revenge upon the Orcs of Moria. In the Battle of Azanulbizar (2799), Frerin fell, together with his kinsman Fundin, during the first assault of the Dwarves upon the Orcs.

  Frery – See AFTERYULE.

  Friend-of-Men – A translation of Atandil (Q.), or Edennil (Sind.). One of the titles awarded (by Men) to the Noldorin prince FINROD FELAGUND.

  Friend of the Noldor – A Noldorin title for the Smith of the Valar, Aulë, who is said to have taught them great craft-lore in their earliest days in Valinor.

  Frodo Baggins – The tale of the Downfall of the Lord of the Rings is, of course, in essence the story of the Hobbit Frodo Baggins and his selfless undertaking of the Quest of Mount Doom on behalf of all the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. That tale is told in great detail elsewhere (and in such superb style) that it would be unnecessary – and impertinent – to attempt any précis of it here. In any case, it is assumed that readers of this Companion are already familiar with Frodo’s odyssey; and that admiration for his exploits has prompted them to take a deeper interest in the historical context in which his journey took place. This entry will therefore be confined to setting in order Frodo’s biographical details and noting his literary accomplishments, which were considerable (if not undertaken with the same academic enthusiasm which prompted his cousin Bilbo to become the foremost Hobbit scholar of his Age).

  Frodo Baggins was born in 2968 Third Age (1368 Shire Reckoning) in Buckland, to Drogo, great-grandson of Balbo Baggins, and Primula, youngest child of Gorbadoc ‘Broadbelt’ Brandybuck, of Brandy Hall. When he was twelve, his father and mother were both drowned in a boating accident; and some years later Frodo was adopted by his cousin. At that time the renowned Bilbo Baggins, still unmarried and therefore without an heir to his considerable fortune, was ninety-nine years old, and had been living quietly for some forty years following his unexpected return from the East. So when Frodo was twenty-one, the kindly old Hobbit invited him to leave the Buckland and join him in his luxurious Hobbiton smial. Both Hobbits shared the same birthday, September 22nd, and were, in addition, related; so the arrangement worked very well – until the day of Bilbo’s 111th birthday (and Frodo’s 33rd, his ‘coming of age’), when Bilbo departed from the Shire, leaving most of his belongings and property to his heir.

  It is not recorded anywhere that Frodo ever felt anything other than deeply grateful towards the old Hobbit; and, for his part, Bilbo thought Frodo the best Hobbit in all the Shire – though he little realised how vital his judgement of character might someday prove. Frodo indeed took strongly after Bilbo, and outwardly continued his benefactor’s reputation for eccentricity during the seventeen years he lived alone in Bag End. Like Bilbo, Frodo had a strong element of Fallohidish blood in his veins; and this distressingly adventurous tendency surfaced in the form of long, solitary walks across the Shire, and (some said) occasional encounters with Elves. In short, he rapidly became thought of as the heir to ‘Mad Baggins’ in all respects. So when, in his fiftieth year, Frodo suddenly announced he was selling Bag End to return to the Buckland, there was some consternation in the neighbourhood but little real surprise. The Hobbiton folk, of course, had no idea of the real reasons for Frodo’s quitting the Shire; and few of them ever learned of his subsequent deeds on their behalf. Indeed, so far as Hobbits were concerned, the War of the Ring was largely a matter of expelling from the Shire the undesirable elements which had occupied it following Frodo’s departure. And their later gratitude was chiefly given to those (i.e. Meriadoc, Peregrin and Samwise) who took leading roles in stimulating this desirable turn of events.

  Obviously, little more need be said here of Frodo’s many adventures following the departure from Buckland in September of 1418 Shire Reckoning. His Quest achieved, Frodo returned to the Shire little more than a year after setting out. But he did not take a leading role in the Reconstruction that followed (apart from serving as Deputy Mayor for a short time); and as soon as he could, Frodo once more settled down to a quiet life in Bag End. At this point he commenced his writing, and for the next year or so occupied his days in composing his part of the Tale of the Ring – and reorganising various (incomplete) volumes of Bilbo’s, bequeathed to him for this very purpose.

  Yet Frodo’s own account was later found to be a work of great literary merit, and for this reason alone his contribution to the store of Shire-learning must be considered of great valu
e. Particularly apt were his translations from Elvish speech, for his old skill with languages had never deserted him, being exceeded in the Shire only by Bilbo’s. Bilbo himself was a true scholar – and Meriadoc Brandybuck became an extremely competent etymologist and botanist – but Frodo eschewed all such academic bypaths and confined his writing to a single (extremely clear and moving) account of the War of the Ring, which he titled, modestly enough: The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King (as seen by the Little People; being the memoirs of Bilbo and Frodo of the Shire, supplemented by the accounts of their friends and the learning of the Wise). This account forms the core of the Red Book of Westmarch, which is itself the most valuable surviving source of information concerning the Third Age.

