The descendants of Elendil’s eldest son.
Isildur was the eldest son of Elendil, and so by right he and his heirs should have inherited the title of High King and ruled the Two Kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. Soon after the defeat of Sauron at the end of the Second Age, though, Isildur and his three elder sons all perished in the Disaster of the Gladden Fields.
Isildur’s only remaining Heir was Valandil, kept safe in Rivendell but only eleven years old at that time, and unable to take up his rule. So, Isildur’s nephew Meneldil took control of the kingdom of Gondor, and the Two Kingdoms split from one another. In the south, Gondor remained strong under the rule of Meneldil’s descendants, but the North-kingdom was not so fortunate. It broke into three separate kingdoms, and was slowly overcome by dark forces of the neighbouring land of Angmar. Arvedui, Isildur’s Heir through twenty-three generations, was the last King to rule in the north; he attempted to reclaim the High Kingship, but failed, and the last remnant of royal Arnor was overrun by its enemies.
Now the line of Isildur in the north became forgotten by nearly all.
Though their royal cities were wasted, and their people dwindled, the line of Isildur’s Heirs continued for another sixteen generations under the title ‘Chieftain of the Dúnedain’. The last Chieftain was Aragorn II of the War of the Ring, who famously came to Minas Tirith and reclaimed the High Kingship of all the western lands.
* Isilmë|Isilme
Daughter of Tar-Elendil, sister of Silmarien.
* Isilmo
Son of Tar-Súrion; father of Tar-Minastir.
–—
Brother to Queen Tar-Telperiën.
The second child of King Tar-Súrion of Númenor, younger brother to Tar-Telperiën the second Ruling Queen. Tar-Telperiën outlived her brother, but she had no consort, and so left no heir. The Sceptre therefore passed to Isilmo’s son, who ruled as Tar-Minastir.
* Isle of Balar|Balar
The isle in the Bay of Balar, said to have been the eastern horn of Tol Eressëa that broke away, where Círdan and Gil-galad dwelt after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.
–—
Large island (indeed, the largest known island off the shores of Middle-earth) located in the Bay of Balar, some seventy miles south of the coastlands of Arvernien.
According to legend, the Isle was the eastern horn of the much greater island of Tol Eressëa, which broke off when Ulmo towed away the main island to Aman carrying the Vanyar and the Noldor. It is said that the Maia Ossë often came to the Isle of Balar.
The island was noted for its pearls, which were found in great abundance in the shallow waters around it. These were collected by the people of Círdan, who gave them freely to the other Elf-lords.
While we are not told of the nature or location of settlements on the island, it is clear that it was populated at least early in the First Age, and possibly before that. As well as the Elves of the Havens, Balar was explored by the people of Nargothrond, and Turgon built refuges there for the Gondolindrim after the Dagor Bragollach in I 455. From these, he sent out ships seeking Aman and the aid of the Valar, but none succeeded.
The Isle of Balar became an important centre after the destruction of the Havens in I 472, when Círdan and Gil-galad fled to the island and settled there. While it is not stated certainly, it is likely that Eärendil’s ship Vingilot was built here, and that the Mariner set out for the West from Círdan’s havens on the Island.
* Isle of Werewolves
Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the island of Sauron.
A name for Tol Sirion after its capture by Morgoth, when it became infested by the evil servants of Sauron.
* Istar
A Quenya word meaning approximately ‘Wise One’, translated as ‘Wizard’.
* Istari
The Maiar who were sent from Aman in the Third Age to resist Sauron; Sindarin Ithryn (see Ithryn Luin). Translated ‘Wizards’. See Heren Istarion.
–—
The order of Wizards, the Maiar who came to Middle-earth after the first millennium of the Third Age. Of these, five came to the northwestern regions; Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, Alatar and Pallando.
* Isumbras Took I|Isumbras Took
The thirteenth Thain of the Shire, and the first of the Took line.
Isumbras I was a distant ancestor of Peregrin Took of the Company of the Ring.
* Isumbras Took III|Isumbras Took
The eleventh Thain of the Took line, and twenty-third overall, Isumbras succeeded his father Isengrim II. He had two sons, of whom the younger, Bandobras, became famous as the ‘Bullroarer’. Isumbras’ years as Thain were a time of hardship and privation - his son Bandobras beat back a raiding orc-band at the Battle of Greenfields, while the end of his Thainship saw the Long Winter fall on the Shire. He was succeeded by his elder son, who became Thain Ferumbras II.
* Isumbras Took IV|Isumbras Took
The twenty-eighth Thain of the Shire.
The Old Took was Thain of the Shire for seventy-two years, so that his eldest son Isengrim was eighty-eight when he inherited the title. Due to his great age, Isengrim was Thain for just ten years, and was succeeded by his younger brother, who became Thain Isumbras IV. Isumbras was ninety-two years old when he inherited the title, and his Thainship was even shorter than his brother’s - after nine years, he died, and was succeeded by his son Fortibras.
* Ithil
The Sindarin name for the Moon.
The name for Isil, the Moon, in Sindarin. It appears only once in The Lord of the Rings, but is common in placenames, especially Minas Ithil, the Moontower, and Ithilien, the land where it stood.
* Ithil-stone|Stone of Ithil
The Palantír of Minas Ithil.
The palantír that stood in Isildur’s ancient fortress of Minas Ithil. It was captured by the Nazgûl in the mid-Third Age, and was used by Sauron to entrap Saruman and Denethor during the War of the Ring.
* Ithilbor
Nandorin Elf, father of Saeros.
* Ithildin
The magical substance known as Starmoon.
A magical substance made by the Elves from mithril, that could only be seen by the reflected light of the moon and stars, and even then remained hidden until a magical word was said. Gandalf translated its name as
‘starmoon’, but ‘moon-sparkle’ would be a more literal rendering. The designs on the West-gate of Moria were made from this substance.
* Ithilien
Territory of Gondor, east of Anduin; in the earliest time the possession of Isildur and ruled from Minas Ithil.
–—
The narrow lands of Gondor east of the Anduin.
The lands of Gondor east of the River Anduin, on the borders of Mordor.
With the capture of Minas Ithil, and the return of the Nazgûl to the Black Land, Ithilien became a deserted country.
* Ithryn
The Sindarin name for the Istari or Wizards.
* Ithryn Luin|Ithron Luin
The two Istari who went into the East of Middle-earth and never returned (singular ithron). Translated ‘Blue Wizards’.
–—
The Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando, who did not remain in the west of Middle-earth, but journeyed into its far eastern regions.
* Ivanneth
Sindarin name of the ninth month. See Yavannië.
* Ivrin
The lake and falls beneath Ered Wethrin where the river Narog rose.
–—
The pools at the source of the Narog.
The pools that lay in the southern Ered Wethrin, and formed the source of the River Narog.
* Jewels of Fëanor|Jewels of Feanor
Greatest of the works of the Elves.
A name for the Silmarils, from Fëanor their maker.
* Kalimac Brandagamba
The actual form of the Hobbit name anglicised by Tolkien as ‘Meriadoc Brandybuck’.
* Karningul
The Westron name for Rivendell.
The actual Westron name that Tolkien normally anglicises to Rivendell.
Its meaning is equivalent to the English version, and to the Elvish Imladris, a deeply-cut, steep sided valley.
* Keepers of the Three Rings
Those who bore Narya, Nenya and Vilya.
Those who held the Three Rings of the Elves after their making, through more than 4,000 years of the Second and Third Ages. At the end of the Third Age, when the Rings finally lost their power and were taken into the West, the Keepers were Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf.
* Kelvar
An Elvish word retained in the speeches of Yavanna and Manwë in The Silmarillion ‘animals, living things that move’.
* Kementári|Kementari
A title of the Vala Yavanna, meaning ‘Queen of the Earth’.
* Key of Orthanc
The Key to Saruman’s Tower.
The key or keys that granted entry to the otherwise impenetrable tower of Orthanc. They first enter history at the time of the Oath of Eorl, when that tower was sealed by the Gondorians, and the key taken to Minas Tirith. At the request of Saruman, Steward Beren later surrendered the key to him, and he took up his abode in the ancient Gondorian stronghold.
* Khamûl|Khamul|Black Easterling|Shadow of the East Nazgûl, second to the Chief; dwelt in Dol Guldur after its reoccupation in Third Age 2951.
–—
Called the Shadow of the East, Khamûl was the second of the nine Ringwraiths, second only to the Lord of the Nazgûl, and referred to as Sauron’s lieutenant.
* Khand
Land south-east of Mordor.
–—
Ancient eastern ally of Sauron.
A little-known land lying directly to the east of Mordor, and its traditional ally.
* Khazâd|Khazad
The race of Dwarves.
The Dwarves’ name for their own kind, in the Dwarvish language Khuzdul; seen in the Dwarvish name for Moria, ‘Khazad-dûm’.
* Khazad-dûm|Khazad-dum
The great mansions of the Dwarves of Durin’s race in the Misty Mountains (Hadhodrond, Moria). See Khazâd; dûm is probably a plural or collective, meaning ‘excavations, halls, mansions’.
–—
The Mansions of Durin and his Kin.
The grandest and most famous of the mansions of the Dwarves. It lay in the central parts of the Misty Mountains, tunnelled and carved through the living rock of the mountains themselves, so that a traveller could pass through it from the west of the range to the east. It was founded in very ancient days by Durin the Deathless, who came upon a shimmering lake beneath the mountain Celebdil, with a crown of stars reflected in its waters. He named that lake in the Dwarvish tongue, Kheled-zâram, the Mirrormere, and there he started the building of Khazad-dûm.
As the millennia passed, the descendants of Durin sat upon the throne of Khazad-dûm, and their cavernous city became famous throughout the world.
It even has a passing mention in Quenta Silmarillion, the tale of the Elf-lords and their wars far to the west, though to them it was no more than a distant rumour they heard from the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains on their borders. In the Second Age, Noldor out of Lindon founded a country of their own by the western gates of Khazad-dûm. A rare friendship sprang up between the Dwarves and the Elves of this new land, Eregion. Eregion’s ruler, Celebrimbor, helped to construct the famous and magical gate that became known as the West-gate of Moria, and indeed went so far as to present King Durin III with a Ring of Power. The friendship of Khazad-dûm and Eregion came to a sudden end, though, in II 1697, when Sauron overran the country of the Elves, and the doors of Khazad-dûm were sealed against his forces.
Eventually, Sauron was driven back and Khazad-dûm continued to thrive.
Much of its great wealth was based on the mithril that was found in its mines, and as the centuries passed, the Dwarves mined deeper and deeper for the precious metal. In the year III 1980, they dug too deep, and unleashed a nameless terror from the depths beneath the city. The creature wreaked dreadful destruction, and in slaying the then King, Durin VI, became known as Durin’s Bane. In the following year, Durin’s son, Náin I, was also lost, and the Dwarves fled their ancient home.
After millennia as one of the richest cities in Middle-earth, Khazad-dûm stood dark and empty, but for the brooding menace the Dwarves had released. In that time it was given a new name, Moria, the Black Pit.
The monster of Moria - a Balrog of Morgoth, as was later known - lurked alone in Moria for nearly five hundred years. After that time, the old city of Khazad-dûm began to be peopled again, but not by Dwarves. Sauron directed his creatures there, and it began to fill with Orcs and Trolls.
Though the Orcs’ numbers were greatly reduced in the Battle of Nanduhirion, fought in the valley beneath Moria’s East-gate in III 2799, the Balrog could not be bested, and Khazad-dûm remained a citadel of darkness.
There were two attempts by the Dwarves of Durin’s line to reclaim their ancient home. The first of these was by Balin, who led a force of Dwarves there from Erebor in III 2989, but though he was successful at first, he was eventually defeated and slain. The story of the second attempt to recolonise the Dwarf-mansions is less clear, but it seems that after several centuries, Durin VII became King of Durin’s Folk, and led a further return to the citadel. It seems he was successful, so that long after the War of the Ring, the Dwarves of Durin’s line reclaimed their inheritance, and the hammers rang again in their great halls beneath the Misty Mountains.
* Kheled-zâram|Kheled-zaram
The shimmering Mirrormere.
The shimmering mere that lay in the eastern valleys of the Misty Mountains; seeing it, and the stars that were always reflected in its surface, Durin the Deathless chose that place for the delving of Khazad-dûm.
* Khîm|Khim
Son of Mîm the Petty-dwarf, slam by Andróg, one of Túrin’s outlaw band.
* Khuzdul
The secret tongue of the Dwarves.
The Dwarves’ name for their own secret language, of which only a few words were ever discovered by outsiders. With the exception of a few fragments and place-names, Tolkien gives us little insight into the Dwarvish tongue (as the Dwarves kept their tongue secret, it is natural that little of it should have survived in records). Our main sources are in words such as Khazad-dûm (Khazâd being Dwarvish for ‘Dwarves’) and Khuzdul itself, and in the Dwarvish war-cry, ‘Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd aimênu!’ (‘Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!).
During the Third Age, the Dwarves seem to have considered Khuzdul in much the same way as the Elves of Middle-earth looked on Quenya, as an ancient and noble tongue of the past. The Dwarves would more commonly speak, even among themselves, in the native tongues of the regions in which they lived, to the extent that they took their names from these languages.
The Dwarves also had secret ‘inner’ names, presumably derived from the Khuzdul tongue, but they were extremely secretive about these, to the extent that they were not even given on their owners’ tombs.
* Kíli|Kili
Nephew of Thorin II Oakenshield, who accompanied him on the Quest of Erebor, and was slain at his side in the Battle of Five Armies.
* Kin-strife
The Gondorian civil war.
The civil war that erupted in Gondor in the middle of the Third Age.
Eldacar, the rightful heir of King Valacar, had been raised in a foreign country, and his right to the Kingship was therefore challenged by Castamir, who himself had some claim on the throne. Castamir succeeded in usurping the Kingship, but held it just ten years before Eldacar reclaimed it and restored order.
* Kindler
A translation of Tintallë, a title given to Varda after she kindled the brighter stars with the dews of Telperion.
* Kine of Araw
The legendary cattle of Rhûn.
The oxen that lived on the lands around the Sea of Rhûn were hardier and wilder than any others in Middle-earth. Legends claimed that they were descended from the cattle of the Huntsman of the Valar, Oromë himself, and so they were named the Kine of Araw (Araw being the Sindarin form of Oromë’s name).
The Kine were famous as the quarry of Vorondil the Hunter, ancestor of the Ruling Stewards of Gondor. It was he who cut a horn from one of these beasts and fashioned a hunting-horn from it, which came to be carried by the eldest son of the Ruling Steward from Vorondil’s time onward. The last heir to bear the horn was Boromir, who saw it broken in two in his battle with Orcs beneath Amon Hen.
* King of Arda
The most powerful of the Valar.
A title given to Manwë Súlimo, greatest of the Valar, and held to be the ruler of the realm of Arda.
* King of Arnor
High title of the Heirs of Isildur.
Title of ten lords of the Dúnedain, from Elendil to Eärendur. Eärendur’s eldest son, Amlaith, became the first King of Arthedain.
* King of Arthedain
Successors to the Kings of Arnor.
Title of fifteen lords of the Dúnedain, from Amlaith of Fornost to Arvedui Last-king. Arvedui’s eldest son, Aranarth, became the first Chieftain of the Dúnedain.
* King of Dale
The title claimed by Bard.
The title of the hereditary rulers of Dale after its refounding by Bard, which was held successively by his descendants Bain, Brand and Bard II.
It was likely also held by Bard’s ancestors down to Girion, but there is no definite evidence of this.
* King of Doriath
The royal title of Thingol and his Heir.
The title of two Elf-lords of the Sindar, who ruled the kingdom of Doriath for many centuries from its foundation long before the beginning of the First Age to its destruction at the hands of the Sons of Fëanor.
–—
1- Elu Thingol: The founder of Doriath with his queen, Melian. He was lord there for millennia, and in that time his realm was protected from foes by the Girdle of Melian. Thingol was slain by Dwarves in approximately I 505, and Melian departed from the realm. He was succeeded by his grandson, the son of his daughter Lúthien.
2- Dior Eluchíl: After Thingol’s death he came to Menegroth and ruled the kingdom of his grandfather. After the passing of Lúthien, the Silmaril she had borne was brought to Doriath, and the Sons of Fëanor assailed the citadel of Menegroth to recover it. There Dior was slain, and the kingdom ended.
