40 The letters were (L · ND · L): Elendil’s name without vowel-marks, which he used as a badge, and a device upon his seals. [Author’s note.]
41 Amon Anwar was in fact the high place nearest to the centre of a line from the inflow of the Limlight down to the southern cape of Tol Falas; and the distance from it to the Fords of Isen was equal to its distance from Minas Tirith. [Author’s note.]
42 Though imperfectly; for it was in ancient terms and made in the forms of verse and high speech that were used by the Rohirrim, in which Eorl had great skill. [Author’s note.] – There seems not to be any other version of the Oath of Eorl extant apart from that in the Common Speech given in the text.
43 Vanda: an oath, pledge, solemn promise. ter-maruva: ter ‘through’, mar - ‘abide, be settled or fixed’ future tense. Elenna·nóreo: genitive case, dependent on alcar, of Elenna·nórë ‘the land named Starwards’. alcar: ‘glory’. enyalien: en - ‘again’, yal - ‘summon’, in infinitive (or gerundial) form en-yalië, here in dative ‘for the re-calling’, but governing a direct object, alcar: thus ‘to recall or “commemorate” the glory’. Vorondo: genitive of voronda ‘steadfast in allegiance, in keeping oath or promise, faithful’ adjectives used as a ‘title’ or frequently used attribute of a name are placed after the name, and as is usual in Quenya in the case of two declinable names in apposition only the last is declined. [Another reading gives the adjective as vórimo genitive of vórima, with the same meaning as voronda. ] voronwë: ‘steadfastness, loyalty, faithfulness’, the object of enyalien.
Nai: ‘be it that, may it be that’ Nai tiruvantes: ‘be it that they will guard it’, i.e. ‘may they guard it’ (-nte, inflexion of 3 plural where no subject is previously mentioned). i hárar: ‘they who are sitting upon’. mahalmassen: locative plural of mahalma ‘throne’. mi ‘in the’. Númen: ‘West’. i Eru i: ‘the One who’. ea¨: ‘is’. tennoio: tenna ‘up to, as far as’, oio ‘an endless period’ tennoio ‘for ever’. [Author’s notes.]
44 And was not used again until King Elessar returned and renewed the bond in that same place with the King of the Rohirrim,Éomer the eighteenth descended from Eorl. It had been held lawful only for the King of Númenor to call Eru to witness, and then only on the most grave and solemn occasions. The line of the Kings had come to an end in Ar-Pharazôn who perished in the Downfall; but Elendil Voronda was descended from Tar-Elendil the fourth King, and was held to be the rightful lord of the Faithful, who had taken no part in the rebellion of the Kings and had been preserved from destruction. Cirion was the Steward of the Kings descended from Elendil, and so far as Gondor was concerned had as regent all their powers – until the King should come again. Nonetheless his oath astounded those who heard it, and filled them with awe, and was alone (over and above the venerable tomb) sufficient to hallow the place where it was spoken. [Author’s note.] – Elendil’s name Voronda, ‘the Faithful’, which appears also in Cirion’s Oath, was in this note first written Voronwë, which in the Oath is a noun, meaning ‘faithfulness, steadfastness’. But in Appendix A (I, ii) to The Lord of the Rings Mardil, the first Ruling Steward of Gondor, is called ‘Mardil Voronwë “the Steadfast” ’ and in the First Age the Elf of Gondolin who guided Tuor from Vinyamar was named Voronwë, which in the Index to The Silmarillion I likewise translated ‘the Steadfast’.
45 See the first citation in Appendix C to ‘The History of Galadriel and Celeborn’, pp. 337 – 81.
46 These names are given in Sindarin according to the usage of Gondor; but many of them were named anew by the Éothéod, being alterations of the older names to fit their own tongue, or translations of them, or names of their own making. In the narrative of The Lord of the Rings the names in the language of the Rohirrim are mostly used. Thus Angren = Isen; Angrenost = Isengard; Fangorn (which is also used) = Entwood; Onodló = Entwash; Glanhír = Mering Stream (both mean ‘boundary stream’). [Author’s note.] – The name of the river Limlight is perplexed. There are two versions of the text and note at this point, from one of which it seems that the Sindarin name was Limlich, adapted in the language of Rohan as Limliht (‘modernized’ as Lim-light). In the other (later) version, Limlich is emended, puzzlingly, to Limliht in the text, so that this becomes the Sindarin form. Elsewhere (p. 364) the Sindarin name of this river is given as Limlaith. In view of this uncertainty I have given Limlight in the text. Whatever the original Sindarin name may have been, it is at least clear that the Rohan form was an alteration of it and not a translation, and that its meaning was not known (although in a note written much earlier than any of the foregoing the name Limlight is said to be a partial translation of Elvish Limlint ‘swift-light’). The Sindarin names of the Entwash and the Mering Stream are only found here; with Onodló compare Onodrim, Enyd, the Ents (The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, ‘Of Other Races’).
