The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  Nenning – A river of West Beleriand. It rose south of Nevrast, and flowed due south for forty leagues before finding the Sea at the Haven of Eglarest.

  Nenuial – The name of this northern lake was derived from two separate Sindarin elements: nen, meaning ‘lake’ or ‘large-water’, and aduial, the Grey-elven equivalent of the High-elven word for twilight, Undomë (‘Star-opening’). Nenuial therefore means ‘Lake Twilight’ or ‘Lake Evendim’.

  The lake was situated in the north of Eriador, near the seat of the ancient Kingdom of Arnor, founded by Elendil the Tall before the ending of the Second Age. It lay open only to the east, being sheltered by the Hills of Evendim from the winds which blew from the north and west; and in shape it was like the Mirrormere in faraway Dimrill Dale, being a spearhead thrust south-west into the hills. On its southern shore stood Elendil’s fair city of Annúminas, capital of Arnor until the heirs of Elendil abandoned the Hills of Evendim and fortified themselves further east. In the Fourth Age Annúminas was rebuilt and the Kings of Gondor and Arnor again dwelt there beside Nenuial’s deep blue waters.

  Nenya – The Ring of Waters, sometimes called the Ring of Adamant after the stone set in it; one of the Three Rings of the Elven-kings made by Celebrimbor in Eregion during the late sixteenth century of the Second Age. Nenya was the only one of the Three to remain with its original owner, for Celebrimbor himself gave it to the Lady Galadriel; and though it was necessarily kept hidden throughout the Second Age, Nenya was later used by her to heal those parts of Middle-earth where her writ still ran. Nenya was made from mithril and set in it was a diamond; it shone like a star.

  Nerdanel – A princess of the Noldor of Eldamar; she was the daughter of the great smith Mahtan of Tirion, and the wife of Fëanor. Her sons were Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Curufin, Caranthir, Amrod and Amras. Nerdanel was wiser than her husband, but gradually they drew apart as jealousy and fear grew within him; and she had no part in his rebellion, being among those of the Noldor who remained in Tirion under the rule of Finarfin.

  Nerwen ‘Man-maiden’ (Q.) – The secondary name (epessë) given to Galadriel in Eldamar by her mother Eärwen.

  Nessa – One of the Queens of the Valar (the Valier); she was the sister of Oromë the Hunter, the patroness of deer, and the wife of Tulkas the Strong, youngest and mightiest of the Valar, whom she wedded at the Feast of the Spring of Arda, in Almaren, where the Valar then dwelt.

  Nessamelda ‘Beloved of Nessa’ (Q.) – One of the FRAGRANT TREES of Númenor.

  Nevrast ‘Hither Shores’ (Sind.) – In ancient days, the name given by the Grey elves of Beleriand to the entire coastline of north-western Middle-earth; the coast of Aman, across the Western Seas, was termed, by them, Haerast, ‘Further Shores’. However, in later days with the expanding of the nomenclature of the Elves, the word Nevrast came to be applied more specifically to the enclosed seaward lands south of the Firth of Drengist, with the mere of Linaewen amidmost. This region became the first dwelling of Turgon of the Noldor, who after the Second Battle of Beleriand made a home for himself and his kin on the slopes of Mount Taras, in the halls of Vinyamar.

  Nevrast was never thickly populated, and after Turgon removed to Gondolin it became once more an empty land. It fell under the domination of Morgoth after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and the collapse of the kingdoms of Dor-lómin and Mithrim, which had formerly protected Nevrast and the Falas from the danger to north and east.

  New Age – Each Age of Middle-earth was naturally called the New Age by those during whose lives it began. As the Red Book of West-march – from which all of the presently available records of Middle-earth have been translated – was mostly set down during the years immediately before, during and after the passing of the Third Age, the New Age referred to in these writings is the Fourth Age. The Hobbits, who are credited with setting down most of the information in the Red Book, had their own calendar, which was unaffected by the change of Age; therefore, in their own accounts, Fourth Age 1 remained 1422 Shire Reckoning.

  Newbury – A village in the Buckland, not far from Crickhollow.

  New Reckoning – Early in the Second Age the Edain of Númenor – who were accomplished mariners and therefore dependent on stellar and solar observation – devised a calendar system called KINGS’ RECKONING, which was brought to Middle-earth at the end of the Age. There, in the Númenorean realms-in-exile, Arnor and Gondor, this system survived unchanged until the latter part of the Third Age when, following the death of the last King of Gondor, a series of minor modifications were made by the first Ruling Steward. This revised system became known as Stewards’ Reckoning, and like its forerunner, the basic features of this calendar were gradually adopted by other folk of Middle-earth who used the Common Speech (or Westron).