* King of Durin’s Folk
The royal line of the Longbeards.
Title given to Durin the Deathless and his descendants who ruled the Dwarves of Durin’s Folk. Famous among these were Thorin II Oakenshield, who reclaimed Erebor from Smaug, and Dáin II Ironfoot, who fought in the War of the Ring.
No complete list of the Kings is known. The table below shows the names of those Kings who have been recorded, or whose existence can be deduced.
As the descendants of Durin were forced by circumstance to travel widely in Middle-earth, the main seat(s) of their Kingship is shown alongside each King.
–—
- Durin I (Khazad-dûm): One of the seven Fathers of the Dwarves, and the founder of the Longbeards, Durin’s Folk. He ruled his people for centuries - so long, in fact, that he became known as the ‘Durin the Deathless’ - but eventually he passed away. From time to time over the millennia, one among Durin’s descendants would arise so similar in bearing to his ancient ancestor that he, too, would be given the name
‘Durin’.
- Durin II (Khazad-dûm): We know nothing of this King, except that the appearance of his descendant Durin III in the middle years of the Second Age shows that he must have ruled in Khazad-dûm at some time before that.
- Durin III (Khazad-dûm): The ruler of Khazad-dûm at the time of the forging of the Rings of Power, Durin III was a great friend of Celebrimbor the Lord of Eregion to the west. He received one of the Rings (later known as the Ring of Thrór) as a gift from his friend.
- Durin IV, Durin V (Khazad-dûm): Like Durin II, we know nothing of the reigns of these two Kings, except that they must have ruled during the late Second Age or earlier Third Age. We can safely deduce their existence because we know that Durin VI took the throne in the late second millennium of the Third Age.
- Durin VI (Khazad-dûm): (Ruled to III 1980) The first King of Durin’s Folk for whom we have specific dates was Durin VI, who ruled in Khazad-dûm at the time the Balrog was awoken. It slew Durin, for which reason it became known as Durin’s Bane. Durin was succeeded briefly by his son.
- Náin I (Khazad-dûm): (Ruled 1 year to III 1981) He ruled for just a year in Khazad-dûm before he too was slain by the Balrog. He was succeeded by his son.
- Thráin I (Erebor): (Ruled 209 years to III 2190) He led a great part of his people away from Khazad-dûm into the north and east of Middle-earth.
It was Thráin who founded the great Dwarf-kingdom of Erebor, the Lonely Mountain above the Long Lake. He was succeeded by his son.
- Thorin I (Grey Mountains): (Ruled 99 years to III 2289) Discerning that the great host of his people were gathering in the northern range of the Grey Mountains, Thorin I abandoned Erebor and removed there. He was succeeded by his son.
- Glóin (Grey Mountains): (Ruled 96 years to III 2385) He continued the rule of Durin’s Folk in the Grey Mountains, was succeeded by his son.
- Óin (Grey Mountains): (Ruled 103 years to III 2488) He was succeeded by his son.
- Náin II (Grey Mountains): (Ruled 97 years to III 2585) In his time, the prosperous Dwarves began to suffer attacks by the dragons of the north.
He was succeeded by his son.
- Dáin I (Grey Mountains): (Ruled 4 years to III 2589) His short reign came to a swift end when he was slain by a cold-drake before his own doors. He was succeeded by the eldest of his three sons.
- Thrór (Erebor): (Ruled 201 years to III 2790) He led his people out of the dragon-infested north back to the Lonely Mountain, while his younger brother Grór led some part of their people further east, to settle in the Iron Hills. He had been King under the Mountain for more than 180 years when the great dragon Smaug descended on his kingdom and sacked it. He escaped the destruction with his son and grandson, and went wandering in the wild. Eventually reaching his people’s ancient home of Khazad-dûm, he found it infested with Orcs. His death at the hands of their leader, Azog, sparked the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. He was succeeded by his son.
- Thráin II (Dunland, Blue Mountains): (Ruled 60 years to III 2850) He avenged his father’s death with the defeat of Azog’s Orcs at the Battle of Azanulbizar. In the early part of his reign, he dwelt in Dunland, but he later moved northward to the Blue Mountains west of Eriador. Before his reign ended, he resolved to return to Erebor, but wandering in the wild he was captured by evil things, and died in the dungeons of the Necromancer. He was succeeded by his eldest son.
- Thorin II (Blue Mountains): (Ruled 91 years to III 2941) He ruled as King in the Blue Mountains for many years, but like his father before him he at last determined to return to his ancient home of Erebor.
Accompanied by Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins, he led a troop of companions into the far east, and against all hope recovered the Lonely Mountain from Smaug. After Smaug’s death, the Battle of Five Armies was fought beneath Erebor, and Thorin was slain. The only remaining descendants of Thrór’s line, Thorin’s young nephews Fíli and Kíli, were also lost in the battle. So the descent of the Kingship passed to the line of Thrór’s younger brother Grór, and specifically to Grór’s grandson Dáin Ironfoot.
- Dáin II (Erebor): (Ruled 78 years to III 3019) He ruled in prosperity as King under the Mountain for many years until the time of the War of the Ring. He was slain in that war, in the Battle of Dale, and succeeded by his son.
- Thorin III (Erebor): He was besieged in Erebor for seven days after the loss of his father, but when news reached the forces of Sauron that their master had been defeated, he was able to drive them back. With Thorin III, detailed records of the reigns of the Kings come to an end, but we have a record of just one of his descendants.
- Durin VII (Khazad-dûm?): He was said to be the last of the Durins to rule over Durin’s Folk. Durin’s Bane had been destroyed in the War of the Ring, so that Khazad-dûm lay open for recovery by its ancient owners, and there is some evidence that it was Durin VII who at last achieved this.
–—
We know that Durin I died before the end of the First Age, so that between his rule and that of Thorin III, the Kings of Durin’s line ruled for a period of about 6,500 years. Given that the average length of a reign among the Longbeards seems to have been roughly a century, we can deduce that there are probably about fifty Kings’ names missing from this list.
* King of Eagles
A title given to Thorondor, the gigantic and noble eagle of the First Age, whose talons wounded the face of Morgoth himself. Thorondor dwelt among the peaks of the Crissaegrim, guarding Turgon’s Hidden City of Gondolin from the forces of Morgoth until that city’s Fall, and he came to the aid of the Elves many times during the First Age.
In The Hobbit, we meet a character who carries the title ‘Lord of Eagles’, a title that was also borne by Thorondor in the Elder Days.
Whether the title of ‘King of Eagles’ was also passed down through the Ages like this cannot be known - in Tolkien’s writings, it is only ever used of Thorondor himself.
* King of Gondolin
A title only ever borne by Turgon.
Title of Turgon son of Fingolfin, who founded Gondolin in the early First Age and ruled it until its Fall.
* King of Gondor
The line of lords descended from Elendil’s son Anárion.
The title of the lords of the Dúnedain, Elendil and his descendants, who ruled theKingdom of Gondor. The line of the Kings came to an end when Eärnur answered the challenge of the Lord of the Nazgûl and was lost in Minas Morgul. After his loss, Gondor was ruled by hereditary Stewards until the installation of Aragorn II Elessar (a direct descendant of Elendil) after the War of the Ring.
–—
1- Elendil (Ruled for 121 years to II 3441): He founded both Arnor and Gondor, and ruled the two kingdoms as High King. His royal seat was in his own capital in the north, Annúminas, and during his reign, Gondor was under the direct command of his two sons, Isildur and Anárion. He formed the Last Alliance, and marched to the defeat of Sauron, but he himself was lost in that great victory.
2- Isildur (Ruled for 2 years to III 2): He succeeded his father as High King, but before departing into the north, spent time ordering the South-kingdom. In the second year of the Third Age, he left Gondor in the care of his nephew Meneldil, the son of his brother Anárion, and rode away into the north. On his journey, Isildur was ambushed by Orcs and slain, and so the Kingship of Gondor passed on to Meneldil and his heirs.
3- Meneldil (Ruled for 156 years to III 158): Isildur was lost with his three eldest sons, leaving just his fourth son Valandil, then a mere boy, as heir. At thistime Meneldil took on the full Kingship of Gondor, and its Kings through the next thirty generations would be his descendants.
4- Cemendur (Ruled for 80 years to III 238).
5- Eärendil (Ruled for 86 years to III 324).
6- Anardil (Ruled for 87 years to III 411).
7- Ostoher (Ruled for 81 years to III 492): Ostoher rebuilt and expanded Minas Anor (later Minas Tirith) and took it for his summer residence.During his reign Gondor began to suffer attacks out of the wild eastern lands.
8- Rómendacil I (Ruled for 49 years to III 541): He defeated the Easterlings, and took the name Rómendacil - ‘East-victor’ - in token of this. Nonetheless he met his death in renewed attacks by the Wild Men out of the East.
9- Turambar (Ruled for 126 years to III 667): Turambar avenged his father’s death, and won wide lands for Gondor in the east.
10- Atanatar I (Ruled for 81 years to III 748).
11- Siriondil (Ruled for 82 years to III 830).
12- Tarannon Falastur (Ruled for 83 years to III 913): The first of the four Ship-kings, Tarannon put his energies into the building of Gondor’s navies. His Queen, Berúthiel, was sent into exile, and so he was the first of Gondor’s Kings to die childless. He was succeeded by his nephew, the son ofhis brother Tarciryan.
13- Eärnil I (Ruled for 23 years to III 936): The second Ship-king famously captured the southern Haven of Umbar for Gondor, expanding its boundaries even farther. He was lost in a storm off the very coastshe had conquered.
14- Ciryandil (Ruled for 79 years to III 1015): In Ciryandil’s time, the Haradrim came against Umbar, and the King died in its defence.
15- Hyarmendacil I (Ruled for 134 years to III 1149): He avenged his father’s death, and pressed on to capture land in the south for Gondor, extending its borders to their greatest extent in history.
16- Atanatar II (Ruled for 77 years to III 1226): Because of the extent and wealth of his realm, he was called Alcarin, Atanatar the Glorious, though he lacked the adventuring warrior spirit of his predecessors.
17- Narmacil I (Ruled for 68 years to III 1294): Narmacil tired of the cares of Kingship, and appointed a Regent to manage the Kingdom for him.
This was his nephew Minalcar, who would one day rule in his own stead as Rómendacil II. He died without issue, and was succeeded instead by his younger brother.
18- Calmacil (Ruled for 10 years to III 1304): Throughout his brief reign, his son Minalcar maintained his role as Regent.
19- Rómendacil II (Ruled for 62 years to III 1366): After sixty-four years as Regent, Minalcar took the throne in his own right. In memory of a great victory over the Easterlings he had won in his Regency, he became King in the name Rómendacil II.He made diplomatic efforts in the east, allying himself with tribes of Northmen in Rhovanion as a bulwark against further Easterling invasions. He sent his son Valacar as an ambassador to the Northmen, and while Rómendacil still held the throne, Valacar wedded Vidumavi in the east, who bore him a son.
20- Valacar (Ruled for 66 years to III 1432): Valacar was a controversial and disputed King, especially because his heir carried the bloodof the Northmen. In the later part of Valacar’s reign, true rebellion broke out, and the southern provinces of Gondor began to break away.
21- Eldacar (Ruled intermittently for 48 years to III 1490): After the half-Gondorian Eldacar took the throne, the rebellions of Valacar’s time grew into a full civil war, and after five years as King Eldacar was deposed by Castamir the Usurper. For ten years he hid in the east, gatheringhis forces, and then challenged Castamir for his rightful Kingship, slaying theUsurper himself. After regaining his throne, he reigned for another forty-three years before his death.
22- Castamir (Ruled for 10 years to III 1447): The Usurper of Eldacar’s throne was descended from the royal line (he was the great-grandson of Calmacil) and is considered a King of Gondor in his own right. He reigned for just ten years, as unrest among his subjects grew, after which Eldacar attacked fromthe east and reclaimed the throne of Gondor.
23- Aldamir (Ruled for 50 years to III 1540): Aldamir was the younger son of Eldacar (his elder brother Ornendil had been put to death by Castamir). In histime there was war in Gondor with the peoples of the south, and Aldamir fell in that war.
24- Hyarmendacil II (Ruled for 81 years to III 1621): Aldamir’s son avenged his father by overcoming the Haradrim, and in token of this took the name of Hyarmendacil, ‘South-victor’, the second of Gondor’s Kings to bear that auspicious name.
25- Minardil (Ruled for 13 years to III 1634): Minardil’s was a brief reign. He was at the port of Pelargir when it fell under attack by the Corsairs of Umbar, and he was slain in that attack.
26- Telemnar (Ruled for 2 years to III 1636): Telemnar’s reign was even shorter than that of his father. He was lost with all his children in the Dark Plague, and his line came to an end.
27- Tarondor (Ruled for 162 years to III 1798): Tarondor came early to the Kingship, and enjoyed the longest rule of any of Gondor’s Kings. His realm had been devastated by war and plague, and he worked to rebuild its power. It was Tarondor who moved the King’s House from Osgiliath to Minas Anor.
28- Telumehtar Umbardacil (Ruled for 52 years to III 1850): Telumehtar is most remembered by history as the King who reconquered Umbar to the south, and from this deed he took his name Umbardacil ‘Victor over Umbar’.
29- Narmacil II (Ruled for 6 years to III 1856): In Narmacil’s time, Gondor’s wars with the fierce Wainriders began; they emerged suddenly out of the east, and Narmacil’s short reign came to an end in their violent assault.
30- Calimehtar (Ruled for 80 years to III 1936): Calimehtar reversed his father’s defeat, and secured a famous victory over the Wainriders on the plain of Dagorlad. Nonetheless they were not destroyed, and their threat remained on Gondor’s eastern borders.
31- Ondoher (Ruled for 8 years to III 1944): Like his father and grandfather before him, Ondoher went to war with the Wainriders. They had made alliance with the Men of Khand and of Harad, so that all of Gondor’s bitterest foes attacked at one time. Under its great general Eärnil, Gondor had the victory at the Battle of the Camp, but Ondoher was lost in those wars, as were his two sons Artamir and Faramir.
-Interregnum- (1 year to III 1945): After the loss of Ondoher and his sons, Gondor was left without a clear heir to its throne. Arvedui of Arthedainmade a claim, based on his descent from Isildur Gondor’s second King, but this claim was rejected. Instead, the Crown was given to the commander who had saved the South-kingdom, Eärnil, who as a great-great-grandson of Telumehtar was properly a member of the Royal House.
32- Eärnil II (Ruled for 98 years to III 2043): Eärnil ruled Gondor during a time a turmoil across Middle-earth. In the north, the last kingdom of the Dúnedain was overrun by the Witch-king, and though Eärnil’s son Eärnur travelled north to the aid of Arthedain, he came too late, though he did achieve the destruction of Angmar. The Lord of the Nazgûl returned to Mordor from that defeat, and later in Eärnil’s reign the Nazgûl launched an assault on Minas Ithil, Gondor’s great citadel on the borders of Mordor, and captured it. After that time Minas Ithil was known as MinasMorgul, and Minas Anor as Minas Tirith.
33- Eärnur (Ruled for 7 years to III 2050): Eärnur had reigned for just seven years when he foolishly took up a challenge fromthe Lord of the Nazgûl, and rode willingly to Minas Morgul. He was never heard from again, and his loss left Gondor without a King once more.
-Interregnum- (969 years to III 3019): For nearly a millennium after Eärnur’s loss, Gondor had no King. It was ruled by the Stewards, the loyal hereditary servants of the Kings descended from Húrin of Emyn Arnen, Steward to King Minardil. There were twenty-six Ruling Stewards, from Mardil Voronwë to Denethor II, in whose time one came toGondor with a true claim to its Kingship.
34- Aragorn Elessar (Ruled for 122 years to IV 120): Aragorn was the long-lost Heir of Isildur out of the north, the direct descendant of Gondor’s first and second Kings, who came into his title at the time of the War of the Ring, and was crowned in the year of the Downfall of Barad-dûr. He reunited the North- and South- Kingdoms; his Queen was Arwen, the daughter of Elrond, and his heir was their son Eldarion.
35- Eldarion (Ruled from IV 120): Little is known of Aragorn’s son Eldarion but his name, and the fact that he succeeded his father to carry the royal line on into the Fourth Age.
* King of Khazad-dûm
Ruler of Durin’s city in the Misty Mountains.