47 Athrad Angren: see p. 343, where the Sindarin name for the Fords of Isen is given as Ethraid Engrin. It seems then that both singular and plural forms of the name of the Ford(s) existed.
48 Elsewhere the wood is always called the Firien Wood (a shortening from Halifirien Wood). Firienholt – a word recorded in Anglo-Saxon poetry (firgenholt) – means the same: ‘mountain wood’. See note 33
49 Their proper form was Rochand and Rochír-rim, and they were spelt as Rochand, or Rochan, and Rochirrim in the records of Gondor. They contain Sindarin roch ‘horse’, translating the éo - inÉothéod and in many personal names of the Rohirrim [see note 36]. In Rochand the Sindarin ending -nd (-and, -end, -ond) was added; it was commonly used in the names of regions or countries, but the -d was usually dropped in speech, especially in long names, such as Calenardhon, Ithilien, Lamedon, etc. Rochirrim was modelled on éo-herë, the term used by the Éothéod for the full muster of their cavalry in time of war; it was made from roch + Sindarin hîr ‘lord, master’ (entirely unconnected with [the Anglo-Saxon word] herë). In the names of peoples Sindarin rim ‘great number, host’ (Quenya rimbë) was commonly used to form collective plurals, as in Eledhrim (Edhelrim) ‘all Elves’, Onodrim ‘the Ent-folk’, Nogothrim ‘all Dwarves, the Dwarf-people’. The language of the Rohirrim contained the sound here represented by ch (a back spirant as ch in Welsh), and, though it was infrequent in the middle of words between vowels, it presented them with no difficulty. But the Common Speech did not possess it, and in pronouncing Sindarin (in which it was very frequent) the People of Gondor, unless learned, represented it by h in the middle of words and by k at the end of them (where it was most forcibly pronounced in correct Sindarin). Thus arose the names Rohan and Rohirrim as used in The Lord of the Rings. [Author’s note.]
50 Eorl appears to have been unconvinced by the token of the White Lady’s goodwill; see p. 387.
51 Eilenaer was a name of pre-Númenórean origin, evidently related to Eilenach. [Author’s note.] – According to a note on the beacons, Eilenach was ‘probably an alien name: not Sindarin, Númenórean, or Common Speech.... Both Eilenach and Eilenaer were notable features. Eilenach was the highest point of the Drúadan Forest. It could be seen far to the West, and its function in the days of the beacons was to transmit the warning of Amon Dîn; but it was not suitable for a large beacon-fire, there being little space on its sharp summit. Hence the name Nardol “Fire-hilltop” of the next beacon westward; it was on the end of a high ridge, originally part of the Drúadan Forest, but long deprived of trees by masons and quarriers who came up the Stonewain Valley. Nardol was manned by a guard, who also protected the quarries; it was well-stored with fuel and at need a great blaze could be lit, visible on a clear night even as far as the last beacon (Halifirien) some hundred and twenty miles to the westward.’
In the same note it is stated that ‘Amon Dîn “the silent hill” was perhaps the oldest, with the original function of a fortified outpost of Minas Tirith, from which its beacon could be seen, to keep watch over the passage into North Ithilien from Dagorlad and any attempt by enemies to cross the Anduin at or near Cair Andros. Why it was given this name is no
t recorded. Probably because it was distinctive, a rocky and barren hill standing out and isolated from the heavily wooded hills of the Drúadan Forest (Tawar-in-Drúedain), little visited by men, beasts or birds.’
52 According to Appendix A (I, iv) to The Lord of the Rings it was in the days of Ostoher, the fourth king after Meneldil, that Gondor was first attacked by wild men out of the East;
‘but Tarostar, his son, defeated them and drove them out, and took the name of Rómendacil “East-victor” ’ .
