The Complete Tolkien Companion

Radagast the Brown – A Wizard of Middle-earth, one of the Order of Istari, who arrived from the Undying Lands about the year 1000 Third Age. His special skills and responsibilities concerned the welfare of beasts and birds, but it was later felt, by some of those who had sent him, that he had become too enamoured of these kelvar and thereby neglected his real mission.1 His home was in Rhosgobel, in the southern vales of the Anduin, near the borders of the forest then known as Mirkwood. Radagast is said to mean ‘tender-of-beasts’ in the Grey-elven tongue. In Quenya he was known as Aiwendil, ‘lover of birds’.

See also BATTLE OF THE PELENNOR FIELDS.

Rána ‘The Wayward’ (Q.) – A High-elven name for the Moon. See ISIL.

Ranga – A Númenorean unit of measure, a full pace.

Rangers of Ithilien – A guerrilla force maintained by Gondor in North Ithilien, for the purpose of harassing the enemy and discomfiting his occupation of that land in the years leading up to the War of the Ring. These forces operated from secret bases (see HENNETH ANNÛN) prepared some years before on the orders of a far-seeing Steward, Túrin II. In later years the Rangers of Ithilien were led by Túrin’s great-great-grandson, Faramir, the younger son of Denethor II.

Rangers of the North – At the time of the War of the Ring it was the ironic fate of the Dúnedain of the North that, while their royal Line of Descent had been kept intact throughout the turmoils of three millennia, their Kingdom had been lost and their circumstances so grievously reduced that even their own kin in Gondor were unaware of their very existence.

The long process by which royal ARNOR was first split into three smaller states and then overcome piecemeal is well detailed elsewhere. After the fall of ARTHEDAIN in 1974 Third Age, the then stateless Heirs of Isildur passed into the shadows, emerging only as wandering strangers whose true identity was unsuspected by the inhabitants of Eriador, where they spent most of their days. The long wars launched upon them by Sauron and his servants had greatly reduced the Dúnedain in numbers, but their pride and sense of duty were intact: their task, as they saw it, was the continued protection of the Northlands, at whatever cost to themselves.

The labours they undertook in this worthy purpose were long, hard and yet not without result. Of course the Northlands were still threatened by groups of pillaging Orcs from the Misty Mountains, and the occasional cave-troll in business on his own account; but the hoped-for result was, by and large, attained, and the folk of Eriador were safely guarded, although they knew it not.

It was realised that Eriador could never be kept free from the Enemy if he once suspected that the Dúnedain – whom he had long hated – still survived there. And since Sauron never lacked for spies to serve him, the Rangers took great care to work in secret. The Elves of Rivendell were, of course, privy to the latent hopes and current duties of the Dúnedain Chieftains and their followers; indeed, the Eldar of Rivendell often rode with the Heirs of Isildur on their missions. But the Bree-dwellers and the Hobbits of the Shire were totally unaware of this long guardianship, and their names for the tough-looking, weatherbeaten Men who occasionally visited The Prancing Pony were anything but complimentary.

The first Chieftain of the Dúnedain was Aranarth, the son of Arvedui Last-king of Arthedain. In the intervening centuries there were a further fourteen before the last Chieftain, Aragorn II: the travel-stained Ranger who was known in Bree simply as ‘Strider’.

Ranugad – In the original (as opposed to translated) Hobbit-speech Ranugad, which meant ‘Stay-at-home’, was the name of Samwise Gamgee’s father; in translations from the Red Book it has been rendered as Hamfast.

Ras Morthil – Another name for the cape of ANDRAST.

Rath Celerdain – See LAMPWRIGHTS’ STREET.

Rath Dínen ‘Street of Silence’ (Sind.) – The central processional avenue of the Hallows of Minas Tirith, where the great men of Gondor were buried.

Rathlóriel ‘Goldenbed’ (Sind.) – The name given to the river ASCAR in Ossiriand after the treasure looted from Doriath by Dwarves had been lost in its waters.

Rauros ‘Roaring-spray’ (Sind.) – In the Third Age, the greatest waterfall of western Middle-earth, a giant cataract whose roar could be distinguished many leagues away. It was located just south of Nen Hithoel, the lake on the Great River which was surrounded by the hills of Emyn Muil. In peaceful periods of the Third Age, the Falls of Rauros and the hills of Amon Hen and Amon Lhâw were places for the nobles of Gondor to visit on summer days, when the sound of the Falls and the golden light on their spray would provide a pleasant setting.

Ravenhill – A small south-western spur of the Lonely Mountain (Erebor), where the Dwarves of that realm had once built a guardhouse and installed a small garrison. For some unaccountable reason, a family of ravens (headed by the wise and famous Carc) chose this place as their nesting-ground, giving the hill its name.

Ravines of Teiglin – See TEIGLIN.

Ré (Q.) – The Elvish ‘day’, which, unlike our own, was measured from sunset to sunset. Thus each ré began with the period known as Undómë, ‘Star-opening’.