The title taken by the rulers of Khazad-dûm, the greatest and most opulent Dwarf-city of all time. The Kings were descended in line from Durin I, called the Deathless, who founded the city in ancient days.
After the foundation of the line by Durin, little is said of the most ancient Kings. What records we have show that they ruled, on average, for about a century each, which would mean that there must have been very roughly sixty generations of Kings of Khazad-dûm before records resume, in the eighteenth century of the Third Age. The first King listed there, the penultimate King in Khazad-dûm, was Durin VI, so it follows that there must have been a Durin II, III, IV and V among the many unknown Kings (indeed we have some records of Durin III, who received a Ring of Power from Celebrimbor himself).
It was Durin VI who had the misfortune to rule Khazad-dûm at the time its miners discovered and released a sleeping menace deep among their mithril veins. This was the Balrog that came to be known as Durin’s Bane, a creature much too powerful for the Dwarves to control. Durin was killed soon after its appearance, and succeeded by his son, Náin I. Náin’s rule was a short one - he too was killed within a year of his father’s death, and his subjects fled their ancient home.
According to legend, Náin I was not the last King of Khazad-dûm. Some sources suggest that his distant descendant, Durin VII, came back to the kingdom of his ancestor, and reclaimed it as its King, though this tale cannot be verified beyond doubt.
* King of Lórien|King of Lorien
An ancient title for the rulers of the land of Lórien, of which Amroth was the last.
* King of Nargothrond
A title of Finrod, who founded the citadel and realm of Nargothrond in West Beleriand. After his loss, the Kingship passed to his brother Orodreth.
* King of Númenor|King of Numenor
Ruler of ancient Westernesse.
The title of twenty-two lords of the Númenóreans (there were also three ruling Queens of Númenor), from Elros Tar-Minyatur down through the long years of the Second Age to Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, who brought about the Downfall.
* King of Númenórë|King of Numenorë
The Father of the Isle of Númenor.
The rare High-elven form of the title much more usually seen as ‘King of Númenor’. In fact, it occurs in only one recorded instance, in a letter from Gil-galad to Tar-Meneldur the fifth King.
* King of Rhovanion
A title originally claimed by Vidugavia, a prince of the Northmen who ruled the lands east of Greenwood the Great.
* King of Rohan
Eorl and his royal descendants.
Title of nineteen recorded lords of the land of Rohan, from Eorl the Young who founded that land to Elfwine, son of Éomer Éadig who fought in the War of the Ring.
* King of the Dead
Lord of the Shadow Host.
The king of the oath-breaking Men of the White Mountains, who swore allegiance to Isildur in the War of the Last Alliance. For breaking his oath, he and his people were cursed to walk the Paths of the Dead until they could redeem themselves, which they achieved by aiding Isildur’s heir Aragorn in the War of the Ring.
* King of the Mark
An equivalent title to ‘King of Rohan’, probably more commonly used in Rohan itself.
* King of the Noldor
Title taken by the Lords of the Deep Elves.
An equivalent title to ‘High King of the Noldor’, but somewhat less common. It was originally borne by Finwë, and passed down through his descendants to Gil-galad.
* King of the Sea
A title of Ulmo and of Ar-Pharazôn.
–—
“… the arising of the King of the Sea was terrible, as a mounting wave that strides to the land…”
(Valaquenta)
–—
A title primarily given to the Vala Ulmo, whose special province was the oceans, seas and waters of the Earth. Ulmo not only ruled the Sea, he also dwelt in its depths, and so lived apart from the other Valar.
The title ‘King of the Sea’ also appears in Akallabêth, but there it is given not to Ulmo, but to Ar-Pharazôn, the last King of Númenor, as he sails on Middle-earth to defeat Sauron.
* King of the West
A title given to Aragorn.
A title taken by Aragorn Elessar on his accession to the throne of Gondor, signifying his Kingship over all the Free Peoples of the West, from the north to the south.
In both the North- and South-kingdoms of the Dúnedain, there had been no King for many centuries. At the time of Aragorn’s coronation, there had been no King of Gondor for 969 years, and no King of a united Arnor for 2,158 years. The last King to rule both realms jointly had been Aragorn’s distant ancestor Isildur, though his Kingship was cut short at the the Disaster of the Gladden Fields before he could truly take up the rule of his twin realms.
From that time, when the Third Age was just two years old, the West had had no uniting King. At the coronation of Aragorn, two years from the Age’s end, Arnor and Gondor were at last united once again, and Aragorn’s rule of the West is therefore referred to as the Reunited Kingdom.
* King under the Mountain|Mountain Kingdom Ruler of the Dwarves of Erebor.
–—
Title of the Dwarf-lords of Erebor.
The title taken by Thráin I, founder of the Dwarf-kingdom at Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, and maintained by those Kings of Durin’s Folk who dwelt there. The line was broken twice, once by Thorin I (he and four generations of his descendants ruled from the Grey Mountains, not Erebor), and once by the dragon Smaug (who claimed the title for himself). In both cases, the line was restored to a rightful heir.
* King’s Archers
The archers of the armies of Númenor.
The steel-bowed archers of the armies of Númenor during the later Second Age, when the Númenóreans carved out dominions in Middle-earth. Their arrows were famously one ell long (that is, 1.143 m, or nearly four feet).
* King’s Company
The éored of the King of Rohan.
The first éored of the Riders of Rohan, who rode to battle beside the King himself. Also known as the King’s Riders.
* King’s Court
The courts of the Kings of Númenor in Armenelos, where grew the White Tree Nimloth.
* King’s Heir
Title of the heir to the Kingship of Númenor, normally, but not necessarily, conferred on the reigning monarch’s eldest son.
* King’s House
The seat of the Kings of Gondor.
The seat and residence of the Kings of Gondor. Until the middle years of the Third Age, the House was in Osgiliath on the River Anduin, but after the losses from the Great Plague, the new King Tarondor removed it to Minas Anor.
* King’s Men
Númenóreans hostile to the Eldar and the Elendili.
–—
That party of the Númenóreans, the greater part, who followed the policies of Tar-Ancalimon and his successors to build the pride and wealth of Númenor in defiance of the Valar and the Eldar.
* King’s Reckoning
The calendar of Númenor.
The name given to the calendar system used in Númenor, and in Gondor and Arnor during the early part of the Third Age. It divided the year into twelve months (properly called astar), and included three days that did not belong to any month: yestarë, loëndë and mettarë. The King’s Reckoning lasted until the loss of Eärnur the last King of Gondor. It was revised by Mardil, the first Ruling Steward, who replaced it with the system known as the Stewards’ Reckoning.
* King’s Riders
The personal guard of the Lord of the Mark.
The name given to the Rohirrim who formed the personal bodyguard of the King of Rohan.
* King’s Writer
The scribe of Minas Tirith.
The scribe of the King of Gondor, a title borne by Findegil in the early Fourth Age.
* Kingdom under the Mountain
The Dwarf-kingdom of Erebor.
The kingdom of the Dwarves of Durin’s Folk for much of the later Third Age, better known as Erebor, or the Lonely Mountain.
* Kingdoms of the Dúnedain|Kingdoms of the Dunedain The realms of the Exiles of Númenor.
The two great and ancient kingdoms of Middle-earth founded in the last years of the Second Age by Elendil and his sons: Arnor the North-kingdom and Gondor the South-kingdom.
* Kings of Men
Men of Westernesse.
A title given to the Númenóreans by the Men of Middle-earth when they returned there in the Second Age.
* Kingsfoil
The royal healing-leaf.
A plant also called Athelas or Asëa Aranion. Its sweet-smelling leaves possessed healing virtues, especially in the hands of descendant of the royal line of Númenor.
* Kingsland
The Arandor of Númenor.
The most important region of ancient Númenor, the lands between the Meneltarma near the centre of the island and the port of Rómenna on its eastern coast. More properly known by its Elvish name, Arandor, the Kingsland held the royal city of Armenelos, Númenor’s capital.
* Kinslaying
The slaying of the Teleri by the Noldor at Alqualondë.
–—
The sack of Alqualondë.
The first slaying of Elf by Elf, in which the followers of Fëanor assaulted the Teleri in their haven of Alqualondë as they marched from Valinor.
* Kirinki
Small scarlet-plumaged birds of Númenor.
–—
Tiny scarlet birds found in Númenor.
One of the many species of birds found in Númenor, and doubtless Aman, that were not known in Middle-earth. The kirinki were said to be smaller than wrens, with bright scarlet feathers, and voices so high that they could hardly be heard by Men.
* Kuduk
The actual Westron word that is translated as ‘Hobbit’ by Tolkien; it is suggested that this developed from an older word, kûd-dûkan, meaning
‘hole-dweller’.
* Labadal
Túrin’s name in childhood for Sador; translated ‘Hopafoot’.
–—
The childhood friend of Túrin.
The name, said to mean ‘hopafoot’, given by Túrin to Sador. Sador was a lame servant of Túrin’s father Húrin, who befriended the tragic hero in his youth.
* Ladros
The lands to the north-east of Dorthonion that were granted by the Noldorin Kings to the Men of the House of Bëor.
–—
The northeastern reaches of Dorthonion.
A highland region to the northeast of Dorthonion. It was held briefly as a fief by the House of Bëor, but lost to Morgoth in the Dagor Bragollach.
The region of Ladros seems originally to have been a fief of Finrod Felagund (at least, his brothers Angrod and Aegnor held ‘the northern slopes of Dorthonion’, according to Quenta Silmarillion, Of Beleriand and its Realms). Finrod later assigned this land to Boromir of the House of Bëor, whose members had long been loyal in his service.
Of the House of Bëor, there were three lords of Ladros - Boromir himself, his son Bregor, and Bregor’s son Barahir. In Barahir’s time, Morgoth overwhelmed Dorthonion and Ladros in the Dagor Bragollach: Barahir and twelve faithful Men, including his son Beren, became outlaws in their own land, assaulting Morgoth’s forces from their hidden lair at Tarn Aeluin on Ladros’ southern borders. They were betrayed by Gorlim the Unhappy, and all were slain but Beren, who escaped into the south. After this time, Ladros fell under the yoke of Morgoth until it was swallowed by the Great Sea at the end of the First Age.
In the Narn i Hîn Húrin (published by Christopher Tolkien in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth), Túrin Turambar is given the title
‘heir of Dor-lómin and Ladros’. This seems inconsistent with the published Silmarillion: Túrin was descended from the House of Hador, not that of Bëor. Perhaps this birthright came from his mother, Morwen, who was the granddaughter of Barahir’s brother Bregolas.
* Lady of Lórien|Lady of Lorien
A title given to Galadriel after she took up the rule of Lórien with her spouse Celeborn.
* Lady of Rohan
A title given to Éowyn, niece to King Théoden of Rohan, and sister to his successor Éomer.
* Lady of the Galadhrim
Galadriel, the Lady of Lórien.
After the loss of Amroth, the rulership of Lórien was taken up by Celeborn and Galadriel; the silvan people of that land were known as Galadhrim, the tree people, hence this title of Galadriel.
* Lady of the Golden Wood
A title of Galadriel, Lady of the land of Lórien, whose woods were filled with golden Mallorn trees.
* Lady of the Seas
A title of the Maia Uinen.
Uinen the spouse of Ossë, who had the power to calm the ocean storms.
She was especially revered by the Númenóreans, who were said to esteem her as highly as the Valar themselves.
* Lady of the Shield-arm
A title given to Éowyn after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. In that battle, her shield-arm was broken by the Lord of the Nazgûl, but with the help of Meriadoc Brandybuck, she nonetheless defeated her mighty foe.
* Lady of the Stars
A title of Varda, who made the stars with dews of the White Tree Telperion.
* Laer
The Sindarin name for the season of Summer, 72 days that fell between modern 1 June and 11 August, known in Quenya as Lairë.
* Laer Cú Beleg|Laer Cu Beleg
‘The Song of the Great Bow’, made by Túrin at Eithel Ivrin in memory of Beleg Strongbow.
* Lagduf
An Orc of Shagrat’s garrison.
An Orc soldier who served under Shagrat in the garrison of the Tower of Cirith Ungol. During the War of the Ring, a battle broke out in the Tower with a rival band of Orcs from Minas Morgul. Lagduf attempted to escape with another Orc named Muzgash, but they were both shot as they ran from the fortress.
* Laiquendi
The Green-elves of Ossiriand; those Elves of the Nandor who came at last over the Blue Mountains from the east and dwelt between them and the River Gelion.
* Lairë|Laire
The Quenya name for the season of Summer, 72 days that fell between modern 1 June and 11 August, known in Sindarin as Laer.
* Lairelossë
‘Summer-snow-white’, fragrant evergreen tree brought to Númenor by the Eldar of Eressëa.
* Lake Evendim
The lake on which Annúminas stood.
A lake in the north of Middle-earth, called by the Elves Nenuial.
Annúminas, the ancient royal city of Arnor, was built on its southern shores.
* Lake Helevorn
The cold lake beneath Mount Rerir.
The deep, mountain-shaded lake in the cold lands northeast of Beleriand.
Caranthir had his capital on its shores, but its waters were defiled during the Dagor Bragollach.
* Lake-men|Lake-man|Lake Men|Lake Man
The Men of the Long Lake.
The people of Lake-town on the Long Lake, to the south of Erebor. A trading people, they dealt with Erebor and Dale in the times before Smaug’s coming, and with the Wood-elves of Mirkwood.
* Lake-town|Lake Town
A township of Men on the Long Lake.
The township of the Lake-men, built on wooden stilts in the waters of the Long Lake, as a protection against the dragon Smaug, who dwelt nearby to the north.
* Lalaith
‘Laughter’, name by which Urwen Húrin’s daughter was called, from the stream that flowed past Húrin’s house.
–—
Daughter of Húrin and Morwen, and sister to Túrin Turambar; she died in childhood of a plague.
* Lalia Clayhanger
The long-lived matriarch of the Took clan.
The wife of Thain Fortinbras II, who long outlived her husband and ruled the Tooks of Great Smials for twenty-two years. She was famous for her tremendous girth (she was known in less polite circles as Lalia the Fat), which was rumoured to have prevented her attendance of Bilbo’s famous Birthday Party. She died the following year in an unfortunate incident involving a tipping wheelchair and a flight of garden steps.
* Lamedon
Region about the upper waters of the rivers Ciril and Ringló under the southern slopes of Ered Nimrais.
–—
A region of central Gondor.
A region of Gondor on the southern slopes of the White Mountains. The River Ciril ran through it to meet the Ringló, and Calembel was its chief town.
* Lammoth
The ‘Great Echo’, region north of the Firth of Drengist, between Ered Lómin and the Sea, named from the echoes of Morgoth’s cry in his struggle with Ungoliant.
–—
The shoreland region of the Great Echo.
Called the ‘Great Echo’; a shoreland region in the far north where Ungoliant set upon Melkor, and was in turn driven into the south by Balrogs from Angband.
* Lamps of the Valar
The first illumination of the World.
Illuin and Ormal, the two great lamps made by Aulë to give light to the world in the ancient days when the Valar still dwelt in Almaren. They were overthrown and destroyed by Melkor.
* Land of Bow and Helm
The land of the Two Captains.
The short-lived land to the south of Brethil, whose Men were commanded by Túrin Turambar and Beleg Strongbow. Known in Elvish as Dor-Cúarthol.
* Land of Gift
Elvish Andor, a name for the island of Númenor, given as a gift to the Edain at the beginning of the Second Age.
* Land of Seven Rivers|Land of the Seven Rivers The homeland of the Laiquendi.
A name for Ossiriand, and a literal translation of that Elvish name. The Land of the Seven Rivers lay between the River Gelion and the Blue Mountains, and was the home of the Green-elves, the Laiquendi. The Seven Rivers from which it took its name were the Gelion itself and six of its tributaries. From north to south, these tributaries were the Ascar, the Thalos, the Legolin, the Brilthor, the Duilwen and the Adurant.
* Land of the Dead that Live
Dor Firn-i-Guinar, the name given to the green island of Tol Galen during the time that Beren and Lúthien dwelt there.
* Land of the Halflings
The Shire; the only region in the northwest of Middle-earth to be peopled only by Hobbits.
* Land of the Star
Númenor; translation of Quenya Elenna-nórë in the Oath of Cirion.
* Land of Willows
The willow-woods of Nan-tathren.
