The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  Holman the Greenhanded – The fabled Hobbit-gardener of Hobbiton, founder of the renowned Greenhand clan (through his son Halfred Greenhand).

  Holy Mountain – Oiolossë.

  Horn – A knight of the Household of King Théoden of Rohan, slain in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (March, 3019 Third Age).

  Hornblower – A Southfarthing family of Shire-hobbits.

  Hornburg – The principal fortress of Helm’s Deep, built early in the Third Age by Men of Gondor (when it had been called Aglarond) and later strengthened by Kings of Rohan. It commanded the entrance to the Deep, being situated upon a spur of rock which dominated the Deeping fortifications. The Hornburg consisted of a single tower or keep, surrounded by high walls of stone; its name stemmed from the fact that ‘a trumpet sounded upon the tower echoed in the Deep behind, as if armies long forgotten were issuing to war.’5 See also BATTLE OF THE HORNBURG.

  Horn-call of Buckland – Although Hobbits of the Shire were generally rather complacent about possible dangers from ‘outside’, their kinfolk living in Buckland, on the far side of the river, did not as a rule share this sense of security. The High Hay was one indication of the greater precautions Bucklanders took against unauthorised entry; they also preserved the habit of locking their doors at night, and maintained an ancient general alarum, a swooping horn-call, only blown at times of urgent need.

  House of Durin – The descendants of Durin the Deathless, greatest of all Dwarves.

  House of Elros – The line of the Kings of Númenor, commenced by ELROS TAR-MINYATUR and ended with Tar-Palantír. Ar-Pharazôn was a usurper, from a junior branch of this dynasty.6

  House of Eorl – The Eorlingas, ‘Sons-of-Eorl’; the Line of the Kings of Rohan, descended from Eorl the Young, last Lord of Éothéod and first King of the Mark.

  House of Hador – The Third House of the Edain. See HADOR.

  House of Húrin – The Line of the RULING STEWARDS of Gondor, descended from Húrin of Emyn Arnen, Steward to Minardil (twenty-fifth King) and a man of noble ancestry. The Stewardship later became largely hereditary and, after Steward Pelendur, the Rod of Office passed as a matter of course to the eldest son. The banner of the House was plain silver with no device or marking.

  House of Ransom – A translation of the Sindarin words BAR-EN-DANWEDH.

  House of the Golden Flower (of Gondolin) – See GLORFINDEL.

  Houses of the Dead – The HALLS OF MANDOS.

  Houses of the Edain – The Three Kindreds of the Atani, the Elf-friends, who came across the Blue Mountains into Beleriand before the end of the First Age and fought Morgoth as allies of the Eldar. The First House was that led into Beleriand by Bëor the Old; the Second was the people known as the Haladin. The Third was that kindred led into Beleriand by the chieftain Marach. This was the most numerous and hardy of all the Houses of the Edain, but it afterwards became known as the House of Hador after its greatest chieftain, Hador Lórindol.

  The First House, the People of Bëor, dwelt for a while in Estolad, but later journeyed for the most part into the far north, to Dorthonion, where in Ladros they made a realm in alliance with Angrod and Aegnor, of the House of Finarfin. They were savagely attacked during the Dagor Bragollach, and though they maintained a presence there for some few years afterwards, were eventually overwhelmed and driven out. The survivors came eventually to Brethil, where they sought sanctuary among the Haladin, and to Dor-lómin, where they were received by Hador’s people. But Barahir, their last chieftain, and all who remained with him, were slain, save Barahir’s son BEREN, who of all the First House is the most renowned in song and story.

  The Haladin, as is told elsewhere, came by dangerous paths to Brethil, west of Doriath, and there founded a woodland realm. But though in later days many grievous affairs touched them, they remained unconquered by Morgoth. The most renowned of this Kindred of Men is the lady HALETH, who led her people on the perilous journey, from Thargelion – where the Haladin had been well nigh wiped out – to West Beleriand.

  The Third House was the most renowned in the wars with Morgoth. HADOR LÓRINDOL (‘the Goldenhaired’) was the first Lord of Dor-lómin, and the chief ally of Fingolfin the High King of the Noldor. Warriors of his House served the Noldor, and garrisoned the most dangerous outpost of all, the Eithel Sirion. Hador himself was slain during the Dagor Bragollach, in defence of this fortress, and GALDOR THE TALL, his elder son, then took the lordship of his House. Galdor fell in battle seven years after his father, and was succeeded by HÚRIN THALION, his own elder son. And Húrin – the greatest warrior of all the Edain of the First Age – led the last stand of the Men of Dor-lómin at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, in which his brother Huor was slain; but was himself captured and grievously used by Morgoth. Dor-lómin fell to the enemy, and the survivors of the Third House were enslaved by Easterlings allied to Morgoth.

