The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  In this way Lotho was the key to Saruman’s control of the Shire – though once this had been accomplished, of course, Saruman had little need of him. Lotho was eventually murdered by Gríma Wormtongue, on the orders of ‘Sharkey’, in 1419 Shire Reckoning.

  Lothron – See LOTESSË.

  Loudwater – A translation of the Grey-elven word Bruinen, which was the name of the river whose two source-streams marked the ancient boundaries of Rivendell, in Eriador.

  Lugbúrz ‘Dark-tower’ (Black Speech) – The name given by Orcs and other fell creatures to the ancient Fortress of Sauron. The Dark Tower was known to the Elves and the Dúnedain as Barad-dûr, which carried the same meaning.

  Lugdush – An Orc of Isengard, one of the Uruk-hai. During the War of the Ring he was part of a raiding company led by Uglúk across northern Rohan as far as the Great River. The raid was partly successful, and the returning Uruk-hai had reached the very borders of Fangorn before being caught by the Riders of Rohan. All the Orcs perished in the subsequent battle.

  Luinil ‘Blue-star’ (Sind., from luin-êl). – One of the stars wrought by Elbereth (Varda) for the lighting of Middle-earth at the time of the Awakening in Cuiviénen.

  Lumbar (meaning not known) – As preceding entry.

  Lune – A rendering in the Common Speech of the ancient Grey-elven word Lhûn (pl. Luin), ‘Blue’. The word appears in these three different forms in the names of several features of western Eriador, including the great river (Lhûn), which arose in the far north, and the Gulf of Lune, where the river finally reached the Sea. To the north and south of the Gulf rose the Ered Luin, ‘Blue Mountains’.

  Lúthien Tinúviel – The Elven-daughter of Thingol Greycloak of Doriath and the Lady Melian of the Maiar. She is remembered as the most beautiful maiden ever to walk the earth; and she was the most beloved of all her Kindred. Yet she chose to relinquish her Elven immortality, and to share the destiny (the Gift) of Men, for the sake of a Man: Beren son of Barahir of the Edain, whose life and death were woven with hers. Thus Lúthien was lost to Elvenkind, and dwells now beyond the West, apart from all her kindred, save one. The days of Lúthien lie now in the deep past, and not all of her story is known or recorded. She was born in Menegroth, in Doriath, in the middle of that epoch of the First Age known as the Years of the Trees; and her father Elwë (Thingol), was the highest and noblest of all the Elves remaining in Middle-earth, and the mightiest ruler. Moreover, Lúthien’s mother was Melian of the Maiar, a Handmaiden of the Valier (Queens of the Valar) Vána and Estë, and akin to the great Yavanna Kementári, who of all the Valier was accounted second only to Elbereth (Varda). Lúthien’s ancestry therefore included strains of the Valar, Maiar and Eldar; it was the most illustrious Line of Descent that has ever been in Middle-earth.

  For years uncounted Lúthien grew slowly to womanhood (‘As the stars above the mists of the world was her loveliness, and in her face was a shining light’12); while across the Sea in the Undying Lands her kindred, the Falmari (Telerin Elves whose king was Lúthien’s father’s brother Olwë) came at last ashore in Aman, and made for themselves a maritime realm in northern Eldamar. During this forgotten time Middle-earth slept under starlight and Melkor lay imprisoned in the Halls of Mandos. But all things pass, and all epochs wane. The age-old peace was doomed to wither away, in rebellion and war. High-elves came back to Middle-earth to wage war on Melkor (Morgoth), who himself had already returned, to Angband which he had rebuilt. And even before Melkor’s flight from Aman his will had crossed the Sea and stirred his servants into life. Middle-earth became evil; and Beleriand was invaded. Thingol withdrew into Doriath, which Melian had already surrounded with a Girdle of enchantment, through which none could penetrate. And all this time their child had never set foot beyond the beech- and holly-forests of her homeland. Nor did Thingol intend her to, while evil roamed the lands outside.

  If events had moved differently, Thingol might have had his way; and he and Melian would not have been sundered at the last from their only daughter. But Fate did not so decree; and the coming of Melkor, which had been followed by the coming of the Noldor, was now followed by the appearance in Beleriand of altogether a new race: the Mortal Men whose awakening had long been prophesied. But though Morgoth was never able to pierce the Girdle of Melian (neither were the Noldor or indeed any other Elves), this new race possessed qualities which were not fully understood by the Quendi, or even by the Valar; and no enchantments were fully proof against them. The Edain entered the affairs of the time in dramatic fashion; and they aided the Eldar in their war; and many of them died in this cause; and at last one of them, Beren the son of Barahir of the First House, fleeing from the wartorn North, passed the Girdle, and entered Neldoreth, and there encountered the daughter of Thingol of the Grey-elves. And from that instant their fates were joined.

