Parmatéma – See TÉMA.
Parth Celebrant ‘Field of Silverlode’ (Sind.) – The name given in Lórien to the area of grassland between the rivers Limlight and Celebrant (Silverlode), claimed as part of the Elven-land but in later years incorporated by soldiers of Gondor into their system of defence against invasions across the narrows (Undeeps) of Anduin.
Parth Galen ‘Green Field’ (Sind.) – A swathe of cool greensward which lay between the river Anduin and the lower slopes of Amon Hen on its western bank, some little distance north of the Falls of Rauros.
Party Field – The name given by local Hobbits to the large field which lay on the Hill of Hobbiton below the gardens of Bag End. In it stood a single tree, the ‘Party Tree’, beneath which Bilbo Baggins erected an imposing marquee for his ‘private’ dinner party on the day of his 111th birthday. The field was partially dug up during the War of the Ring by agents of Saruman and the Tree was wantonly cut down. It was later replaced by a single shapely Mallorn grown by Samwise Gamgee from a seed brought back from Lothlórien.
Pass of Aglon – The ‘Narrow Pass’ (the meaning of Aglon) which led from Himlad into Lothlann. On the west reared great sheer heights, the eastern walls of the Dorthonion plateau; to the east the hills were lower. The Pass itself was some six leagues long. For obvious strategic reasons, this defile was a potential weak point in the chain of kingdoms created by the Noldor after the Battle-under-Stars. The brothers Celegorm and Curufin, sons of Fëanor, therefore fortified the Pass and held large forces in Himlad, in a reserve capacity. Ten leagues to the east their elder brother Maedhros had his stronghold on the Hill of Himring, and beyond him Maglor’s cavalry rode far out upon the plain.
Nonetheless, in the Dagor Bragollach all this great array was swept out of the North for the time being. But Maedhros held out on Himring, which formed the nucleus in the East for a later regrouping of the Sons of Fëanor and their hosts; and after a dozen years or so Aglon was re-captured, and held for a while. Then came the Nirnaeth Arnoediad; after that battle the reconstitution of the realms of the Noldor in the North was no longer a possibility. Aglon, and all the lands of the North, fell under the domination of Morgoth and were never recovered.
Pass of Anach – The seven-league ravine which descended from western Dorthonion to Dimbar and Nan Dungortheb. On the west the peaks of the Encircling Mountains towered above the pass; to the east loomed the Mountains of Terror. The upper reaches of the Pass of Anach were captured by Morgoth after the fall of Dorthonion, and soon afterwards armies began to come down into Beleriand by means of this route. It was briefly recaptured before the Nirnaeth, but lost again soon afterwards.
Pass of Light – The CALACIRYA.
Pass of Sirion – The five-league defile which led into Beleriand from Ard-galen in the north. It was walled on the west by the Ered Wethrin, and on the east by the sheer edge of the Dorthonion plateau. Through the pass, in a southerly direction, ran the great river Sirion (the action of whose waters had carved the defile in ancient days). For the exiled Noldor the Pass of Sirion was of immense strategic importance; for it was the veritable western cornerstone of their defence against Morgoth. It had additional value as a natural redoubt because of the Fen of Serech – deliberately never drained by the Noldor – which covered any sudden approach from the north. Further to fortify the Pass of Sirion, Finrod son of Finarfin built a tall watch-tower (called Minas Tirith) on the island of Tol Sirion, in the middle of the river and squarely in the neck of the pass. Tol Sirion was captured shortly after the Dagor Bragollach, by Sauron the servant of Morgoth; indeed all the routes from north to south were taken from the Eldar at this time; but most – including the Pass of Sirion – were won back in the years immediately preceding the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. After which, of course, they were again lost, this time for ever.
Paths of the Dead – The name given in Rohan to the Haunted Road under the Dwimorberg mountain which led from Dunharrow in the north to an unknown destination (actually the source of the river Morthond) in the south. It was constructed – for what purpose none could say – early in the Second Age by the Men of the White Mountains, and was part of the great megalithic complex known as Dunharrow.
Pelargir ‘Enclosure-of-[Royal] Ships’ (Q.) – The most ancient port of Gondor, forty leagues upstream from the Mouths of Anduin, above the confluence with the Sirith. The haven was founded in the Second Age (2350) by mariners of Númenor and, though neither the greatest in size nor the most important, soon became the chief haven of those Númenoreans who called themselves the Faithful. Elendil himself landed there after the Downfall of Númenor.