  Most tragic of all the heroic Edain of the First Age was TÚRIN TURAMBAR. Túrin’s grandfather Galdor had wedded Hareth of the Haladin; their sons were Húrin and Huor. Húrin wedded Morwen Eledhwen of the First House – and their children were Túrin and Nienor. The blood of all Three Houses therefore ran in Túrin’s veins. (His story is told in many places and needs no recapitulation here.)

  TUOR son of Huor was similarly descended, for his father had wedded Rían daughter of Belegund of the First House; she was the cousin of Morwen Eledhwen. But Tuor’s story is happier than that of his cousins Túrin and Nienor: and through him the blood-lines of all Three Houses of the Edain, allied with the House of Fingolfin of the Noldor, were passed on, and survived the Wars, and became linked with the descent from Thingol and Lúthien, and (after the passing of two full Ages) with the Line of Finarfin, becoming the most royal of the LINES OF DESCENT of Middle-earth.

  Hrávë ‘Flesh’ (Q.).

  Hrívë (Q.) – The fifth of the six ‘seasons’ of the ancient High-elven loa or year. Hrívë (Sind. rhîw) corresponded to winter (although the Eldarin loa actually concluded with a further ‘season’: coirë, ‘stirring’). See also CALENDAR OF IMLADRIS.

  Hröa ‘Body, garment’ (Q.) – The Eldarin conception of an individual ‘person’ divided it into two components: the hröa, or corporeal part, and the fëa, or spirit.7

  Huan ‘Mighty-Hound’ (Sind.) – The Hound of Valinor, the greatest and noblest dog ever to walk in Middle-earth, Companion of Beren and Lúthien, and Slayer of the Wolf Carcharoth. He was in his origins the Hound of the Vala Oromë; but far back in the Elder Days Oromë gave him to Celegorm of the Noldor; and Celegorm, when he came to Middle-earth in exile, brought the great animal with him.

  Huan served his second master faithfully for many hundreds of years. But the Hound was not fated to remain with Celegorm. For during the years which followed the Dagor Bragollach (and the dispossession of Celegorm), his path was crossed by Lúthien and Beren; as a result of these encounters Huan abandoned Celegorm, who had now fallen into evil ways, and allied himself to Beren and Lúthien – and indeed without his aid they could never have entered Angband, nor stolen a Silmaril in fulfilment of the vow made by Beren to Lúthien’s father Thingol. During these adventures Huan slew many foes – among them the Werewolf-lord Draugluin – and with his enchantments enabled his companions to escape detection. But at the ending of the quest, there came a meeting long prophesied – with the greatest Wolf of all, Carcharoth. Huan fought and slew the Wolf of Angband, but was himself mortally wounded in the fight, as indeed was Beren of the Edain.

  Hunthor – One of the Haladin; he was a companion of Túrin Turambar in the expedition against the Dragon Glaurung, but was killed – by accident – before he had been able to strike a blow.

  Huor – The younger son of Galdor of Dor-lómin and brother of HÚRIN THALION. Huor wedded Rían, daughter of Belegund (of the First House of the Edain); their son was Tuor, who wedded Idril Turgon’s daughter. Huor himself did not live to see this, for he was slain, fighting valiantly alongside his brother, at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. But through him the House of Had
or was perpetuated, and linked with still mightier Houses, of the Eldar.

  Huorns – Sentient trees (or possibly regressed Ents) of Fangorn Forest, who dwelt only in the deepest dales of that land. Like the Great Willow of the Old Forest in Eriador, they were ‘limb-lithe’ and could move very swiftly from place to place, wrapped in tree-shadow. They were extremely dangerous – most of all to Orcs, whom they hated with an unbridled passion. Huorns were, however, under the control of true Ents.

  Húrin Thalion – The greatest warrior of all the Edain of the First Age, Lord of Dor-lómin after Galdor his father, brother of Huor, and father of Túrin Turambar and Nienor ‘Niniel’. He was born in Dor-lómin, in the house of his father, some 15 years before the Dagor Bragollach, in a time of peace. Both he and his younger brother Huor represented a mingling of the chiefly lines of descent of both the Second and Third Houses of the Edain, for their mother was Hareth of the Haladin. But when Húrin was still young, Morgoth unleashed sudden war, and both the sons of Galdor went east to fight. As is told elsewhere, they escaped capture (or worse) and came by lofty paths to the Hidden City of Gondolin, the first of all Men to do so (though not the last), and so became known to Turgon the king. Thus the foundations were laid of an alliance which would outlast the Age.