  The full tale of Beren and Lúthien, and their love for each other, and Thingol’s bitter opposition to the match, and the vow made by Beren in response to the (ill-omened) challenge of Thingol, and the Quest of the Silmaril, and the fulfilment of the vow, and the death, in Neldoreth, of Beren, followed by that of Lúthien – and of their return to this life, by the grace of the Valar – is, of course, the subject of the Lay of Leithian, an exceedingly long poem composed during the First Age and subsequently recorded by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins; in which form it has descended to us. This story appears in The Silmarillion (rendered into prose form), and thus requires no further re-statement. The Quest was successful, and the Silmaril was recovered (though it would have been better for all, especially Thingol, if it had not been); but Beren was slain by the Wolf of Angband; and Lúthien herself soon afterwards died of grief.

  In the Halls of Mandos they might have been separated for ever, for the fate of Men is apart from that of the Elves; and theirs was the first union between the Kindreds – a union for which no precedents then existed. But for their goodness and valour and utter faithfulness this grace was granted to them: that Lúthien might be permitted, if she so wished, to exchange her Elven-life for the mortality of Men; and, moreover, if she so chose, that she and Beren would be granted a second lifespan in mortal lands. Lúthien did so choose, and she and Beren walked again in Middle-earth, in the green and secret country of Ossiriand; and there she bore Beren a son: Dior the Beautiful. And though in due course she and Beren died for the second time, it was also granted to Lúthien that her Line should never fail. Dior was the father of Elwing, who wedded Eärendil, who bore the Silmaril out of Middle-earth and brought succour to Elves and Mortals alike. And Eärendil’s sons were Elros and Elrond. From Elros was descended Aragorn of the Dúnedain, and from Elrond Arwen Undómiel, who was said to walk in the likeness of Lúthien; and who, offered the choice of her Fore-mother, likewise relinquished her Eldarin immortality – for the love of a Mortal Man.

  See also LINES OF DESCENT.

  Lúva – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘bow’; also the title of one of the two primary brush-strokes upon which each of the Fëanorean TENGWAR (‘letters’) were constructed. The lúvar could be both open and closed, and were doubled in certain letters.

  Mablung ‘Heavy Hand’ (Sind.) – One of the Sindar of the First Age; the chief captain of the hosts of Doriath. He attended the Feast of Reuniting (Year of the Sun 21) as one of the two emissaries of Thingol Greycloak, and was at the Hunting of the Wolf Carcharoth, in Neldoreth. A few years later he and his companion-at-arms, Beleg Cúthalion, were granted permission to join the Union of Maedhros (though not to serve the Sons of Fëanor), and so came to be at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, which both somehow survived, although fighting with the host of Fingon. Afterwards both these mighty Grey-elves became enmeshed in the Doom of the Children of Húrin; but though Beleg was slain, Mablung survived. (He was the last living being to speak with Túrin Turambar.) Mablung then returned to Doriath, and was afterwards slain guarding Thingol’s treasury from pillaging Dwarves. The king himself had already perished.

  Maedhros – The eldest of the seve
n sons of Fëanor. He was born in Eldamar but joined his father’s rebellion against the Valar. He took the Oath, and participated in the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, and came back to Middle-earth in exile. Maedhros is said to have opposed the burning of the ships at Losgar – for he was a great friend of Fingon, son of Fingolfin – but shortly after this event, the host of Fëanor and his sons was attacked by Orcs from Angband (see BATTLE-UNDER-STARS), and Fëanor was mortally wounded. Maedhros thus became his heir. Yet he never became High-king of the Noldor in exile; for shortly after the Battle-under-Stars, he was captured by Morgoth, and tormented. From this dreadful predicament he was rescued by Fingon his friend. In his gratitude, and to show repentance for the abandoning of the host of Fingolfin, Maedhros himself generously and wisely proposed that the High-kingship be given to Fingon’s father Fingolfin (though not all the brothers agreed with this).

