Laurinquë – A golden-flowered tree of southern Númenor, believed (erroneously) to be descended from Laurelin, the Golden Tree of Valinor.
Lay of Eärendil – A poem made in the early Second Age (probably in Lindon) by an unknown minstrel, concerning the Voyage of Eärendil the Mariner, and what came of it. (It is quite unconnected, so far as is known, with ‘Eärendil Was A Mariner’, a poem composed by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins in the late Third Age.)
Lay of Leithian – The story of Lúthien Tinúviel and Beren of the Edain, the original poetic account from which all subsequent extracts or translations have been drawn. It is the second longest poem surviving from the Elder Days, and was originally composed in the Grey-elven or Sindarin language. For long it was preserved only in the memories of living Elves, but thanks largely to the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, it was eventually copied down in written form, and so has come to survive into our own day, as part of the collection of legends, poems and traditions assembled by Bilbo in Rivendell (under the ‘working’ title Translations from the Elvish).1
Leithian is a composite word which translates as ‘Release-from-Bondage’. This is indeed the recurrent theme of the Tale of Beren and Lúthien: release from the bondage of the Quest, and of Beren’s vow; release from the bondage of life in a darkened Middle-earth; release from the constraints of a Death that would have separated them for ever; and finally, release from the Circles of the World.
Lay of Lúthien – See preceding entry.
Lay of Nimrodel – An Elven-chant telling the story of the maiden NIMRODEL, who dwelt during the Third Age on the borders of Lothlórien, near the fair stream which later bore her name. The verse was said to be of Silvan (Wood-elven) origin. See also AMROTH.
Leaflock – A translation of the name FINGLAS (Sind.).
Lebennin – A province of Gondor; a wide green land which lay between the rivers Gilrain and Anduin and the lower reaches of the Erui. In the far south it was bounded by the Anduin delta and in the north by the eastern range of the Ered Nimrais, the White Mountains. Its chief city was the ancient port of Pelargir, on the Anduin.
Lebethron – A variety of tree found in Gondor, much prized by the woodwrights and carpenters of that land for the beauty and durability of its black wood.
Lefnui – The chief river of the province of Anfalas in Gondor. It rose in a great western coomb of the White Mountains and wandered gently to the Sea, its mouth forming the ‘heel’ of Cape Andrast.
Legolas ‘Green-leaf’ (Sind.) – It may seem curious that with all the mighty Elven-lords who dwelled in Rivendell at the time of the Council of Elrond, it should have been an Elf of Mirkwood who was actually chosen to represent the Elf-kindreds in the Fellowship of the Ring. Legolas was the son of King Thranduil of Mirkwood, and thus an Elven-prince of Sindarin blood; but Elves far older and mightier than he could have been chosen for the Quest and would not have refused. Yet all Elrond’s choices were apt. He selected the Company of the Ring for reasons of fellowship rather than for strength or latent power. This Fellowship was to represent each of the Free Peoples – Hobbits, Men, Dwarves and Elves – and Legolas the Elf and Gimli the Dwarf, whose road home lay in the same direction, were both chosen to journey ‘at least to the passes of the Mountains, and maybe beyond’.2 In the event both remained with the leader of the Fellowship throughout the War of the Ring.
During these travels far from his home three profound experiences deeply affected the Elf. Like all his race, Legolas was a lover of trees, and the venerable growths of Fangorn – most ancient of all forests still surviving in Middle-earth in those days – filled him with great wonder. More unusually still, his travels in the company of a Dwarf did not lead to mistrust and contention – as unhappily was all too often the case – but to its opposites: comradeship, respect and love. Finally, his journeys with Aragorn and the Grey Company brought Legolas to the seaward lands of Lebennin, where he heard for the first time the crying of gulls, stirring within his breast the ancient and mystic ‘sea-longing’ of his people.
After the conclusion of the War of the Ring and the dawning of the Fourth Age, Legolas brought Elves of the Silvan race south from Mirkwood to the uplands of Ithilien, where they dwelled for a while in the fairest province of Gondor, with the permission and blessing of the King. After the Passing of King Elessar (Year 120 Fourth Age), Legolas at last followed the desire in his heart and sailed over Sea, taking with him his great comrade, Gimli Elf-friend, Dwarf of Durin’s Line. ‘And when that ship passed an end was come in Middle-earth of the Fellowship of the Ring’.3
Legolin – A river of Ossiriand, a tributary of Gelion. Its source lay in the Blue Mountains.