Some miles to the north of the Mouths of Sirion, that river’s waters were swelled by its joining with the Narog. Where the two rivers met, a flowered land lay, filled with willow trees that ran along the river-banks. This was Nan-tathren, the Land of Willows that was famed as one of Middle-earth’s most beautiful places.
* Landroval
The brother of Gwaihir.
The great eagle who flew with his brother Gwaihir to the aid of Frodo and Sam in Mordor. His name comes from the Elvish for ‘wide-winged’.
* Langflood
Name of Anduin among the Éothéod.
–—
The almost-forgotten Mannish name for the River Anduin, given to it by the ancestors of the Rohirrim, but normally called just ‘The Great River’.
* Langstrand
The ‘long shore’ of Gondor.
The Mannish name for the region known as Anfalas in Elvish; a long strip of coastland running for more than three hundred miles, from the River Lefnui in the west to the Morthond in the east. It was a rural land, occupied for the most part by hunters and fishers who lived in small villages among the shorelands.
* Langwell
‘Source of the Langflood’, name given by the Éothéod to the river from the northern Misty Mountains which after its junction with Greylin they called Langflood (Anduin).
–—
One of the sources of the Great River.
One of the two rivers (the other being the Greylin) that met in the far north of Middle-earth to form the beginnings of the Great River, Anduin.
* Lanthir Lamath
‘Waterfall of Echoing Voices’, where Dior had his house in Ossiriand, and after which his daughter Elwing (‘Star-spray’) was named.
* Lár|Lar
A league (very nearly three miles).
* Largo Baggins
Great-grandfather of Frodo Baggins, and great-uncle of Bilbo, Largo married Tanta Hornblower.
* Larnach
One of the Woodmen in the lands south of Teiglin.
–—
A Woodman of Brethil.
One of the Woodmen who dwelt in the Forest of Brethil, south of the River Teiglin. These people were harried by the Gaurwaith outlaws from Doriath’s western borders, and in a raid by these outlaws, Larnach’s daughter was rescued by Túrin Turambar, under the alias of Neithan.
In his search for Túrin, Beleg Strongbow later came upon the fenced homestead that was Larnach’s home, and was told the story.
* Lasse-lanta
‘Leaf-fall’, an alternative name for the Quenya season of Quellë, or autumn; 54 days between modern 8 October and 30 November. The Sindarin equivalent is Narbeleth.
* Last Alliance of Elves and Men|Last Alliance|The Alliance The league made at the end of the Second Age between Elendil and Gil-galad to defeat Sauron.
–—
The alliance of Gil-galad of the Elves and Elendil the exile of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, whose forces marched on Mordor and besieged Barad-dûr.
* Last Battle
The end of Arda.
The Dagor Dagorath, the great final battle at which the forces of the brothers Manwë and Melkor will face one another, and Arda will be unmade.
* Last Desert
The barren lands of the distant east.
A distant and possibly mythical desert in the far east of Middle-earth, the abode of the Were-worms.
* Last Gate
The Seventh of the Seven Gates of Gondolin.
The last of Gondolin’s gates was last not only in the order they were encountered by one entering the city, but also the last to be built.
Originally, Gondolin had just six gates, with the Golden Gate being the final entrance to the Turgon’s Hidden City. After the narrow escape of the Gondolindrim from the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, another, even stronger gate was made from steel and built across the entrance to the Orfalch Echor.
* Last Homely House
A name given to Elrond’s refuge at Rivendell, so called because it was the last outpost in the relatively civilised lands of Eriador before a traveller crossed the Misty Mountains and entered the Wild of Rhovanion.
* Laura Grubb
Bilbo Baggins’ paternal grandmother, she married Mungo Baggins and had five children; the eldest was Bilbo’s father Bungo.
* Laurelin|Tree of Gold|Golden Tree|Tree of the Sun
‘Song of Gold’, the younger of the Two Trees of Valinor. Called the Tree of the Sun, the Golden Tree of Valinor. See Telperion.
–—
The Golden Tree of Valinor, the younger of the Two Trees that shed golden light on the realm of the Valar in the long years before the making of the Sun and Moon.
* Laurelindórenan|Laurelindorenan|Laurelindórinan|Laurelindorinan
‘Valley of Singing Gold’, Lórien.
–—
‘Land of the Valley of Singing Gold’.
A name for the land more commonly known as Lórien, the Golden Wood of Celeborn and Galadriel. It was an older name of that land, but not entirely forgotten; both Treebeard and Faramir still used the old name freely.
* Laurinquë|Laurinque
Yellow-flowered tree of the Hyarrostar in Númenor.
* Lay of Leithian
The long poem concerning the lives of Beren and Lúthien from which the prose account in The Silmarillion was derived. Leithian is translated
‘Release from Bondage’.
* Leaf
The Pipe-weed of the Hobbits.
A broad name for the plant cultivated by the Hobbits for smoking, and for that reason more commonly known as ‘Halflings’ Leaf’. It had many other names besides, from the plain ‘pipe-weed’ or ‘westmansweed’ to its more elegant name among the Dúnedain, ‘sweet galenas’.
* Leaflock
An ancient Ent of Fangorn Forest.
One of the oldest of the Ents, called Finglas in Elvish, whose name referred to his leafy ‘hair’. According to Treebeard, Leaflock had become tired and tree-like, sometimes sleeping entire seasons through.
* Lebennin
‘Five rivers’ (those being Erui, Sirith, Celos, Serni and Gilrain), land between Ered Nimrais and Ethir Anduin; one of the ‘faithful fiefs’ of Gondor.
–—
A fief of south-eastern Gondor, lying between the Rivers Gilrain in the west and Anduin in the east.
* Lebethron
A favoured wood of Gondor’s craftsmen.
A tree that grew in Gondor; little is known of it, except that it was fair, and beloved by the woodworkers of that land. The staves given by Faramir to Frodo and Sam were made of lebethron wood, as was the casket in which he brought the Crown of Gondor to the coronation of Aragorn.
* Lefnui
River flowing to the sea from the western end of Ered Nimrais. The name means ‘fifth’, i.e. after Erui, Sirith, Serni and Morthond, the rivers of Gondor that flowed into Anduin or the Bay of Belfalas).
* Legolas Greenleaf
Sindarin Elf of Northern Mirkwood, son of Thranduil; one of the Fellowship of the Ring.
–—
A prince of the Silvan Elves.
Son of Thranduil, Lord of the Elves of Mirkwood. He set out from Rivendell with the Company of the Ring, and journeyed with Aragorn and Gimli through the southern lands of Middle-earth during the War of the Ring; he fought at the Battles of the Hornburg and the Pelennor Fields.
* Legolin
The third of the tributaries of Gelion in Ossiriand.
–—
Third of Gelion’s six tributaries.
The third of Gelion’s six tributary rivers, that like the others rose among the western slopes of the Blue Mountains. It flowed west through Ossiriand between the Thalos to the north and the Brilthor to the south.
Its name Legolin means ‘free-running’.
* Lembas|Coimas
Sindarin name of the waybread of the Eldar (from earlier lennmbass
‘journey-bread’; in Quenya coimas ‘life-bread’).
–—
The waybread of the Elves. The secret of its making was originally held by Melian of Doriath, but this secret was passed on to Galadriel and possibly others.
* Lenwë|Lenwe
The leader of the Elves from the host of the Teleri who refused to cross the Misty Mountains on the west-ward journey from Cuiviénen (the Nandor); father of Denethor.
–—
Leader of the Nandor.
An Elf of Telerin origin, who set out on the Great Journey from Cuiviénen. When the Teleri reached the Great River Anduin, and saw the Misty Mountains across their path to the west, he fell away from the Journey, and led a part of the Teleri south down the Vales of Anduin to found the people known as the Nandor.
* Léod|Leod
Ruler of the Éothéod; father of Eorl the Young.
–—
The ruler of the Éothéod, Léod was the father of Eorl the Young, and hence the ancestor of all the Kings of Rohan.
* Lhûn|Lhun
River in the west of Eriador flowing into the sea in the Gulf of Lhûn.
Frequently in an adapted spelling Lune.
–—
The river that flowed into the Gulf of Lhûn.
Also called the Lune, a river in the far northwest of Middle-earth. It rose in the eastern Blue Mountains, and flowed southward to meet the Great Sea in the wide Gulf of Lhûn.
* Lidless Eye
The Eye of Sauron.
From the highest tower of Barad-dûr, Sauron kept an unceasing watch on the lands and kingdoms of Middle-earth. The ‘Lidless Eye’ refers to this unsleeping vigilance.
* Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr|Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dur
The title of an important commander in the land of Mordor. Its associated details and duties are unknown, but at the time of the War of the Ring it was borne by the Man known as the Mouth of Sauron.
* Light-elves|Light-elf|Light Elves|Light Elf The followers of Ingwë.
A name given to the Vanyar, the kindred of the Elves who came first to Valinor and dwelt long ages in the light of the Two Trees.
This is an old and rare term, used just once in The Hobbit and never again in any canonical source. This is probably to avoid confusion with
‘Elves of the Light’, the Calaquendi, of whom the Light-elves formed just one part, together with the Noldor and many of the Teleri (the Deep-elves and Sea-elves mentioned in The Hobbit).
* Lily Baggins
A great-aunt of Bilbo Baggins, Lily married Togo Goodbody and had many descendants.
* Lily Cotton (née Lily Brown)|Lily Cotton|Lily Brown Sam Gamgee’s mother-in-law.
The wife of Tolman Cotton of Bywater, and mother to Rose Cotton, who would marry Samwise Gamgee after the War of the Ring. She makes a very brief appearance in the text of The Lord of the Rings, where she is referred to simply as ‘Mrs. Cotton’.
* Limlaith
The Elves’ name for the river otherwise called the Limlight.
A river that flowed out of the northern parts of Fangorn Forest, and flowed eastward to join the Anduin in its building southward rush. In ancient days, it marked the northernmost point of Calendardhon, and hence of Gondor’s borders, but at the time of the War of the Ring, it lay on the borders of Rohan. Men called it the Limlight, and that is the name used throughout The Lord of the Rings.
* Limlight|Limlich|Limliht|Limlint
River flowing from Fangorn Forest to Anduin and forming the extreme north-bound of Rohan. Spelled also Limlaith, Limlich, Limliht, Limlint.
–—
A river flowing out of northern Fangorn.
A tributary of the River Anduin that flowed eastward from Fangorn Forest to meet the Great River at the Field of Celebrant. It formed part of the northern boundary of Rohan.
* Linaewen
‘Lake of birds’, the great mere in Nevrast.
* Linda Baggins
Bilbo Baggins’ aunt (the younger sister of Bilbo’s father Bungo), Linda married Bodo Proudfoot.
* Lindar
The Teleri of Aman.
‘The Singers’; the name by which the Teleri of Valinor called themselves.
* Lindens|Linden|Lime-trees|Lime-tree
Delicate yellow-blossomed trees.
Trees with heart-shaped leaves and sweet-scented yellow blossom, commonly - but inaccurately - referred to as ‘lime-trees’. In Legolas’
song of Nimrodel, he compares her to a linden-leaf, and there were Ents in Fangorn Forest of linden-kind.
* Lindon
A name of Ossiriand in the First Age. After the tumults at the end of the First Age the name Lindon was retained for the lands west of the Blue Mountains that still remained above the Sea.
–—
The last surviving lands west of the Blue Mountains.
The green land to the west of the Blue Mountains; the only region to survive the destruction of Beleriand during the War of Wrath. Gil-galad, last High King of the Noldor, dwelt there during the Second Age.
The name means ‘(Land) of Music’, and comes from the singing of the Laiquendi, the inhabitants of the land during the First Age.
* Lindórië|Lindorie
Sister of Eärendil fifteenth Lord of Andúnië, mother of Inzilbêth mother of Tar-Palantir.
* Lindórinand|Lindorinand
An ancient name for the land of Lórien, before the arrival of Celeborn and Galadriel; it is said to mean ‘Vale of the Land of the Singers’.
* Line of Elros
Royal descendants of the first King of Númenor.
The line of the descendants of Elros Tar-Minyatur, Kings and Queens of Númenor through the Second Age. The Lords of Andúnië and their descendants, including Aragorn Elessar, represented a branch of this Line.
* Linhir
A township on the River Gilrain.
A town in southern Gondor at the fords of the River Gilrain, near to the Mouths of Anduin. The site of a lesser battle in the War of the Ring.
* Lisgardh
Land of reeds at the Mouths of Sirion.
* Lissuin
A fragrant flower of Tol Eressëa.
* Lithe
Two feast days of the Shire Calendar that lay either side of Midyear’s Day (and, in a leap year, the special feast-day of Overlithe). 1 Lithe fell on modern 21 June, while 2 Lithe usually fell on modern 23 June, but on 24 June in a leap year.
* Lithlad
Mordor’s northern plain of ash.
The ashen plain that lay beneath Mordor’s northern mountain-wall, the Ered Lithui. It lay in the east of that land, beyond Gorgoroth and the Barad-dûr.
* Little Delving
A small village near Michel Delving.
A village of the Shire. Though its existence can be inferred from the name ‘Michel Delving’, the only direct evidence for it appears on the Shire map in The Lord of the Rings, where a road leading off to the northwest is marked ‘To Little Delving’.
* Little Folk
A name among Men for the Hobbits.
A term for the small race of people more commonly known as Hobbits, especially used by the taller Men (who were in turn referred to as the Big Folk).
The origins of the Little Folk are mysterious. They were evidently an ancient branch of the human race, but they developed in the mysterious east of Middle-earth, and how they came by their small stature and peculiar habits is unknown. By the time they entered history, in the year 1050 of the Third Age, they had already broken into three distinct groups, the Harfoots, the Fallohides and the Stoors.
Over the next two thousand years, the Little Folk spread slowly across the Western lands. By III 1601, they had acquired a land for themselves, that they called the Shire. Despite many hardships, the Shire would survive until the time of the War of the Ring and beyond. Though their land did not survive to our own time, Tolkien’s words in the Prologue to The Lord of the Ring suggest that the Little Folk themselves are not extinct, but continue a secret, hidden existence alongside us, the bumbling Big Folk.
* Little Gelion
One of the two tributary branches of the river Gelion in the north, rising in the Hill of Himring.
–—
The lesser of Gelion’s two sources.
A lesser river that rose beneath Himring in the north marches of Beleriand, whose spring was close by that of the Celon. Where the Celon ran southwest towards the borders of Doriath, the Little Gelion followed a twisting course to the southeast, where it joined with the Greater Gelion to form the long river Gelion itself.
* Little People
A name among Men for hobbit-kind, used especially where the two races dwelt together, as at Bree.
* Loa
The Elvish solar year.
–—
A year, to the Elves.
A name used by the Elves for a single year; also called a coranar.
* Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (née Lobelia Bracegirdle)|Lobelia The widow of Otho Sackville-Baggins.
A renowned character of the Shire, she married Bilbo’s cousin Otho Sackville-Baggins. Her envy of Bag End was well-known, but she stood up bravely to the Men of Saruman when they invaded the Shire in the last stages of the War of the Ring.
* Lockholes
The short-lived prison cells of Michel Delving.
When the Shire was taken over by Sharkey’s Men during the War of the Ring, the storage tunnels of Michel Delving were converted into the so-called Lockholes. These were prison cells for those who rebelled against the new regime, among whose inhabitants were Mayor Will Whitfoot, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins and Fredegar Bolger.
* Loeg Ningloron
‘Pools of the golden water-flowers’; Sindarin name of the Gladden Fields.
* Loëndë|Loende
Also known, especially by the Hobbits, as Midyear’s Day, Loëndë was the day that fell in the middle of the year was an important feature in many of the calendars of Middle-earth. On a modern calendar, Midyear’s Day would be 22 June.
* Lómelindi|Lomelindi
Quenya word meaning ‘dusk-singers’, nightingales.
* Lómion|Lomion
‘Son of Twilight’, the Quenya name that Aredhel gave to Maeglin.
* Lond Daer|Great Haven|Great Middle Haven Númenórean harbour and shipyards in Eriador, at the mouth of the Gwathló, established by Tar-Aldarion, who called it Vinya-londë. Translated ‘the Great Haven’; also called Lond Daer Enedh, ‘the Great Middle Haven’.
–—
The Númenórean port on the Gwathló.
A great haven built by the Númenóreans at the mouth of the River Gwathló or Greyflood. It was an important Númenórean base throughout much of the Second Age.