  The Noldor were now reunited, and in the years which followed the great among them chose realms for themselves, along the line of mountainous country which separated Beleriand from the North. Maedhros and the other sons of Fëanor were allocated the eastern sector of this ‘front’ (afterwards called the March of Maedhros); and Maedhros himself centred his realm on the Hills of Himring. On the tallest of these hills he built a great fortress. For many centuries he and his brothers did their part in the War; there came the day of the Dagor Bragollach, and Dorthonion was captured, and the Pass of Aglon was forced; but Himring held. Yet after a decade or so, when the impetus of the Bragollach had spent itself, and the Eldar and their allies had begun to regain lost territory, Maedhros – the mightiest in war of all the sons of Fëanor – determined to do yet more. He then formed the so-called ‘Union of Maedhros’, in reality an attempt again to unite the scattered Eldar, and defeat Morgoth in open battle. And although not all he summoned to the cause came to aid him (for the Sons of Fëanor had by now alienated many of their former allies, by bad faith and by the general malign effects of the Oath), a great army was assembled; and once more the Elves took the military initiative.

  Too soon. Dorthonion was recaptured, and the passes to east and west of this highland; but in so doing Maedhros prematurely revealed the growing strength of the Eldar, and so Morgoth was prepared. The day came of the great battle which Maedhros had so carefully planned. His own army was to manoeuvre provocatively on the desert of Anfauglith (formerly the grassland of Ard-galen) thus inviting attack from Angband – and this attack was itself intended to be countered by another Eldarin army, the host of Hithlum led by Fingon the High King. But treachery was at work in Maedhros’ camp (see ULDOR THE ACCURSED), and from the beginning things went badly wrong. Maedhros himself was hindered from opening the campaign in the planned manner, and meanwhile Morgoth successfully decoyed the host of Fingon out on to the desert, where they became gravely embroiled in a losing battle. Then Maedhros arrived – and for perhaps an hour the Eldar were closer than ever before to winning the decisive victory which would have brought them within sight of regaining the Silmarils, and fulfilment of the Oath. But again treachery played its part, as it was doomed always to do, and the host of Maedhros was taken in the rear, and destroyed, though the Sons of Fëanor escaped; and an end was come of the might of the Eldar in Middle-earth. Himring was captured, and all Beleriand lay open to the Enemy.

  For the remainder of his life in Middle-earth Maedhros had no fixed dwelling. He and his brothers wandered the Western Lands, bereft of all power to fulfil their dreadful Oath, but driven still by the need to attempt it. During this time the sons of Fëanor committed many grievous wrongs – among them the assault upon Doriath and the slaying of Dior Eluchíl, of Nimloth his wife, and of his two young sons. Maedhros had no part in this evil deed, and is said to have repented of the murders (the murderers themselves were slain); but soon afterwards, having learned of the presence of the Silmaril of Doriath at the Havens of Sirion, he himself now made war upon other Elves in an attempt to regain the Jewels. But once more the Sons of Fëanor succeeded only in causing many deaths, and much anguish; and they did not gain a single Silmaril. But at this time Eärendil sailed into the West, and the Host of the Valar came across the Sea, and Morgoth was cast down, and the lands were broken and changed. Even now the last two sons of Fëanor, Maedhros and Maglor, attempted to seize the two surviving Silmarils, by force, from the keeping of the Valar. And at last they were successful, though only at the cost of more murders. Caught and trapped, they were, nonetheless, spared, and fled, each with a single Jewel. But the Silmaril that Maedhros had taken seared his hand, and he came to the end of his endurance, for he knew himself to be defiled. And he slew himself in a deep chasm, bearing the Silmaril to his unknown grave under the earth.

  Maeglin ‘Sharp-glance’ (Sind.) – The only son of Eöl the Smith and Aredhel Ar-Feiniel the daughter of Fingolfin. In his youth he left the woods of Nan Elmoth, in East Beleriand where he had been born, and came to Gondolin, the Hidden City ruled by his mother’s brother Turgon. And in Gondolin he was given lordship and powers of command, and wealth, and the love of Turgon besides; but in the end the evil that had been planted in him at his birth worked to its fulfilment, and Maeglin betrayed the city, and so came to be accursed in the memory of the Elves.

  The evil that was in Maeglin was planted at his begetting, for his father, the smith Eöl, was an Elf of dark mood and secretive habits, jealous and misanthropic. But his mother was wilful and feckless. The combination did not immediately show itself, for Maeglin, as a young Elf, was silent and shrewd; and he withheld his mind from all, even his parents. It was at this time that he first heard of Gondolin, and of Turgon, and of the power of the Noldor; and he determined to come there and be adopted by Turgon as his heir.