Realms in Exile – See illustration overleaf.

‘Reckoning of Years’ – One of the better known works of that prolific Shire-chronicler, Meriadoc ‘the Magnificent’ Brandybuck, hero of the War of the Ring, Master of Buckland and Counsellor of the North-kingdom. In addition to an invaluable account of the Hobbit calendars employed in the Shire and Bree, the Reckoning of Years included a comparative study of the reckoning-systems used in Rivendell, Rohan and Gondor, lands in which this widely travelled Hobbit was personally able to conduct his research.

Note: the Reckoning of Years was undoubtedly the primary source for the information which appears in Appendix D, to which readers are referred for a full analysis of the Elvish calendar and the other systems which sprang from it.

Red Arrow – The traditional token used by Gondor when summoning urgent aid from her old allies, the Riders of Rohan. It was an ordinary black-feathered arrow except that it had a red-painted point. The summons it represented was of the most desperate kind, and the Red Arrow was not lightly dispatched.

Red Book of Westmarch – The single most valuable surviving source of information concerning the War of the Ring, compiled during the late Third Age by the Hobbits of the Shire, in particular by the Ring-bearers, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, and Frodo’s heir Samwise Gamgee. It deals with the heroic role the Hobbits played in the Tale of the Great Ring, and is further provided with a large number of addenda, appendices and annotations, all of which are extremely valuable sources of information concerning the Second and Third (and to some extent the First) Ages of Middle-earth long ago.

It is divided roughly into two main sections of unequal length, with supporting pages compiled by many different hands. The first section is in narrative form, and was written by Bilbo Baggins in the years between 2942–3001 Third Age (1342–1401 Shire Reckoning) at Bag End in Hobbiton, and was titled by him There and Back Again.2

It deals in the main with Bilbo’s unexpected journey into the East in the year 2941, the adventures he underwent en route, and his ultimate success and later homecoming. Even more importantly (although Bilbo did not recognise it at the time), this first part of the Red Book details the discovery of the Ruling Ring of Sauron, which had been found long before by the creature Gollum and had been kept by him in his miserable solitude under the Misty Mountains for over five hundred years. Bilbo acquired the Ring from Gollum, and later brought it back to the Shire, thus initiating a series of events which led in the end to Mount Doom and the Passing of Sauron.

But of these events Bilbo had of course no foreknowledge, and it was left to his young cousin (and heir) Frodo Baggins to take the further steps on that road. Frodo, like Bilbo (and almost certainly to please him), wrote his own account of the War of the Ring, and it is this later (and much larger) section of narrative which forms the central part of the Red Book of Westmarch.3

Frodo wrote this account with the aid of his friends’ recollections, and in this form the combined narratives (written in two hands in a great red book with tall covers) were handed to Samwise Gamgee, Frodo’s heir, when the Ring-bearers passed over Sea at the end of the Third Age. Samwise added his own contributions, and gave the Book in his turn to his eldest daughter Elanor the Fair when he too passed West. Elanor’s descendants kept custody of the original volume ever after, although they made certain annotations and additions, based upon information acquired from other sources during the Fourth Age, such as chronological material from Yellowskin (the Year-book of Tuckborough) and from Gondor. There were also certain anonymous scribbles and rhymes added in later years, many of which have been published latterly as a separate volume, part of the cycle of tales contained in the Red Book but not part of the main Tale of the Ring.4

During the earlier part of the reign of King Elessar (Aragorn II) the King requested the Shire-folk to supply him with a copy of the Red Book which was even then being annotated by the Fairbairns and the Tooks. Thain Peregrin I accordingly commissioned scribes to draft a copy, and this volume, called in Gondor the Thain’s Book, was taken by Peregrin to the King when he retired to Gondor in Year 63 Fourth Age.

Over a century later, probably at the request of Eldarion, son of Elessar (who died in 120 Fourth Age), Findegil, a King’s Writer of Gondor, again copied the Thain’s Book, adding certain appendices and annotations (and corrections) of his own. This later volume was presented to the Hobbits, and it is this book which has survived until the present day.

Redhorn – A translation of the Sindarin word Caradhras, being the name given in the Common Speech to that great peak of the central Misty Mountains which was known to the Dwarves as Barazinbar. It was so named because the mountain seemed to glow with a bloodlike tinge in the evening and morning sunlight. It had a cruel reputation and its high pass was fraught with peril.

Redhorn Gate – See previous entry.

Red Ring – NARYA THE GREAT.

Redwater – A translation of the Sindarin word Carnen.

Region ‘Holly’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Elves of Doriath to the southern and larger of the two forests which comprised their silvan land. Region was indeed more than twice as large as its neighbour Neldoreth (being in places over fifty leagues long, and as much as fifteen leagues broad). In shape it was like a huge, reversed ‘L’, with much of its northern and western border formed by the river Esgalduin. Beyond the Esgalduin the beech-forest of Neldoreth marched away into the north. The southern boundary of Region was the River Aros; an outlier, Nan Elmoth, lay beyond the Celon, a tributary of Aros.