53 It was also Rómendacil I who established the office of Steward (Arandur ‘king’s servant’), but he was chosen by the King as a man of high trust and wisdom, usually advanced in years since he was not permitted to go to war or to leave the realm. He was never a member of the Royal House. [Author’s note.]
54 Mardil was the first of the Ruling Stewards of Gondor. He was the Steward to Ea¨rnur the last King, who disappeared in Minas Morgul in the year 2050. ‘It was believed in Gondor that the faithless enemy had trapped the King, and that he had died in torment in Minas Morgul; but since there were no witnesses of his death, Mardil the Good Steward ruled Gondor in his name for many years’ (The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A (I, iv)).
III
THE QUEST OF EREBOR
This story depends for its full understanding on the narrative given in Appendix A (III, Durin’s Folk) to The Lord of the Rings, of which this is an outline:
The Dwarves Thrór and his son Thráin (together with Thráin’s son Thorin, afterwards called Oakenshield) escaped from the Lonely Mountain (Erebor) by a secret door when the dragon Smaug descended upon it. Thrór returned to Moria, after giving to Thráin the last of the Seven Rings of the Dwarves, and was killed there by the Orc Azog, who branded his name on Thrór’s brow. It was this that led to the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs, which ended in the great Battle of Azanulbizar (Nanduhirion) before the East-gate of Moria in the year 2799. Afterwards Thráin and Thorin Oakenshield dwelt in the Ered Luin, but in the year 2841 Thráin set out from there to return to the Lonely Mountain. While wandering in the lands east of Anduin he was captured and imprisoned in Dol Guldur, where the ring was taken from him. In 2850 Gandalf entered Dol Guldur and discovered that its master was indeed Sauron; and there he came upon Thráin before he died.
There is more than one version of ‘The Quest of Erebor’, as is explained in an Appendix following the text, where also substantial extracts from an earlier version are given.
I have not found any writing preceding the opening words of the present text (‘He would say no more that day’). The ‘He’ of the opening sentence is Gandalf, ‘we’ are Frodo, Peregrin, Meriadoc, and Gimli, and ‘I’ is Frodo, the recorder of the conversation; the scene is a house in Minas Tirith, after the coronation of King Elessar (see p. 425).
He would say no more that day. But later we brought the matter up again, and he told us the whole strange story; how he came to arrange the journey to Erebor, why he thought of Bilbo, and how he persuaded the proud Thorin Oakenshield to take him into his company. I cannot remember all the tale now, but we gathered that to begin with Gandalf was thinking only of the defence of the West against the Shadow.
‘I was very troubled at that time,’ he said, ‘for Saruman was hindering all my plans. I knew that Sauron had arisen again and would soon declare himself, and I knew that he was preparing for a great war. How would he begin? Would he try first to re-occupy Mordor, or would he first attack the chief strongholds of his enemies? I thought then, and I am sure now, that to attack Lórien and Rivendell, as soon as he was strong enough, was his original plan. It would have been a much better plan for him, and much worse for us.
‘You may think that Rivendell was out of his reach, but I did not think so. The state of things in the North was very bad. The Kingdom under the Mountain and the strong Men of Dale were no more. To resist any force that Sauron might send to regain the northern passes in the mountains and the old lands of Angmar there were only the Dwarves of the Iron Hills, and behind them lay a desolation and a Dragon. The Dragon Sauron might use with terrible effect. Often I said to myself: “I must find some means of dealing with Smaug. But a direct stroke against Dol Guldur is needed still more. We must disturb Sauron’s plans. I must make the Council see that.”
‘Those were my dark thoughts as I jogged along the road. I was tired, and I was going to the Shire for a short rest, after being away from it for more than twenty years. I thought that if I put them out of my mind for a while I might perhaps find some way of dealing with these troubles. And so I did indeed, though I was not allowed to put them out of my mind.
‘For just as I was nearing Bree I was overtaken by Thorin Oakenshield, 1 who lived then in exile beyond the northwestern borders of the Shire. To my surprise he spoke to me; and it was at that moment that the tide began to turn.
‘He was troubled too, so troubled that he actually asked for my advice. So I went with him to his halls in the Blue Mountains, and I listened to his long tale. I soon understood that his heart was hot with brooding on his wrongs, and the loss of the treasure of his forefathers, and burdened too with the duty of revenge upon Smaug that he had inherited. Dwarves take such duties very seriously.
