Nost-na-Lothion ‘The Birth of Flowers’, a festival of spring in Gondolin.
Orcobal A great champion of Orcs, slain by Ecthelion.
Orcs In a note on the word my father wrote: ‘A folk devised and brought into being by Morgoth to make war on Elves and Men; sometimes translated “Goblins”, but they were of nearly human stature.’ See Glamhoth.
Orfalch Echor The great ravine in the Encircling Mountains by which Gondolin was approached.
Oromë Vala, the son of Yavanna, renowned as the greatest of all hunters; he and Yavanna alone of the Valar came at times to Middle-earth in the Elder Days. On Nahar his white horse he led the Elves on the great journey from Cuiviénen.
Ossë He is a Maia, a vassal of Ulmo, and is thus described in the Valaquenta:
He is master of the seas that wash the shores of Middle-earth. He does not go in the deeps, but loves the coasts and the isles, and rejoices in the winds of Manwë; for in storm he delights, and laughs amid the roaring of the waves.
Othrod A lord of Orcs, slain by Tuor.
Outer Lands The lands east of the Great Sea (Middle-earth).
Outer Seas I quote from a passage in a text named Ambarkanta (‘Shape of the World’) of the 1930s, probably later than the Quenta Noldorinwa: ‘About all the world are the Ilurambar, or Walls of the World [‘the final Wall’ in the Prologue, p.24] … They cannot be seen, nor can they be passed, save by the Door of Night. Within these Walls the Earth is globed: above, below, and upon all sides is Vaiya, the Enfolding Ocean [which is the Outer Sea]. But this is more like to sea below the Earth and more like to air above the Earth. In Vaiya below the Earth dwells Ulmo.’
In the Lost Tale of The Coming of the Valar Rúmil, who tells the tale, says: ‘Beyond Valinor I have never seen or heard, save that of a surety there are the dark waters of the Outer Seas, that have no tides, and they are very cool and thin, that no boat can sail upon their bosom or fish swim within their depths, save the enchanted fish of Ulmo and his magic car.’
Outer World, Outer Earth The lands east of the Great Sea (Middle-earth).
Palisor The distant land in the East of Middle-earth where the Elves awoke.
Palúrien A name of Yavanna; both names are often conjoined. Palúrien was replaced later by Kementári; both names bear such meanings as ‘Queen of the Earth’, ‘Lady of the Wide Earth’.
Peleg son of Indor son of Fengel Peleg was the father of Tuor in the first genealogy. (See Tunglin)
Pelóri See Mountains of Valinor.
Penlod Lord of the peoples of the Pillar and the Tower of Snow in Gondolin.
The Pillar Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim. See Penlod.
Prophecy of Mandos See note here.
Quendi An early name for all Elves, meaning ‘Those who have voices’; later, the name of the first of the three hosts on the great journey from Cuiviénen. See Light-elves.
Rían Wife of Huor, mother of Tuor; died in Anfauglith after the death of Huor.
Rog Lord of the people of the Hammer of Wrath in Gondolin.
Salgant Lord of the people of the Harp in Gondolin. Described as ‘a craven’.
Sea-elves A name of the third host of the Elves on the great journey from Cuiviénen. See Teleri, and the note here.
Silpion The White Tree; See Trees of Valinor and Telperion.
Sindar See Grey-elves.
Sirion* The Great River that rose at Eithel Sirion (‘Sirion’s Well’) and dividing West from East Beleriand flowed into the Great Sea in the Bay of Balar.
Sorontur ‘King of Eagles’. See Thorondor.
The Stricken Anvil Emblem of the people of the Hammer of Wrath in Gondolin.
Súlimë The third month, corresponding to March.
Súlimo This name, referring to Manwë as a wind-god, is very frequently attached to his name. He is called ‘Lord of the Airs’; but only once does there seem to be a translation specifically of Súlimo: ‘Lord of the Breath of Arda’. Related words are súya ‘breath’ and súle ‘breathe’.
The Swallow Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim.
Swanhaven The chief city of the Teleri (Sea-elves), on the coast north of Kôr. Elvish Alqualondë.
Taniquetil The highest of the Pelóri (the Mountains of Valinor) and the highest mountain of Arda, on which Manwë and Varda had their dwelling (Ilmarin).
Taras A great mountain on the western headland of Nevrast, beyond which was Vinyamar.
Tarnin Austa ‘The Gates of Summer’, a festival in Gondolin.
Taur-na-Fuin* ‘Forest of Night’, previously called Dorthonion ‘Land of Pines’, the great forested highlands to the north of Beleriand.