During the Elder Days Region and Neldoreth were both accounted part of Doriath, and were encompassed by the protective fence of enchantment, the Girdle Of Melian.

Rerir – A mountain of the northern Ered Luin. It was the tallest peak of a spur which thrust westward from the main range, enclosing Lake Helevorn on three sides. Due north of the lake stood Mount Rerir. The Greater Gelion arose on its western slopes. This peak was accounted the northern border of the land of Thargelion.

Rethe – The third month of the year (roughly equivalent to our March) in the calendars of the Shire and Bree.

Reunited Kingdom – The name given in the Fourth Age to the realm ruled by King Elessar (Aragorn II), being the former states of Arnor and Gondor reunited for the first time since Elendil’s day under Elessar’s kingship.

Rhîw – See HRÍVË.

Rhosgobel – The dwelling-place of the Wizard Radagast the Brown, situated in the vales of Anduin near to the southern borders of Mirkwood.

Rhovanion – This name has been translated on Third Age maps of western Middle-earth as ‘Wilderland’, and in this sense it refers to all the lands stretching east of the Misty Mountains to the River Running (Celduin), including the vales of Anduin and the forest of Mirkwood. However, in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings the name is used to indicate the principality of Rhovanion, which lay between the eastern eaves of Greenwood (later known as Mirkwood) and the River Running.

It was peopled by a loosely governed, vigorous race of ‘Northmen’, who were distantly related to the Dúnedain and were often allied with Gondor during the middle years of the Third Age. Sometime about the end of the first millennium, the kings of Gondor extended the boundaries of Rhovanion by ceding to the Northmen lands south of Greenwood – in the hope that these lands would act as a buffer state to protect Gondor from recurrent invasions by the fierce Easterling peoples. However, although this strategy was largely successful, eventually the favour shown by Gondor’s nineteenth King, Rómendacil II, towards the Northmen caused great jealousy in the South-kingdom. And the marriage of Rómendacil’s son Valacar to the daughter of Vidugavia, the self-styled King of Rhovanion, ultimately led to civil war (see KIN-STRIFE). Valacar’s son Eldacar was deposed and forced to seek refuge in his mother’s land of Rhovanion; however, he was eventually able to regain his throne and restore peace, and during the remainder of his time he naturally showed great favour to the Northmen. At this time many of them settled in Gondor.

Nonetheless, contact between the peoples was not fully maintained; and, in the year 1856, the wide lands that had once been Vidugavia’s were overrun by new hordes of invading Easterlings called Wainriders. The Northmen were driven out or enslaved, and it was not until forty years later that they were able to start a rebellion which enabled Gondor to win a victory over the Easterlings.

Nonetheless their former lands south of Greenwood were now contested and no longer viable. Accordingly under their new young King Marhwini they emigrated once again up the Anduin to the vales between the River and the Wood, and throughout the next years continued drifting in this dirction, until they emerge back into history as the Men of Éothéod, who came to the aid of Gondor in spectacular fashion at the end of the 26th century Third Age, destroying the Balchoth and winning themselves a new realm in what had been part of Gondor. The Northmen were at last in their natural place, but they had come there by a circuitous route.

See also LINES OF DESCENT.

Rhudaur – The name given by the Dúnedain of the North-kingdom to the easternmost of the three separate states formed by the partition of Arnor in 861 Third Age, following the death of King Eärendur. Its boundaries were the Misty Mountains, the Weather Hills and the Ettenmoors. Rhudaur was the most junior of the three Dúnedain realms (of which the other two were named Arthedain and Cardolan), and its lands were the wildest and least fertile; moreover, none of the three palantíri of Arnor had come into its possession.

For these reasons Rhudaur’s relations with the other two North-kingdoms were unfriendly from the first, and there was frequently strife between Rhudaur and Cardolan over possession of the strategically important Weather Hills and the chief Palantír of the North (which was kept in the tower of Amon Sûl, on the border of both realms).

By the thirteenth century the rivalry was intense, although the borders of the states still remained relatively unchanged. It was at this time that the evil Witch-realm of Angmar arose in the northeast, sharing a common frontier with Rhudaur; and from that moment the smaller state was doomed. In any case, the control of Rhudaur had already been seized from the remaining Dúnedain by a clan of renegades and wild men, and before many years these usurpers were themselves under the control of the Witch-king.

Beginning with the battle in which King Argeleb I was slain (in 1356), there ensued a centuries-long war waged by combined forces from Rhudaur and Angmar against Arthedain – with her ally Cardolan falling a quick victim to the savagery of the onslaught. In 1409 ‘Rhudaur was occupied by evil Men subject to Angmar, and the Dúnedain that remained there were slain or fled west.’5 It never arose again, although the formal dissolution of the state was not held to have taken place until 1974 Third Age, the year of Arthedain’s fall.

Rhûn ‘East’ (Sind.) – A general name in Gondor for the lands beyond and including the Inland Sea.

