Rómendacil II From 1304–66 Third Age, the nineteenth King of Gondor; he was one of the greatest men in her long history. Born Minalcar, he was son to Calmacil who was brother of Narmacil, the seventeenth King. Both his uncle and father were effete men, weak aesthetes who were seemingly content to delegate (or abdicate) the onerous burdens of Kingship. When Narmacil died he was succeeded by Calmacil, and Minalcar served as Regent to both (from 1240–1304) before attaining the Silver Crown in his own right after the death of his father. His first challenge came eight years after he assumed the Regency. Observing that fresh hordes of Easterlings were preparing to assault Gondor, he made alliance with Northmen of Rhovanion, and defeated the enemies in a great battle east of that land. He then took the name Rómendacil (‘East-victor’). Learning that his alliance had not been as stable as he might have wished, he took it upon himself to improve relations between the Northmen and the Dúnedain, and to this end invited many of his allies to come and dwell in Gondor. This move caused a certain amount of unrest among the Dúnedain. At the same time the energetic Regent fortified the west shore of Anduin as far north as the Emyn Muil, and built the Argonath (the Pillars of the Kings) at the entrance to Nen Hithoel as a sign of Gondor’s northernmost border.
Shortly afterwards, Rómendacil sent his son Valacar to Rhovanion, to dwell with the mightiest of their princes; for he had foreseen that Gondor needed to strengthen still further the alliance with the Northmen; he could hardly have foreseen that his son would marry a woman of that race. At all events, he came to the Kingship in his own right after the death of Calmacil and ruled for a further 62 years, leaving a realm with robustly fortified frontiers and a fatal seed buried in its heart. See also KIN-STRIFE.
Rómenna ‘East-home’ (Q.) The chief eastern harbour of Númenor, part of the Arandor or King’s Land. In the days of the twenty-second King, Ar-Gimilzôr, this city and province was swelled by an influx of political exiles: the Faithful, uprooted by edict from their old homes in Andúnië and sent to the east of the land. (The most illustrious of these was Amandil, last Lord of Andúnië and kinsman of the king.) From the harbour of Rómenna the fleet of nine ships set sail on the day of the Downfall, to survive the wild waters and so come back to Middle-earth in exile.
Roper – A family of Shire-hobbits, descended, like the Gamgees, from old Wiseman Gamwich, who removed from the village of the same name to Tighfield in the Northfarthing, in the century preceding the War of the Ring. Wiseman’s son Hob (‘Old Gammidgy’) adopted the trade of rope-weaving; and this craft had become well enough established a generation later for Hob’s son Hobson to be nicknamed Roper Gamgee. The Tighfield Gammidges (now calling themselves Ropers) prospered in following years, with Hobson’s son Andwise (‘Andy’) continuing the family trade.
Roper Gamgee – See previous entry.
Rorimac ‘Goldfather’ Brandybuck – From 2963–3008 Third Age (1363–1408 Shire Reckoning), the Master of Buckland. He was renowned for his wealth, as well as for his love of good food and wine. His grandson was Meriadoc Brandybuck.
Rose Gamgee – The eldest daughter of Farmer Tolman (‘Tom’) Cotton of Bywater, and the wife of Samwise Gamgee, Hero of the Shire. She wedded Sam in 1420 Shire Reckoning and bore him thirteen children in the years that followed, of whom the eldest was Elanor the Fair. She died after a long and happy life in 1482 Shire Reckoning; a few weeks afterwards Samwise left the Shire and passed West over Sea.
Rothinzil ‘Foam-flower’ (Adûn.) – See VINGILOT.
Rowlie Appledore – A Man of Bree, killed in a skirmish with outlaws during the early part of 3019 Third Age.
Ruby Gamgee – The eleventh child and sixth daughter of Samwise and Rose Gamgee.
Ruling Ring – The Great Ring of Sauron the Great, Lord of Mordor; it mastered all the other RINGS OF POWER. From the middle years of the Second Age, when it was made, until the end of the Third, when it was at last destroyed, it was the single greatest peril in a world full of dangers; and when it was consumed in the Fires of Doom its passing brought about the fading of the power of all other Rings. Apart from the Silmarils of the First Age, it was the most potent artefact ever wrought. Its maker was Sauron himself.