Teiglin* A tributary of Sirion, rising in Ered Wethrin.
Teleri The third host of the Elves on the great journey from Cuiviénen.
Telperion Name of the White Tree of Valinor.
Thingol A leader of the third host (Teleri) on the great journey from Cuiviénen; his earlier name Tinwelint. He never came to Kôr, but became the King of Doriath in Beleriand.
Thorn Sir Falling stream below Cristhorn.
Thornhoth ‘The people of the Eagles’.
Thorondor ‘King of Eagles’, Gnomish name of Eldarin Sorontur; earlier form Thorndor.
Thousand Caves Menegroth, the hidden halls of Thingol and Melian.
Timbrenting The Old English name of Taniquetil.
The Tower of Snow Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim. See Penlod.
The Tree Name of one of the kindreds of the Gondothlim. See Galdor.
Trees of Valinor Silpion the White Tree and Laurelin the Golden Tree; See here, where they are described, and Glingol and Bansil.
Tulkas Of this Vala, ‘the greatest in strength and deeds of prowess’, it is said in the Valaquenta:
He came last to Arda, to aid the Valar in the first battles with Melkor. He delights in wrestling and in contests of strength; and he rides no steed, for he can outrun all things that go on feet, and he is tireless. He has little heed for either the past or the future, and is of no avail as a counsellor, but is a hardy friend.
Tumladen ‘Valley of smoothness’, the ‘Guarded Plain’ of Gondolin.
Tûn The Elvish city in Valinor; See Kôr.
Tunglin ‘The folk of the Harp’: in an early and soon abandoned text of The Fall of Gondolin a name given to the people living in Hithlum after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. Tuor was of that people (See Peleg).
Tuor Tuor was a descendant (great-grandson) of the renowned Hador Lórindol (‘Hador Goldenhead’). In The Lay of Leithian it is said of Beren:
As fearless Beren was renowned:
when men most hardy upon ground
were reckoned folk would speak his name,
foretelling that his after-fame
would even golden Hador pass …
To Hador was given the lordship of Dor-lómin by Fingolfin, and his successors were the House of Hador. Tuor’s father Huor was slain in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, and his mother, Rían, died of grief. Huor and Húrin were brothers, the sons of Galdor of Dor-lómin, son of Hador; and Húrin was the father of Túrin Turambar; thus Tuor and Túrin were first cousins. But only once did they meet, and they did not know each other as they passed: this is told in The Fall of Gondolin.
Turgon The second son of Fingolfin, founder and king of Gondolin, father of Idril.
Turlin A name briefly preceding Tuor.
Uinen ‘Lady of the Seas’; a Maia, the spouse of Ossë. This is said of her in the text named Valaquenta:
[Her] hair lies spread through all waters under sky. All creatures she loves that live in the salt streams, and all weeds that grow there; to her mariners cry, for she can lay calm upon the waves, restraining the wildness of Ossë.
Uldor the accursed He was a leader among certain Men moving into the West of Middle-earth who treacherously allied themselves with Morgoth in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
Ulmo The following text is taken from the portrait of the great V
ala, who was ‘next in might to Manwë’, from the text named Valaquenta, an account of each individual Vala.
[Ulmo] kept all Arda in thought, and he has no need of any resting-place. Moreover he does not love to walk upon land, and will seldom clothe himself in a body after the manner of his peers. If [Men or Elves] beheld him they were filled with a great dread; for the arising of the King of the Sea was terrible, as a mounting wave that strides to the land, with dark helm foam-crested and raiment of mail shimmering from silver down into shadows of green. The trumpets of Manwë are loud, but Ulmo’s voice is deep as the deeps of the ocean which he only has seen.
Nonetheless Ulmo loves both Elves and Men, and never abandoned them, not even when they lay under the wrath of the Valar. At times he will come unseen to the shores of Middle-earth, or pass far inland up firths of the sea, and there make music upon his great horns, the Ulumúri, that are wrought of white shell; and those to whom that music comes hear it ever after in their hearts, and longing for the sea never leaves them again. But mostly Ulmo speaks to those who dwell in Middle-earth with voices that are heard only as the music of water. For all seas, lakes, rivers, fountains and springs are in his government; so that the Elves say that the spirit of Ulmo runs in all the veins of the world. Thus news comes to Ulmo, even in the deeps, of all the needs and griefs of Arda.
Ulmonan Ulmo’s halls in the Outer Sea.