Rhymes of Lore – The name given by the Wise to the numberless collection of spells, benisons, charms, incantations and memory-aids recited and learned in order both to pass on knowledge and retain it.

Rían – A princess of the Edain, the daughter of Belegund of the First House. She was born in Ladros before the Dagor Bragollach, but when Orcs overran Dorthonion, she and the other children were evacuated from the stricken land, and sent for safekeeping to Dor-lómin, where the House of Hador still defied the Enemy. There she came to womanhood, and wedded Huor the younger son of Galdor (her cousin Morwen Eledhwen, likewise a refugee from Dorthonion, was wedded to Huor’s elder brother Húrin). Two months later came the Fifth Battle of Beleriand, the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, in which Huor was slain. Rían, already pregnant by Huor, fled from Dor-lómin into Mithrim, where she bore a son, Tuor, while in hiding among the Sindar of that land. Soon afterwards she gave Tuor into the keeping of her hosts, and went out into the wild, to die of grief on the mound called Haudh-en-Ndengin, the Hill of Slain, where her husband lay, together with all his kinsmen save one.

Riddermark (Older form Riddena-mearc ‘Land of the knights’) – The name given by the RIDERS OF ROHAN to their own land.

Riddle-game – A time-honoured method of wagering for stakes, for testing another’s sagacity and wit, or simply for passing the time. The practice was very ancient in Middle-earth, dating almost certainly back to the Elder Days, and all folk claimed the honour of having originated it. By reason of its ancientry alone the Riddle-game must surely be of Elvish origin: the Elves dearly loved tricks of word and meaning, and The Rules which informally governed the practice, being ‘both ancient and just’, bore all the hallmarks of early Eldarin thought.

Riders of Rohan – The term used in Gondor for the armed and mounted men-at-arms of the country of Rohan, formerly the Dúnedain province of Calenardhon, which lay to the north of Gondor on the further side of the White Mountains. The Rohirrim were a Northern race, whose arrival in the southlands had proved fortunate for Gondor on one conspicuous occasion, and the ‘Riders of Rohan’ were spoken of with admiration and a good deal of respect: for the horses of Rohan were the finest then to be found in Middle-earth, and their riders were fully their match.

The mounted cavalry of Rohan were not a permanent standing force; rather they were horse-herders and – trainers, who wandered with the herds and studs throughout most of the year over the great grasslands of the Mark (as they termed their own land). Only in time of war or doubt were they mustered, for to assemble a full host of Riders took many days. Nonetheless, they were fierce in war, for they were of proud northern stock and had learned the warrior code long before.

The basic military unit was the éored, a squadron of varying size raised from one particular lord or marshal’s household and sworn to his service. The Mark itself was loosely divided into a number of regions, each of which had a Marshal nominally responsible for its defence. All were responsible to the King, who dwelt for the most part in the township of Edoras, a hill-fort on a foothill of the northern White Mountains. The armour and weapons used by the Riders of Rohan were in essence those used by their ancestors in the North: long spears, bows, and long-swords. Most carried body-shields, painted on the toughened side to display a White Horse upon a field of Green. Chain mail was not infrequent, and light metal helms were also worn. In war the Riders generally made good use of their superb horsemanship and the shock value of a massed cavalry attack. They had developed both light and heavy cavalry tactics to a remarkable degree; there were few formed infantry in western Middle-earth who could withstand them unless safe behind defences.

For these reasons the Riders of Rohan were greatly valued as allies by the men of Gondor, who had far fewer cavalry although their infantry was second to none. The Rohirrim indeed aided the Dúnedain (and were aided by them) on several different occasions, perhaps the most significant of which was during the War of the Ring, when the six thousand Riders led by Théoden King of the Mark raised the siege of Minas Tirith and so set in motion the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, greatest military clash of the Third Age.

Rimmon – See MIN-RIMMON.

Ringarë (Q.) – The twelfth month of the year in Kings’ and Stewards’ Reckoning, and the ninth of the New Reckoning which followed the reuniting of Arnor and Gondor at the end of the Third Age. All three reckoning-systems were modifications of the old Númenorean calendar, and all were adopted by many Westron-speaking peoples of Middle-earth. The Sindarin equivalent of Ringarë, Girithron, was used only by the Dúnedain of Middle-earth.

Ringil ‘Cold-star’ (Sind.) – The Sword of Fingolfin, the High King of the Noldor. It was the only weapon ever to inflict a wound upon Morgoth.6

Ring-inscription – The series of Elvish letters engraved by some secret process into the surfaces of the RULING RING by its maker, Sauron. The inscription was so fashioned that the writing remained invisible unless the Ring itself was first heated; when Sauron made this Ring, he was fair of bodily form, or so it has been recorded, and the inscription remained unseen, even by his close servants; but in later years Sauron’s body grew black and hideous and burning hot, and the heat of his hand alone was sufficient to keep the inscription bright.

It is a curious fact that, although the Ring-inscription was in the ancient Black Speech of Mordor, the letters chosen for the writing were Elvish – the Fëanorian Tengwar. No other writing-system was sufficiently delicate for the minute engraving.