For the first centuries after the founding of the realm of Gondor, Pelargir was allowed somewhat to fall into disrepair, and it was not until the reign of the first ‘Ship-king’ that Gondor attempted to regain any of her ancestral naval might. The second ‘Ship-king’, Eärnil I, repaired the ancient harbour and enlarged the basin to take the massive fleets that the Dúnedain then began to build: for to the south, the older and larger Haven of Umbar was filled with seafaring folk unfriendly to the Dúnedain, and Eärnil had determined to end the threat they posed. Gondor indeed conquered Umbar, and held it, and for a while both harbours were filled with the warships of Gondor. The South-kingdom extended her influence along the coasts north, south and west, and soon reached the summit of her power.
With the Kin-strife of the middle Third Age the navy of Gondor became rebellious, and Pelargir was then controlled by the disloyal elements who were opposed to King Eldacar. Even after these rebels had been soundly defeated at the Battle of the Crossings of Erui (1447) Pelargir still held out against the lawful King; and in the end the rebels took the fleets and sailed away to Umbar, which they made into a seafaring city-state opposed to the rule of Gondor.
Nonetheless Pelargir remained the chief port of the South-kingdom although its exposed position and rich commercial traffic made the harbour especially vulnerable to seaborne raiding. During the War of the Ring the Haven was once more assailed by the Corsairs – but in the nick of time they were defeated and their ships seized for another purpose. The port remained in Gondor’s control throughout the War and, in the Fourth Age which followed, once again prospered in the manner of earlier times.
Pelendur – A Steward of Gondor, descended from Húrin of Emyn Arnen and, in a sense, Gondor’s first ‘Ruling Steward’. It was Pelendur’s lot to govern the South-kingdom during the one-year interregnum (1944–45 Third Age) following the untimely death in battle of King Ondoher and his two sons. The situation was further complicated by the strong claim to the Throne of Gondor made by King ARVEDUI of Arthedain. In his capacity as temporary ruler, Pelendur was chiefly responsible for Gondor’s rejecting Arvedui’s claim, although his own choice seemed wise enough: Eärnil, a victorious General of proven ability and acceptable antecedents. Eärnil duly became King – and his own son Eärnur became the last King of the Line of Anárion. After Eärnur’s death (2050), the descendants of Pelendur took office as (hereditary) Ruling Stewards, maintaining this weighty responsibility until the ending of the Age and the Return of the King.
Pelennor ‘Enclosed-lands’ (Sind.) – The fenced townlands of Minas Tirith. See also BATTLE OF THE PELENNOR FIELDS.
Pelóri ‘Mountains of Defence’ (Q.) – The Mountains of Valinor, tallest in the World and impassable save by a single ravine, the Pass of Calacirya, through which the ancient Light of the Two Trees flowed from Valimar into Eldamar and the long shorelands of the Blessed Realm. The highest of the Pelóri was Oiolossë (older name Taniquetil, ‘High-white-peak’), sometimes also called the Hill of Ilmarin. Upon its summit, at the roof of the world, stood the Oromardi (‘High halls’) of the Lord of the Valar and his spouse, the Lady Elbereth (Varda).
People of the Great Journey – The ELDAR.
People of Haleth – The HALADIN.
People of the Stars – A translation of ELDAR.
Peredhil (sing. -edhel) ‘Half-elven’ (Sind.) – A term applied by the
Elves to the brethren Elros and Elrond, sons of Eärendil (the Mariner) and the Lady Elwing the White; also, less specifically, to all those of mixed Eldarin and Mannish descent: Eärendil himself; Dior Eluchíl; Dior’s children, Eluréd, Elurin and Elwing; and Elrond’s children, Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen Evenstar. See also LINES OF DESCENT.
Peregrin Took – From Year 13–63 Fourth Age (1434–84 Shire Reckoning), the thirty-second Thain of the Shire, and one of the most notable Hobbits of his day, being renowned both as a member of the Fellowship of the Ring and as one of the Captains who led the uprising of the Shire-folk against the agents of the renegade Wizard Saruman at the end of the War of the Ring. Peregrin – more usually known as Pippin – later became a Counsellor of the reconstituted North-kingdom and remained a close personal friend of King Elessar (Aragorn II) throughout his life.
