Ravines of Teiglin – See TEIGLIN.
Ré (Q.) – The Elvish ‘day’, which, unlike our own, was measured from sunset to sunset. Thus each ré began with the period known as Undómë, ‘Star-opening’.
Realms in Exile – See illustration overleaf.
‘Reckoning of Years’ – One of the better known works of that prolific Shire-chronicler, Meriadoc ‘the Magnificent’ Brandybuck, hero of the War of the Ring, Master of Buckland and Counsellor of the North-kingdom. In addition to an invaluable account of the Hobbit calendars employed in the Shire and Bree, the Reckoning of Years included a comparative study of the reckoning-systems used in Rivendell, Rohan and Gondor, lands in which this widely travelled Hobbit was personally able to conduct his research.
Note: the Reckoning of Years was undoubtedly the primary source for the information which appears in Appendix D, to which readers are referred for a full analysis of the Elvish calendar and the other systems which sprang from it.
Red Arrow – The traditional token used by Gondor when summoning urgent aid from her old allies, the Riders of Rohan. It was an ordinary black-feathered arrow except that it had a red-painted point. The summons it represented was of the most desperate kind, and the Red Arrow was not lightly dispatched.
Red Book of Westmarch – The single most valuable surviving source of information concerning the War of the Ring, compiled during the late Third Age by the Hobbits of the Shire, in particular by the Ring-bearers, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, and Frodo’s heir Samwise Gamgee. It deals with the heroic role the Hobbits played in the Tale of the Great Ring, and is further provided with a large number of addenda, appendices and annotations, all of which are extremely valuable sources of information concerning the Second and Third (and to some extent the First) Ages of Middle-earth long ago.
It is divided roughly into two main sections of unequal length, with supporting pages compiled by many different hands. The first section is in narrative form, and was written by Bilbo Baggins in the years between 2942–3001 Third Age (1342–1401 Shire Reckoning) at Bag End in Hobbiton, and was titled by him There and Back Again.2
It deals in the main with Bilbo’s unexpected journey into the East in the year 2941, the adventures he underwent en route, and his ultimate success and later homecoming. Even more importantly (although Bilbo did not recognise it at the time), this first part of the Red Book details the discovery of the Ruling Ring of Sauron, which had been found long before by the creature Gollum and had been kept by him in his miserable solitude under the Misty Mountains for over five hundred years. Bilbo acquired the Ring from Gollum, and later brought it back to the Shire, thus initiating a series of events which led in the end to Mount Doom and the Passing of Sauron.
But of these events Bilbo had of course no foreknowledge, and it was left to his young cousin (and heir) Frodo Baggins to take the further steps on that road. Frodo, like Bilbo (and almost certainly to please him), wrote his own account of the War of the Ring, and it is this later (and much larger) section of narrative which forms the central part of the Red Book of Westmarch.3
Frodo wrote this account with the aid of his friends’ recollections, and in this form the combined narratives (written in two hands in a great red book with tall covers) were handed to Samwise Gamgee, Frodo’s heir, when the Ring-bearers passed over Sea at the end of the Third Age. Samwise added his own contributions, and gave the Book in his turn to his eldest daughter Elanor the Fair when he too passed West. Elanor’s descendants kept custody of the original volume ever after, although they made certain annotations and additions, based upon information acquired from other sources during the Fourth Age, such as chronological material from Yellowskin (the Year-book of Tuckborough) and from Gondor. There were also certain anonymous scribbles and rhymes added in later years, many of which have been published latterly as a separate volume, part of the cycle of tales contained in the Red Book but not part of the main Tale of the Ring.4
During the earlier part of the reign of King Elessar (Aragorn II) the King requested the Shire-folk to supply him with a copy of the Red Book which was even then being annotated by the Fairbairns and the Tooks. Thain Peregrin I accordingly commissioned scribes to draft a copy, and this volume, called in Gondor the Thain’s Book, was taken by Peregrin to the King when he retired to Gondor in Year 63 Fourth Age.
Over a century later, probably at the request of Eldarion, son of Elessar (who died in 120 Fourth Age), Findegil, a King’s Writer of Gondor, again copied the Thain’s Book, adding certain appendices and annotations (and corrections) of his own. This later volume was presented to the Hobbits, and it is this book which has survived until the present day.