Lembas (from Q. lenn-mbass ‘Journey-bread’) – The Sindarin name for a kind of travellers’ food or ‘way-bread’, baked by the Elves of Lothlórien. It resembled cram (the biscuit of the Men of Dale) in purpose but not in effect, being quite delicious and greatly sustaining, the more so if it was not mingled with other foods. It consisted of light-golden meal-cakes which kept fresh for many days if left in their mallorn-leaf wrappings. Another Quenya name was coimas, ‘bread of life’.
Note: a recently available source gives a Valinorean provenance for this waybread.4 Grown from a seed made by the Vala Yavanna, each ear was picked by hand and stored in baskets made of the dried haulms. When ready it was baked according to a secret recipe. The Eldar were discouraged from making it too freely available to other ‘speaking-peoples’, since its use stimulated a longing for Valinor which could never be requited.
Lenwë – One of the Eldar of the Great Journey, the leader of those of the Teleri – the last-comers, afterwards called Nandor – who baulked at the crossing of the Misty Mountains and thus became separated from all the other Eldar. This was the second sundering of the Elves (the first had been the division between Eldar and Avari). Lenwë remained in Wilderland, but his son Denethor, together with a more adventurous remnant of the Nandor, wandered eventually into Eriador, and later still into Beleriand, where they became known as ‘Green-elves’. Lenwë’s fate is not known.
Léod – A Lord of the Men of Éothéod and the father of Eorl the Young, first King of Rohan. Like many Men of his northern land, Léod was a great horse-tamer, but one day he chanced to capture an animal which could not be tamed and eventually threw him, thus causing his death.
Léod’s son Eorl hunted the stallion and caught him, claiming the animal’s freedom as weregild for his father’s death; this horse, Felaróf, was the first of the fabled Mearas.
Léofa ‘Beloved’ – The vernacular name given in Rohan to King BRYTTA.
Lhûn (pl. Luin) ‘Blue’ (Sind.) – See LUNE.
Light-elves – The CALAQUENDI.
Lightfoot – A horse of Rohan, the dam of Snowmane, steed of King Théoden.
Lilly Cotton – The wife of Farmer Tolman (‘Tom’) Cotton and mother of Rose Cotton, who wedded the illustrious Sam Gamgee.
Limlight – A river flowing eastwards from the northern marches of Fangorn Forest into the Anduin. It was accounted the northern border of Rohan.
Linaewen ‘Lake-of-[small]-birds’ (Sind.) – The marsh-encircled lake in the middle of Nevrast.
Lindar ‘The Singers’ (Q.) – The oldest name of the Third Kindred of the Eldar, the TELERI.
Lindir ‘One-who-sings’ (Sind.) – An Elf of Rivendell, possibly a minstrel.
Lindon ‘Land-of-Song’ (Sind.) – In origin, a name given by the exiled Noldor of Beleriand to the green, unknown (to them) country between the river Gelion and the Blue Mountains. This region was known to its inhabitants, the Green-elves, and to the Sindar, as OSSIRIAND. But the High-elves seldom crossed the lower Gelion, and the name Lindon reflects their (entirely occidental) impressions of this green, secret land, the sweet singing of whose inhabitants could be heard far across the river. (The Green-elves were a subdivision of the Nandor, a division of the Teleri, most musical of all Elves; see also FALMARI.) Consequently the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin), which the Noldor never cro
ssed during their exile, became known to them as the Ered Lindon.
But at the end of the First Age most of Beleriand was drowned or broken in the upheavals of the earth brought about by the destruction of Angband in the North; and the Sea flooded in, even between Thargelion and Ossiriand, inundating the valley of the river Ascar and the middlemost peaks of the Mountains of Lindon. Lindon then became the name given by all Elves to all the lands remaining west of the Blue Mountains. What had formerly been Thargelion became Forlindon, ‘North Lindon’, while that fragment of Ossiriand which had also escaped inundation was henceforth called Harlindon, ‘South Lindon’.