  And so it nearly came to pass. Ar-Feiniel secretly quitted Nan Elmoth, and took her son with her, and they were welcomed by Turgon; and Maeglin, even as he desired, was given great honour in the Hidden City, as a prince of the highest rank. But Eöl had followed the errant pair, and also came to Gondolin; and in the ensuing interview with Turgon Eöl slew his wife – in an attempt to slay his son, who had renounced him – and was himself slain, by being cast from the hill of Gondolin. Then Maeglin, as the only descendant of the dead Ar-Feiniel, was looked upon by Turgon with even more favour, and as he had wished he became the mightiest prince of Gondolin, after the King. But he was never named as Heir. And after a long while, when it had at last become plain to him that this was being withheld from him, his ambition turned to jealousy, and his loyalty to malice.

  Yet for all this Maeglin indeed served Turgon well and faithfully throughout most of his life; indeed, he was more assiduous in enforcing the ordinances of the King than Turgon himself. And he fought bravely at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, for he was no coward – in battle. It was otherwise, however, when he was taken prisoner and threatened with torment (as indeed it might be with worthier folk); Maeglin told all he knew about the hidden entrances to Gondolin, and promised to betray the city from within, in exchange for his freedom. And so he did. Gondolin was taken, and Turgon was slain – and Maeglin himself was killed.

  Why did he act thus, and throw away all his years of waiting and patient service? Because he had discovered that he would never become the heir of Turgon. On the field of the Nirnaeth, in the last moments of the battle, Huor son of Galdor of Dor-lómin spoke with Turgon and prophesied the mingling and continuing of their Lines of Descent. Maeglin overheard these words; and it must have been bitter indeed to learn that his service would thus go unrewarded (as he himself must have put it; for by now he had forgotten the love and honour that had always been his in Turgon’s house). And it was this final quenching of his long hopes which made him susceptible to threats of the kind employed against him by his captors. In the last battle, he was slain by Tuor (the eventual Heir of Turgon), and died in a like manner to his father before, by being cast from the precipice of Amon Gwareth.

  Maglor – The second of the sons of Fëanor; and the most renowned of all Elven-minstrels, save only Da
eron of the Grey-elves. He was the composer of the Noldolantë (‘Fall of the Noldor’), the epic poem from which much of the material in The Silmarillion has been derived. Like his elder brother Maedhros, Maglor was less apt to evil than the other Sons of Fëanor – and yet he also swore the Oath, and took part in the massacre of the Teleri at Alqualondë, and thus came under the Curse of Mandos. He went back to Middle-earth in exile, as part of his father’s host. And though he fought valiantly against Morgoth, in the end he too fell into evil, being constrained by the Oath; and came to a bitter end. Yet he regained a Silmaril before he did so, and so came at least in part to fulfil his Oath before he died.

  In Beleriand, Maglor ruled the weakest part of the Elves’ northern front, strategically speaking: the area of open ground which lay between Himring and Mount Rerir and its foothills. Here were stationed many Eldarin cavalry, and Maglor commanded them. The region he thus defended became known as Maglor’s Gap. But its weakness as a place of defence was always readily apparent and many times the armies of Angband attempted to force it – sometimes with success. The Dagor Bragollach brought with it the eclipse of Maglor’s realm, and the beginning of his wandering days in Middle-earth.

  For the rest of his life in Middle-earth Maglor shared the destiny of Maedhros. They dwelled together on Himring, fought together – and lost – at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad; and afterwards found refuge where they might. Neither had any part in the slaying of Dior and the rape of Doriath, but in later years both led an equally reprehensible attack on other Elves, at the Havens of Sirion. (The reason, of course, was the presence of a Silmaril there – which their Oath demanded they seize from all who withheld it.) In this battle many Elves on both sides were slain, and Elros and Elrond, the sons of Eärendil, were taken prisoner (though well-treated, especially by Maglor); but the Silmaril escaped, and passed over Sea. Only two of the Jewels now remained in Middle-earth, and when these were taken from Morgoth, by the avenging host of the Valar, the two eldest sons of Fëanor again attempted to recapture the Jewels – and succeeded. But it was too late, as Maglor had suspected. Finding that he could not endure the touch of the single Jewel which was his portion, he cast it into the Sea, and neither he nor the Silmaril was ever seen again in Middle-earth.