Siril – The chief river of Númenor; it rose in springs from the Meneltarma and flowed southwards to find the sea in a sandy delta which formed the border between the provinces of Hyarrostar and Hyarnustar.
Sirion ‘Mighty-flowing’ (Sind.) – The greatest river of western Middle-earth during the First Age. It flowed south for 140 leagues before reaching the sea, and throughout its course was accounted the border between East and West Beleriand. It had seven tributaries, of which the Rivil, which had its source on Dorthonion, was the most northerly, and the Narog the most southerly. The Sirion reached the Sea in a great delta, the Mouths of Sirion – where this enormous stream was nearly a mile wide – and during its journey from Ard-galen to the Bay of Balar it underwent nearly every transformation a river can experience, flowing through marshland, over mighty falls – and even underground, for nearly ten miles.
Siriondil – From 748–830 Third Age, the eleventh King of Gondor. Also the name of the father of King Eärnil 11 of Gondor. Though not himself King, he was of royal blood, being the grand-nephew of Narmacil II, twenty-ninth King. This kinship was the constitutional basis of Eärnil’s claim to the Throne of Gondor.
Sirith ‘Flowing’ (Sind.) – One of the Seven Rivers of Gondor. It flowed south from a source high in the mountain-vales of Lebennin and joined the Anduin some little distance downstream from the port of Pelargir. Its chief tributary was the Celos (or Kelos).
Skinbark – A translation of the Sindarin name Fladrif, which was borne (as a ‘short name’) by an aged Ent of Fangorn Forest.
‘Slinker’ – See SMÉAGOL-GOLLUM.
Smallburrow – See ROBIN SMALLBURROW.
Smaug the Golden – One of the greatest Urulóki (Fire-dragons) of Middle-earth during the Third Age, a beast of cunning and cruelty whose first recorded appearance in the Annals of the Age was in the year 2770, when he came flaming out of the North to capture, sack and occupy the Dwarf-kingdom of Erebor, east of Mirkwood. The attack was so successful that most of the Dwarves unfortunate enough to be caught inside the Lonely Mountain on that day were exterminated – and for good measure Smaug also destroyed the nearby Mannish town of Dale.
After completing these labours, the Dragon crawled inside the Mountain and there gathered all the wealth of both Erebor and Dale into one vast heap, upon which he lay in contented slumber for nearly two full centuries.
So fearsome was the known wrath of Smaug that none came to challenge his ownership of the hoard for many years, and he grew complacent and vain. Yet in the end he was slain, for several reasons, the chief of which was his own Dragon-conceit.
As is told in The Hobbit, Smaug’s vanity accidentally led him to reveal the existence of a vulnerable unarmoured patch on his underside, and armed with this information the enemies of Smaug were able to pierce this spot with an arrow. Smaug was slain by the rightful heir of the Kings of Dale, Bard the Bowman of Esgaroth, in the year 2941 Third Age, and his bones ever after lay in the shallows near the ruined Laketown. His destruction accomplished, the Kingdom Under the Mountain and the town of Dale were both restored to their rightful owners and the region had peace for many years.
Sméagol-Gollum – Undoubtedly the most tragic of all the personal tales associated with the history of the Great Ring was that of the creature known as Sméagol, or Gollum. Originally a lowly member of a family of proto-Hobbits, he became an early victim of the malevolent power of the Ring, which he bore for nearly five hundred years of his long and miserable life, unwilling – and unable – to relinquish it. Yet in the end the Ruling Ring itself discarded him – and the loss of his greatest, indeed his only treasure proved the stimulus which finally caused him to leave his long-secret refuge under the Misty Mountains; and in recovering his Precious at the last, he brought about its destruction as well as his own, and so was reunited with it for ever.
The tale of Gollum’s long and terrible odyssey has been recounted at length in the Red Book – in both of the major sections of narrative, for both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins encountered him during their adventures. This entry will accordingly confine itself to recording those details of Gollum’s ancestry which lie outside the main tale.
He was born in the twenty-fourth century of the Third Age and was in origin closely akin to Hobbit-kind, for his family were of Stoorish blood but had returned to the vales of Anduin after dwelling in Eriador, unlike most of their race. They dwelt at that time not far from the banks of the river Anduin, near the Gladden Fields.