  At the very end of the Third Age, after the restoration of the Kingship, this system was changed again – to the New Reckoning, and in this form it presumably endured during the Fourth Age. In many ways the new system was a return to Kings’ Reckoning, the major difference being that whereas Kings’ Reckoning had followed the Mannish custom of commencing the year in mid-winter, the New Reckoning returned to the Elvish practice of beginning it in spring. Thus, while the names and order of the months remained the same, they now began with Viressë (the equivalent of April), rather than with Narvinyë (January).

  As in Stewards’ Reckoning, each month had 30 days and there were five extra days not belonging to any month: three enderi (‘middle-days’) plus yestarë (the first day of the year) and mettarë (the last day). In leap years the feast-day known as Cormarë (‘Ringday’) was doubled. Cormarë was the birthday of Frodo Baggins, the Ring-bearer. Further to honour the success of the Ring-bearers and celebrate the final Downfall of Sauron, the first day of the new year, yestarë, was made to fall on the old equivalent of March 25th, the date when the Ruling Ring was finally destroyed. (Thus each month now began some five days later than in the old system.)

  The New Reckoning was adopted in all the lands of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor save in the Shire; and, like Kings’ and Stewards’ Reckoning, it may well have been picked up by the other Westron-speaking peoples of Middle-earth. It was inaugurated in the middle of the year 3019 Third Age; the Fourth Age began two years later, on the anniversary of Sauron’s fall.

  New Row – The name given to the former Bagshot Row after it was rebuilt by the Hobbits following the events at the end of the War of the Ring. This quiet residential lane, which led to the Hill of Hobbiton near the centre of the Shire, and housed among others Hamfast ‘the Gaffer’ Gamgee, was razed by agents of Saruman during the War. After their victories over these ruffians, the Hobbits rebuilt the neat row of cottages and called it simply New Row, although it was sometimes drily referred to as ‘Sharkey’s End’ – a reference to the death of Saruman, which had taken place near this very spot.

  Nibin Noeg – The PETTY-DWARVES.

  Nienna ‘Lady of Mourning’ (Q.) – A Queen of the Valar, the sister of the Fëanturi Mandos and Lórien. In the traditions of the Eldar she is the Lady of Grief and Compassion, who dwells in the Gardens of Lórien but sleeps by day on the island in the middle of the lake Lorellin. Nienna is one of the three Valar Queens (the Valier) to be numbered among the seven Aratar (High Ones) of Arda. Her task is to bring peace of mind to the grief-stricken. She does this through the medium of dreams. Olórin the Maia was of her following.

  Nienor ‘Mourning’ (Sind.) – The birth-name of the maiden of the Edain afterwards known as Niniel, ‘Tear-maiden’; for although she bore the earlier name for the first twenty years of her life, the Doom of the Children of Húrin overtook her, and the memory of her life before that moment was taken from her, by bewitchment. Those who found her thus wandering named her Niniel and so she was called for the remainder of her short and tragic life.

  Nienor was the third child of Húrin of the Third House of the Edain and his wife Morwen Eledhwen of the First House; the other two were Túrin Turambar and Lalaith (who had died in
infancy before Nienor’s birth). She passed her girlhood together with her mother in Dor-lómin (which had been occupied by Easterlings in the years following the Nirnaeth Arnoediad), but when Nienor was barely twenty Morwen took her and together they slipped secretly out of that country, intending to seek refuge in Doriath, whither Nienor’s elder brother Túrin had been sent some years before.

  In the event Morwen was fated never again to see her son; but Nienor’s fate was different. Rebelling against her mother’s commands, she wilfully left the safety of Thingol’s kingdom and fled west: to be overtaken by recurring misfortune – and at length encountered by the arch-foe of her House and Kin: Glaurung the Dragon. This evil creature hypnotised her into forgetfulness, and so, wandering, she was found by some woodmen, Edain of the Forest of Brethil, who took her with them back their arboreal sanctuary of Ephel Brandir. Among these woodmen was her own brother Túrin, though neither of them knew it; for he had not seen her for many years, and she did not remember him.