  Returning to Dor-lómin, to the house of Galdor their father, the brothers refused to reveal where they had been. (Nevertheless, before long, word came to Morgoth of the mysterious disappearance of these young princes of Men; and for the first time he paid attention to Húrin.) It was at about this time that Galdor was slain in a sudden attack upon Hithlum; but Húrin took the leadership and briskly repelled the invaders. He was now Lord of Dor-lómin. Eight years later he led the entire warriordom of his realm to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, to fight on behalf of the High King in the set-piece battle which was intended to crush Morgoth’s armies for ever. But it was the Eldar and the Edain who were destroyed on that dreadful day; and only by the valour of the Men of Dor-lómin, led by Húrin and Huor, was anything at all saved from the wreck. For they covered the retreat of the army of Gondolin. Huor and all the Edain who were in that rearguard were killed; but Húrin fought to the last. Then he was captured (by the special order of Morgoth) and brought, a prisoner, to Angband.

  There is no need to dwell on the horror of that place, nor the steadfastness with which Húrin faced his chief Enemy. So high was his courage that Morgoth forbore to have him tortured, for he knew that this warrior of Men would defy him to the last. Instead, therefore, he cursed Húrin, and his children, and set him in a high place, chained to a chair of stone, to watch the world wheel by; while in the world beyond, Morgoth’s forces went whither they would, reaping the last fruits of the Nirnaeth.

  For twenty-eight years Húrin ‘the Steadfast’ (Thalion, a surname bestowed upon him by the Eldar, carries this meaning) endured his slow torment. Then he was released, to go where he might. This was not charity, for Morgoth hated him as much as ever; yet he knew that Húrin might yet betray a secret or two – or worse – if left to wander.

  And so it proved. Húrin came to Gondolin – for whom he had fought to the last, beyond all hope for himself – and inadvertently revealed its whereabouts to Morgoth’s spies. Then he went to Nargothrond and found it a ruin; and then to Brethil, where he learned of the fates which had overtaken his son and daughter – and found again his wife Morwen, whom he had not seen for nearly thirty years; and he held her in his arms before she died, of grief and long weariness. Then Húrin’s bitterness was complete. Finally he journeyed to Doriath to reproach Thingol for the fate of his kin, but repented of his anger and departed, never again to be seen by any Elf or Man. Soon afterwards he slew himself, the last victim of the curse upon his line. Here indeed was a man who deserved a better fate.8

  Húrin of Emyn Arnen – The founder of the House of the Stewards of Gondor (and the Steward to Minardil, twenty-fifth King). See RULING STEWARDS.

  Húrin I – From 2204–44 Third Age, the fifth Ruling Steward of Gondor.

  Húrin II – From 2605–28, the fourteenth Ruling Steward of Gondor.

  Húrin the Tall – The Warden of the Keys of Minas Tirith and the chief official of that City (after the Steward). During the War of the Ring, he commanded the City while the Army of Gondor advanced to the Black Gate of Mordor.

  Hwesta – The Quenya (or High-elven) name for ‘breeze’, but more properly, the title of Tengwa number 12, which represented the voiceless w sound (as in white). In Sindarin (or Grey-elven) usage, this letter was employed to indicate the (harder) sound chw.

  Hwesta Sindarinwa – The title of Tengwa number 34, one of the additional (i.e. later) letters of the Fëanorian alphabet. Like letter 12 (see previous entry), it represented the sound of voiceless w, being an alternative for this letter used only by the Grey-elves – as the Sindar employed the older letter 12 to signify the typically Grey-elven sound chw.

  Hyarmen – The Quenya name for ‘south’; also the title of Tengwa number 33, which represented the sound hy in those languages which required it. It also stood for (directional) South, even to those peoples who did not speak Quenya and had not learned the Tengwar.