* Lone-lands
The wide lands of Eriador.
The name among Men and Hobbits for the wide region of northern Middle-earth that lay between the Blue Mountains in the west and the Misty Mountains in the east. They are more commonly known by their Elvish name, Eriador.
* Lonely Isle
Tol Eressëa, the island off the eastern shores of Aman where many of the Elves dwelt. The name probably comes from its early history, when it stood in the middle of the Great Sea, far from either Aman or Middle-earth.
* Lonely Mountain
The Dwarf-kingdom of Erebor.
The mountain that stood alone in the east of Middle-earth where the Dwarves founded the kingdom of Erebor, which was destroyed by the dragon Smaug, and refounded by Thorin II Oakenshield.
* Long Horn
The nickname of Holman Cotton.
The nickname of Rose Cotton’s grandfather, Holman Cotton of Bywater. It originally appeared in the form ‘Long Holm’, and so apparently referred to Holman’s unusual height.
* Long Lake
The lake south of Eriador into which flowed both the Forest River and the River Running, and on which Esgaroth (Lake Town) was built.
–—
The lake on which Esgaroth stood.
The lake that lay to the south of Erebor and Dale, the site of Lake-town, home of the trading people of the Lake-men.
* Long Wall
The Andram of Beleriand.
The range of hills that marked a steep fall in the height of the land of Beleriand, more usually called by its Elvish name, the Andram. Its western end was in the hills east of Nargothrond and from there it ran far into East Beleriand, where it ended at the hills of Ramdal, ‘Wall’s End’.
* Long Winter
The winter of Third Age 2758-9.
–—
The worst winter in the history of Middle-earth.
A period of five months between November III 2758 and March III 2759, during which time the western lands, and especially Eriador and Rohan, were beset by snow and ice. This was a catastrophic time, the Winter and the hard years that followed it cost many lives, and brought the land of Rohan near to extinction. The Long Winter is not to be confused with the Fell Winter, which occurred some 153 years later.
* Long-worms|Long-worm
Scatha and his kind.
A type of dragon found in the northern parts of Middle-earth, and perhaps elsewhere. The most famous long-worm (and in fact that only one that Tolkien explicitly identifies) was Scatha of the Ered Mithrin, who preyed on the Dwarves and Men of the Grey Mountains, and was slain by Fram of the Éothéod.
Though Tolkien gives almost no clues about long-worms in the text of The Lord of the Rings, his illustrations of dragons give us some further hints. Tolkien’s dragons tend to be sinuous, serpentine creatures, having the appearance almost of a winged snake rather than the more traditional dragon-form. This would explain the term ‘long-worm’ easily. It’s interesting to note that Tolkien gave this form to another northern dragon, Smaug, which strongly suggests that he, too, was one of the long-worms.
It should be noted that Tolkien doesn’t conclusively refer to long-worms as a ‘type’ of dragon, and it is just possible that ‘long-worm’ is simply another word for ‘dragon’. This doesn’t seem very likely, though: if all worms are long, why call them ‘long-worms’? Of course, if we assume that long-worms are a ‘subspecies’ of dragon, there must be other, less long, types.
* Longbeards
A name for Durin’s Folk.
One of the seven clans of the Dwarves, those that followed the oldest of the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves, Durin the Deathless. This people is more commonly known as Durin’s Folk.
* Longbottom
The birthplace of pipe-weed in the Shire.
A village or town in the Southfarthing of the Shire. Its name means
‘long valley’, and we know that the village and its surroundings were sheltered from the elements, probably by the valley’s sides.
Longbottom entered history in about III 2670 (1070 by the Shire-reckoning), when a certain Tobold Hornblower introduced a new herb there.
The valley’s sheltered aspect, and the relatively warm climate of the Southfarthing, made the region around Longbottom ideal for growing this new plant, pipe-weed, which rapidly became the centre of a thriving industry. Longbottom Leaf remained one of the most famous varieties of the weed.
* Longbottom Leaf
One of the finest varieties of pipe-weed.
One of the three varieties of pipe-weed recorded as being the most sought-after, the other two being Old Toby and Southern Star. Longbottom in the Southfarthing was the first place in the Shire where pipe-weed was grown, and so Longbottom Leaf must have been one of the oldest and most established types (if not the original variety). The first Leaf-grower was Tobold Hornblower, and his family continued the tradition. When Merry and Pippin found barrels of Longbottom Leaf in the ruins of Isengard, they bore the brand-marks of the Hornblower family.
* Longholes
A common family name among the Bree-hobbits.
* Longo Baggins
An uncle of Bilbo Baggins, Longo founded the Sackville-Baggins family when he married Camellia Sackville. Otho Sackville-Baggins was their son.
* Lord and Lady
A dual title for Celeborn and Galadriel, Lord and Lady of Lórien during the later Third Age.
* Lord of Andúnië|Lord of Andunie
Title of the ancestors of Elendil.
The title of the lords of the shoreland region of Andúnië in western Númenor; descended from Tar-Elendil, the fourth King of Númenor, and ancestors of the Kings of Gondor and of Arnor.
* Lord of Balrogs
A title of Gothmog, greatest of the Balrogs and High-captain of Angband.
He fought in the Dagor-nuin-Giliath (where he mortally wounded Fëanor) and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (where he slew High King Fingon with an axe).
He met his doom in the Fall of Gondolin, where he fought Ecthelion of the Fountain in the Square of the King, though Ecthelion also fell in that combat.
It is nowhere stated for certain how many Balrogs Gothmog had at his command, but the number seems to have been small; Morgoth had no more than seven of these Demons of Fire in his service.
* Lord of Dale
The ancestors and descendants of Girion.
The hereditary ruler of the township of Dale. The first recorded Lord was Girion, who was slain by Smaug when he descended on Erebor. Girion’s descendant, Bard I, avenged his ancestor by slaying Smaug, and refounding Dale.
* Lord of Dol Amroth
Title of the descendants of Galador.
A title of the Princes of Dol Amroth, who ruled the Gondorian lands of Belfalas from their castle on the headland of Dol Amroth. They were descended from Galador the first Prince, and at the time of the War of the Ring, the Lordship was held by Imrahil son of Adrahil.
* Lord of Dor-lómin|Lord of Dor-lomin
Húrin, Túrin.
–—
Title of the descendants of Hador Lórindol.
A title created by Fingolfin when he granted the land of Dor-lómin to Hador and his descendants as an hereditary fief.
* Lord of Eagles|Lord of the Eagles
Greatest of the birds of Middle-earth.
The title of the chief Eagle of Middle-earth. In the First Age, this was Thorondor, while in the Third, the title seems to have been held by Gwaihir.
* Lord of Emyn Arnen
A title of Steward Faramir.
A title given to Faramir by Aragorn Elessar, who granted him the hills of Emyn Arnen for his residence as Prince of Ithilien, Gondor’s lands east of the Great River.
* Lord of Eregion
A title given to Celebrimbor, grandson of Fëanor.
Celebrimbor was the son of Curufin, who was in turn the son of Fëanor himself. He became the greatest of the Mírdain, the Jewel-smiths of Eregion, and was acknowledged as their leader and lord.
It is not certain whether Celebrimbor was the Lord of Eregion throughout its history. The references to him in The Lord of the Rings seem to suggest this, but other materials in Unfinished Tales hint that Eregion might in fact have been founded by Galadriel and Celeborn, with Celebrimbor only becoming its lord later in its history. This seems to be a point on which Tolkien changed his mind: the title ‘Lord of Eregion’
only appeared with the revised edition of The Lord of the Rings.
* Lord of Forests
Tauron, a title for Oromë.
The literal meaning of the name Tauron, a title used for Oromë, the Huntsman of the Valar.
* Lord of Gifts
Annatar, the tempter of the Mírdain.
Annatar, the name and title taken by Sauron when he attempted to seduce the Elves of Middle-earth during the Second Age.
* Lord of Lórien|Lord of Lorien
A title given to Celeborn after he took the lordship of the woodland realm of Lórien in the Third Age with his spouse, Galadriel.
* Lord of Lossarnach
Ruler of the vales south of Minas Tirith.
The lord of the flowered vales of the White Mountains that lay to the south and west of Minas Tirith. Almost nothing is known of the history and descent of this title, except the name of its holder during the War of the Ring. That was Forlong the Fat, who rode to Minas Tirith with two hundred men from his homeland, and fell in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Whether Forlong left an heir to inherit his lordship is unknown.
* Lord of Minas Tirith
A title of Kings and Stewards.
Strictly a title of any of the rulers of Gondor, but used most often of the Stewards who ruled in place of the King during the latter part of the Third Age.
* Lord of Mordor
Sauron, master of the Black Land.
One of the many titles of Sauron, the second Dark Lord and master of the Black Land of Mordor.
* Lord of Morgul
The Black Captain, greatest of the Nazgûl.
One of the many titles given to the dark creature most commonly called the Lord of the Nazgûl. This title comes from Minas Morgul, the seat of his power on the western borders of Mordor.
* Lord of Nargothrond
Ruler of the halls on the Narog.
A title of Finrod, who founded and ruled the citadel and realm of Nargothrond in West Beleriand.
* Lord of Rivendell
A title of Elrond, who founded Rivendell as a refuge for the enemies of Sauron in the Second Age, and remained its Lord until the end of the Third Age.
* Lord of Rohan
A title of the Kings of the Mark.
A title for the King of the Mark, carried through at least nineteen generations of the House of Eorl from Eorl himself to Elfwine the son of Éomer.
* Lord of the Breath of Arda
A poetic title for Manwë.
A title given to Manwë, and the translation of his surname Súlimo.
* Lord of the Glittering Caves
A title of Gimli.
After the downfall of Sauron, Gimli led a party of the Dwarves of Erebor to Aglarond, the Glittering Caves of the White Mountains within the realm of Rohan. There they founded a colony, and Gimli became known as the Lord of the Glittering Caves. His Dwarves performed great services for the Rohirrim and the Men of Gondor, of which the most famous was the making of new gates for Minas Tirith, forged out of mithril and steel.
* Lord of the Mark
A title of the King of Rohan.
A common alternative title for the King of Rohan, probably the favoured style of address among the Rohirrim themselves.
* Lord of the Nazgûl|Lord of the Nazgul|Chieftain of the Ringwraiths|Chieftain of the Ring-wraiths
Dread Servant of the Dark Lord.
Mightiest of the Nazgûl, the Nine Servants of Sauron. He destroyed the North-kingdom from his realm of Angmar during the mid-Third Age. He was slain by Éowyn and Meriadoc Brandybuck during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Called also Lord of Morgul, Chieftain of the Ringwraiths, Witch-king.
* Lord of the Nine Riders
Most powerful of the Nazgûl.
A rare title for the mighty Ringwraith better known as the Lord of the Nazgûl or the Witch-king of Angmar.
* Lord of the Ring
The Dark Lord Sauron.
–—
“The Lord of the Ring is not Frodo, but the master of the Dark Tower of Mordor, whose power is again stretching out over the world!”
(Words of Gandalf; from The Fellowship of the Ring II 1, Many Meetings)
–—
A rare title for Sauron, the master of the One Ring. In fact, it occurs only once in The Lord of the Rings: in Rivendell, Pippin wrongly granted the title to Frodo, but was quickly corrected by Gandalf with the words shown above.
* Lord of the Rings
Most famous of Sauron’s titles.
A title given to Sauron, the deviser of the Great Rings, and maker of the Ruling Ring in Orodruin.
Curiously, given that this title gives its name to The Lord of the Rings, it is in fact very rare, and only appears twice in the entire book. Because of this, we can only speculate on exactly which rings it refers to. Gandalf’s use of the phrase ‘the Nine Servants of the Lord of the Rings’ suggests that he intends specifically the Nine Rings of the Nazgûl. The title may not have been meant to include the Three Rings of the Elves, in whose making Sauron was said to have had no part (although they too fell under his control when he wore the One Ring).
* Lord of the West
A title given to the Valar.
A title used for any of the great Valar, and especially Manwë. The twentieth King of Númenor, Ar-Adûnakhôr, attempted to usurp this title -
it is the meaning of his name.
* Lord of Waters
A title of Ulmo, the Vala whose special province was the seas and rivers of Arda.
* Lords of the Valar
The seven masculine Valar.
The seven Valar who took masculine forms when they entered Arda; Manwë, Ulmo, Aulë, Oromë, Mandos, Lórien and Tulkas.
* Lords of the West
A title given to the Valar.
* Lórellin|Lorellin
The lake in Lórien in Valinor where the Vala Estë sleeps by day.
–—
The shaded lake of Lórien.
The tree-shadowed lake in the gardens of Lórien in Valinor. On an island in the lake, Lórien’s spouse Estë the Gentle sleeps each day.
* Lorgan
Chief of the Easterlings in Hithlum after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, by whom Tuor was enslaved.
* Lórien (in Middle-
earth)|Lórien|Lorien|Glornan|Laurenandë|Laurenande|Nan Laur The land of the Galadhrim between Celebrant and Anduin, ruled by Celeborn and Galadriel. Probably the original name of this land was altered to the form of the Quenya name Lórien of the gardens of the Vala Irmo in Valinor.
Nandorin Lórinand (Quenya Laurenandë; Sindarin Glornan, Nan Laur), derived from older Lindórinand ‘Vale of the Land of Singers’; Laurelindórinan ‘Valley of Singing Gold’. In Lothlórien the Sindarin word loth ‘flower’ is prefixed. See also Dwimordene, Lothlórien.
–—
Silvan land of Celeborn and Galadriel.
A woodland kingdom of the Silvan Elves on the western banks of the River Anduin; Galadriel and Celeborn came there in the Third Age, and ruled it after the loss of its ancient lord, Amroth.
* Lórien (in Valinor)|Lórien|Lorien
The name of the gardens and dwelling-place of the Vala Irmo, who was himself usually called Lórien.
–—
The gardens of Valinor.
The gardens of the Vala Irmo in Valinor, from which he took his more common name, Lórien.
* Lórien (Vala)|Lórien|Lorien
Common name given to the Vala Irmo, from the gardens in Valinor where he dwelt with his spouse Estë.
* Lórinand|Lorinand
Nandorin name for Lórien.
–—
An old name for the land of Lórien.
One of the many old names for the land usually called Lórien; its meaning is apparently ‘Valley of Gold’.
* Losgar
The place of the burning of the ships of the Teleri by Fëanor, at the mouth of the Firth of Drengist.
–—
The place of the burning of the ships.
A place at the mouth of the Firth of Drengist, in the cold lands northwest of Beleriand. It was here that Fëanor landed at the beginning of the First Age, and gave the order to burn the stolen ships of the Teleri in which he had sailed to Middle-earth. His half-brother Fingolfin, trapped in Aman by this deed, was forced to march across the deadly Helcaraxë with his people to reach the Hither Lands.
* Lossarnach
‘Flowery Arnach’; region in the north-east of Lebennin about the sources of the river Erui.
–—
Gondor’s vale of flowers.
A flowery vale of the southern White Mountains, near Minas Tirith, and an ancient fiefdom of the kingdom of Gondor.
* Lótessë|Lotesse
The fifth month of the year, according to the Stewards’ Reckoning of Gondor, following Víressë. On a modern calendar, Lótessë ran between 23
April and 22 May.
* Lothíriel|Lothiriel
Daughter of Imrahil of Dol Amroth; wife of King Éomer of Rohan and mother of Elfwine the Fair.
–—
Queen to Éomer Éadig.
The daughter of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth, who wedded King Éomer of Rohan in the last year of the Third Age. Their son, Elfwine became the second King of the Third Line.
* Lothlann
‘The wide and empty’, the great plain north of the March of Maedhros.
–—
The wide, empty plain north of the March of Maedhros.
The wide plain that lay to the northeast of Beleriand, beyond the March of Maedhros and Maglor’s Gap.
* Lothlórien|Lothlorien
The name Lórien with the Sindarin word loth ‘lower’ prefixed.
–—
‘Lórien of the Blossom’, a name for the land to the east of the Misty Mountains more usually called simply Lórien.
* Lotho Sackville-Baggins|Lotho
The son of Otho and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, who briefly became the leader, or Chief, of the Shire while it was under the control of Saruman during the War of the Ring. His fate remains unknown, but it seems likely he was murdered by Gríma Wormtongue.
* Lothron
Sindarin name of the fifth month. See Lótessë.