  The tragedy unfolded itself with increasing speed. ‘Niniel’ wed Túrin, and became pregnant by him; and though Túrin slew the Dragon which had worked such evil, and thus partly avenged them both, Nienor, filled with horror – as she was when Glaurung withdrew his bewitchment and the memory of the days of her life came flooding back to her – slew herself in the river Teiglin. Her brother also slew himself soon afterwards; and the following year their mother Morwen died in the same place.

  See CABED NAERAMARTH.

  Night-fearers – A contemptuous term for Men, in use among some Elves (to whom the night was of course the holiest part of the day).

  Night of Naught – A poetic reference (in Bilbo Baggins’ poem ‘Eärendil Was A Mariner’) to the veiling cloak of Shadow which Elbereth wove about the Undying Lands following the rebellion and flight of the High-elves in the First Age.

  Nimbrethil ‘Silver-Birch’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Elves of the Havens of Sirion and Arvernien to the birchwoods of that latter region of West Beleriand; these stood not far from the sea, and though not overly extensive, provided excellent wood for shipbuilding. Eärendil’s ship Vingilot was built of this wood.

  Nimloth ‘White-flower’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Númenoreans to their White Tree, a descendant of Celeborn of Eressëa (and ultimately of Telperion, Eldest of Trees) which grew in the court of the King in Númenor. (Nimloth is etymologically identifiable with Q. Ninquelótë; a name for Telperion.) A fruit of this tree survived the Downfall and was borne back to Middle-earth to become the chief heraldic emblem and holiest symbol of the Realms in Exile.

  In an earlier age of the world, Nimloth had also been the name of the wife of Dior Eluchíl, a princess of the Sindar of Doriath; she was the mother of Eluréd, Elurin and Elwing. All save the last-named were slain by the sons of Fëanor, as was Dior himself.

  Nimphelos ‘Whitefrost’ (Sind.) – The name of the great pearl from the Bay of Balar given by Thingol of Doriath as fee to the Dwarves of Belegost who had helped him in the building of his underground palace, Menegroth.

  Nimrodel ‘Lady of the White Cave’ (Sind.) – An Elf-princess, probably of the Galadhrim; she dwelt in Lothlórien but, with her lover AMROTH chose to pass over Sea at the end of the second millennium of the Third Age. It was at this time that the Dwarves of nearby Moria accidentally released the Balrog; the evil thus unchained, added to that which already emanated from Dol Guldur, oppressed the lands between. Nimrodel and Amroth therefore prepared to flee from Lórien and pass to the sea-coast. But she, journeying separately from him, perished in the passes of the White Mountains in the South.

  Also the name of the cascading stream which flowed from the Misty Mountains eastward to join the Silverlode (Celebrant) inside the borders of Lórien. The Galadhrim believed that its waters carried the voice of the maiden who had once dwelt beside it.

  Nindalf ‘Swan-water’ (Sind.) – Known to Men as the Wetwang Marshes; a huge expanse of fen-country which lay on the eastern borders of the Anduin between the Emyn Muil and North Ithilien, whose own southern region was the Mere of Dead Faces.

  Nindamos – The chief settlement of the fisher-folk of Númenor, in the south of the island.

  Nine, The – The RINGWRAITHS of Sauron, often called the Nine Riders or the Uláiri (Nazgûl in the Black Speech).

  Nine Walkers – The members of the Fellowship of the Ring: four Hobbits, two Men, one Elf, one Dwarf, and a Wizard.

  Niniel ‘Tear-maiden’ (Sind.) – See NIENOR.

  Nin-in-Eilph – See GLANDUIN.

  Ninquelótë ‘White-blossom’ (Q.) – See NIMLOTH.

  Ninui – See NENIMË.

  Niphredil ‘Pale-point’ (Sind.) – The name given by Elves to a small white flower of western Middle-earth, said to have come into existence in Doriath, at the moment of birth of Lúthien Tinúviel (it is depicted on her heraldry). In later ages it also grew in Lothlórien.

  Nirnaeth Arnoediad ‘Tears Unnumbered’ (Sind.) – The name given in the lore and traditions of the Eldar to the Fifth Battle of Beleriand, or more properly the fourth day of that great conflict upon the desert of Anfauglith, when with great slaughter and terror the armies of the Eldar and their allies, the Edain, were overthrown for ever by Morgoth Bauglir of Angband, their ancient foe. It also forms the first words of the Curse pronounced by the Valar upon the rebelling Sons of Fëanor, and on those who followed them into exile.

