Dramborleg Tuor’s axe. A note on this name says: ‘Dramborleg means “Thudder-sharp”, and was the axe of Tuor that smote both a heavy dint as of a club and cleft as a sword’.
Drengist A long firth of the sea penetrating the Echoing Mountains. The river from Mithrim that Tuor followed through the Rainbow Cleft would have brought him to the sea by that route, ‘but he was dismayed by the fury of the strange waters, and he turned aside and went away southward, and so came not to the long shores of the Firth of Drengist’ (here).
The Dry River The bed of the river that once flowed out from the Encircling Mountains to join Sirion; forming the entrance to Gondolin.
Duilin Lord of the people of the Swallow in Gondolin.
Dungortheb Shortened form of Nan Dungortheb, ‘the valley of dreadful death’, between Ered Gorgoroth, the Mountains of Terror, and the Girdle of Melian protecting Doriath from the north.
The Dweller in the Deep Ulmo.
Eagle-stream See Thorn Sir.
Eärámë ‘Eagle’s Pinion’, Tuor’s ship.
Eärendel (later form Eärendil) ‘Halfelven’: the son of Tuor and Idril Turgon’s daughter; the father of Elrond and Elros. See the note here.
Easterlings Name given to Men who followed the Edain into Beleriand; they fought on both sides in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, and were given Hithlum by Morgoth, where they oppressed the remnant of the People of Hador.
Echoing Mountains of Lammoth* The Echoing Mountains (Ered Lómin) formed the ‘west wall’ of Hithlum; Lammoth was the region between those mountains and the sea.
Echoriath See Encircling Mountains.
Ecthelion Lord of the people of the Fountain in Gondolin.
Edain The Men of the Three Houses of the Elf-friends.
Egalmoth Lord of the people of the Heavenly Arch in Gondolin.
Eglarest* The southern Haven of the Falas.
Eldalië ‘Elven folk’, a name used interchangeably with Eldar.
Eldar In early writings the name Eldar meant the Elves of the great journey from Cuiviénen, which was divided into three hosts: See Light-elves, Deep-elves, and Sea-elves: on these names See the remarkable passage in The Hobbit given in the note here. Subsequently it could be used as distinct from Noldoli, and of the language of the Eldar as opposed to Gnomish (the language of the Noldoli).
Elemmakil Elf of Gondolin, captain of the guard of the outer gate.
Elfinesse An inclusive name for all the lands of the Elves.
Elrond and Elros The sons of Eärendel and Elwing. Elrond elected to belong to the Firstborn; he was the master of Rivendell and keeper of the ring Vilya. Elros was numbered among Men and became the first King of Númenor.
Elwing Daughter of Dior, wedded Eärendel; mother of Elrond and Elros.
Encircling Mountains, ~Hills The mountains encircling the plain of Gondolin. Elvish name Echoriath.
Eöl The ‘dark Elf’ of the forest who ensnared Isfin; father of Maeglin.
Ered Wethrin (earlier form Eredwethion) Mountains of Shadow (‘The walls of Hithlum’). See the note on Iron Mountains, here.
Evermind White flower that was continuously in bloom.
The Exiles The rebellious Noldor who returned to Middle-earth from Aman.
Falas* The western coastlands of Beleriand, south of Nevrast.
Falasquil A cove of the sea-coast where Tuor dwelt for a time. This was clearly a small bay, marked without a name on a map made by my father, on the long firth (named Drengist) running east to Hithlum and Dor-lómin. The wood for Eärendel’s ship Wingilot (‘Foam-flower’) was said to have come from Falasquil.
Falathrim The Telerin Elves of the Falas.
Fëanor The eldest son of Finwë; maker of the Silmarils.
Finarfin The third son of Finwë; father of Finrod Felagund and Galadriel. He remained in Aman after the flight of the Noldor.
Finduilas Daughter of Orodreth, King of Nargothrond after Finrod Felagund. Faelivrin was a name given to her; the meaning is ‘the gleam of the sun on the pools of Ivrin’.
Fingolfin The second son of Finwë; father of Fingon and Turgon; High King of the Noldor in Beleriand; slain by Morgoth in single combat at the gates of Angband (described in The Lay of Leithian, Beren and Lúthien pp.190 ff.).
Fingolma Early name of Finwë.
Fingon The elder son of Fingolfin; brother of Turgon; High King of the Noldor after the death of Fingolfin; slain in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
Finn Gnomish form of Finwë.