In the Second and Third Ages the Elven peoples of Lindon were a composite race made up of Noldor, Sindar, Green-elves and Falathrim, though most of the Noldor at first settled in Forlindon, under the rule of their last High King Gil-galad; while Celeborn, kinsman of Thingol of Doriath and mightiest of the surviving Sindar, ruled the Grey-elves and the other Teleri in South Lindon. But in after years, many of the Sindar migrated eastwards; and still later (c. 750 Second Age) a great number of the Noldor of Forlindon, led by Celebrimbor, also passed across the Blue Mountains to settle in Eregion near the Dwarves’ city of Moria. Gil-galad, however, remained in Lindon as High King and ruled all elves of whatever kindred who likewise did not desire to relinquish the seacoasts.
For the first thousand years of the Second Age Lindon had peace and the Eldar prospered under the rule of Gil-galad. But by the middle years of the Age, Sauron, servant of Morgoth during the Elder Days, had arisen and was plotting the overthrow of the Elves of Middle-earth. To this end he seduced the High-elves of Eregion and, by means of the Rings of Power, betrayed them. So began the War of the Elves and Sauron, in which only Lindon held out against the reborn Dark Power. In the year 1695, the hosts of Sauron rolled into Eriador; within four years they had crushed Eregion and driven Gil-galad back to the Lune – and only aid from Númenor prevented the assault which would have swept the Elves of Lindon into the Sea. Although there followed a long period of peace for the West-lands of Middle-earth, Sauron had not been destroyed; and when, at the end of the Age, he made war against the survivors of fallen Númenor, they entreated the help of Lindon. Thus Gil-galad led the Elven-folk of his land to join the Dúnedain of Arnor and Gondor in the Last Alliance against Sauron.
Ruled by Círdan the Shipwright, Lindon continued to endure throughout the Third Age which followed, though for many years her eastern border was threatened by Angmar. The arising of this evil ‘Witch-realm’ was the greatest peril faced by the peoples of Eriador during the Age, and the now-diminished Elven-hosts of Lindon gave frequent aid to the Dúnedain of Arnor in their long-fought war against the Witch-king. In the end, he was overthrown by a great feat of arms (the BATTLE OF FORNOST, 1975 Third Age), in which Elves of Lindon played a notable part. After this last great endeavour, the people of Lindon withdrew altogether from the affairs of Men and lived quietly in their green land between the Mountains and the Sea. They took little part in the War of the Ring, and maintained their realm into the Fourth Age. Lindon was thus the longest to endure of all Eldarin realms in Middle-earth.
Lindórië ‘Singer’ (Q.) – A Númenorean princess of the Line of Andúnië, sister of Eärendur and mother of Inzilbêth (wife of Ar-Gimilzôr, twenty-second King of Númenor).
Lindórinand ‘Land of the Singers’ (Q.) – An early name for the Golden Wood.
Line of Anárion – See HEIRS OF ANARION; LINES OF DESCENT.
Line of Isildur – See HEIRS OF ISILDUR; LINES OF DESCENT.
Lines of Descent – The Genealogical Tables originally provided with this entry have here been revised for the second time. The first (1978) revision was made in order to incorporate the very extensive material made available with the publication of The Silmarillion; the second (2002) to include those additions – some of them tenuous or at least unconfirmed – which have been brought to light in later sources (listed in the Foreword). In order to avoid mere duplication of the tables already available in those works, I have compressed the Lines of Descent into two charts, representing, in the first case, the ancestry of Aragorn and Arwen as it was derived from the Eldar; and in the second chart, the same Line of Descent traced from the Three Houses of the Edain.5 In addition I have shown those Lines of Descent from the Eldar and the Edain which, by Aragorn’s day, had long been extinct.
These complicated family trees contain several notable features. Firstly, the ancestry of the Peredhil (Half-elven) brothers Elros and Elrond united the bloodlines of the (Noldorin) House of Fingolfin, the (Sindarin) House of Thingol, and all Three Houses of the Edain of Beleriand. Elros Tar-Minyatur passed on this lineage, through the Dúnedain of Númenor, Arnor and Gondor, to Aragorn. But Elrond his brother wedded Celebrían daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn; their children – Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen Undómiel – were thus descended also from Finarfin of the Noldor. And the union of Aragorn and Arwen drew together all these ancient Lines of Descent.
Individuals and connections marked in grey on the first table indicate a likely ancestry for Celeborn (who afterwards wedded Galadriel of the House of Finarfin) derived from a late source.6 Of particular note is the hitherto unknown existence of a third brother to Elwë and Olwë of the Teleri, a certain Elmo, whose son, named as Galadhon, had two sons, one of whom was Celeborn; the other, named as Galathil, fathered Nimloth who wedded Dior Eluchíl son of Lúthien. Celeborn was therefore related to Elrond – and also to Aragorn – both through his great-niece Elwing the White and his daughter Celebrían; at the time of the War of the Ring he must have been venerable indeed.