Ringló ‘Cold-flood’ (Sind.) – A river of Gondor, the major tributary of Morthond. It arose in the high vales of Lamedon, and was itself joined by the Ciril (or Kiril) some leagues south of the town of Calembel. The Ringló Vale was the valley watered by these two rivers.

Ring of Adamant – NENYA.

Ring of Barahir – The most ancient of the heirlooms of the House of Elendil. It was in origin an Elven-ring given as a token of friendship by Finrod Felagund, King of Nargothrond, to Barahir of the Edain, after the Dagor Bragollach, in which Barahir had saved Finrod’s life. The ring itself was of gold, and bore the badge of the House of Finarfin. Barahir bore it until his death on Dorthonion, and it was recovered from the Orc who had stolen it by Barahir’s son Beren. The ring remained in Beren’s keeping for the rest of his life, and was passed to his son Dior Eluchíl, and by Dior to Elwing, who rescued it – together with the Silmaril and other treasures of the house of Thingol – from the ruin of Doriath, and took it with her to the Havens of Sirion. From her it passed to Eärendil her son, and from Eärendil to his son Elros.

In this way Barahir’s ring survived the turmoils of the First Age. It was (presumably) given by Tar-Elendil, fourth King, to his eldest child Silmariën, and by Silmariën to her son Valandil, first of the Lords of Andúnië. In this way the Ring of Barahir became an heirloom of the Faithful, and so was brought to Middle-earth again when Númenor fell, late in the Second Age. It was then given by Elendil to his oldest son Isildur, and became a token of the royalty of the North-kingdom.

For many years the Ring of Barahir was guarded at Annúminas, together with the other treasures of the North-kingdom, but in time the realm of Arnor passed, and then the Heirs of Isildur removed to Fornost Erain. Their kingdom of Arthedain survived until the end of the second millennium, but fell at last under the assaults of Angmar. Then Arvedui, last King of Arthedain, fled into the North to escape the wreck of Arthedain, bearing several of the treasures of Isildur with him. The two palantíri of the North were lost with Arvedui in the waters of the Ice Bay, but the ring was saved, for it had been given by the King to the Lossoth (Snowmen) of Forochel, as a reward for the aid they had rendered him during his months of exile. It was later ransomed by the Dúnedain and afterwards kept at Rivendell, together with the Sceptre and the Sword of Elendil, by Elrond.

Ring of Doom – The MAHANAXAR.

Ring of Isengard – See ISENGARD.

Ring of Sapphire – VILYA.

Rings of Power – The greatest feat of craftsmanship performed during the Second Age was the making of the Rings of Power: the Three Rings of the Elves, the Seven Dwarf-rings, and the Nine Rings of Mortal Men ‘doomed to die’. The most potent of all the Rings of Power was that One Ring wrought by Sauron of Mordor.

The tale of their making is a strange story of thirst for knowledge, combined with a pride in craftsmanship, being turned (albeit unconsciously) to evil purposes: an odd reflection of the tale of the Silmarils. The Elven-smiths of Eregion, the makers of most of the Great Rings, were themselves descended from Fëanor, who had wrought the Silmarils during the Elder Days. They were assisted in the task by Sauron of Mordor, who thus acquired great knowledge while pretending to dispense it. Together they made the Nine, and the Seven, and the lesser Rings of Power.

A mortal would have called these ‘magic’ rings, for like other Elvish devices their virtues were not merely those of adornment. Each ring had certain properties which were passed on to the bearer, like the gifts of foresight, protective power, and so on. But the Great Rings, the Nine and the Seven, had other qualities: they gave long life and many different powers of mind and hand. But Sauron’s hand was also on their making (with the exception of the chief Dwarf-ring), and so these inherent powers were distorted far beyond what the Elven-smiths had intended; and they would all prove susceptible to the One Ring which Sauron planned to make.

But before he was to do so Celebrimbor, chief of the Elven-smiths, wrought the Three Rings of the Elven-kings, greater than all other Rings of Power yet made, and Sauron had no part in their making. Celebrimbor did not desire power for Elves, merely the ability to make, heal and preserve; and Sauron never touched the Three, nor did he ever set eyes upon them. Celebrimbor completed the forging of the Three Elven-rings in or around 1590 Second Age, but Sauron had already learned all he needed for his own purposes; and ten years afterwards, far away in Mordor, in the Chambers of Fire within the cone of the volcano Orodruin, he set the newly forged Ruling Ring on his finger, and repeated the Ring-spell which would bring his creation to life. On the same instant Celebrimbor became aware of the betrayal and swiftly hid the Three.