This young Stoor was named Sméagol (orig. Trahald), which means ‘burrowing-in’; and, like most of the clan, he made his living by fishing in the Great River. And it was while on a fishing expedition that Sméagol chanced to discover the Great Ring – or rather, his friend Déagol found it on the river-bed where it had lain undisturbed for over two thousand years.
The Ring-spell had an instant effect on Sméagol, who promptly murdered his friend to gain possession of the golden thing. Taking it back to his little community, he soon discovered the Ring’s more obvious properties, which he used in small, mean ways. He rapidly became unpopular among his kinfolk, not least for the habit he developed of making unpleasant glottal noises in his throat (from which he gained the name Gollum), and in the end his furtive ways and sneaking tricks brought about his expulsion from the family hole.
Wandering north, alone and miserable, he chanced to follow a stream to its source deep under the Misty Mountains; for Gollum had always hated and feared the light of Sun and Moon, and it seemed to him that under the bowels of the Mountains he would be safe for ever from such things. In the underground caverns beneath the Orc-mines of the High Pass he made his home. And there he remained for many lives.
For from the first the terrible power of the Ruling Ring was on him, though to Gollum it gave power according to his measure: long life but little else (save the power of invisibility), and for many centuries he eked out a miserable existence, growing thin and unnaturally strong as his years lengthened beyond their natural measure – but never ‘fading’ or becoming a wraith, for in the endless darkness he found little need to wear ‘the Precious’ (as he termed the Ring). And so, although almost wholly ruined, Gollum was slow to fall completely under the power of the Ring.
Such was the misshapen, evil-minded creature encountered by Bilbo Baggins in the year 2941 Third Age, almost five hundred years after the finding of the Ring and the murder of Déagol; and with that meeting the Great Ring chose for itself a new bearer, for it was plain that as long as it stayed with Gollum it would never again leave the cave under the Misty Mountains. Bilbo found the Ring and Gollum was left desolate in the dark. But three years afterwards, his desire finally overcame his fear and he ventured forth into the world to begin his long search for the ‘thief’ of the Precious.
During the next seventy years Gollum hunted the length and breadth of Wilderland, being captured at last by Sauron while prying on the very borders of Mordor. There he was put to the Question – and in this way the Lord of the Rings at last learned the truth concerning the whereabouts of his long-lost treasure. And so began the War of the Ring.
Released from Mordor with instructions to hunt for the Ring, Gollum finally located the Fellowship while they were passing through Moria, and from that time onwards he was almost continually within sight of the Ring-bearer and his burden, from Lothlórien down the length of the Great River, across the Emyn Muil and into Mordor itself.
Yet it was later acknowledged by the Ring-bearer that, but for Gollum’s self-serving treachery (oddly mixed with a genuine devotion to Frodo), the Quest could not have been achieved at all: for at the very last stroke, the power of the Ring overcame Frodo, and without the (ill-intentioned) intercession of Gollum at the brink of the Cracks of Doom, there can be little doubt that Sauron would have prevailed. In this way Gollum atoned for all the evils committed during his long life.
Smial – A translation of the original Hobbit-word trân (‘burrow’), being the name given by Hobbits to the tunnels and del
vings which were their most ancient (and most characteristic) form of dwelling-place. The practice of living in holes in the ground was indeed archaic, but by the time of the War of the Ring the custom had fallen somewhat out of use in the Shire, due to the shortage of suitable land; and thus it was ‘only the richest and the poorest Hobbits that maintained the old custom’.
Naturally enough, smials varied greatly in size and splendour. Some of the larger examples (such as Brandy Hall and the ‘Great Smials’ of the Tooks) were of vast dimension, with many branching tunnels and passages, while Bag End was a well-preserved example of ‘manor-hole’.
Snaga ‘Slave’ (Black Speech) – A contemptuous name given by larger breeds of Orc (such as the Uruk-hai) to lesser Goblins.
Snowbourn – A river of eastern Rohan. It rose in Harrowdale and flowed northwards as far as the hill of Edoras, after which it bent eastward to join the Entwash.
Snowmane – The steed of King Théoden of Rohan. Snowmane bore his royal master throughout the War of the Ring and perished in battle on the Pelennor Fields (March, 3019 Third Age). The horse was slain by a dart from the Witch-king, and crushed Théoden beneath him when he fell. Snowmane was afterwards buried where he had fallen, in a mound later called Snowmane’s Howe.