  Frodo, of course, passed over Sea only two years after returning to the Shire that he loved. As a Ring-bearer this was his privilege – yet his words to Sam Gamgee reveal some of the loss he must have felt in leaving:

  I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so … when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.9

  Frodo departed Middle-earth at the age of only fifty-two, on his (and Bilbo’s) birthday, September 22nd, 1421 Shire Reckoning.

  Frodo Gardner – The eldest son of Samwise Gamgee, and the heir to Bag End. In token of his father’s famed skills, he took the name Gardner; the family rose to prominence during the Fourth Age.

  ‘Frodo’s Dreme’ – See ‘THE SEA-BELL’.

  Frogmorton – An Eastfarthing village situated on the Great Road.

  Frór – The second son of Dáin I, Dwarf-king of the Grey Mountains colony. Together with his father, Frór was killed by a COLD-DRAKE at the gate of the Dwarves’ Hall (2589 Third Age). Soon afterwards, Durin’s people forsook the Ered Mithrin (Grey Mountains).

  Frumgar – The chieftain who led the Éothéod from their original home near the Gladden to their new Northern lands, following the overthrow of Angmar and the cleansing of those regions (1977 Third Age).

  Fuinur ‘Dark-lord’ (Sind.) – One of the BLACK NÚMENOREANS of the middle Second Age. He and another lord, Herumor, went to Middle-earth during the Accursed Years, and so fell under Sauron’s dominion. Their names are recorded because they afterwards went to the lands of Harad, and became great among the Haradrim. In this way Sauron’s will was set to work among the Men of the South, transmitted thence by two Men of the West.

  Fundin – The son of Farin of Durin’s House, and the father of Balin and Dwalin. Together with countless other Dwarves, he fell in the Battle of Azanulbizar (2799 Third Age).

  Further Shores – A translation of the ancient Sindarin word Haerast: the coast of Aman the Blessed. See also NEVRAST.

  Gabilgathol ‘Great-fortress’ (Khuz.) – The original Dwarvish name for the city under the Blue Mountains known to Elves as BELEGOST.

  Galabas – In the original (as opposed to translated) Hobbit tongue, Galabas was the name of an ancient Shire-village. The elements contained in the name are galab (‘game’) and bas (‘village’ or ‘farm’). This name has been translated from the Red Book as Gamwich. See also GAMGEE.

  Galadhon – A Telerin Elf of the Elder Days; the son of Elmo and father of Celeborn. See LINES OF DESCENT.

  Galadhrim ‘People-of-the-Trees’ (Sind.) – The Elves of Lothlórien; known as the Galadhrim to their northern kin because of their age-old practice of dwelling amid the branches of the great mellyrn (mallorn-trees) of their land. The chief settlement of the ‘Tree-people’ was Caras Galadhon, ‘City of the Trees’.

  Galador – From 2004–2129 Third Age, the first Lord of Dol Amroth in Gondor. He was the son of a Númenorean mariner, Imrazôr of Belfalas and (it was said) the silvan elf-lady Mithrellas, who had been a companion of Nimrodel during the ill-fated crossing of the White Mountains (1980 Third Age). Having borne her husband two children, Mithrellas slipped away and was seen no more. It is this tale which is the origin of the legend of elven-blood in the lineage of the Princes of Dol Amroth.

  Galadriel ‘Radiantly-garlanded [crowned]-maiden’ (Sind., from Q. Altariel) – One of the most royal princesses of the Noldor of Tirion; daughter and youngest child of Finarfin son of Finwë the King, and sister of Finrod, Orodreth, Angrod and Aegnor. For reasons of her own, unconnected with the theft of the Silmarils, Galadriel was a leader of those rebellious Noldor who forsook the Blessed Realm towards the end of the First Age. Alone of the children of Finarfin, Galadriel survived that ill-fated expedition. She afterwards repented and spent the two full Ages of her continuing exile aiding the cause of the Free Peoples against Evil. At the time of the War of the Ring she was the mightiest of the Eldar remaining in Middle-earth, and the oldest and bitterest foe of the Dark Lord.