Ungoliant The great spider, called Gloomweaver, who dwelt in Arvalin. This is said of Ungoliant in the Quenta Noldorinwa:
There [in Arvalin] secret and unknown dwelt Ungoliant, Gloomweaver, in spider’s form. It is not told whence she is, from the outer darkness, maybe, that lies beyond the Walls of the World [See Outer Seas].
Valar The ruling powers of Arda; sometimes referred to as ‘the Powers’. In the beginning there were nine Valar, as stated in the Sketch, but Melkor (Morgoth) ceased to be numbered among them.
Valinor The land of the Valar in Aman. See Mountains of Valinor.
Valmar The city of the Valar in Valinor.
Vána A ‘Queen of the Valar’, spouse of Oromë; called ‘the Ever-Young’.
Varda Spouse of Manwë, with whom she dwelt on Taniquetil; greatest of the Queens of the Valar; maker of the stars. In Gnomish her name was Bredhil or Bridhil.
Vinyamar* The house of Turgon in Nevrast under Mount Taras before his departure to Gondolin.
Voronwë Elf of Gondolin, the only mariner to survive from the seven ships sent into the West by Turgon after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, who guided Tuor to the hidden city. The name means ‘steadfast’.
The Way of Escape The tunnel under the Encircling Mountains leading into the plain of Gondolin. Elvish name Bad Uthwen.
The Western Sea(s) See Great Sea.
The Wing Emblem of Tuor and his followers.
Wingelot ‘Foam-flower’, the ship of Eärendel.
Yavanna After Varda, Yavanna was the greatest of the Queens of the Valar. She was ‘the Giver of Fruits’ (the meaning of her name) and ‘the lover of all things that grow in the earth’. Yavanna brought into being the Trees that gave light to Valinor, growing near the gates of Valmar. See Palúrien.
Ylmir Gnomish form for Ulmo.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Ainur
The name Ainur, translated ‘the Holy Ones’, derives from my father’s myth of the Creation of the World. He set down the original conception, according to a letter of 1964 (from which I have cited a passage here), when at Oxford he was ‘employed on the staff of the then still incomplete great Dictionary’ from 1918–20. ‘In Oxford’, the letter continues, ‘I wrote a cosmogonical myth, “The Music of the Ainur”, defining the relation of The One, the transcendental Creator, to the Valar, the “Powers”, the angelical First-created, and their part in ordering and carrying out the Primeval Design.’
It may seem an excessive departure from the tale of the Fall of Gondolin to his myth of the Creation of the World, but I hope it will soon be apparent why I have made it.
The central conception of the ‘cosmogonical myth’ is declared in the title: The Music of the Ainur. It was not until the 1930s that my father composed a further version, the Ainulindalë (The Music of the Ainur), in substance closely following the original text. It is from this version that I have taken the quotations in the very brief account that follows.
The Creator is Eru, the One, also and more frequently named Ilúvatar, meaning ‘the Father of All’, of the Universe. It is told in this work that before all else Eru made the Ainur ‘that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before Time. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music. And they sang before him, each one alone, while the rest hearkened.’ This was the beginning of the Music of the Ainur: for Ilúvatar summoned them all, and he declared to them a mighty theme, of which they must make in harmony together ‘a Great Music’.
When Ilúvatar brought this great music to an end he made it known to the Ainur that he being the Lord of All had transformed all that they had sung and played: he had caused them to be: to have shape and reality, as had the Ainur themselves. He led them then out into the darkness.
But when they came into the midmost Void they beheld a sight of surpassing beauty, where before had been emptiness. And Ilúvatar said: ‘Behold your music! For of my will it has taken shape, and even now the history of the world is beginning.’
I conclude this account with a passage of great significance in this book. There is speech between Ilúvatar and Ulmo concerning the realm of the Lord of Waters. Then follows:
And even as Ilúvatar spoke to Ulmo, the Ainur beheld the unfolding of the world, and the beginning of that history which Ilúvatar had propounded to them as a theme of song. Because of their memory of the speech of Ilúvatar, and the knowledge that each has of the music which he played, the Ainur know much of what is to come, and few things are unforeseen by them.
If we set this passage beside the foresight of Ulmo concerning Eärendel, which I have characterised (p.230) as ‘miraculous’, it seems that Ulmo was looking very far back in time to know for a certainty what the near future was portending.