Solmath – The second month of the year in the Shire and Bree Reckonings, equivalent to Nenimë in Kings’ Reckoning and to our February.
Song of Parting – The lament made by Beren of the Edain for his beloved, Lúthien Tinúviel, daughter of Thingol Greycloak.
Sorontil – A great mountain of Númenor; it stood on the North Cape of the Forostar (north region) and was second in height only to the Meneltarma.
Soronúmë ‘Eagle of the West’ (Q.) – One of the constellations made by Varda (Elbereth).
South Downs – A broad ridge of downland in Eriador, an eastern outlier of the Barrow-downs, which lay to the south of the Bree-land. The Great North Road passed between the two ranges of downs.
‘Southern Star’ – A highly-regarded brand of Pipe-weed grown in the Southfarthing of the Shire.
Southfarthing – One of the four quarters or ‘farthings’ of the Shire. The Southfarthing was the sunniest region of the Hobbit-land, and was rightly famous for its viticulture and its leaf-plantations.
South Ithilien – See ITHILIEN.
South-kingdom – GONDOR.
Southlinch – A variety of Pipe-weed grown in Bree, on the south slopes of Bree Hill. By all accounts this brand of weed, though acceptable, was inferior to varieties grown in the Southfarthing of the Shire.
‘Speaking-peoples’ – A name given in the lore of the early Elves to the articulate races of Middle-earth; by which the Elves meant those of the Free Peoples able to converse with Elvenkind. The ‘speaking-peoples’ were: Ents, Hobbits, Dwarves, Men and, of course, the Quendi (Elves) themselves.
Spies of the Valar – An epithet for the FAITHFUL or Elendili of Númenor, used only by the (heretical) royalists.
Spoken Tongues – The diagram below is intended to show, in as clear a manner as possible, the ancestry and development of the various languages used by Men and Elves of Middle-earth during the First, Second and Third Ages.
Springle-ring – A country dance common in the Shire.
Spring of Arda – The name given in the traditions of the Eldar to the epoch at the very beginning of time, after the making of Arda (the World), when the Valar dwelled in Almaren and the two Lamps, Illuin and Ormal, shone out over the face of the Earth, giving Light. During this vanished time the first plants began to grow, and the first beasts awoke and walked in the wild. But the Spring came to a sudden and shocking end, with the launching of war upon the Valar by Melkor. He overthrew the Lamps and Middle-earth was plunged a Darkness that was to endure until the Making of the Moon and Sun.
Staddle – A village of the Bree-land. It stood to the east of Bree village on the south-eastern slopes of Bree Hill, and was the main dwelling-place for the Little Folk (Hobbits) of the area.
Stair Falls – An ornamental waterfall over which the Sirannon (‘Gate-stream’) of Moria originally flowed, on its way down to the lowlands of eastern Eriador. When the stream was dammed during the later part of the Third Age, the water ceased to flow over the Stair Falls in any measurable quantity.
Standelf – A village of the Buckland, at the southern end of the trackway which ran northwards to meet the Great East Road near the Brandywine Bridge.
Standing Silence – A moment of ceremonial silence observed by the Dúnedain at the commencement of each meal. All who were to dine faced west, ‘towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be’.11
Starkhorn – The name given in Rohan to a great peak of the northern White Mountains. The Starkhorn overlooked the (southern) head of Harrowdale valley.
Star of Elendil – A translation of the Quenya word ELENDILMIR.
Star of the Dúnedain – The rayed brooch that Aragorn II, Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North, wore on his cloak when he served Gondor as ‘Thorongil’ (‘Eagle of the Star’). He later presented it to Samwise Gamgee.
Star of the House of Fëanor – The heraldic emblem of the Noldorin Elves of Fëanor’s House. It was a Star of eight rays. An example may be found in the designs on the Westgate of Moria, which was etched by the hand of Celebrimbor of Eregion during the Second Age. Celebrimbor was Fëanor’s grandson.
Steelsheen – An admiring name given by the Rohirrim to the Lady Morwen of Lossarnach, wife of King Thengel of Rohan, mother of Théoden, and grandmother of Éowyn (who was said to have inherited her temperament from this noble lady).