The nature of the Ruling Ring was such that by its power Sauron was able to dominate and command the bearers of the Nine. With the Seven he was not so fortunate, for the Dwarves were ‘made from their beginning of a kind to resist most steadfastly any domination … and for the same reason their lives were not affected by any Ring, to live either longer or shorter because of it.’7 Nevertheless, the potential beneficial effects of the Seven were lost to them and indeed their ultimate fall can be said to be due in part to the quality the Rings possessed of inflaming Dwarf-hearts with love of gold and wealth for its own sake – a trait towards which they were always only too partial. The Three were never affected at all by the Ruling Ring, because their owners never wore them so long as Sauron retained the One. When it was taken from him at the end of the Second Age this restriction on the Elven-rings was lifted and their bearers were able to use them during most of the Third Age for the purposes originally intended by Celebrimbor. But when the Ruling Ring was found once more they fell again into great peril, for had Sauron recaptured his lost treasure, all that had been wrought by the Three during an Age would have been laid bare to him, and the minds of those that bore them – whether the Three were hidden or not – would have been revealed to his malice.

At the beginning of the War of the Ring Sauron thus controlled the Nine, and three of the Seven Rings of Power (four had been consumed – together with their hapless owners – by the Dragons) The Three he could ignore – for he needed only the One to make his almost certain victory over the Free Peoples complete. How, despite his best endeavours, this Ring was denied him and destroyed in the teeth of his armed might, forms the substance of the Tale of the Ring, as recorded in the Red Book.

Note: the Three Rings were named Vilya, Nenya and Narya. The names of the Nine and the Seven – if indeed they bore any – are not known. The Great Ring of Sauron also had no name, and was called simply the One Ring or the RULING RING.

Ringwil ‘Chilly-stream’ (Sind.) – A small stream which arose in the Heights of Faroth and fell into the Narog not far from the gates of Nargothrond.

Ringwraiths – A translation (from the Black Speech of Mordor) of the name Nazgûl, a word meaning ‘Ring-wraiths’; being a name often used by enemies of Sauron for the slaves of the Nine Rings, Sauron’s most terrible servants, the nine Mortal Men who were ensnared by lust for power during the Second Age and who were forced to linger in Middle-earth as Úlairi, undead creatures, totally subservient to their Master, unable to pass on or find rest. They were filled with the evil essence of Sauron, and thus implemented his will from afar and in his name during much of the Second and all of the Third Age of Middle-earth, falling at last into annihilation when the destruction of the Ruling Ring released them from this fearsome bondage.

It was always a measure of Sauron’s true nature and of the rewards to be gained in his service that the most evil destinies invariably overtook those who served him most faithfully. The Nine Lords had once been proud rulers of great tracts of Middle-earth; and they had fallen into evil practices and deeds even before they began to worship Sauron, or he to plan their downfall. In the sixteenth century of the Second Age they individually accepted from him Rings of Power, made, so Sauron said, to give them power over all other Men and to give long life; and by this means he trapped them. The promised immortality of the Rings was revealed as a deadly and everlasting lengthening of days, so that life grew wearisome beyond belief yet the consolation of death was denied. Power they gained – the power of terror alone, for unable to relinquish their Rings, the Nine Lords became in the end wraiths, deathless spirits with no will to oppose he who wore the One Ring. It was a fearful doom, and it was to endure for over four thousand years.

The first recorded appearance of the Úlairi in Middle-earth was in the year 2251 Second Age, although in what connection is not now remembered. They served Sauron faithfully for the remainder of the Age, becoming even then his most feared followers, and when he was temporarily overthrown at the end of the Age they went ‘into the shadows’ to await his return. When again he began to materialise – in the thousandth year of the Third Age – they also took shape again; and for many years, while he slowly grew to power once more, they made strokes on his behalf against the Free Peoples, sundered as these were and thus easy prey for the Nine.

Their Chief was known as the WITCH-KING. In the early fourteenth century he appeared in the barren lands north of the Ettenmoors and there founded a realm called ANGMAR. It lay in close proximity to the Dúnedain states of Arthedain and Rhudaur. And it grew so swiftly to power under the rule of its Sorcerer King that the Dúnedain themselves were unable to prevent its further expansion. But the Witch-king bided his time, using the days thus bought to bring about the fall of Rhudaur, his closest neighbour, by means of subversion; and when this was completed to his satisfaction he launched a great attack through the lands of Rhudaur, not at Arthedain, his more powerful foe, but at Cardolan, the weaker. And although Cardolan made desperate alliance against him with Arthedain, he captured the strategic tower of Amon Sûl and ravaged her lands far and wide. Thus Arthedain was isolated. And although she fought on for another six hundred years of intermittent war, in the end the Witch-king achieved his aim and Arthedain followed Cardolan and Rhudaur down into the dark.

But in 1975 Third Age Angmar was itself overthrown by a league of Elves and Men, such as had broken the power of Sauron two thousand years before, and the Witch-king was expelled from Eriador. He came south, to Mordor, and there assembled the Nine; and in 2000 he crossed the Pass of Cirith Ungol on the borders of Gondor and laid siege to Minas Ithil, one of the fairest cities of the South-kingdom. Two years later it fell to the Ringwraiths, and was never again recaptured by the Dúnedain. Not content, the Witch-king later contrived to rob the Men of Gondor of the last King of the Line of Anárion (see EÄRNUR); and so he lessened their royalty and sowed the seeds of their downfall.