  A supreme irony lies in the fact that this battle, with all its appalling consequences, actually came about as a result of a renewed (and admirable) determination on the part of the Eldar to lure Morgoth into a conflict from which his forces could never escape. This new confidence and boldness was in turn the product of a string of military successes which the Eldar and the Edain – loosely grouped under the leadership of Maedhros, eldest son of Fëanor – had been winning as the second decade since the Dagor Bragollach wore away and the shock of that defeat likewise diminished.

  Yet in the winning of these victories they had alerted Morgoth to their renascent strength, and so he was not unprepared (as seems to have been hoped by the Elf-captains Fingon and Maedhros). Moreover, by the adroit uses of treachery their Enemy learned of all their plans, and so was able to forestall them by a grand design of his own, which proved utterly victorious.

  The conflict itself is described in a most vivid fashion in existing works, and few will wish for more than a summary. Though there was great heroism, and deeds were done whose consequences outlasted the more grievous results of the Nirnaeth, the Eldar and Edain, themselves lured into a gigantic trap, were virtually destroyed. But there was no rout, and Elves and Men – and Dwarves – fought as long as they were able. And because of this some survived: notably the Elf-host of Gondolin, led by Turgon, whose retreat was made only possible by the self-sacrifice of the Men of Dor-lómin, led by Húrin and Huor.

  But Azaghâl of the Dwarves was slain, and Fingon High King of the Noldor, and Huor together with all the Men of Dor-lómin (save Húrin only), and the Men of Brethil died, and the Elves of Nargothrond led by Gwindor son of Guilin were all slain. The realms of the sons of Fëanor were swept away for ever, though the brothers themselves survived. Mithrim was overrun, and Dor-lómin also. The armies of Morgoth penetrated even to the Falas, where they sacked the Havens of Eglarest and Brithombar.

  From here, as from other places now overtaken by disaster, Elves and Men fled to the Havens of Sirion, or here and there as they might. The black tide flowed around Doriath, Nargothrond, and Gondolin. But their days were doomed, and they also fell, in time, and those who survived joined the earlier survivors at the Havens. As the final stroke, they were then assaulted by others of their kin.

  After this internecine attack few indeed remained of the proud hosts who once had crossed over the Sea to wreak their will upon Morgoth and regain the Silmarils. Before the Nirnaeth the Noldor of Middle-earth were a coherent and potent military force, occupying and ordering many fair realms in north-western Middle-earth; but after that
day they were a fugitive people, dispossessed of all they had held dear and bereaved of many of their close kin. The only hope of Elves and Men now lay in the West.

  Nisimaldar – See FRAGRANT TREES.

  Nísinen – A small lake in the river Nunduinë in western Númenor; it was renowned for the abundance of fragrant shrubs and plants that grew around its circumference.

  Nivrim – The westernmost portion of the Forest of Region, separated from the main wood by the waters of Sirion; it was accounted Doriath’s western march, and was protected by the Girdle of Melian. Nivrim was renowned for its oaks.

  Noakes – A family of Shire-hobbits, settled in Bywater.

  Nob – A Hobbit-servant of The Prancing Pony inn in Bree at the time of the War of the Ring.

  Nobottle – A village of the Shire, located in the northern part of the Westfarthing, not far from Needlehole.

  Noegyth Nibin ‘Lesser [petty]-Dwarves’ (Sind.) – A Grey-elven name (not altogether polite) for the strange, stunted race of ‘speaking-people’ who appeared in Beleriand early in the First Age, after the departure into the West of the Calaquendi but before the appearance of any other intelligent race. Their harsh speech was not understood, and their wizened appearance was misliked; regrettably they were persecuted by the Sindar and the Green-elves. This drove them into hiding, where they nurtured grievances against Elves.

  It was this people who discovered and delved the first caves of Nulukkizdin (Nargothrond). They excavated other halls besides; one of these was on Amon Rûdh. Not until other Dwarves had appeared in East Beleriand did the Elves cease their persecution of the Petty-Dwarves – but by then there were only a few left. (Mîm, one of the last of all, was slain by a Man, Húrin of Dor-lómin.)

  Nogothrim ‘Dwarf-folk’ (Sind.) – A Grey-elven name for the race of Dwarves, more polite than Naugrim (‘Stunted People’), though not as overtly complimentary as Hadhod or Gonnhirrim. Nogothrim is a collective plural. In the incantation first used by Gandalf the Grey when attempting to command the Doors of Durin to open into Moria, he chose the words Fennas Nogothrim, ‘Gateway of the Dwarf-folk’, which carried a distinct measure of respect: for no Dwarf-doors were likely to open to one using an impolite form of address.