Finrod Felagund Eldest son of Finarfin; founder and King of Nargothrond, whence his name Felagund ‘cave-hewer’. See Inglor.
Finwë Leader of the second host (Noldoli) on the great journey from Cuiviénen; father of Fëanor, Fingolfin and Finarfin.
Fionwë Son of Manwë; captain of the host of the Valar in the Great Battle.
The Fountain Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim. See Ecthelion.
Galdor The father of Húrin and Huor; See Tuor.
Galdor Lord of the people of the Tree in Gondolin.
Gar Ainion ‘The Place of the Gods’ (Ainur) in Gondolin.
Gate of the Noldor See Annon-in-Gelydh.
Gates of Summer See Tarnin Austa.
Gelmir and Arminas Noldorin Elves who came upon Tuor at the Gate of the Noldor when on their way to Nargothrond to warn Orodreth (the second king, following Felagund) of its peril, of which they did not speak to Tuor.
Girdle of Melian See Melian.
Glamhoth Orcs; translated ‘the barbaric host’, ‘hosts of hate’.
Glaurung The most celebrated of all the dragons of Morgoth.
Glingol and Bansil The gold and silver trees at the doors of the King’s palace in Gondolin. Originally these were shoots of old from the Two Trees of Valinor before Melko and Gloomweaver withered them, but later the story was that they were images made by Turgon in Gondolin.
Glithui* A river flowing down from Ered Wethrin, a tributary of Teiglin.
Gloomweaver See Ungoliant.
Glorfalc ‘Golden Cleft’: Tuor’s name for the ravine through which flowed the river that rose in Lake Mithrim.
Glorfindel Lord of the people of the Golden Flower in Gondolin.
Gnomes This was the early translation of the name of the Elves called Noldoli (later Noldor). For explanation of this use of ‘Gnomes’ See Beren and Lúthien pp.32–3. Their language was Gnomish.
The Golden Flower Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim.
Gondolin* For the name See Gondothlim. For the other names See here.
Gondothlim The people of Gondolin; translated ‘the dwellers in stone’. Other names of related form are Gondobar meaning ‘City of Stone’ and Gondothlimbar ‘City of the Dwellers in Stone’. Both these names are included in the Seven Names of the city cited to Tuor by the guard at the gate of Gondolin (p.51). The element gond meant ‘stone’, as in Gondor. Gondolin was interpreted at the time of writing the Lost Tales as ‘Stone of Song’, which was said to mean ‘stone carved and wrought to great beauty.’ A later interpretation was ‘the Hidden Rock’.
Gondothlimbar See Gondothlim.
Gorgoroth Shortened form of Ered Gorgoroth, the Mountains of Terror; See Dungortheb.
Gothmog Lord of Balrogs, captain of the hosts of Melkor; son of Melkor, slain by Ecthelion.
The Great Battle The world-changing battle that finally overthrew Morgoth and brought the First Age of the World to its end. It may also be said to have ended the Elder Days, for ‘in the Fourth Age the earlier Ages were often called the Elder Days; but that name was properly given only to the days before the casting out of Morgoth’ (The Tale of Years, appendix to The Lord of the Rings). That is why Elrond said at the great council in Rivendell: ‘My memory reaches back even to the Elder Days. Eärendil was my sire, who was born in Gondolin before its fall.’
Great Sea* The Great Sea of the West, whose name was Belegaer, extended from the western coasts of Middle-earth to the coasts of Aman.
Great Worm of An
gband See Glaurung.
Grey Annals See here.
Grey-elves The Sindar. This name was given to the Eldar who remained in Beleriand and did not go further into the West.
The Grinding Ice In the far north of Arda there was a strait between the ‘western world’ and the coast of Middle-earth, and in one of the accounts of the ‘Grinding Ice’ it is described thus:
Through these narrows the chill waters of the Encircling Sea [See Outer Seas] and the waves of the Great Sea of the West flow together, and there are vast mists of deathly cold, and the sea-streams are filled with clashing hills of ice and the grinding of ice submerged. This strait was named Helkaraksë.
Guarded Plain Tumladen, the plain of Gondolin.
Gwindor Elf of Nargothrond, lover of Finduilas.
Hador See Tuor. The House of Hador was called The Third House of the Edain. His son Galdor was the father of Húrin and Huor.
The Hammer of Wrath Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim.
The Harp Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim.