  Hyarmendacil I (born Ciryaher) – From 1015–1149 Third Age, the fifteenth King of Gondor, the last of her four ‘Ship-kings’, and the mightiest war-leader in Gondor’s history. Ciryaher’s father, Ciryandil, was slain by the Haradrim, in 1015, at the beginning of the long siege of Umbar, which had been repossessed by Gondor some eighty years before. However, since Umbar could not be captured while Gondor commanded the seas, the new king awaited a propitious moment before attempting to raise the siege by counter-attack. By the year 1050 Gondor’s strength was rebuilt, and Ciryaher crossed the Harnen with a great army; while at the same time, his fleets disembarked another host on the coasts of the Harad. The Haradrim were so severely defeated in the ensuing battle that for several centuries afterwards they posed no further threat to the South-kingdom. To celebrate this victory, one of the greatest in Gondor’s history, Ciryaher adopted the royal name Hyarmendacil, ‘Victor-of-the-South’.

  Hyarmendacil II (born Vinyarion) – From 1540–1621 Third Age, the twenty-fourth King of Gondor. Like his most illustrious forbear, he won a great victory over the Men of Harad (in the year 1551); and in token of this, Vinyarion took the royal name Hyarmendacil II.

  Hyarmentir ‘Guardian-of-the-South’ (Q.) – The name given in Eldamar to the second highest of all the Pelóri, the great mountain which stood far to the south, opposite the land of Avathar.

  Hyarnustar ‘Southwestlands’ (Q.) – The south-westerly cape-province of Númenor.9

  Hyarrostar ‘Southeastlands’ (Q.) – The south-easterly cape-province of Númenor.10

  Iant Iaur ‘Old Bridge’ (Sind.) – The Bridge of Esgalduin; where the traveller crossed from the dreadful valley of Nan Dungortheb into the more peaceful land of Dor Dínen. A league to the south lay the northern eaves of Neldoreth, protected from all evil by the unseen Girdle of Melian. The Elven-river Esgalduin, the river of Doriath, also possessed virtues which hindered the crossing of evil.

  Iarwain Ben-adar ‘Old Fatherless’ (Sind.) – The oldest of all names given to that being known to Buckland Hobbits as ‘Tom Bombadil’.

  lavas – See YAVIË.

  Ibun – One of the ‘Lesser-Dwarves’ (Noegyth Nibin) of Beleriand; he was a son of MÎM.

  Ice Bay of Forochel – An enormous bay which cut deep into the shores of northern Middle-earth. An almost permanently frozen waste, it lay over the evil realm of Angband, drowned under the Sea in the cataclysms of the War of Wrath (between the Valar and Morgoth) at the end of the First Age. See also LOSSOTH.

  Note: on early maps of Middle-earth, the name of the Ice Bay is placed in a misleading location, indicating only its southernmost inlet.

  Idril Celebrindal – The daughter of King Turgon of Gondolin; she became the wife of TUOR, one of the royal Edain – in one of the only three unions ever to take place between Elves and Men – and bore him a so
n: Eärendil. Together with her husband and her infant son, she escaped from Gondolin during its last hours, and came, after much wandering, to the small Elf-colony which was secretly being maintained in the south of Beleriand, near the Sirion delta. Here, in Arvernien, she dwelt thereafter with Tuor and Eärendil, until Tuor became old; and then, with him, Idril went aboard the ship Eärrámë and sailed into the West, to be lost to the tales of the Elves. But the Line of Gondolin was passed by her to her son Eärendil, and he passed it to his sons Elros and Elrond, and they to all who came after.

  Note: her surname Celebrindal means ‘Silver-foot’ in the Grey-elven tongue.

  Illuin – The name given by Eldarin tradition to the more northerly of the two Lamps of the Valar, made at the Beginning of Arda to light the world. The other Lamp was Ormal, in the southern reach of Arda; Illuin stood in the north; its form was that of a huge mountain, from the summit of which blazed the Lamp itself. This, like Ormal, had been wrought by the Smith of the Valar, Aulë. Both Lamps, together with their pillars, were destroyed by Morgoth (Melkor as he was then known), in a war against the Valar which broke out long before even the first Elves had walked in Middle-earth. The resulting destruction was immense. Where hitherto the Mountain of Illuin had stood, there afterwards stretched a great lake or inland sea. Its name was Helcar. Illuin and Ormal were never rebuilt, and the Valar, whose first dwelling in Middle-earth (Almaren) had also been destroyed, now removed to Aman in the West, where they founded Valinor. The ‘Blessed Realm’ was lit, not by Lamps, but by the Two Trees; but Middle-earth was illuminated during all this time by nothing more than ancient starlight. Only after the destruction of the Two Trees did the Valar again devise some method of bringing light to Middle-earth.

  Ilmarë – One of the Maiar. She was the Handmaid of Varda (Elbereth).