Redhorn – A translation of the Sindarin word Caradhras, being the name given in the Common Speech to that great peak of the central Misty Mountains which was known to the Dwarves as Barazinbar. It was so named because the mountain seemed to glow with a bloodlike tinge in the evening and morning sunlight. It had a cruel reputation and its high pass was fraught with peril.
Redhorn Gate – See previous entry.
Red Ring – NARYA THE GREAT.
Redwater – A translation of the Sindarin word Carnen.
Region ‘Holly’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Elves of Doriath to the southern and larger of the two forests which comprised their silvan land. Region was indeed more than twice as large as its neighbour Neldoreth (being in places over fifty leagues long, and as much as fifteen leagues broad). In shape it was like a huge, reversed ‘L’, with much of its northern and western border formed by the river Esgalduin. Beyond the Esgalduin the beech-forest of Neldoreth marched away into the north. The southern boundary of Region was the River Aros; an outlier, Nan Elmoth, lay beyond the Celon, a tributary of Aros.
During the Elder Days Region and Neldoreth were both accounted part of Doriath, and were encompassed by the protective fence of enchantment, the Girdle Of Melian.
Rerir – A mountain of the northern Ered Luin. It was the tallest peak of a spur which thrust westward from the main range, enclosing Lake Helevorn on three sides. Due north of the lake stood Mount Rerir. The Greater Gelion arose on its western slopes. This peak was accounted the northern border of the land of Thargelion.
Rethe – The third month of the year (roughly equivalent to our March) in the calendars of the Shire and Bree.
Reunited Kingdom – The name given in the Fourth Age to the realm ruled by King Elessar (Aragorn II), being the former states of Arnor and Gondor reunited for the first time since Elendil’s day under Elessar’s kingship.
Rhîw – See HRÍVË.
Rhosgobel – The dwelling-place of the Wizard Radagast the Brown, situated in the vales of Anduin near to the southern borders of Mirkwood.
Rhovanion – This name has been translated on Third Age maps of western Middle-earth as ‘Wilderland’, and in this sense it refers to all the lands stretching east of the Misty Mountains to the River Running (Celduin), including the vales of Anduin and the forest of Mirkwood. However, in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings the name is used to indicate the principality of Rhovanion, which lay between the eastern eaves of Greenwood (later known as Mirkwood) and the River Running.
It was peopled by a loosely governed, vigorous race of ‘Northmen’, who were distantly related to the Dúnedain and were often allied with Gondor during the middle years of the Third Age. Sometime about the end of the first millennium, the kings of Gondor extended the boundaries of Rhovanion by ceding to the Northmen lands south of Greenwood – in the hope that these lands would act as a buffer state to protect Gondor from recurrent invasions by the fierce Easterling peoples. However, although this strategy was largely successful, eventually the favour shown by Gondor’s nineteenth King, Rómendacil II, towards the Northmen caused great jealousy in the South-kingdom. And the marriage of Rómendacil’s son Valacar to the daughter of Vidugavia, the self-styled King of Rhovanion, ultimately led to civil war (see KIN-STRIFE). Valacar’s son Eldacar was deposed and forced to seek refuge
in his mother’s land of Rhovanion; however, he was eventually able to regain his throne and restore peace, and during the remainder of his time he naturally showed great favour to the Northmen. At this time many of them settled in Gondor.
Nonetheless, contact between the peoples was not fully maintained; and, in the year 1856, the wide lands that had once been Vidugavia’s were overrun by new hordes of invading Easterlings called Wainriders. The Northmen were driven out or enslaved, and it was not until forty years later that they were able to start a rebellion which enabled Gondor to win a victory over the Easterlings.
Nonetheless their former lands south of Greenwood were now contested and no longer viable. Accordingly under their new young King Marhwini they emigrated once again up the Anduin to the vales between the River and the Wood, and throughout the next years continued drifting in this dirction, until they emerge back into history as the Men of Éothéod, who came to the aid of Gondor in spectacular fashion at the end of the 26th century Third Age, destroying the Balchoth and winning themselves a new realm in what had been part of Gondor. The Northmen were at last in their natural place, but they had come there by a circuitous route.
See also LINES OF DESCENT.