By strange chance most of the Ruling Ring’s history is known – at least, its history after it was taken by force from Sauron’s own hand at the end of the Second Age by Isildur son of Elendil. Isildur intended the Great Ring of the Enemy (which had burned him fiercely when he first seized it) to become an Heirloom of the North-kingdom of Arnor, but he himself lost it when ambushed at the Gladden Fields in Year 2 Third Age. In his hour of need the Ring abandoned him and it afterwards lay on a river-bed for over two thousand years, quiescent, while, in the world above, its Master slowly awakened to strength once more.
By the twenty-fifth century of the Third Age the Ring was no longer inert – stirred up, maybe, by the strengthening emanations from Dol Guldur – and it revealed itself to a simple riverside fisher, a creature of Hobbit-kind called Déagol. He was almost instantly dispossessed of it by a murderous crony, Sméagol (Gollum), who retreated with the precious object to a forlorn sanctuary deep in the bowels of the Misty Mountains. There he (and it) remained until the thirtieth century of the Age, for by that time it had become apparent that the Purpose was no longer being served by the degenerate creature. It then ensnared a passing traveller, another Hobbit of different race called Bilbo Baggins, who luckily took little harm from the encounter and returned with the Ring to the Shire of his home, unaware that what he bore in his pocket was the Peril of the world.
Bilbo continued to possess the Ring – although he seldom found use for its more obvious properties – for many years in the Shire; indeed his life was greatly lengthened by it. In 3001 he departed his homeland and (with some effort, for the Ring was beginning to wear him down) left the prized object to his nephew and ward Frodo Baggins, together with the rest of his estate. Frodo, already aware that all was not as it should be with this mysterious and wonderful ring, continued to guard it nonetheless until the year 3018, when for the first time the real history of his Heirloom was revealed to him.
Little more need be said of the Ring. It was borne into Mordor by Frodo and his companion Samwise, and there it was cast into the fires of the volcano Orodruin, where alone in Middle-earth it could be destroyed. With its passing its ancient hold over the other surviving Rings of Power was loosed, and the bond of their being was snapped. They faded, and with them all that had been wrought with them during an Age or more. This was the lasting achievement of the Great Ring.
Ruling Stewards – The name given in the lore of Gondor to the family of the House of Húrin, hereditary Stewards of Gondor and Counsellors to the Kings, who themselves ruled the South-kingdom from 2050–3019 Third Age after the failing of the Line of Anárion and before the restoration of the Line of Elendil (by Aragorn II). The first Steward to rule was Mardil Voronwë, son of Vorondil (the Hunter), who took office after the death of King Eärnur to prevent a clash among the Dúnedain over the succession.
Although none of the Ruling Stewards at any time claimed the Throne for the House of Húrin, after many years their formal Oath of Office – in which they swore to rule ‘until the King shall return’ – ceased to carry other than a symbolic meaning, and they acted as Kings in all but name. Their dynastic banner – a plain standard of silver with no device or distinguishing emblem – flew from the White Tower where once the White Tree of Elendil had fluttered, and the Stewardship passed from father to eldest son in the manner of kingly houses. The Heir of the Ruling Steward was habitually accorded the rank of Captain of the Host of Gondor, and as a token of his rank to come bore the chief heirloom of the House: a wild ox-horn worked with silver.
The Ruling Stewards of Gondor were: Mardil, Eradan, Herion, Belegorn, Húrin I, Túrin I, Hador, Barahir, Dior, Denethor I, Boromir, Cirion (the longest to rule), Hallas, Húrin II, Belecthor I, Orodreth, Ecthelion I, Egalmoth, Beren, Beregond, Belecthor II, Thorondir, Túrin II, Turgon,
Ecthelion II and Denethor II, the twenty-sixth and last. After the passing of Denethor the rule of Gondor reverted to the King, although the Stewards continued to serve in their old capacity of hereditary counsellors and nobles of the Realm.
Rúmil of Tirion – One of the Noldor of Eldamar, a precursor of Fëanor. He was the first great Elven-poet, and is credited with the composition of the Ainulindalë. But Rúmil is perhaps better remembered as the sage who devised the earliest known system of writing, the Tengwar (‘Letters’), which were later re-ordered and – arranged by Fëanor, and in the end came to be more closely associated with him than with their original inventor.