Peregrin was born in Tuckborough in the year 1390 Shire Reckoning (2990 Third Age) and was therefore only in his late twenties (having not yet ‘come-of age’) when the great events of that time began to unfold. Both he and his kinsman Meriadoc Brandybuck learned somewhat of the Ring-bearer’s plans before Frodo had even left the Shire, and thus were able to pressure him into accepting their company on the road East. At that time Frodo’s plans led no further than Rivendell, and it must be said that his two young kinsmen did not particularly distinguish themselves during this part of the journey. Nonetheless, when the time came to allot the places in the Fellowship of the Ring with an infinitely more dangerous journey ahead, Gandalf the Grey supported their inclusion in the Company. And later on both Peregrin and Meriadoc came into their own, influencing great events far beyond their understanding at the time. The story of Pippin’s role in the War of the Ring is told in great detail elsewhere, and needs only brief recapitulation in these pages. Like his kinsman Meriadoc, he was separated from Frodo at Parth Galen on February 26th 3019, and thereafter his adventures took him across the plains of Rohan (in captivity); to Fangorn Forest (as a guest of Treebeard the Ent); to Isengard (where he witnessed the destruction of Saruman’s fortress); to Dol Baran at the southern end of the Misty Mountains (where he foolishly ‘abstracted’ the Palantír of Orthanc and inadvertently misled Sauron), and finally, in company with an exasperated Gandalf, to the city of Minas Tirith – where he impulsively swore allegiance to the Steward Denethor II and was made a Guard of the Citadel.
While in Minas Tirith Peregrin witnessed the Siege of the City and was instrumental in saving Faramir, Denethor’s Heir, from an untimely death. He afterwards marched away with the Host of the West to the Black Gate and fought honourably in battle there, slaying a giant Troll-chief and thus saving his comrade Beregond son of Baranor from death under the creature’s claw.
Peregrin was knighted by King Elessar for his services to Gondor and afterwards returned to the Shire with his three original companions, playing a crucial part in the uprising which ensued. He personally rode through the night of November 2nd in order to bring reinforcements from his father, Thain Paladin II, and with this aid turned the tide at the Battle of Bywater the following day. For this feat both he and Meriadoc were afforded great honour among their kinfolk – and unlike Frodo and Samwise, they never really rejected any opportunities to parade around in fine style, wearing the arms and armour of Gondor and Rohan. Their splendid appearance (and their relatively enormous size, thanks to certain draughts quaffed while they had been guests of Treebeard the Ent) impressed the Shire-folk to a great extent, and of course both young Hobbits duly succeeded their fathers in positions of responsibility. Peregrin became Thain in 1434 Shire Reckoning, having already wedded Mistress Diamond of Long Cleeve (a descendant of Bullroarer Took, whom Peregrin had always greatly admired). That same year both he and Meriadoc (and Samwise Gamgee, now Mayor of the Shire), were appointed Counsellors of the North-kingdom.
The remainder of Peregrin’s long life was happy and prosperous, and he became one of the greatest Thains in Shire-history. Like Meriadoc, he maintained the friendships he had made during the War, and rode often to Gondor, becoming something of an authority on the history of the Dúnedain (though it is not recorded that he ever actually undertook any historical writing on his own account). In Year 63 Fourth Age he handed over his Office to his only son Faramir (born Year 9 Fourth Age) and, together with his lifelong comrade Meriadoc, rode away out of the Shire, to pass his last days in Gondor amongst old friends. He was laid to rest in the House of the Kings in Rath Dínen.
Perian, Periain ‘Halfling’ (Sind.) – The several alternative spellings of this word and its plurals which appear in the Red Book doubtless indicate a word in the actual process of mutation from an antique form into a more colloquial, ‘everyday’ expression. For, when the events of the War of the Ring brought several ‘Halflings’ to the attention of the people of Gondor, they revived the old Sindarin name for them. The Grey-elven word for ‘Halfling’ was, of course, adopted by the Dúnedain of Gondor; the form given above was doubtless one of the newer versions. One Hobbit would be called Perian while a finite plural (e.g. two Hobbits) would earn the word Periain. However, Hobbits as a race were called i Periannath (the Halfling Folk’). The older form of the word may be found in use during a ‘ceremonial’ occasion involving the antique Ph prefix: Pheriain, Pheriannath.3
‘Perry-the-winkle’ – One (No. 8) of the humorous verses in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
Petty Dwarves – A translation of NOEGYTH NIBIN.