* Loudwater
The river the Elves called Bruinen.
The Mannish name for the river the Elves called Bruinen, that rose in the western Misty Mountains and flowed southwestwards past Rivendell.
* Lugbúrz|Lugburz
Sauron’s Dark Tower.
A name of the Dark Tower of Barad-dûr. This was its name in the Black Speech, and so was the form actually used by the servants of Sauron, and presumably by Sauron himself.
* Lugdush
An Orc in the service of Isengard.
An Orc, and apparently an Uruk, in the service of Saruman. He was a member of Uglúk’s raiding band that captured Merry and Pippin beneath Amon Hen, and drove them westwards to the eaves of Fangorn Forest. It was there that Lugdush met his end, at the hands of Éomer’s Rohirrim.
* Luinil
Name of a star (one shining with a blue light).
* Lumbar
Name of a star.
* Lune
The Hobbits’ name for the Lhûn.
The name given by Men and Hobbits to the river the Elves called the Lhûn, in imitation of that name. If flowed from the eastern Ered Luin to meet the sea in the great Gulf of Lhûn, and the Grey Havens stood at its mouth.
* Lúthien Tinúviel|Lúthien|Luthien
The daughter of King Thingol and Melian the Maia, who after the fulfilment of the Quest of the Silmaril and the death of Beren chose to become mortal and to share his fate. Called Tinúviel ‘Nightingale’.
–—
The Nightingale of Doriath.
The only daughter of King Thingol of Doriath and Melian the Maia, and said to be the fairest Elf to have ever lived. She was discovered by Beren as he wandered the woods of her father’s kingdom, and they grew to love one another. When Lúthien took Beren before her father, he was apalled that his royal daughter should wish to wed a mortal, and so set Beren what he thought was an unachievable task, to recover a Silmaril from the Iron Crown of Morgoth himself. So Beren left Doriath in pursuit of his hopeless quest.
After a time, a darkness fell on Lúthien’s heart, and she learned from her mother Melian what this meant; Beren had been captured by Sauron, and was held in the dungeons of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. Though Thingol sought to stop her, Lúthien set out from Doriath to rescue Beren, if she could.
Passing through many adventures, she gained the help of Huan the Hound, and together they came to Sauron’s Isle. Through Lúthien’s magic and Huan’s strength they defeated Sauron and rescued Beren. Eventually Beren set out for Angband once again, and Lúthien accompanied him.
Through Lúthien’s powers, they passed the gates of Angband, and the great wolf Carcharoth that guarded them. Coming before the Dark Throne itself, she wove a spell that put Morgoth and his court into a deep sleep, and Beren cut a Silmaril from the Iron Crown. Returning to the gates, they found that Carcharoth barred their escape. Beren held up the hallowed Jewel to protect them, but the monstrous wolf bit off his hand, and with it consumed the Silmaril. But the Silmarils were blessed by Varda herself, so that any unclean flesh that touched them would be withered and burnt. The wolf’s innards were consumed with that burning, and it ran howling into the south.
Lúthien healed Beren, and they came at last back to her father’s halls at Menegroth. There they heard tidings that the maddened wolf had entered Thingol’s realm, and Beren set out with the King to the Hunting of the Wolf. After nightfall they returned; the wolf was slain and the Silmaril recovered, but Beren was wounded mortally. So he passed away, and soon after Lúthien too wasted of grief.
Their spirits were gathered in the Halls of Mandos in the Uttermost West of the World, and there Lúthien sang a song of such extraordinary power and beauty that it moved even the implacable heart of Mandos himself. So she was granted a unique fate, to become mortal and return to Middle-earth with Beren, where they dwelt for a time in happiness on the green island of Tol Galen in the River Adurant.
* Mablung (Elf)|Mablung
Elf of Doriath, chief captain of Thingol, friend of Túrin; called ‘of the Heavy Hand’ (which is the meaning of the name Mablung); slain in Menegroth by the Dwarves. Called also ‘the Hunter’.
–—
A captain of Doriath.
Captain and marchwarden to Elu Thingol of Doriath; he was slain in the assault of the Dwarves on Menegroth.
* Mablung (Ranger of Ithilien)|Mablung
A soldier of Faramir and Ranger of the land of Ithilien during the last years of the Third Age, encountered by Frodo and Sam on their journey to Cirith Ungol.
* Maedhros
The eldest son of Fëanor, called the Tall; rescued by Fingon from Thangorodrim; held the Hill of Himring and the lands about; formed the Union of Maedhros that ended in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad; bore one of the Silmarils with him to his death at the end of the First Age.
–—
The eldest of the Seven Sons of Fëanor, and considered to be their leader. In Valinor he swore the Oath of Fëanor, and followed his father back to Middle-earth, though of all Fëanor’s sons, except perhaps Maglor, he regretted this the most.
After Fëanor’s death, Morgoth captured Maedhros through trickery, and hung him by the wrist from the heights of Thangorodrim. Fingon succeeded in rescuing him, but he lost his right hand in their escape.
With his brothers, Maedhros held the eastern passes into Beleriand; he himself dwelt in a fortress on the hill of Himring. He worked to unite the Houses of the Noldor, and formed the Union of Maedhros, but that Union perished in the disaster of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.
After the defeat of Morgoth in the War of Wrath, Maedhros and his brother Maglor stole the two remaining Silmarils from the camp of the Valar, but the hallowed jewels would not suffer the brothers to hold them. In torment, Maedhros cast himself into a fissure in the earth.
* Maeglin
‘Sharp Glance’, son of Eöl and Aredhel Turgon’s sister, born in Nan Elmoth; became mighty in Gondolin, and betrayed it to Morgoth; slain in the sack of the city by Tuor. See Lómion.
–—
The betrayer of Gondolin.
The son of Eöl and Aredhel Ar-Feiniel; he escaped his father’s halls in Nan Elmoth with his mother, and came with her to Gondolin. Many years later, he was captured by the spies of Morgoth and betrayed the city.
* Maglor
The second son of Fëanor, a great singer and minstrel; held the lands called Maglor’s Gap; at the end of the First Age seized with Maedhros the two Silmarils that remained in Middle-earth, and cast the one that he took into the Sea.
–—
The second son of Fëanor, who inherited more of his mother Nerdanel’s gentle spirit than any of his brothers. Maglor was famed as a poet and bard, but he took the Oath of Fëanor in Tirion and shared in the woes that came of it.
Maglor followed his father into exile, and saw him perish at the hands of the Balrogs. With the rest of his brothers, he dwelt to the east of Beleriand, and Maglor settled between the Little Gelion and Greater Gelion, the two rivers that came together to form the long Gelion itself.
That region - which came to be known as Maglor’s Gap - lacked hills or mountains, and so was the place on Beleriand’s border that was most open to attack from the north.
Maglor guarded his Gap for four and a half centuries, but was eventually overcome in the Dagor Bragollach. The dragon Glaurung invaded Maglor’s land and ruined it, so that he was forced to flee to the fortress of his brother Maedhros on the hill of Himring to the west. Sixteen years later, he marched out with Maedhros to the great battle that should have seen the revenge of the Elves on Morgoth, but was brought to ruin by the treachery of Uldor the Accursed. Maglor slew Uldor himself, but the field was lost; that was the battle afterwards called the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Unnumbered Tears.
All seven of Fëanor’s sons survived the Nirnaeth. In the years that followed, one of the three Silmarils was recovered from Morgoth’s crown, and came eventually to be held by Dior in Doriath. He would not surrender it to the brothers’ claims, and so they assaulted Thingol’s ancient kingdom. Celegorm, Caranthir and Curufin all fell in that futile battle.
Now only four of Fëanor’s sons survived; Maglor, the eldest son Maedhros, and the two youngest brothers Amrod and Amras. After some years had passed, these four came to learn that a Silmaril was held by Elwing at the Mouths of Sirion, and though they restrained themselves for some time, their Oath compelled them to take back the Jewel. So they assaulted their fellow Elves, and Elwing escaped with the Silmaril across the Sea to her husband Eärendil, and together they sailed into the West. That voyage would in time bring about the downfall of Morgoth.
After the destruction of Morgoth, the last two Silmarils were recovered from his Crown. By this time, only Maedhros and Maglor remained of Fëanor’s sons, and Maglor came close to repenting the Oath. Wearily, he accompanied his brother in the theft of the Silmarils, but their evil deeds in recovering them meant that the holy Jewels burned their skin.
Maedhros in despair leapt into a fiery fissure, and Maglor, the last of the Sons of Fëanor to survive, cast his Silmaril into the Sea. Legend says that he still wanders the shores of the World, singing laments for his despair and regret.
* Maglor’s Gap
The region between the northern arms of Gelion where there were no hills of defence against the North.
–—
Widest of the northern passes into Beleriand.
A lowland region lying between Himring and the Blue Mountains, the widest break in the northern mountain-fences of Beleriand. It was guarded against the forces of Morgoth in the early First Age by Maglor, second son of Fëanor.
* Magor
Son of Malach Aradan; leader of the Men of the following of Marach who entered West Beleriand.
* Mahal
The Dwarves’ name for their creator.
The name among the Dwarves for the Vala Aulë, who made the Fathers of their race in ancient times, and was revered by all Dwarves.
* Máhanaxar|Mahanaxar
The Ring of Doom outside the gates of Valmar, in which were set the thrones of the Valar where they sat in council.
* Mahtan
A great smith of the Noldor, father of Nerdanel the wife of Fëanor.
* Maiar|Maia
Ainur of lesser degree than the Valar (singular Maia).
–—
Lesser Ainur of Arda.
Of the many spirits that descended into Arda at its beginning, those of lesser stature than the Valar, though they were still powerful, were known as Maiar. Each of the Maiar was attached to the ‘people’ of a particular Vala. So, for example, the Maia Ossë, as a spirit of the sea, belonged to the people of Ulmo, while Curumo, the Maia who came to Middle-earth as Saruman, belonged to the people of Aulë the Smith.
In the Third Age, there were still Maiar in physical form to be found in Middle-earth. The most important of these were Saruman, Sauron (originally also of Aulë’s people), and Olórin, known as Gandalf, who belonged to the people of Manwë and Varda.
* Malach Aradan|Malach
Son of Marach; given the Elvish name Aradan.
–—
The son and heir of Marach of the Third House of the Edain, and the ancestor of the House of Hador and its descendants. Malach spent many years with the Elves in Hithlum, where he learned to speak Elvish, and was given the name Aradan meaning ‘noble man’.
* Malantur
Númenórean, descendant of Tar-Elendil.
* Malbeth the Seer|Malbeth
The visionary of Arthedain.
A wise Man who lived in the last years of the realm of Arthedain. Gifted with foresight, he predicted events of the near and far future. He saw that Arvedui would be Arthedain’s last King, and predicted Aragorn’s passage of the Paths of the Dead, though it lay a thousand years in his own future.
* Malduin
A tributary of the Teiglin; the name probably means ‘Yellow River’.
–—
A northern tributary of the Teiglin.
A minor river of northern Beleriand. It flowed southwards from the Ered Wethrin to meet the Teiglin before that river passed under the eaves of the Forest of Brethil.
* Malgalad
King of Lórien, slain in the Battle of Dagorlad; apparently identical with Amdír.
–—
A mysterious lord of Lórien.
The King of Lórien who ruled before Amroth, and died in the War of the Last Alliance on the field of Dagorlad. According to most sources, this King was Amdír, Amroth’s father, but one source gives instead the mysterious name of Malgalad, nowhere else mentioned.
* Malinalda
‘Tree of Gold’, a name of Laurelin.
* Malinornë|Malinorne|Malinorni
Quenya form of Sindarin mallorn; plural malinorni.
* Mallor
The third King of Arthedain.
The son of Beleg and grandson of Amlaith of Fornost, the founder of Arthedain. He became King of that realm at the age of 134, and ruled during troubled times. It was during Mallor’s reign, or perhaps during the last years of his father Beleg, that the Istari - the Wizards -
arrived in the north of Middle-earth. They came soon after the shadow had fallen on Greenwood the Great, and it was near the end of Mallor’s rule that they discovered its source at Dol Guldur. At this time, though, even the Wise did not suspect that it might be Sauron returned.
The meaning of Mallor’s name isn’t known with certainty, but it seems to contain elements relating to gold. We might speculate, then, that Mallor was one of the wealthier Kings of Arthedain. Apart from the growing menace of Mirkwood, his reign was free of warfare or strife.
Mallor ruled Arthedain for eighty-one years, and was succeeded by his son Celepharn.
* Mallorn|Mellyrn|Mallorns
Name of the great trees with golden flowers brought from Tol Eressëa to Eldalondë in Númenor, and afterwards grown in Lothlórien. Quenya malinornë.
–—
The golden trees of Lórien.
The famed golden-leaved trees of Lórien, that held their leaves until spring. Though they are commonly called ‘mallorns’, especially by the Hobbits, the correct Elvish plural is mellyrn.
* Mallos
A golden flower of Lebennin.
* Malva Headstrong
A matriarch of the Brandybuck family.
A famous and important Hobbit. She wedded Gormadoc Brandybuck about two hundred and fifty years before the War of the Ring, and was the ancestor of all the Brandybucks, including Merry, who appear in The Lord of the Rings.
* Malvegil
The sixth King of Arthedain.
Malvegil son of Celebrindor is best known for the fact that the Witch-king founded the realm of Angmar during his reign. Nearly seven hundred years after its foundation, Angmar and its allies would destroy his kingdom of Arthedain, but in Malvegil’s time there is no record of any open warfare between the two nations.
Nonetheless, the emergence of Angmar saw evil things multiply in the eastern lands, driving a westward migration across Eriador. Notable among those travelling out of the east were the Hobbits, and it was during Malvegil’s time as King that the main Hobbit settlement in Bree took place.
Malvegil ruled Arthedain for seventy-seven years, and was succeeded by his son, Argeleb I.
* Mámandil|Mamandil
Name given to himself by Hallacar in his first encounters with Ancalimë.
* Man of the West
The meaning of Dúnadan.
–—
“‘The Dúnadan,’ said Bilbo. ‘He is often called that here. But I thought you knew enough Elvish at least to know dún-adan: Man of the West, Númenorean.’”
(Words of Bilbo to Frodo in Rivendell; The Fellowship of the Ring II 1, Many Meetings)
–—
The literal translation of the word Dúnadan, a word that could in principle be applied to any of the Númenóreans or their descendants. The plural form is Dúnedain, ‘Men of the West’.
In Rivendell, it seems to have been specially reserved as a term of address for Aragorn, whose ancestral line stretched back through Isildur and Elendil to the first Kings of Númenor and beyond. As the rightful lord of all the Dúnedain in Middle-earth, he was indeed - as Bilbo put it
- the Dúnadan.
* Mandos (Vala)|Mandos
The Doomsman of the Valar and keeper of the slain in his Halls in the west of Valinor; his true name is said to be Námo.
* Mannish
Any of the tongues of Men.
A term used by Tolkien to refer to the languages of Men, as opposed to the Elvish tongues, or those of the other races of Middle-earth. By far the most prominent Mannish language in Tolkien’s works is Westron, also called the Common Speech.
* Manwë Súlimo|Manwë|Manwe|Ruler of Arda
The chief of the Valar, called also Súlimo, the Elder King, the Ruler of Arda.
–—
Lord of the Breath of Arda.
Greatest of the Valar, spouse of Varda and King of Arda; he dwells in his halls on Taniquetil, highest of mountains, and the winds and airs of Arda are under his command.
* Manwendil
The third child of Elros.
The third child, and second son, of Elros Tar-Minyatur the first King of Númenor. Though we know that he left descendants, details of their lives are unknown. His name Manwendil means ‘devoted to Manwë’.
* Mar-nu-Falmar
‘The Land under the Waves’, name of Númenor after the Downfall.
–—
The lost home of the Dúnedain.
‘Home under the waves’, a name of Númenor after its destruction, used among the exiles of that land in Middle-earth.
* Marach
Leader of the third host of Men to enter Beleriand, ancestor of Hador Lórindol.
–—
A leader of the first of the Edain.
One of the original leaders of the Edain into Beleriand; father of Malach Aradan, and great-great-grandfather of Hador Lórindol.
* March of Maedhros|Eastern March
The open lands to the north of the headwaters of the river Gelion, held by Maedhros and his brothers against attack on East Beleriand; also called the eastern March.