Runes – A translation of the Quenya word Certar (or of the Sindarin Cirth), referring in general to any incised forms of inscriptive writing, but in particular to the various alphabets developed by the Grey-elves (and later by other folk) during the First and Second Ages. The Eldarin runic system devised in Beleriand during the Elder Days was known as the ALPHABET OF DAERON or the Certhas Daeron, and was older by far than all the others, although less ancient than the Tengwar (‘letters’).9
Sackville-Baggins – A family of Shire-hobbits which lasted for only two generations. See also LOBELIA SACKVILLE-BAGGINS.
Sador – An elderly crippled family retainer of the House of Húrin. Túrin’s name for him was Labadal.
Saeros – One of the Elves of Doriath; but not of the Sindar, for he was one of those few Nandor, formerly of Ossiriand, who dwelt with Thingol in Menegroth. In Doriath he became mighty, and was accounted one of the king’s closest advisers. Yet for all his supposed wisdom, Saeros was so foolish as to pass insulting remarks to Túrin of the Edain; and for this Túrin struck him. The following day Saeros attempted to take his revenge, by ambushing Túrin as he passed through Neldoreth on his way back to Dimbar (where he was fighting against the Orcs in company with the Elves and the Men of Brethil). Túrin, however, escaped this treacherous attack, and he pursued Saeros through the forest; and in his flight the Elf missed his footing and fell to his death in a deep ravine. Fearing condemnation, Túrin fled from Doriath, never to return – and so began his dreadful odyssey.
Sakalthôr (Ar-Sakalthôr) – From 3033–3102 Second Age, the twenty-second King of Númenor, and one of the (later) rulers who took a royal name in the Adûnaic tongue (as opposed to the Eldarin nomenclature of the earlier Kings of Westernesse). His rightful Quenya name was Tar-Falassion.
Salmar – One of the Maiar. He was of the service and following of the Vala Ulmo, and wrought the horns of the Sea-lord, the Ulumúri.
Sam Gamgee – See SAMWISE GAMGEE.
Sammath Naur ‘Chambers of Fire’ (Sind.) – The great dolven forges in the side of the volcano Orodruin in the land of Mordor. They were constructed by Sauron the Great early in the Second Age, and afforded him access to the volcanic inner fires of the mountain. At their heart lay the CRACKS OF DOOM.
Samwise Gamgee – There are few examples of loyalty, devotion and faithfulness recorded in the annals of the Third Age to equal those displayed by the illustrious Hobbit Samwise Gamgee, servant and steadfast companion of Frodo Baggins and honourable member of the Fellowship of the Ring. Throughout the many trials and hardships endured without complaint at his master’s side, his purpose never faltered: to remain with Frodo wherever he might go, even to Mordor. And in the end he was rewarded richly: with honour, and many descendants, and a long life; and a journey across the Sea at the end of it.
And yet Samwise – who later became Mayor of the Shire no less than seven times, and whose name was recorded in rolls of honour in Gondor and other lands – was born the youngest of three sons to a staunchly working-class family; and his trade was the humble craft of horticulture, or gardening. In fact, the Gamgees of Hobbiton were renowned for conservatism and a lack of aspirations, yet these faults, if faults they were, sprang from respectfulness and a love for their gentle craft; and if they were less progressive and ambitious than other Hobbits, then all agreed they were worthy citizens. Sam’s father Hamfast (known as ‘the Gaffer’) was the gardener to the Bagginses of Bag End, the local squirearchy and the wealthiest Hobbits of the district. Yet neither of the Gaffer’s two eldest sons chose to follow him in this trade, and it was his youngest, Samwise, born in 1380 Shire Reckoning, who remained with his ageing father and practised the craft of horticulture as Hamfast had taught him. In due course of time he succeeded the Gaffer in the position, though he continued to live with his father in Number Three Bagshot Row (in close proximity to the extensive gardens for which he then bore the whole responsibility). He spent each working day weeding, clipping, digging, planting, seeding, cutting and anxiously tending the fruits, vegetables and flowers which grew in such profusion there.