Pharazôn (Ar-Pharazôn) ‘the Golden’ – From 3255–3319 Second Age the twenty-fourth and last King of Númenor. He was the son of Gimilkhâd, who was the younger of the two sons of Ar-Gimilzôr, an iron ruler hostile to the Eldar. Of the two princes Gimilkhâd took most after their father, while his elder brother Inziladûn (Palantír) most resembled their mother Inzilbêth (of Andúnië) in that he repented of the heretical ways of the later kings and desired the knowledge and conversation of the Eldar. And as he was the elder son, so he, and not Gimilkhad, came in time to the kingship.
But the years waned, and Gimilkhâd’s son Pharazôn grew to manhood, and Palantír waned. Then Gimilkhâd died, and now it was Pharazôn who led the party opposed to the reforms of Palantír. This faction grew in strength throughout Palantír’s reign, and on his death seized power, from Míriel, the king’s daughter and the Heir of the Sceptre. Pharazôn proclaimed himself King of Númenor and, to make the bond final, forcibly wedded Míriel, even changing her (Eldarin) name to one of Adûnaic form, Ar-Zimraphêl. He was now firmly in the seat of power, and was never to be challenged again during his reign. Pharazôn had ruled for only six years when he made his first decisive move, setting sail with a great fleet to Middle-earth, where Sauron the Great reigned unchallenged. He landed at Umbar, determined to give battle for the mastery of all Middle-earth; but Sauron was unable to contest the power of Númenor, and instead abased himself, begging mercy from the King (and playing on his pride). So Pharazôn took Sauron ‘prisoner’ and proudly carried him back to Númenor, thus sowing the seeds of his own downfall and that of his people.
For, characteristically, Sauron was soon at work on the natural weaknesses of his foes, and it cannot have taken him long to discover the Númenoreans’ obsession with the one prohibition ever laid upon them: the BAN OF THE VALAR, which forbade them from sailing to the Undying Lands, where the Valar, Guardians of the World, made their own home. Sauron, who almost from the first had ceased to be considered a ‘prisoner’, then seized on Ar-Pharazôn’s constant pride and growing fear of Death, suggesting that the immortality which the Númenoreans sought was within their grasp.
In 3310 this false and evil counsel finally prevailed, for Ar-Pharazôn was then an old man and near death. He gave orders for the construction of the mightiest fleet the world had ever seen: the Great Armament, so huge and powerful that it took nine years to build and assemble. In 3319 the Host of Ar-Pharazôn embarked and went with war into the Western Seas, to contest the rule of the world – and the immortality which accompanied it – with the Vala
r.
It will never be known exactly what happened when the last King of Númenor set foot on the shores of Valinor, for none survived of that Host to tell the tale, and the High-elves did not come to Middle-earth in later Ages. Certainly no less than a change in the physical and metaphysical structure of the World was the result of Pharazôn’s appalling sacrilege. The Sea rose in huge waves from the West and raged unchecked over Númenor, burying everything under a wall of black water which utterly destroyed the civilization of three thousand years (apart from a few who left in the nick of time, escaping to Middle-earth in Exile). And the Undying Lands were removed for ever from mortal seas, and so from further temptation.
Phurunargian ‘Dwarf-delving’ (West.) – The name given in the Common Speech to the ancient Dwarf-city of Moria beneath the Misty Mountains. It has been translated from the Red Book as Dwarrowdelf.
Pickthorn – A family of Big Folk (Men) of the Bree-land.
Pillars of the Kings – A translation of the Sindarin word ARGONATH.
Pincup – A small village of the Green Hill Country in the Southfarthing of the Shire.
Pinnath Gelin ‘Green Ridges’ (Sind.) – A broad range of fertile green hills in the Anfalas coastal strip of Gondor.
Note: the suffix -ath indicates a collective plural; gelin is the plural of the Sindarin word galen ‘green’ (e.g. Parth Galen ‘Green Lawn).
Pipe-weed – Hobbits were, of course, aware that their ‘Art’ of smoking – of inhaling, without apparent discomfort, the smouldering leaves of the herb nicotiana – caused great amazement to other folk; and for this reason they included throughout their various histories any accounts of the weed’s singular properties, first discovery, and so on. Nonetheless, even in the Shire there were some who were more knowledgeable than others in the love of this Art, and of these the chief was Meriadoc Brandybuck (Master of Buckland from 1432–84 Shire Reckoning).
The Complete Tolkien Companion Page 54