Haudh-en-Ndengin ‘The Hill of Slain’: a great mound in which were laid all the Elves and Men who died in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. This was in the desert of Anfauglith.
Heavenly Arch Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim.
Hells of Iron Angband. See the note on Iron Mountains, here.
Hendor A servant of Idril who carried Eärendel in the flight from Gondolin.
The Hidden King Turgon.
The Hidden Kingdom Gondolin.
The Hidden People See Gondothlim.
Hill of Watch See Amon Gwareth.
Hisilómë The Gnomish form of the name Hithlum.
Hísimë The eleventh month, corresponding to November.
Hither Lands Middle-earth.
Hithlum* The great region, translated ‘Land of Mist’, ‘Twilit Mist’, extending northward from the great wall of Ered Wethrin, the Mountains of Shadow; in the south of the region lay Dor-lómin and Mithrim. See Hisilómë.
Huor The brother of Húrin, husband of Rían, and father of Tuor; slain in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. See the note on Húrin and Gondolin, here.
Húrin The father of Túrin Turambar and brother of Huor father of Tuor; See the note Húrin and Gondolin, here.
Idril Called Celebrindal ‘Silverfoot’, the daughter of Turgon. Her mother was Elenwë, who perished in the crossing of the Helcaraxë, the Grinding Ice. It is told in a very late note that ‘Turgon had himself come near to death in the bitter waters when he attempted to save her and his daughter Idril, whom the breaking of treacherous ice had cast into the cruel sea. Idril he saved; but the body of Elenwë was covered in fallen ice.’ She was the wife of Tuor and the mother of Eärendel.
Ilfiniol Elvish name of Littleheart.
Ilkorindi, Ilkorins Elves who never dwelt in Kôr in Valinor.
Ilúvatar The Creator. The elements are Ilu ‘the Whole, the Universe’; and atar ‘father’.
Inglor Earlier name for Finrod Felagund.
Ingwë Leader of the Light-elves on the great journey from Cuiviénen. It is told in the Quenta Noldorinwa that ‘he entered into Valinor and sits at the feet of the Powers, and all Elves revere his name, but he has come never back to the Outer Lands.’
Iron Mountains ‘Morgoth’s mountains’ in the far North. But the occurrence of the name in the text of the original Tale here derives from an earlier time when Iron Mountains was applied to the range later named Shadowy Mountains (Ered Wethrin): See the note on Iron Mountains here. I have emended the text here at this point.
Isfin Sister of King Turgon; mother of Maeglin, wife of Eöl.
Ivrin The lake and falls beneath Ered Wethrin where the river Narog rose.
Kôr The hill in Valinor overlooking the Bay of Faërie on which was built the Elvish city of Tûn, later Tirion; also as the name of the city itself. See Ilkorindi.
Land of Shadows See Dor-lómin.
Land of Willows* The beautiful land where the river Narog flowed into the Sirion, south of Nargothrond. Its Elvish names were Nan-tathrin ‘Willow-vale’ and Tasarinan. In The Two Towers (Book 3, chapter 4), when Treebeard was carrying Merry and Pippin in the forest of Fangorn he chanted to them, and the first words were
In the willow-meads of Tasarinan I walked in the Spring.
Ah! the sight and the smell of the Spring in Nan-tasarion!
Laurelin Name of the Golden Tree of Valinor.
Legolas Greenleaf An Elf of the House of the Tree in Gondolin, gifted with extraordinary night-sight.
Light-elves A name of the first host of the Elves on the great journey from Cuiviénen. See Quendi, and the note here.
Linaewen The great mere in Nevrast ‘in the midst of the hollow land’.
Lisgardh ‘The land of reeds at the Mouths of Sirion’. See Arlisgion.
Littleheart Elf of Tol Eressëa who told the original tale of The Fall of Gondolin. He is described thus in the Lost Tales: ‘He had a weatherworn face and blue eyes of great merriment, and was very slender and small, nor might one say if he were fifty or ten thousand’; and it is also said that he owed his name to ‘the youth and wonder of his heart’. In the Lost Tales he has many Elvish names, but Ilfiniol is the only one that appears in this book.
Lonely Isle Tol Eressëa: a large island in the Western Ocean, within remote sight of the coasts of Aman. For its early history See here.
Lord of Waters See Ulmo.
Lords of the West The Valar.
Lorgan Easterling chief in Hithlum who enslaved Tuor.
