Quarry – A village of the Eastfarthing, situated near the village of Scary in the stone-cutting country of the Shire.

Quellë ‘fading’ (Q.) – The name given by the High-elves to the fourth of the six ‘seasons’ – of fixed length – in the Elvish Calendar. The Númenoreans and the Westron-speaking peoples of Middle-earth used the same word to indicate the period of indefinite length which fell between the ending of autumn (yavië) and the onset of winter (hrivë). Its alternative Quenya name was lasse-lanta (‘leaf-fall’), while to the Grey-elves it was known as firith (or narbeleth, ‘sun-waning’).

Quendi ‘The Speakers’ (Q.) – The High-elven name for all Elvenkind (cf. Quenya ‘the Speech’). The origins of this word are doubtless to be found in the Elves’ age-old desire to communicate with other living things: they were the first ‘speaking-people’ to awake and wander in Middle-earth, and at that time the gift of speech was what set them apart from all other creatures.

Quenta Silmarillion ‘History of the Silmarils’ (Q.) – The title of a prose collection, itself a series of encapsulations and renditions of far older works, assembled and edited over the years by many hands. The Quenta Silmarillion forms the core of the published work known simply as The Silmarillion, though it is preceded in the text by the (still more ancient) Ainulindalë and Valaquenta, and followed by the Akallabêth and by an abbreviated version of the Tale of the Rings of Power. However, it is by far the largest of these five sections of text.

The Quenta Silmarillion is almost entirely in prose form, and divided into chapters arranged in chronological series. These chapters are derived from many different sources, others from single sources, as is made obvious by the many variations in style and tone. The older works from which the Quenta Silmarillion is thought to have been drawn are as follows: the Aldúdenië, or Lament for the Trees; the Narsilion or Song of the Sun and Moon; the Noldolantë or Fall of the Noldor; the Lay of Leithian; and the Narn i Hîn Húrin, or Tale of the Children of Húrin. It is believed that these ancient works were copied out in their entirety and thus rescued for posterity by none other than the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, during his long sojourn in Rivendell as Elrond’s guest. Under the unassuming title Translations from the Elvish the collection was handed down, by various means, to the present day.

Quenya ‘The Speech’ (Q.) – The oldest of all recorded languages. Although it was first written down in Eldamar, after the Great Journey of the Eldar, the Quenya tongue was in fact descended virtually unchanged from the Ancient Speech once spoken by all the Quendi, and this accounts for its name.

Little is now known of the proto-Quenya spoken by the Elves before the separation of the Eldar (West-elves) from the other Silvan races. Certain changes had already begun to take place in its structure even before the vanguard of the Eldar crossed the Great Sea to Eldamar, far back in the Eldar Days. But in the Undying Lands the Eldar were unaffected by the changefulness of mortal lands, and after many years of the world outside they began to record their Ancient Speech in writing, using the Tengwar (Eldarin cursive letters) of Rúmil, and afterwards the Alphabet of Fëanor: a modified form of the same writing-system. Later still, the High-elves brought the Fëanorian alphabet and the (virtually unchanged) Quenya language back to Middle-earth, where both became known to the Grey-elves and to the Edain.

In fashion the Quenya was unlike the Sindarin tongue of the Grey-elves, to which it was of course distantly related. It was a stately and ceremonious language, with polysyllabic word-linkage and a comprehensive formal literature that was considerably more antique than anything the Sindar possessed. The Ancient Speech may be said (by some) to resemble Latin (to which it is quite unrelated), but it was far more inflected than any contemporary Mannish speech, and far more ancient.

But if the introduction of Quenya into the culture of the Grey-elves can be said to have influenced the subsequent development of Sindarin, then the reverse is less true. The High-elves exiled in Middle-earth adopted, for the most part, the language of the Grey-elves with whom they then dwelt, and the Ancient Speech was put aside as a ‘High’ language of ceremony and song. It was therefore consciously preserved in its ancient form, and as a language of pageant it passed to the heirs of the High-elves in Middle-earth: the Edain of Númenor and of the Realms in Exile. But for the most part the later Dúnedain used the Sindarin or the Mannish tongues of their own early history, and little by little the Ancient Speech (and Sindarin) became known only to those who held true to the ways of the Eldar. See also SPOKEN TONGUES.

Quessë – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘feather’; also the title of the Fëanorian Tengwa number 4, which was used (in Quenya) for the sound kw-.

Quessetéma ‘Quessë-series’ (Q.) – One of the four témar (series) which made up the complete Fëanorian Tengwar alphabet of letters. Quessëtéma was used for the labialised sounds (kw-, gw-, hw- etc), which occurred frequently in the High-elven speech.

Quickbeam – A translation of the Sindarin name Bregalad, adopted as a ‘short’ name by an Ent of Fangorn Forest.

Quick Post – A luxury or emergency messenger-service, used in the Shire for the rapid conveyance of letters (a social service much in demand among Hobbits) from Farthing to Farthing. Its administration was the responsibility of the Mayor of Michel Delving. The mode of transport has not been recorded.