Rhudaur – The name given by the Dúnedain of the North-kingdom to the easternmost of the three separate states formed by the partition of Arnor in 861 Third Age, following the death of King Eärendur. Its boundaries were the Misty Mountains, the Weather Hills and the Ettenmoors. Rhudaur was the most junior of the three Dúnedain realms (of which the other two were named Arthedain and Cardolan), and its lands were the wildest and least fertile; moreover, none of the three palantíri of Arnor had come into its possession.
For these reasons Rhudaur’s relations with the other two North-kingdoms were unfriendly from the first, and there was frequently strife between Rhudaur and Cardolan over possession of the strategically important Weather Hills and the chief Palantír of the North (which was kept in the tower of Amon Sûl, on the border of both realms).
By the thirteenth century the rivalry was intense, although the borders of the states still remained relatively unchanged. It was at this time that the evil Witch-realm of Angmar arose in the northeast, sharing a common frontier with Rhudaur; and from that moment the smaller state was doomed. In any case, the control of Rhudaur had already been seized from the remaining Dúnedain by a clan of renegades and wild men, and before many years these usurpers were themselves under the control of the Witch-king.
Beginning with the battle in which King Argeleb I was slain (in 1356), there ensued a centuries-long war waged by combined forces from Rhudaur and Angmar against Arthedain – with her ally Cardolan falling a quick victim to the savagery of the onslaught. In 1409 ‘Rhudaur was occupied by evil Men subject to Angmar, and the Dúnedain that remained there were slain or fled west.’5 It never arose again, although the formal dissolution of the state was not held to have taken place until 1974 Third Age, the year of Arthedain’s fall.
Rhûn ‘East’ (Sind.) – A general name in Gondor for the lands beyond and including the Inland Sea.
Rhymes of Lore – The name given by the Wise to the numberless collection of spells, benisons, charms, incantations and memory-aids recited and learned in order both to pass on knowledge and retain it.
Rían – A princess of the Edain, the daughter of Belegund of the First House. She was born in Ladros before the Dagor Bragollach, but when Orcs overran Dorthonion, she and the other children were evacuated from the stricken land, and sent for safekeeping to Dor-lómin, where the House of Hador still defied the Enemy. There she came to womanhood, and wedded Huor the younger son of Galdor (her cousin Morwen Eledhwen, likewise a refugee from Dorthonion, was wedded to Huor’s elder brother Húrin). Two months later came the Fifth Battle of Beleriand, the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, in which Huor was slain. Rían, already pregnant by Huor, fled from Dor-lómin into Mithrim, where she bore a son, Tuor, while in hiding among the Sindar of that land. Soon afterwards she gave Tuor into the keeping of her hosts, and went out into the wild, to die of grief on the mound called Haudh-en-Ndengin, the Hill of Slain, where her husband lay, together with all his kinsmen save one.
Riddermark (Older form Riddena-mearc ‘Land of the knights’) – The name given by the RIDERS OF ROHAN to their own land.
Riddle-game – A time-honoured method of wagering for stakes, for testing another’s sagacity and wit, or simply for passing the time. The practice was very ancient in Middle-earth, dating almost certainly back to the Elder Days, and all folk claimed the honour of having originated it. By reason of its ancientry alone the Riddle-game must surely be of Elvish origin: the Elves dearly loved tricks of word and meaning, and The Rules which informally governed the practice, being ‘both ancient and just’, bore all the hallmarks of early Eldarin thought.
Riders of Rohan – The term used in Gondor for the armed and mounted men-at-arms of the country of Rohan, formerly the Dúnedain province of Calenardhon, which lay to the north of Gondor on the further side of the White Mountains. The Rohirrim were a Northern race, whose arrival in the southlands had proved fortunate for Gondor on one conspicuous occasion, and the ‘Riders of Rohan’ were spoken of with admiration and a good deal of respect: for the horses of Rohan were the finest then to be found in Middle-earth, and their riders were fully their match.
The mounted cavalry of Rohan were not a permanent standing force; rather they were horse-herders and – trainers, who wandered with the herds and studs throughout most of the year over the great grasslands of the Mark (as they termed their own land). Only in time of war or doubt were they mustered, for to assemble a full host of Riders took many days. Nonetheless, they were fierce in war, for they were of proud northern stock and had learned the warrior code long before.