‘I promised to help him if I could. I was as eager as he was to see the end of Smaug, but Thorin was all for plans of battle and war, as if he were really King Thorin the Second, and I could see no hope in that. So I left him and went off to the Shire, and picked up the threads of news. It was a strange business. I did no more than follow the lead of “chance”, and made many mistakes on the way.
‘Somehow I had been attracted by Bilbo long before, as a child, and a young hobbit: he had not quite come of age when I had last seen him. He had stayed in my mind ever since, with his eagerness and his bright eyes, and his love of tales, and his questions about the wide world outside the Shire. As soon as I entered the Shire I heard news of him. He was getting talked about, it seemed. Both his parents had died early for Shire-folk, at about eighty; and he had never married. He was already growing a bit queer, they said, and went off for days by himself. He could be seen talking to strangers, even Dwarves.
‘ “Even Dwarves!” Suddenly in my mind these three things came together: the great Dragon with his lust, and his keen hearing and scent; the sturdy heavy-booted Dwarves with their old burning grudge; and the quick, soft-footed Hobbit, sick at heart (I guessed) for a sight of the wide world. I laughed at myself; but I went off at once to have a look at Bilbo, to see what twenty years had done to him, and whether he was as promising as gossip seemed to make out. But he was not at home. They shook their heads in Hobbiton when I asked after him. “Off again,” said one hobbit. It was Holman, the gardener, I believe. 2 “Off again. He’ll go right off one of these days, if he isn’t careful. Why, I asked him where he was going, and when he would be back, and I don’t know he says; and then he looks at me queerly. It depends if I meet any, Holman, he says. It’s the Elves’ New Year tomorrow! 3 A pity, and him so kind a body. You wouldn’t find a better from the Downs to the River.”
‘ “Better and better!” I thought. “I think I shall risk it.” Time was getting short. I had to be with the White Council in August at the latest, or Saruman would have his way and nothing would be done. And quite apart from greater matters, that might prove fatal to the quest: the power in Dol Guldur would not leave any attempt on Erebor unhindered, unless he had something else to deal with.
‘So I rode off back to Thorin in haste, to tackle the difficult task of persuading him to put aside his lofty designs and go secretly – and take Bilbo with him. Without seeing Bilbo first. It was a mistake, and nearly proved disastrous. For Bilbo had changed, of course. At least, he was getting rather greedy and fat, and his old desires had dwindled down to a sort of private dream. Nothing could have been more dismaying than to find it actually in danger of coming true! He was altogether bewildered, and made a complete fool of himself. Thorin would have left in a rage, but for another strange chance, which I
will mention in a moment.
‘But you know how things went, at any rate as Bilbo saw them. The story would sound rather different, if I had written it. For one thing he did not realize at all how fatuous the Dwarves thought him, nor how angry they were with me. Thorin was much more indignant and contemptuous than he perceived. He was indeed contemptuous from the beginning, and thought then that I had planned the whole affair simply so as to make a mock of him. It was only the map and the key that saved the situation.
‘But I had not thought of them for years. It was not until I got to the Shire and had time to reflect on Thorin’s tale that I suddenly remembered the strange chance that had put them in my hands; and it began now to look less like chance. I remembered a dangerous journey of mine, ninety-one years before, when I had entered Dol Guldur in disguise, and had found there an unhappy Dwarf dying in the pits. I had no idea who he was. He had a map that had belonged to Durin’s folk in Moria, and a key that seemed to go with it, though he was too far gone to explain it. And he said that he had possessed a great Ring.
‘Nearly all his ravings were of that. The last of the Seven he said over and over again. But all these things he might have come by in many ways. He might have been a messenger caught as he fled, or even a thief trapped by a greater thief. But he gave the map and the key to me. “For my son,” he said; and then he died, and soon after I escaped myself. I stowed the things away, and by some warning of my heart I kept them always with me, safe, but soon almost forgotten. I had other business in Dol Guldur more important and perilous than all the treasure of Erebor.
‘Now I remembered it all again, and it seemed clear that I had heard the last words of Thráin the Second, 4 though he did not name himself or his son; and Thorin, of course, did not know what had become of his father, nor did he ever mention “the last of the Seven Rings”. I had the plan and the key of the secret entrance to Erebor, by which Thrór and Thráin had escaped, according to Thorin’s tale. And I had kept them, though without any design of my own, until the moment when they would prove most useful.
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