There remains a further aspect of the Ainur to notice. To quote the Ainulindalë once more, it is told that
Even as they gazed, many became enamoured of the beauty of the world and engrossed in the history which came there to being, and there was unrest among them. Thus it came to pass that some abode still with Ilúvatar beyond the world … But others, and among them were many of the wisest and fairest of the Ainur, craved leave of Ilúvatar to enter into the world and dwell there, and put on the form and raiment of Time …
Then those that wished descended, and entered into the world. But this condition Ilúvatar made, that their power should thenceforth be contained and bounded by the world, and fail with it; and his purpose with them afterward Ilúvatar has not revealed.
Thus the Ainur came into the world, whom we call the Valar, or the Powers, and they dwelt in many places: in the firmament, or in the deeps of the sea, or upon Earth, or in Valinor upon the borders of Earth. And the four greatest were Melko and Manwë and Ulmo and Aulë.
This is followed by the portrait of Ulmo that is given in The Music of the Ainur (p.234).
It follows from the foregoing that the term Ainur, singular Ainu, may be used in the place of Valar, Vala now and again: so for example ‘but the Ainur put it into his heart’, p.40.
I must add finally that in this sketch of the Music of the Ainur I have deliberately omitted a major strand in the story of the Creation: the huge and destructive part played by Melko/Morgoth.
Húrin and Gondolin
This story is found in the relatively late text which my father called the Grey Annals (see here). It tells that Húrin and his brother Huor (the father of Tuor) ‘went both to battle with the Orcs, even Huor, for he would not be restrained, though he was but thirteen years of age. And being with a company that was cut off from the rest, they were pursued to the ford of Brithiach; and there th
ey would have been taken or slain, but for the power of Ulmo, which was still strong in Sirion. Therefore a mist arose from the river and hid them from their enemies, and they escaped into Dimbar, and wandered in the hills beneath the sheer walls of the Crissaegrim. There Thorondor espied them, and sent two Eagles that took them and bore them up and brought them beyond the mountains to the secret vale of Tumladen and the hidden city of Gondolin, which no man else yet had seen.’
King Turgon welcomed them, for Ulmo had counselled him to deal kindly with the house of Hador whence help should come at need. They dwelt in Gondor a year, and it is said that at this time Húrin learned something of the counsels and purposes of Turgon; for he had great liking for them, and wished to keep them in Gondolin. But they desired to return to their own kin, and share in the wars and griefs that now beset them. Turgon yielded to their wish and he said: ‘By the way that you came you have leave to depart, if Thorondor is willing. I grieve at this parting, yet in a little while, as the Eldar account it, we may meet again.’
The story ends with the hostile words of Maeglin, who greatly opposed the king’s generosity towards them. ‘The law is become less stern than aforetime,’ he said, ‘or else no choice would be given you but to abide here to your life’s end.’ To this Húrin replied that if Maeglin did not trust them, they would take oaths; and they swore never to reveal the counsels of Turgon and to keep secret all that they had seen in his realm.
Years later Tuor would say to Voronwë, as they stood beside the sea at Vinyamar (p.171): ‘But as for my right to seek Turgon: I am Tuor son of Huor and kin to Húrin, whose names Turgon will not forget.’
*
Húrin was taken alive in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. Morgoth offered him his freedom, or else power as the greatest of Morgoth’s captains, ‘if he would but reveal where Turgon had his stronghold’. This proposal Húrin refused to Morgoth’s face with the utmost boldness and scorn. Then Morgoth set him in a high place of Thangorodrim, to sit there upon a chair of stone; and he said to Húrin that seeing with the eyes of Morgoth he should look out upon the evil fates of those he loved and nothing would escape him. Húrin endured this for twenty-eight years. At the end of that time Morgoth released him. He feigned that he was moved by pity for an enemy utterly defeated, but he lied. He had further evil purpose; and Húrin knew that Morgoth was without pity. But he took his freedom. In the extension of the Grey Annals in which this story is told, ‘The Wanderings of Húrin’, he came at length to the Echoriath, the Encircling Mountains of Gondolin. But he could find no way further, and he stood at last in despair ‘before the stern silence of the mountains … He stood at last upon a great stone, and spreading wide his arms, looking towards Gondolin, he called in a great voice: “Turgon! Húrin calls you. O Turgon, will you not hear in your hidden halls?” But there was no answer, and all that he heard was wind in the dry grasses … Yet there were ears that had heard the words that Húrin spoke, and eyes that marked well his gestures; and report of all came soon to the Dark Throne in the North. Then Morgoth smiled, and knew now clearly in what region Turgon dwelt, though because of the Eagles no spy of his could yet come within sight of the land behind the encircling mountains.’
The Fall of Gondolin Page 23