Like other Hobbits of his own age, Sam spent many recreational hours in the local taverns (particularly The Green Dragon), being partial to a drop of well-brewed ale; and his companions at these establishments agreed that Sam was a likeable fellow, good with his hands, but a bit of a dreamer. In fact, Sam had spent much of his childhood listening (far more than was wise) to old Mr Bilbo, the then occupant of Bag End, and it had been Bilbo who taught the eager Hobbit-child his letters, simultaneously filling Sam’s mind with fancies, stories and tales.
In due course Bilbo quitted the Shire for good, and his heir, Frodo Baggins, then became Samwise’s employer. Sam continued to work for Frodo in much the same way that his father had worked for Bilbo – until one day in Shire-year 1418, when the trusting young gardener was recruited by two of his master’s close friends (Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took) into a ‘conspiracy’. They had guessed at certain ideas even then taking shape in Frodo’s mind, and Sam was instructed to learn what he could about the visits of Gandalf the Grey and other connected matters. But when caught eavesdropping one morning outside Frodo’s study window, Sam’s conscience reasserted itself, and no more information from his lips did the conspirators receive.
The chief result of this incident was that Gandalf chose Samwise to accompany Frodo on a journey to Rivendell that was even then being planned. One may guess that the Wizard’s motive was twofold: to keep the matter of the Ring a secret, and to ensure for Frodo a stalwart and useful companion on the road which lay ahead. In this Gandalf was more successful than he had perhaps foreseen, for of all the companions and friends Frodo encountered during his adventures, none proved surer than Sam, the first chosen for him.
The full tale of Sam’s adventures at Frodo’s side during their long and arduous quest from the quiet Shire of their home to the very walls of Mordor – and beyond – forms the chief section of the lay made in Gondor after the War of the Ring and known as The Tale of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom. For where Frodo went, there Sam also journeyed; and Frodo’s tale is Sam’s also. Together they entered Sauron’s own land: two Hobbits from the simple countryside ‘expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go’.1 And they survived the horrors that befell them to reach the very Cracks of Doom in the cone of the volcano Orodruin, there to make an end of the Ruling Ring and of its Black Master. Samwise was afterwards accounted, like his master, a Ring-bearer – indeed, he bore the Ring into Mordor, having been separated from Frodo by a sudden and treacherous attack. In a moment of supreme heroism, Samwise fought off the danger and later rescued his master from the nearby Orc-tower in which he had been imprisoned. During this hour of trial Sam used the Ring (to escape from Orcs), and so for a while came to understand something of Frodo’s burden. The Ring-spell worked on him so that he briefly saw himself as The Great Gardener, who might overcome Sauron by the force of his will and make a fertile garden bloom where once the reeking plains of central Mordor had smouldered. But his basic commonsense overcame the treacherous vision, and he renounced the Ring. In this way he too saved the Quest from disaster – and without his stout support Frodo would never have reached the Cracks of Doom.
For their deeds the two Hobbits were later honoured before the assembled Hosts of the West
at the Field of Cormallen, and the King of Gondor himself bowed his knee before them.2 Samwise later accompanied his master and his other companions back to the Shire, where further toil awaited them all; yet in the end the War of the Ring was brought to a conclusion, and the sturdy Hobbit was enabled to return to his beloved craft. Indeed, the Shire was much ravaged by the War and needed all his skills. To the astonishment of all, Sam’s labours blossomed the following year (1420 Shire Reckoning) during a summer of extraordinary beauty, when every tree seemed laden with fruit, and the Shire was seen to be healed. For this accomplishment Samwise was revered among the Hobbits; and in due course his eldest son Frodo took the surname Gardner, in token of the achievement.
Sam lived to full age in the Shire, becoming Mayor seven times and dwelling in comfort (amid general esteem) at Bag End. For Frodo passed over Sea at the end of the Third Age, and to his former servant he left his entire estate. Sam thus became Frodo’s heir. He married Rose Cotton, the companion of his boyhood, and she bore him thirteen children, of whom the eldest was Elanor, called the Fair. He lived at Bag End until 1482, Shire Reckoning. On September 22nd – his 102nd birthday – he rode away from Hobbiton and passed West to the Havens, last of the Ring-bearers.
Note: the name Samwise is a translation (into Early English, for contextual reasons) of the original Hobbit-name Banazîr (‘Half-wise, simple’); Gamgee is likewise a rendering of Galbasi or Galpsi (‘Game-village’).
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