–—
The borderlands guarded by the fortress on Himring.
The northeastern borderlands of Beleriand, and the least defensible.
They were held by the Sons of Fëanor under the general captaincy of Maedhros on Himring.
* Marcho
The founder, with his brother Blanco, of the Shire.
The Fallohide Hobbit who, with his brother Blanco, set out from Bree to settle the lands that were to become known as the Shire.
* Mardil Voronwë|Mardil
First Ruling Steward of Gondor, called Voronwë ‘the Faithful’, ‘the Steadfast’, and ‘the Good Steward’.
–—
First of the Ruling Stewards of Gondor.
Son of Vorondil the Hunter, and Steward to Kings Eärnil II and Eärnur of Gondor. After Eärnur’s loss in Minas Morgul, Mardil became the first Ruling Steward of Gondor.
* Marhari
Leader of the Northmen in the Battle of the Plains, where he was slain; father of Marhwini.
* Marhwini
‘Horse-friend’, leader of the Northmen (Éothéod) who settled in the Vales of Anduin after the Battle of the Plains, and ally of Gondor against the Wainriders.
* Marigold Gamgee
Youngest child of Hamfast Gamgee and Bell Goodchild; a sister of Samwise Gamgee of the Company of the Ring.
* Marmadas Brandybuck
A descendant of Marmadoc Brandybuck, the father of Merimas, Mentha and Melilot.
* Marshal of the East-mark
A military rank of the Rohirrim.
A military rank of the Rohirrim, signifying the commander of the armies of eastern Rohan. The title was created by the new King Éomer after the War of the Ring, and the first Rider to hold it was the King’s lieutenant, Elfhelm.
* Marshal of the Mark
Title of the military leaders of the Rohirrim.
The highest military title of the Rohirrim - one of (normally) three commanders responsible for mustering and leading the warriors of Rohan in time of war.
* Master of Buckland
Hereditary title of the head of the Brandybuck family, descended from Gorhendad Oldbuck, who founded the march-land of Buckland and built Brandy Hall.
* Master of Doom
Túrin’s surname Turambar.
The literal meaning of Turambar, the surname taken by Túrin son of Húrin. Pursued by a curse of Morgoth, he at last found himself among the Woodmen of Brethil, where he took a new name and remained hidden for a time. He chose the name Turambar in the hope that he had escaped Morgoth’s curse, a hope that would prove vain in the end.
* Master of Lake-town
The leader of the Lake-men.
The title given to the civic leader of the settlement of Men on the Long Lake near Erebor.
* Master of the Hall
A title given to the head of the Brandybuck family of Brandy Hall in Buckland, equivalent to ‘Master of Buckland’.
* Masters of Spirits
The Fëanturi; a title given to the brothers Mandos and Lórien.
* Masters of Stone
Gonnhirrim, a name for the Dwarves.
A title used by the Elves to refer to the race of Dwarves, rendered Gonnhirrim in Elvish.
* Mathom-house
The ‘museum’ of Michel Delving.
A place in Michel Delving where the Hobbits collected and displayed items they had no particular use for. It was known to contain a store of weapons, and for a time also held Bilbo’s mithril coat.
* Mathoms|Mathom
Items of no immediate use.
An old word of the hobbit-dialect, not recorded as being in use outside the Shire. It was used to refer to any item that had no particular immediate use, but whose owner had no wish to throw away. Mathoms were often given as presents by the Shire-hobbits - an important part of their culture - or stored in the Mathom-house in Michel Delving.
* May Gamgee
A daughter of Hamfast Gamgee and Bell Goodchild, and sister to Samwise Gamgee of the Company of the Ring.
* Mayor of Michel Delving
The mayor of the Shire’s chief township.
Title held by the leader of Michel Delving, the ‘capital’ of the Shire.
Over time, the power of the Mayor grew to encompass all the lands of the Shire.
* Mayor of the Shire
The highest office of the Shire-hobbits.
A common form of the title Mayor of Michel Delving; a position of considerable influence among the Hobbits of the Shire.
* Mearas|Mearh
The horses of Rohan.
–—
Noblest of the horses of Rohan.
In the old north of Middle-earth lived a proud race of wild horses, long-lived, wise and fleet of foot. The legends of Men said that their ancestors had been brought from the West by Béma, their name for the Vala Oromë.
One of these was captured as a foal by Léod of the Éothéod. It grew into a strong white horse, but when Léod tried to mount it, it threw him and killed him. Léod’s son Eorl took the horse himself, naming him Felaróf.
Felaróf was one of the greatest horses to have ever lived, and was said to understand the speech of Men. He carried Eorl when the Éothéod rode south to Rohan, and there sired a race of horses nearly as great as himself.
These were the Mearas, noble horses that lived as long as a Man, and had extraordinary strength and intelligence. Throughout their history, they would only allow themselves to be ridden by the Lord of the Mark or his sons. This long tradition was broken by Gandalf, who managed to train the greatest of the Mearas of his time, Shadowfax, and rode that mighty horse throughout the War of the Ring.
The word Mearas comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning simply ‘horses’.
Its singular form would be mearh, but no character in The Lord of the Rings ever uses that word.
* Meduseld
The Golden Hall of Edoras, in which the Kings of Rohan dwelt and held their court.
* Melian
A Maia, who left Valinor and came to Middle-earth; afterwards the Queen of King Thingol in Doriath, about which she set a girdle of enchantment, the Girdle of Melian; mother of Lúthien, and foremother of Elrond and Elros.
–—
Queen to Thingol of Doriath.
In Valinor, Melian dwelt in the gardens of Lórien, but she journeyed often to Middle-earth. There, in the woods of Nan Elmoth, she came upon Elwë Singollo (Elu Thingol) as he marched into the West with the people of the Teleri. Many of his people remained in Beleriand searching for their lord (these were to become the Sindar), but through the enchantment of Melian, he remained hidden from them.
At last, Melian and Thingol came forth from Nan Elmoth and founded the kingdom of Doriath, which Melian protected from the hosts of Morgoth through her powers. She encircled the land in the Girdle of Melian, which none could pass without her wishing it.
Melian and Thingol ruled in Doriath for many centuries, but when at last Thingol was slain by treacherous Dwarves, Melian departed from the halls of Menegroth and returned across the Great Sea to Valinor.
* Melilot Brandybuck
Dancer of the Springle-ring.
A distant cousin of both Meriadoc Brandybuck and Frodo Baggins. She was present at Bilbo’s Birthday Party in III 3001, when she was just sixteen years old. The only part she played in the great events of that time was to dance the springle-ring at the party with Everard Took.
* Melkor|Belegur|Belegurth
The Quenya name for the great rebellious Vala, the beginning of evil, in his origin the mightiest of the Ainur; afterwards named Morgoth, Bauglir, the Dark Lord, the Enemy, etc. The meaning of Melkor was ‘He who arises in Might’; the Sindarin form was Belegur, but it was never used, save in a deliberately altered form Belegurth ‘Great Death’.
–—
Mightiest of the Dwellers in Arda.
Said to be the mightiest dweller in Arda, Melkor was of the same order of the Valar and equal in power to Manwë himself, who was Melkor’s brother in the mind of Ilúvatar. While the Valar descended into Arda to order and govern wisely, though, Melkor sought power for himself alone, and sought to bend all things to his own will.
All that the Valar made, Melkor looked to destroy; long before the Elves awoke, he threw down the Lamps of the Valar, destroying their dwelling in Almaren. They removed to Valinor, and fearing for the coming Elves, made war on Melkor and imprisoned him for three ages. By the time he was released, the Elves had come to Valinor; Melkor turned back to his evil ways; slaying Finwë and stealing the Silmarils, he destroyed the Two Trees of Valinor and fled back to his ancient fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth.
* Men|Man
The Afterborn Children of Ilúvatar.
The youngest of the races of Arda (with the possible exception of Hobbits), the first Men awoke in the far eastern land of Hildórien as the Sun first rose in the west and the Noldor returned from Valinor. Seeing the sunrise, many of the first Men set out westwards, and so came eventually to Beleriand after some three hundred years of wandering.
Men are unique in possessing the Gift of Men, Death, by which they leave the world after an allotted time and go beyond it.
* Men of Bree|Man of Bree
The nearest settled Men to the Shire.
In the hard years of the Second Age, a race of Men inhabited the White Mountains far to the south of the Shire, in the land that would one day become Rohan. Groups of these mountaineers began to migrate northwards.
Some settled in the region that became Dunland, but others travelled farther still, and coming to a tall wooded hill not far from the ancient Barrow-downs, they founded a settlement that took its name from the hill, Bree.
In appearance, these Men had brown hair, and in stature were short and broad. They seem to have maintained a curious tradition of taking their names from plants and herbs, and many of these surnames are recorded; Appledore, Ferny, Goatleaf, Heathertoes, Rushlight and Thistlewool.
Butterbur was another of these plant-names, an important one in Bree, for it was the ancestral name of the keepers of the Prancing Pony inn.
Though Bree seems to have been founded before the beginning of the Third Age, it lay on the road between the North- and South-kingdoms of the Dúnedain, and so was drawn into the history of that Age. When the North-kingdom of Arnor was founded, Bree lay within its borders, and the Men of Bree became subjects of that country. More than a thousand years later, in about III 1300, members of a strange and little-known race began to appear in the township. Man-like in appearance, but much smaller, these were Hobbits fleeing the encroaching darkness to the east. Many of them stayed among the Men, and a unique society arose where the Big People and the Little People lived beside one another in harmony.
* Men of Brethil|Man of Brethil
The Woodmen of the Forest of Brethil.
The Folk of Haleth who dwelt in the Forest of Brethil on the western borders of Doriath.
* Men of Dale|Man of Dale
The Men who dwelt beneath Erebor.
The Men who dwelt in Dale, a township at the feet of the Lonely Mountain. After Dale was destroyed by Smaug, their descendants dwelt on the Long Lake, until the town was refounded by Bard.
* Men of Darkness|Man of Darkness
Those Men unrelated to the Númenóreans.
Men of the east of Middle-earth who fell under the dominion of Morgoth in the First Age, among whose descendants were the Easterlings and the Dunlendings.
* Men of Dor-lómin|Men of Dor-lomin|Man of Dor-lómin|Man of Dor-lomin The followers of Hador and his descendants.
Men of the House of Hador, to whom the land of Dor-lómin was granted as a hereditary fief by the Kings of the Noldor.
* Men of Dorthonion|Man of Dorthonion
Descendants of the House of Bëor.
Those Men of the House of Bëor who dwelt in the pinelands of Dorthonion, and aided in their defence against Morgoth until the disaster of the Dagor Bragollach.
* Men of Gondor|Man of Gondor
The people of the South-kingdom.
The Men who dwelt in Gondor and defended the western World from Sauron, in large part descended from Elendil and his followers, who founded Gondor after the Downfall of Númenor.
* Men of Harad|Man of Harad
Fierce allies of Mordor.
The doughty, dark-skinned Men of the southern regions of Middle-earth.
Historical allies of Mordor, they were more properly known as the Haradrim.
* Men of Middle-earth|Man of Middle-earth
The Men who lived east of the Great Sea.
A general term for all Men apart from the Númenóreans.
* Men of Minas Tirith|Man of Minas Tirith
The people of Gondor’s capital.
The population of Minas Tirith, the seat of the later Kings and Stewards of Gondor and, for much of the Third Age, the greatest city in the known regions of Middle-earth. The Men of Minas Tirith were descended in part from the Númenóreans of old, and they retained some of the vigour and long life of that people, especially in their royal line.
* Men of Númenor|Men of Numenor|Man of Númenor|Man of Numenor The Kings of Men.
The Númenóreans, the descendants of the Edain of the First Age who were granted the land of Númenor.
* Men of Old|Man of Old
The Exiles of Númenor at their ancient height.
When Elendil and his sons came to Middle-earth in the last years of the Second Age, they brought with them the knowledge and power of the Númenórean nation. They filled the landscape of Middle-earth with mighty cities, castles and towers. Their knowledge, though, was forgotten by later generations, who could only look on what remained of their works with wonder.
* Men of Rohan|Man of Rohan
The descendant of Eorl and his followers.
The Rohirrim; the Men of the Éothéod who came south to settle the Gondorian region of Calenardhon (renamed Rohan after their arrival) in the later part of the Third Age.
* Men of the Éothéod|Men of the Eotheod|Man of the Éothéod|Man of the Eotheod
The ancestors of the Rohirrim.
A nation of Northmen ruled by the descendants of Frumgar in the north of Middle-earth. Their last lord Eorl the Young led them south to the land of Calenardhon, renamed Rohan, where they became known as the Rohirrim.
* Men of the Mark|Man of the Mark
A name for the Rohirrim.
A name for the Rohirrim, the descendants of the Men of the Éothéod who came south with Eorl and founded the Mark in the old Gondorian land of Calenardhon.
* Men of the Vales of Anduin|Man of the Vales of Anduin The Men who lived on the banks of the Great River.
Those Men, in part descended from the Northmen, who dwelt in the great valley of the River Anduin between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood.
* Men of the West|Man of the West
The Númenoreans and their descendants.
A term used of the Númenoreans and, especially, their descendants who escaped to Middle-earth after the destruction of their home. ‘Men of the West’ is a direct translation of the Elvish name for these people, Dúnedain.
* Men of Westernesse|Man of Westernesse
The Dúnedain.
A general term for the Men of Númenor or their descendants, and used especially in Third Age Middle-earth to refer to the Dúnedain.
* Men-i-Naugrim
‘Way of the Dwarves’, a name of the Old Forest Road. Translated ‘Dwarf Road’.
–—
The Dwarf-road that ran through Mirkwood.
The straight road that ran eastward out of the Misty Mountains, across the Anduin, and directly through the central parts of Mirkwood. It was apparently built as a trade-route by the Dwarves, and dated back to at least the late Second Age, and probably considerably earlier. It was more commonly known simply as the Forest Road.
* Menegroth
‘The Thousand Caves’, the hidden halls of Thingol and Melian on the river Esgalduin in Doriath.
–—
The Thousand Caves of Doriath.
Called ‘The Thousand Caves’, the stronghold and citadel of Thingol on the banks of the River Esgalduin in Doriath. It was delved in the long years before the rising of the Moon by the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains.
* Menel
High heaven, the region of the stars.
* Meneldil
Son of Anárion and third King of Gondor.
–—
Royal grandson of Elendil.
The son of Anárion and grandson of Elendil, the first King of Gondor to rule in his own name. He was succeeded by his son Cemendur.
–—
Meneldil’s Early Life: Of Meneldil’s life before the War of the Last Alliance we know almost nothing, but it is possible to deduce some of the most important incidents in that time. He was born in the very last years of Númenor, and was at most twenty years old at the time of the Downfall.
He would have seen the drowning of the island with his own eyes, from the deck of one of his father’s ships, and then was propelled by the rushing water to the shores of Middle-earth.
What part he took in the building of the Realms in Exile is a mystery.
During this time, he would have been considereda relatively minor nobleman. As the fourth child of Elendil’s younger son, he was at best seventh in line to the succession, and the prospect of his becoming King was remote. After more than a century, Sauron rose again in the east, triggering the great events of the War of the Last Alliance. It is to be presumed that Meneldil played his part in that War - a war in which he lost his father Anárion - but we have no specific details of his deeds.
–—
The Year of Transition, III 1 - III 2: Before the War, Elendil had sat has the High King in the northern realm of Arnor, while Isildur and Anárion had ruled Gondor jointly in his name. Since both Elendil and Anárion had been lost in the War, these arrangements needed to be changed. Isildur inherited the High Kingship, and he placed the rule of Gondor in the hands of his brother’s eldest eligible son, Meneldil.
Before departing for the North, Isildur spent a year ordering matters in the Gondor, and instructing Meneldil in his new duties. During this year, Isildur and Meneldil journeyed around the borderlands of the South-kingdom, defining its bounds. It was while returning from their travels that they came upon Amon Anwar, the Halifirien,which at that time stood almost at the central point of the country. Isildur chose that hill as the resting place of his father’s remains, and the Tomb of Elendil that he placed there was to last long after Meneldil’s line had failed.