Sterday – A later form of the word Sterrendei, which was the first day of the week in the Shire Reckoning, equivalent to Elenya (‘Stars’ day’) in Kings’ Reckoning and the Elven Calendar of Imladris.
Stewards of Gondor – The chief counsellors to the royal Line of Anárion in the South-kingdom of the Dúnedain. They were traditionally appointed by the King from among his close advisers, but after the middle years of the Third Age the Stewardship became hereditary and all subsequent Stewards of Gondor were afterwards chosen from among the descendants of Húrin of Emyn Arnen, who had been Steward to King Minardil (1621–34).
The waning of the Line of Anárion produced a corresponding strengthening of this hereditary Stewardship, and all holders of the Office after Pelendur, Steward to Ondoher and Eärnil II, received the Rod of Stewardship by virtue of being the eldest son. Pelendur was followed by Vorondil (the Hunter), and Vorondil by Mardil Voronwë, who officiated for both Eärnil and his son Eärnur. Mardil was later accounted the first of the RULING STEWARDS.
Stewards’ Reckoning – A calendar-system of the Dúnedain of Gondor, introduced by Mardil the Good Steward in the year 2060 Third Age to replace KINGS’ RECKONING. It was in essence the older system which had already been adopted piecemeal by most of the inhabitants of the Westron-speaking area, updated and adjusted in order to eradicate the accumulated deficits of five and a half millennia of the Númenorean calendar. Hador (seventh Ruling Steward) later added one day to the year 2360 to complete this adjustment process, but no further revisions were made during the Third Age. In the Fourth Age Stewards’ Reckoning was replaced in Gondor by the New Reckoning, which represented a return to the older Kings’ Reckoning adapted to begin the year in spring. Stewards’ Reckoning was the final form adopted by the Westron-speaking peoples during the Third Age (although the Shire- and Bree-dwellers continued to employ their idiosyncratic versions of the older system, together with their own nomenclature).
Sting – The name given by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to the short Elvish sword (or long Elvish knife) discovered by him in a Trolls’ hoard during an early adventure in the year 2941 Third Age. The weapon was forged by Elven-smiths of Gondolin during the First Age for the wars against Morgoth the Enemy, but fell into evil hands after that city was destroyed. The sword’s history throughout the Second and Third Ages is of course
unknown, but one may surmise that it passed from hoard to hoard until it finally came to rest in a remote Troll-lair in eastern Eriador. The possessors of that hoard were slain by Gandalf the Grey, and shortly afterwards their intended victims were able to ransack the cave for wealth and weapons. Brought to light in the same cache were the Elf-swords Glamdring and Orcrist (borne afterwards by Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield of the Dwarves). Like all Elf-blades, Sting gleamed with a cold blue light if any servants of the Enemy were nigh at hand, and its cutting edge was sharper by far than any weapon made in later Ages. Bilbo used Sting many times during his adventure, and later passed the sword to Frodo, who bore it from Rivendell to the borders of Mordor. Samwise Gamgee bore it as far as the Cracks of Doom. After the War was over, Sting became an heirloom of the Gamgee family.
Stock – The chief village of the Marish in the Shire. It lay near the river Baranduin (Brandywine), between the Great East Road and the Bucklebury Ferry.
Stockbrook – A stream which arose in the Woody End of the Shire and flowed north-east to join the Baranduin a little way south of the village of Stock (after which it was presumably named).
Stock Road – A trackway which ran from the Great East Road near the Three-farthing Stone and bent south and east in a wide loop through the Green Hill Country and Woody End to the village of Stock in the Eastfarthing.
Stone of Erech – An enormous black spherical stone, some ten feet or so in diameter, which was said to have been brought to Middle-earth from Númenor in 3320 Second Age by Isildur, eldest son of Elendil the Tall. It was set by Isildur atop the ancient Hill of Erech in Morthond Vale as a symbol of the royalty of Gondor (and its kinship with ancient Númenor), and the Men of the White Mountains were required to swear fealty to the Dúnedain upon it. When the mountain-people later broke their Oath, it was to the Stone of Erech that they were summoned, a full Age afterwards, in order to fulfil their vow and so achieve rest at last.
The Complete Tolkien Companion Page 62