Yet having achieved so much on behalf of their Master, the Ring-wraiths then fell quiescent while he began to plot and manoeuvre on his own behalf. Meanwhile the Nine Riders began to prepare Mordor against the day when he would return in power, and in 2941, after a millennium filled with lasting defeats and temporary victories for the Dúnedain, Sauron abandoned his lesser fortress of Dol Guldur and passed south to Mordor. Three of the Nazgûl he despatched to his older dwelling, while he himself set in motion the opening moves of the War of the Ring.

In this War the Ringwraiths, chief servants of Sauron, played a prominent part. All Nine were sent into Eriador in 3018, disguised as riders in black, to seek the Ring and to take it from the Hobbits who then possessed it. In this vital task they failed. Foiled in Eriador, they returned to Mordor and to Minas Morgul (Minas Ithil renamed) and they took to the air, mounted on evil flying beasts, and searched the lands for the fugitives, or carried their Master’s messages across leagues of Middle-earth swifter than any bird could fly. Mounted on these beasts a number of them – probably four – accompanied the Host of Morgul in the attempt upon Minas Tirith in 3019; and when their leader was slain in that affray they retreated into the gloom-shrouded upper airs, shadowing the march east of the last Host of Gondor.

But they took no part in the battle which followed, for upon the instant the armies clashed at the Black Gate, the eight remaining Ringwraiths were summoned with fierce urgency by their Master to fly south to Orodruin, where his Realm was in the greatest peril it had ever known. Once more they failed to arrive in time, and in the violent eruption of the volcano which followed the melting of the Ring they were destroyed for ever, and so passed away at last.

Rivendell – A translation of the Sindarin name Imladris, being the name of the dwelling of Master Elrond Half-elven in eastern Eriador, in the foothills of the Misty Mountains between the rivers Mitheithel (Hoarwell) and Bruinen (Loudwater). It was founded by Elrond and the Noldor in 1697 Second Age, following a perilous retreat from overrun Eregion during the War of the Elves and Sauron. Elrond dwelt there ever after (save a brief period at the end of the Second Age and a shorter one still at the end of the Third), maintaining the ‘Last Homely House East of the Sea’ as a refuge for all Elves and folk of goodwill. Many of the remaining Noldor dwelt there.

The House of Elrond lay beside a hurrying stream amid the pine-scented air of that deep vale (Imladris literally means ‘Deep-cloven-valley’). House and Valley were guarded on two sides by the Bruinen’s chief tributary and by the Bruinen itself. The Ford was under Elrond’s power but ‘the might of Elrond lay in wisdom not weapons’,8 and the Power that dwelled in Rivendell desired only strength enough to defend itself.

River Running – The CELDUIN.

River-woman – A poetic term for the river Withywindle, used by Tom Bombadil. See GOLDBERRY.

Rivil – The most northerly of the many tributaries of the Sirion. It rose at Rivil’s Well on the plateau of Dorthonion, and fell over the western edge of the highland into the Fen of Serech, at the southern end of which was its confluence with the Sirion.

Rivil’s Well – See preceding entry.

Roäc – The Chief of the Ravens of Erebor, and the son of old Carc. The Ravens of the Lonely Mountain were traditionally friendly to Dwarves, and Roäc continued the alliance by rendering great aid to Thorin Oakenshield when the members of his expedition were besieged in Erebor by their foes (2941 Third Age).

Robin Gamgee – The twelfth child and sixth son of Samwise Gamgee.

Robin Smallburrow – A Hobbiton villager. Early in his life he was persuaded to join that fine body of official Hobbitry, the Shirriffs; but with the ‘reorganisation’ of the Watch which followed Saruman’s seizure of the Shire in 3019 Third Age (1419 Shire Reckoning), young Smallburrow found himself posted to Frogmorton, as part of the First Eastfarthing Troop, doing work he liked a lot less.

Rochallor – The steed of Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor. He rode this noble horse throughout the wars, and to single combat with Morgoth before the Gates of Angband during the Dagor Bragollach; after the High King’s death the horse escaped and galloped back to Mithrim, where he broke his heart and died.

Rochon Methestal – See BORONDIR (THE STIRRUPLESS).

Rodyn – See VALANYA.

Rohan ‘Land-of-Horses’ (Sind. from Q. Rochand[e]) – The wide and spacious realm which lay north of Gondor, upon the further side of the White Mountains. It was famed for its horses, which were unmatched for lineage, grace or beauty anywhere in Middle-earth, and for its leagues of grassland, rich and abundant, where the horses of Rohan ran free in great herds, watched over by their proud masters. These were a people of Men, known in Gondor as the Rohirrim, ‘Masters-of-Horses’, traditionally friendly to the Dúnedain, and much respected in Gondor for their loyalty, bravery and nobility of soul.