The only Eldarin House which does not play a part in the composition of this royal lineage (which also, for good measure, includes a Maiarin strain) is, of course, that of Fëanor. For reasons too well known to require restatement here, this Line of Descent became accursed of the Valar, and dispossessed of the High-kingship. Six of Fëanor’s seven sons perished without issue. Only Curufin passed on his clouded ancestry, to his son Celebrimbor. But though Celebrimbor lived until the middle of the Second Age, and laboured throughout that time to repair his ancestor’s fault, he could escape neither the last fruits of Fëanor’s Oath, nor the Curse of the Valar laid upon his House long before. And all he had himself wrought in Middle-earth was brought, in the end, to nothing – and worse.
On the second Table – that of the Edain of Middle-earth and Númenor – I have marked in grey those general lines of descent of western Men about whom little is known but much may be conjectured. The tribes of Men who dwelt in Minhiriath and Enedhwaith in the Second Age – and who were driven out by the vast logging operations of the returning ‘Kings-of-Men’, later to make their homes in the White Mountains and in Dunland – were thought by many loremasters to be descendants of the Haladin of the First Age. There is clearer evidence that the Rohirrim, known to be descended from the Men of Éothéod in the far north, were therefore also derived from the people of Rhovanion, who formed a friendly bulwark for Gondor in the East throughout much of the earlier part of the Third Age, but in the end were driven out by Easterlings and the power of Dol Guldur. These in turn were believed descended from the House of Hador (Third House) in the First Age, being of those few clans and tribes of this kindred who had not departed to Númenor.
Also of note: in each of the four ‘mixed’ unions which occur in the Tables (three of the Eldar with the Edain, and one of the Maiar with the Eldar), it is the female partner who has wedded beneath her station, so to speak. Whether or not males of species were thought to be genetically incapable of crossing the bounds of kindred in this (descending) fashion is a question that must remain unanswered.
Linhir – The second most important town and port of Lebennin, a province of Gondor. It lay on the river Gilrain just below its confluence with the Serni.
Linnod ‘Rhyme’ (Sind.) – A form of Elvish word-play, which conformed to acknowledged metrical patterns.7
Lisgardh – A land of reeds at the mouths of Si
rion.
Lithe – See FORELITHE and following entry.
Lithedays – The Three Days of Lithe in the Shire referred to the three-day high-summer festival between the months of Forelithe and Afterlithe. The three days were known as – 1 Lithe, Mid-year’s Day and 2 Lithe. There were four Lithedays in a Leap Year, the extra one being called Overlithe, which followed Mid-year’s Day. Along with the Yuledays, the Lithedays provided the chief festivities of the year.
Lithlad ‘Plain-of-Ash’ (Sind.) – The arid region east of the Dark Tower, between the Barad-dûr and the northern rampart of Mordor, the Ered Lithui (‘Ashy Mountains’). Lithlad and Gorgoroth comprised the whole north-west of Mordor; the drab fields of Nurn lay to the south-east.
Little Delving – A village of the Shire, located in the Northfarthing.
Little Gelion – The more westerly of the two tributaries of the river Gelion. It rose in the Hills of Himring.
Little Kingdom – Arda.
Little People – The Periannath (Hobbits).
Loa ‘Growth’ (Q.) – The term used by the Elves when referring to their (seasonal) ‘year’ of 365 days. In contrast, their ritual ‘year’, the yén (pl. yéni) was equal to no less than 144 loa.
The loa observed six primary divisions, based upon the cycles of growth perceived in natural vegetation – above all, in trees. In Quenya, these six ‘seasons’ were: tuilë, lairë, yávië, quellë (also called lasse-lanta), hríuë and coirë. Their equivalents in the Sindarin or Grey-elven tongue were: ethuil, laer, iavas, firith (or narbeleth), rhîw and echuir. These may be translated: spring, summer, autumn, ‘fading’, winter and ‘stirring’. These ‘seasons’ were of a fixed length, with lairë and hríuë containing 72 days each, while the other four each contained 54. An additional 5 days (which did not belong to any season) brought the total to 365. The primary deficiency resulting from this system of computation was corrected by adding three extra days every twelfth year.
The Complete Tolkien Companion Page 39