Lórien The Valar Mandos and Lórien were called brothers, and bore the name Fanturi. Mandos was Nefantur and Lórien was Olofantur. Like Mandos, Lórien was the name of his dwelling but was also used as his own name. He was ‘the master of visions and dreams’.
Lothlim ‘People of the Flower’: the name taken by the survivors of Gondolin in their dwellings at the Mouths of Sirion.
Lug An Orc slain by Tuor.
Maglor Son of Fëanor, called the Mighty; a great singer and minstrel.
Maidros Eldest son of Fëanor, called the Tall.
Malduin* A tributary of the Teiglin.
Malkarauki Elvish name for Balrogs.
Mandos The dwelling, by which he himself is always named, of the great Vala Namo. I give here the portrait of Mandos in the brief text Valaquenta:
[Mandos] is the keeper of the Houses of the Dead, and the summoner of the spirits of the slain. He forgets nothing; and he knows all things that shall be, save only those that lie still in the freedom of Ilúvatar. He is the Doomsman of the Valar; but he pronounces his dooms and his judgements only at the bidding of Manwë. Vairë the Weaver is his spouse, who weaves all things that have ever been in Time into her storied webs, and the halls of Mandos that ever widen as the ages pass are clothed with them.
See Lórien.
Manwë The chief of the Valar and the spouse of Varda; Lord of the realm of Arda. See Súlimo.
Meglin (and later Maeglin) Son of Eöl and Isfin sister of King Turgon; he betrayed Gondolin to Morgoth, the most infamous treachery in the history of Middle-earth; slain by Tuor.
Meleth The nurse of Eärendel.
Melian A Maia from the company of the Vala Lórien in Valinor, who came to Middle-earth and became the Queen of Doriath. ‘She put forth her power’ [as told in the Grey Annals, See here] ‘and fenced all that region about with an unseen wall of shadow and bewilderment: the Girdle of Melian, that none thereafter could pass against her will or the will of King Thingol’. See Thingol and Doriath.
Melko (later form Melkor) ‘He who arises in might’; the name of the great evil Ainu before he became ‘Morgoth’. ‘The mightiest of those Ainur who came into the World was in his beginning Melkor. [He] is counted no longer among the Valar, and his name is not spoken upon Earth.’ (From the text named Valaquenta.)
Menegroth* See Thousand Caves.
Meres of Twilight Aelin-uial, a region of great pools and marshes, wrapped in mists, where
Aros, flowing out of Doriath, met Sirion.
Mighty of the West The Valar.
Minas of King Finrod The tower (Minas Tirith) built by Finrod Felagund. This was a great watch-tower that he built on Tol Sirion, the isle in the Pass of Sirion that became after its capture by Sauron Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves.
Mithrim* The great lake in the south of Hithlum, and also the region in which it lay and the mountains to the west.
Moeleg The Gnomish form of Melko, which the Gnomes would not speak, calling him Morgoth Bauglir, the Dark Power Terrible.
The Mole A sable Mole was the sign of Meglin and his house.
Morgoth This name (‘the Black Foe’ and other translations) only occurs once in the Lost Tales. It was first given by Fëanor after the rape of the Silmarils. See Melko and Bauglir.
Mountains of Darkness The Iron Mountains.
Mountains of Shadow* See Ered Wethrin.
Mountains of Turgon See Echoriath.
Mountains of Valinor The great range of mountains that were raised by the Valar when they came to Aman. Called also the Pelóri, they extended in a vast crescent from north to south not far from the eastern shores of Aman.
Nan-tathrin* Elvish name of the Land of Willows.
Nargothrond* The great underground fortress city on the river Narog in West Beleriand, founded by Finrod Felagund and destroyed by the dragon Glaurung.
Narog* The river that rose in the lake of Ivrin under Ered Wethrin and flowed into Sirion in the Land of Willows.
Narquelië The tenth month, corresponding to October.
Nessa A ‘Queen of the Valar’, the sister of Vána and spouse of Tulkas.
Nevrast* The region south-west of Dor-lómin where Turgon dwelt before his departure to Gondolin.
Ninniach, Vale of The site of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, but found only here under this name.
Nirnaeth Arnoediad The Battle of Unnumbered Tears. Often referred to as ‘the Nirnaeth’. See the note here.
Noldoli, Noldor The earlier and later forms of the name of the second host of the Elves on the great journey from Cuiviénen. See Gnomes, Deep-elves.
The Fall of Gondolin Page 22