It was the beginning of Yavannië when Isildur set out from Osgiliath, leaving the South-kingdom in Meneldil’s hands. We are told that Meneldil was notdisappointed to see the High King and his sons leave for the North, and that he hoped to rule Gondor himself for a long time. Far-sighted as he was, though, even Meneldil couldn’t haveforeseen the events that were to unfold. A month after setting out, Isildur was set upon by Orcs and killed, together with his three elder sons. The Kingship in the North fell on Isildur’s only surviving son, eleven-year-old Valandil.
This unexpected turn of events transformed Meneldil from a mere caretaker into the true King of Gondor.
–—
The Rule of Gondor, III 2 - III 158: After the upheavals of III 2, Meneldil was to rule Gondor for many years,but during this period he effectively disappears from history. With Sauron utterly defeated, his reign was a peaceful andquiet one. The only historical events recorded during this time are the wedding of Elrond to Celebrían, and the birth of their twin sons Elladan and Elrohir. These would have been important events in the North, but we cannot be sure if the Gondorians were even aware of them.
Meneldil ruled in Gondor for one hundred and fifty-six years, and was succeeded by his son Cemendur.
* Menelmacar
‘Swordsman of the Sky’, the constellation Orion.
–—
The Swordsman of the Sky.
A Quenya name for the constellation known today as Orion. Menelmacar superceded the older form, Telumehtar (which nonetheless continued in use), and was itself adopted into Sindarin as Menelvagor.
* Meneltarma|The Pillar
‘Pillar of Heavens’, the mountain in the midst of Númenor, on whose summit was the Hallow of Eru Ilúvatar. Called also the Holy Mountain of the Númenóreans, the Hallowed Mountain of the Númenóreans.
–—
The Pillar of Heaven, the isolated peak at the centre of the island of Númenor, on which the Númenóreans gave thanks to Eru. The Meneltarma was said by some to have survived the Downfall, and remained as an island in the Great Sea.
* Menelvagor
The Swordsman of the Sky.
–—
“… and there leaned up, as he climbed over the rim of the world, the Swordsman of the Sky, Menelvagor with his shining belt. The Elves all burst into song.”
(From The Fellowship of the Ring I 3, Three is Company)
–—
Name given by the Elves of Middle-earth to the bright and prominent star-group that we know today as Orion.
The stars of Menelvagor were originally given their shape in the sky by Varda, who in Middle-earth has the name Elbereth, ‘Star-lady’. In an ancient time when Melkor still lurked in Utumno, she used the stars to fill the sky with symbols of watchfulness and guardianship. Together with the Valacirca, Menelvagor was one of the two most important of these.
* Mentha Brandybuck
A daughter of Marmadas Brandybuck, she was present at Bilbo’s Birthday Party.
* Meres of Twilight
The lakeland region of Aelin-uial.
A name given to the wetland region of Aelin-uial, where the Aros met the Sirion on the borders of Doriath.
* Mereth Aderthad|Feast of Reuniting
The ‘Feast of Reuniting’ held by Fingolfin near the Pools of Ivrin.
* Meriadoc ‘Merry’ Brandybuck|Meriadoc|Merry Hobbit of the Shire, one of the Fellowship of the Ring.
–—
Companion of the Ring and later Master of Buckland.
Son of Saradoc Brandybuck, called ‘The Magnificent’, Merry accompanied Frodo on the Quest of Mount Doom. Captured with his friend Peregrin Took by Orcs, they were separated from the rest of the Company of the Ring, but eventually escaped to become the first mortals for many centuries to encounter the Ents of Fangorn Forest. Merry was present at the destruction of Isengard, and rode to the Battle of the Pelennor with the Rohirrim. There, his deeds won great renown, for with Éowyn of Rohan he defeated and slew the Lord of the Nazgûl.
* Merimas Brandybuck
Eldest child, and only son, of Marmadas Brandybuck, he was present at Bilbo’s Birthday Party.
* Mering Stream|Mering|Glanhír
‘Boundary Stream’, flowing down from Ered Nimrais to join the Entwash, and forming the boundary between Rohan and Gondor; in Sindarin called Glanhír.
–—
Eastern border-river of Rohan.
A minor river that flowed from beneath the Halifirien to join the Entwash at its outflow into Anduin. It formed part of Rohan’s eastern border with Gondor.
* Merry Gardner
Son of Samwise Gamgee and Rose Cotton; named for Meriadoc ‘Merry’
Brandybuck of the Company of the Ring.
* Messenger of Mordor
The emissary of Sauron.
A title used of Sauron’s ambassador, more properly known as the Mouth of Sauron.
* Methed-en-Glad
‘End of the Wood’, a stronghold in Dor-Cúarthol at the edge of the forest south of Teiglin.
* Methedras
The last peak of the Misty Mountains.
The southernmost peak of the Misty Mountains, that lay above Isengard in the valley of Nan Curunír.
* Mettarë|Mettare
The last day of the year; to the Elves, whose calendar started in spring, this was modern 6 April, but to the Dúnedain in Middle-earth, Mettarë fell in winter, on modern 21 December.
* Michel Delving
The chief town of the Shire in the White Downs, that lay in the Westfarthing of the Shire. Its name means simply ‘large excavation’.
* Mickleburg
Translation of Belegost: ‘great fortress’.
–—
A great Dwarf-city of the Blue Mountains.
‘Great City’, a Mannish rendering of ‘Belegost’, the name of one of the two great Dwarf-cities of the ancient Blue Mountains.
* Middle-earth|Great Lands
The lands to the east of the Great Sea; also called the Hither Lands, the Outer Lands, the Great Lands, and Endor.
–—
The Mortal Lands of Arda.
The great continent on which much of the Silmarillion, and the adventures of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, are set. Little is known of the East and South of Middle-earth, or of the far north, but the geography and history of its Western lands are chronicled in great detail.
–—
Ancient Times: The foundations of Middle-earth were laid by Aulë in times ancient beyond reckoning, and the Valar lit the new lands with two great Lamps, Illuin in the north and Ormal in the south. From fear of Tulkas, Melkor had fled beyond the Walls of the World, and Middle-earth was a place of peace and beauty. The Valar themselves dwelt in its central regions, on the green island of Almaren. This was the time known as the Spring of Arda.
Unknown to the Valar, though, Melkor secretly returned, and delved his first great fortress of Utumno in the mountains of the far distant north.
When he judged the time was right, he assailed Almaren and, surprising the Valar, destroyed their habitation in Middle-earth. Fleeing back to Utumno, he saved himself from the wrath of Tulkas. This is one of the great disasters of Middle-earth’s history: the Valar departed forever, and left Middle-earth under the sole control of Melkor, who claimed it as his own.
Though the Valar made a new home for themselves in Aman, and lit their new land of Valinor with the light of the Two Trees, Middle-earth was now left in darkness for many Ages. The Valar did not completely forget their ancient home, though, and Yavanna and Oromë, especially, came there from time to time to try and mend the hurts of Melkor if they could.
It was at this time, too, that Aulë returned, and secretly fashioned a hall beneath the mountains of Middle-earth. It was there that he wrought the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves, who were given life by Ilúvatar, and set to sleep until the awakening of the Firstborn.
Despite these brief visits from the Valar, though, Middle-earth was effectively controlled by Melkor, who was free to act as he would.
Slowly, his polluted realm spread southwards over Middle-earth.
–—
The Coming of the Elves: The Awakening of the Elves at Cuiviénen brought about profound changes in Middle-earth. At first they lived in darkness, prey to the creatures of Melkor, but Oromë found them, and the Valar decided to act: they went to war against Melkor.
There followed the Battle of the Powers, in the north and west of Middle-earth. That war rent and twisted the lands, giving them the shape they were to keep until the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age.
Dorthonion and the highlands north of Beleriand were raised up at that time, and many bays, including the Bay of Balar, were created.
Melkor was ultimately defeated, and taken as a prisoner back to Valinor.
After much debate, the Valar also offered the Elves a home in Aman, and many accepted. Led by Oromë, the Vanyar, Noldor and Teleri made the Great Journey across Middle-earth from the far east where they awoke to its western shores.
Many of these departed Middle-earth across the Sea, but some remained, of which the major groups were the Sindar of Beleriand and the Nandor of the Anduin valley. Other groups, mainly of Telerin origin, had also left the Journey: these were the people who were to become known as the Silvan Elves. Also, in the far east, remained the Elves who had refused the summons of the Valar, the Avari. All these kinds together are known as the Moriquendi, the Dark Elves, for they did not go to Valinor or see the light of the Two Trees.
* Midgewater Marshes|Midgewater
The marshland east of the Chetwood.
A fly-infested region of marshland in central Eriador, that lay between the Chetwood to the west and the Weather Hills to the east.
* Midyear’s Day
Also called Loëndë, the day that fell in the middle of the year was an important feature in many of the calendars of Middle-earth. On a modern calendar, Midyear’s Day would be 22 June.
* Mighty of the West
A possible title of the Númenóreans.
–—
“… in that hour he appeared as one of the Mighty of the West, and fit to be the father of the kings of the Kings of Men…”
(Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth I 1, Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin)
–—
A title used once, in the quotation given above, to refer to Tuor the son of Huor. Its exact meaning is ambiguous: it appears in a passage that discusses Tuor’s relationship with his descendants, the Númenóreans, and so we have treated it here as an epithet for that division of Mankind.
It might conceivably, though, refer to the Valar, though it seems unlikely that such a comparison would be made of a mortal Man.
* Mîm|Mim
The Petty-dwarf, in whose house (Bar-en-Danwedh) on Amon Rûdh Túrin dwelt with the outlaw band, and by whom their lair was betrayed to the Orcs; slain by Húrin in Nargothrond.
–—
Last of the Petty-dwarves, who dwelt in his halls in Amon Rudh with his two sons (both of whom he outlived), and gave shelter to Túrin and his outlaw band.
* Min-Rimmon
‘Peak of the Rimmon’ (a group of crags), fifth of the beacons of Gondor in Ered Nimrais.
–—
Beacon-hill of Gondor.
One of the seven beacon-hills of Gondor, on the northern flanks of the White Mountains. With Eilenach and Amon Dîn, Min-rimmon was one of the oldest beacons, set in place even before the foundation of Rohan.
* Minalcar
The Gondorian noble who became Rómendacil II.
Hyarmendacil I was a mighty King, and his reign during the ninth and tenth centuries of the Third Age saw Gondor grow into a huge and powerful kingdom, stretching east to the Sea of Rhûn, and south to Umbar.
Hyarmendacil’s immediate descendants were not so vigorous. His son Atanatar, and grandsons Narmacil and Calmacil, were content to live a life of ease in the splendour of Gondor’s royal courts.
Fortunately, Hyarmendacil’s great-grandson Minalcar inherited more of his forefather’s strength of mind. Born in the last years of Hyarmendacil’s long reign, Minalcar became active in matters political and military, to the extent that, not long after his uncle Narmacil became King, he handed effective control of the South-kingdom to his nephew. Minalcar took up the challenge, and managed to rebuild some of the power that Gondor had lost in the reigns of his grandfather Atanatar and uncle Narmacil. In particular, Gondor’s eastern borders had become victim to Easterling incursions. Minalcar built a great army and wiped out the invaders from the lands west of the Sea of Rhûn.
It was from this event that he took the name Rómendacil ‘Victor in the East’. After Narmacil’s heirless death, and a brief reign by his own father Calmacil, Minalcar finally ascended the throne to take up the true Kingship of Gondor, to be known to history by the name Rómendacil II.
* Minardil
Twenty-fifth King of Gondor.
–—
Successor to Hyarmendacil II.
The son of Hyarmendacil II of Gondor, King Minardil had two sons, Telemnar and Minastan. He had reigned for just thirteen years when he was attacked at Pelargir by the Corsairs of Umbar, and slain. He was succeeded by Telemnar, who himself died with all his children in the Dark Plague just two years later. Ultimately, the throne was taken by Tarondor, the son of Minardil’s second son Minastan. Minardil is perhaps best known as being served by Steward Húrin of Emyn Arnen, the ancestor of the later Ruling Stewards.
* Minas Anor
‘Tower of the Sun’ (also simply Anor), afterwards called Minas Tirith; the city of Anárion, at the feet of Mount Mindolluin.
–—
The Tower of the Setting Sun; the original name for Minas Tirith in Gondor, changed after the capture of Minas Ithil by the Nazgûl.
* Minas Ithil
‘Tower of the Moon’ afterwards called Minas Morgul; the city of Isildur, built on a shoulder of the Ephel Dúath.
–—
Isildur’s Tower of the Moon.
The Tower of the Moon, built by the Gondorians on the borders of Mordor to keep a watch on that land; later captured by the Nazgûl and renamed Minas Morgul.
* Minas Morgul|Morgul
‘Tower of Sorcery’ (also simply Morgul), name of Minas Ithil after its capture by the Ringwraiths.
–—
‘Tower of Black Sorcery’, the name given to the Gondorian watchtower of Minas Ithil in the Ephel Dúath after its capture by the Nazgûl.
‘Minas Morgul’ was the name given to this city after its capture by the Nazgûl in III 2002. The city itself, though, was much older - as Minas Ithil, it had stood since the late Second Age, and was some 2,100 years old when it was renamed. For its origins and earlier history, refer to the entry for Minas Ithil.
* Minas Tirith (in Beleriand)|Minas Tirith
‘Tower of Watch’, built by Finrod Felagund on Tol Sirion; see Tol-in-Gaurhoth. Also called Minas of King Finrod.
–—
The tower that guarded the Pass of Sirion.
The tower that guarded the Pass of Sirion, after which Minas Tirith in Gondor was perhaps named. Built by Finrod Felagund to keep watch on the western pass of Beleriand, it was mainly in the keeping of his brother Orodreth until captured by Sauron in the late First Age.
The name means ‘Tower of Guard’.
Sauron didn’t destroy the tower after its capture - instead, he ruled it himself as Tol-in-Gaurhoth for a period of about ten years. The tower was finally destroyed by Lúthien during the Quest of the Silmaril.
* Minas Tirith (in Gondor)|Minas Tirith
Later name of Minas Anor. Called the City of Gondor.
–—
Gondor’s Tower of Guard.
The seven-tiered citadel of the Kings of Gondor, originally named Minas Anor. After the destruction of Osgiliath, Minas Tirith became the seat of power in the South-kingdom.
‘Minas Tirith’ was the name given to this city after the capture of Minas Ithil by the Nazgûl in III 2002. The city itself, though, was much older - as Minas Anor, it had stood since the late Second Age, and was some 2,100 years old when it was renamed. For its origins and earlier history, refer to the entry for Minas Anor.
* Minastan
Ancestor of the later Kings of Gondor.
The second son of King Minardil of Gondor. His elder brother Telemnar had sat on their father’s throne for just two years when he died with all his heirs in the Great Plague. Minastan had also died by this time -
perhaps he too met his end in the Plague - but he left behind a surviving heir, Tarondor, who became the first King of a new line.
* Mindeb
A tributary of Sirion, between Dimbar and the Forest of Neldoreth.
–—
A lesser tributary of the Sirion.
A lesser river of Beleriand; it flowed south from the Crissaegrim, forming the eastern border of Dimbar, and met the Sirion under the eaves of the Forest of Brethil.
* Mindolluin
‘Towering Blue-head’, the great mountain behind Minas Anor.
–—
Easternmost of the White Mountains.
The prominent easternmost peak of the White Mountains, beneath which the citadel of Minas Tirith was built.
* Mindon Eldalieva|Mindon
‘Lofty Tower of the Eldalië’, the tower of Ingwë in the city of Tirion; also simply the Mindon.
* Minhiriath
‘Between the Rivers’, region of Eriador between Baranduin and Gwathló.
–—
The land between the Baranduin and the Greyflood.
A name for the southern regions of Eriador, lying between the Rivers Baranduin and Greyflood. Minhiriath became part of Cardolan after the break-up of the ancient realm of Arnor.
* Minohtar
Nephew of King Ondoher; slain in Ithilien in Third Age 1944 in battle with the Wainriders.
* Minuial
The twilight of dawn.
‘Prominent Twilight’. The Sindarin name for the twilight of dawn, when the stars faded; an important time for the Elves. The twilight of dusk they named aduial.
* Mírdain|Mirdain
The jewel-smiths of Eregion, the followers of Celebrimbor son of Curufin.
They were ensnared by Sauron, and unwittingly aided him in the making of the Rings of Power.
* Míriel Serindë|Míriel|Miriel
The first wife of Finwë, mother of Fëanor; died after Fëanor’s birth.
Called Serindë ‘the Broideress’.