The basic military unit was the éored, a squadron of varying size raised from one particular lord or marshal’s household and sworn to his service. The Mark itself was loosely divided into a number of regions, each of which had a Marshal nominally responsible for its defence. All were responsible to the King, who dwelt for the most part in the township of Edoras, a hill-fort on a foothill of the northern White Mountains. The armour and weapons used by the Riders of Rohan were in essence those used by their ancestors in the North: long spears, bows, and long-swords. Most carried body-shields, painted on the toughened side to display a White Horse upon a field of Green. Chain mail was not infrequent, and light metal helms were also worn. In war the Riders generally made good use of their superb horsemanship and the shock value of a massed cavalry attack. They had developed both light and heavy cavalry tactics to a remarkable degree; there were few formed infantry in western Middle-earth who could withstand them unless safe behind defences.
For these reasons the Riders of Rohan were greatly valued as allies by the men of Gondor, who had far fewer cavalry although their infantry was second to none. The Rohirrim indeed aided the Dúnedain (and were aided by them) on several different occasions, perhaps the most significant of which was during the War of the Ring, when the six thousand Riders led by Théoden King of the Mark raised the siege of Minas Tirith and so set in motion the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, greatest military clash of the Third Age.
Rimmon – See MIN-RIMMON.
Ringarë (Q.) – The twelfth month of the year in Kings’ and Stewards’ Reckoning, and the ninth of the New Reckoning which followed the reuniting of Arnor and Gondor at the end of the Third Age. All three reckoning-systems were modifications of the old Númenorean calendar, and all were adopted by many Westron-speaking peoples of Middle-earth. The Sindarin equivalent of Ringarë, Girithron, was used only by the Dúnedain of Middle-earth.
Ringil ‘Cold-star’ (Sind.) – The Sword of Fingolfin, the High King of the Noldor. It was the only weapon ever to inflict a wound upon Morgoth.6
Ring-inscription – The series of Elvish letters engraved by some secret process into the surfaces of the RULING RING by its maker, Sauron. The inscription was so fashioned that the writing remained in
visible unless the Ring itself was first heated; when Sauron made this Ring, he was fair of bodily form, or so it has been recorded, and the inscription remained unseen, even by his close servants; but in later years Sauron’s body grew black and hideous and burning hot, and the heat of his hand alone was sufficient to keep the inscription bright.
It is a curious fact that, although the Ring-inscription was in the ancient Black Speech of Mordor, the letters chosen for the writing were Elvish – the Fëanorian Tengwar. No other writing-system was sufficiently delicate for the minute engraving.
Ringló ‘Cold-flood’ (Sind.) – A river of Gondor, the major tributary of Morthond. It arose in the high vales of Lamedon, and was itself joined by the Ciril (or Kiril) some leagues south of the town of Calembel. The Ringló Vale was the valley watered by these two rivers.
Ring of Adamant – NENYA.
Ring of Barahir – The most ancient of the heirlooms of the House of Elendil. It was in origin an Elven-ring given as a token of friendship by Finrod Felagund, King of Nargothrond, to Barahir of the Edain, after the Dagor Bragollach, in which Barahir had saved Finrod’s life. The ring itself was of gold, and bore the badge of the House of Finarfin. Barahir bore it until his death on Dorthonion, and it was recovered from the Orc who had stolen it by Barahir’s son Beren. The ring remained in Beren’s keeping for the rest of his life, and was passed to his son Dior Eluchíl, and by Dior to Elwing, who rescued it – together with the Silmaril and other treasures of the house of Thingol – from the ruin of Doriath, and took it with her to the Havens of Sirion. From her it passed to Eärendil her son, and from Eärendil to his son Elros.
In this way Barahir’s ring survived the turmoils of the First Age. It was (presumably) given by Tar-Elendil, fourth King, to his eldest child Silmariën, and by Silmariën to her son Valandil, first of the Lords of Andúnië. In this way the Ring of Barahir became an heirloom of the Faithful, and so was brought to Middle-earth again when Númenor fell, late in the Second Age. It was then given by Elendil to his oldest son Isildur, and became a token of the royalty of the North-kingdom.
The Complete Tolkien Companion Page 56