  The history of Galadriel has been confused by a number of late sources1 which furnish many details of her life which were hitherto unknown, but are in a number of cases difficult to reconcile with other known facts of Galadriel’s life. For example, far greater importance has been allocated to her in the tale of the rebellion of Fëanor than had previously been supposed – she is said to have been a bitter foe of Fëanor even in Eldamar and had actually fought against him at Alqualondë. Her desire to leave Aman for Middle-earth was independently conceived, in no degree rebellious in intent, and unhappily co-incidental with the far greater exodus of the vengeful Noldor, with whom she became entangled and so came under the same ban of Exile.2

  Galadriel spent much of her early exile dwelling with Melian in Doriath; and from the Maia she learned much wisdom. Before the ending of the Age she wedded her cousin Celeborn of Doriath, a lord of Grey-elves and kinsman of Thingol Greycloak.3 When the Valar prohibited her return to Eldamar, Galadriel ‘replied proudly that she had no wish to do so’4. Early in the Second Age she and Celeborn journeyed to Harlindon, where they dwelt for many years. Sometime later they went eastwards to Eregion, a colony of High-elven craftsmen founded in 750 Second Age. For a while they lived with the Elven-smiths of that land,5 but eventually they passed further east across the Misty Mountains to Wilderland, where Celeborn made a realm among the Wood-elves of Laurelindórenan (Lothlórien).6 The Golden Wood became a secret place, hidden even from the knowledge of the other Elves; for while the Power that dwelt there could not be concealed, few indeed perceived its true source, or suspected that one of the mighty among the Noldor still lingered in Middle-earth.

  In the event, the long years of sorrow and exile passed at last and, as a reward for all her work against Sauron, but above all for her rejection of the Ring when it came within her power, Galadriel was finally allowed to leave Middle-earth and return ‘West-over-Sea’. She took ship with the Ring-bearers in the last year of the Third Age.

  See also NAMÁRIË.

  Galathil – The grandson of Elmo of the Teleri and brother of Celeborn; he was the father of Nimloth, who wedded Dior, Thingol’s heir.

  Galathilion ‘Radiant-Holy-Moons’ (Sind.) – The Grey-elves’ name for the White Tree of Tirion. This holiest symbol of the Calaquendi of Eldamar was itself a descendant of Telperion, the Silver Tree of the Valar. Eldest of Trees, which, together with Laurelin (the Golden Tree), had once illuminated the land of the Valar. Galathilion grew beneath the Mindon Eldaliéva (the Tower of Ingwë) in a high, open courtyard, but unlike Telperion, gave no light. Its immediate descendant was Celeborn of Eressëa.

  Galbasi – In the original (as opposed to translated) Hobbit-tongue, Galbasi (later Galpsi) meant ‘One-from-[the-village-of-]Galabas’. As Galabas is itself translated as Gamwich, Galbasi has become the Hobbit-name Gammidgy, or Gamgee, in English translations of the Red Book.

  Galdor – An Elf of the Grey Havens, sent as an emissary by Círdan the Shipwright to Rivendell, where he took part in the Council of Elrond (3018 Third Age).

  Galdor the Tall – The elder son of Hador Lórindol of the Third House of the Edain, brother of Gundor and the maiden Gloredhel. He was the Heir of Hador, and when his father peris
hed at the Battle of Sudden Flame, Galdor became Lord of Dor-lómin and Chieftain of the Third House. Earlier, he had wedded Hareth daughter of Halmir, Chieftain of the Haladin (the Second House of the Edain); shortly afterwards she had borne him the first of his two heroic sons, Húrin; and then, a year later, Huor. Thirteen years after the birth of Huor war again broke out in the north – the Battle of Sudden Flame – and the Men of Dor-lómin were driven from Ard-galen, though not from the fortress of Eithel Sirion, which they garrisoned on behalf of the Noldor of Mithrim. But in the defence of the tower Hador Lórindol fell at last, and Galdor his elder son then became Lord of Dor-lómin. But after a short time Morgoth again unleashed war. Hithlum was attacked; and Galdor was slain by an arrow: like his father, in a final defence of Eithel Sirion. He had ruled for barely seven years. He was succeeded in Dor-lómin by his elder son Húrin.

  Galenas – The name given in Gondor to the flowering herb known to Hobbits as ‘Pipe-weed’; more properly, sweet galenas. In the South-kingdom this plant was esteemed only for the fragrance of its flowers, and its other properties were quite unknown.

  Gálmód ‘Sour-natured’ – The father of Gríma Wormtongue, counsellor to King Théoden of Rohan.

  Galpsi – A later form of the (original) Hobbit-name GALBASI.

  Galvorn ‘Gleaming-black’ (Sind.) – A hard black alloy, devised in the Elder Days by the great Elven-smith EÖL. This ‘Dark-Elf’ had much to do in his time with the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, and as a result had acquired great skills in the craft of metalwork. Though not perhaps the equal of Fëanor or the smiths of the Noldor, he became as skilled as any Dwarf. Strangely, all the metals Eöl devised or discovered were coloured black. Galvorn was stronger than iron yet at the same time far less brittle. Eöl is said to have made his own personal body-armour from this sombre metal.