The land of Rohan had indeed once been but a northern province of Gondor, called Calenardhon ‘the Green Region’. Its borders were the Gap and the Fords of Isen (in the west), the river Limlight (in the north), the Mouths of Entwash (in the east) and the White Mountains (in the south). But the province became depopulated during the long wars of the Third Age, and by the twenty-sixth century few folk dwelt there. In 2510 Calenardhon was threatened from the east by a host of Balchoth and Orcs which crossed the Anduin north of the Limlight, and the Army of Gondor sent to contain the invasion was defeated and forced to retreat into an untenable position. But at the eleventh hour the Northmen of Éothéod, allies of the Dúnedain, arrived after a great ride down all the leagues of Wilderland and scattered the invaders with a great cavalry charge; for these Northmen were well mounted, and equipped as heavy cavalry, and their onslaught was too great for any Orcs or Easterlings to withstand. In gratitude for the Riders’ heroism, the Ruling Steward of Gondor ceded Calenardhon which they had saved to the Riders; they named their realm the Riddermark, ‘Land-of-the-knights’ in their own Northern tongue. In Gondor it was called Rohan.

It was a fair and generous country, fertile and level for the most part, and ideal for the rearing and breeding of horses because of its grassland. The Riders were famed for their skill with their great steeds, and their herds and studs prospered in the years which followed the victory at the Field of Celebrant. The Rohirrim dwelt mainly in the West-emnet (the East-emnet was low-lying and marshy) and lived scattered in small settlements out upon the great wold, following the herds as they moved from pasture to pasture. Their chief town and capital was Edoras (The Courts’), built in the days of their second King upon a green hill at the feet of the northern range of the White Mountains. There the Kings of the Mark dwelt, save in wartime, when the royal household moved to Dun-harrow, an ancient fortress-plateau in the Mountains. The chief stronghold in the west of the land was the Hornburg.

Yet it was not a country easily defended against attack, not even by the valour of the Riders. The alliance with Gondor indeed benefited both realms alike, and on many occasions aid rendered by one to the other preserved both; for both countries shared the same enemies: Orcs, Easterlings, pirates from the South, Wild Men of the hills and, of course, Sauron of Mordor. All of these at times invaded Rohan during the later years of the Third Age, and on a few occasions Rohan was gravely threatened. But its lack of centralisation and its scattered people made the land difficult to occupy or subdue.

But during the War of the Ring the peril lay in the West, from the Wizard Saruman, and not in the East, where Sauron at first contented himself with physically severing the five-hundred-year alliance between the peoples; but Saruman was overcome and Sauron’s screening armies were outflanked and the Riders of Rohan arrived in time to prevent the fall of Minas Tirith and the inevitable later destruction of their own land and its works.

In the Fourth Age which followed the Passing of Sauron the fair land of Rohan prospered and healed the ravages of war, and new links were forged between its people and the Dúnedain; for each realm, more than ever, valued the old alliance; and the peoples grew closer than ever before.

Roheryn ‘Horse-of-the-Lady’ (Sind.) – The horse of Aragorn II, Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North, brought to him in Rohan during the War of the Ring by his kinsmen. He had been given to Aragorn by Arwen Evenstar. See also HASUFEL.

Rohirrim ‘Masters-of-Horses’ (Sind.) – The Riders of Rohan.

Rómen – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘East’; also the title of Tengwa number 25, which was used for the sound of full (trilled) r. It was also used, as a symbol, to indicate the direction East, even among peoples unaware of the full Fëanorian Alphabet.

Rómendacil I – From 492–541 Third Age, the eighth King of Gondor. His birth-name was Tarostar. He was the son of Ostoher, who rebuilt the city of Minas Anor, and during whose reign the South-kingdom was first attacked by Easterlings. Tarostar captained the armies which defeated the Easterlings (and which incidentally gained Gondor much territory beyond the Anduin), and as a result of his victories took the royal name Rómendacil (‘East-victor’) when he succeeded his father as King of Gondor. After a reign of 49 years he was slain in battle with an Easterling people, and was succeeded by his own son Turambar.

Rómendacil II From 1304–66 Third Age, the nineteenth King of Gondor; he was one of the greatest men in her long history. Born Minalcar, he was son to Calmacil who was brother of Narmacil, the seventeenth King. Both his uncle and father were effete men, weak aesthetes who were seemingly content to delegate (or abdicate) the onerous burdens of Kingship. When Narmacil died he was succeeded by Calmacil, and Minalcar served as Regent to both (from 1240–1304) before attaining the Silver Crown in his own right after the death of his father. His first challenge came eight years after he assumed the Regency. Observing that fresh hordes of Easterlings were preparing to assault Gondor, he made alliance with Northmen of Rhovanion, and defeated the enemies in a great battle east of that land. He then took the name Rómendacil (‘East-victor’). Learning that his alliance had not been as stable as he might have wished, he took it upon himself to improve relations between the Northmen and the Dúnedain, and to this end invited many of his allies to come and dwell in Gondor. This move caused a certain amount of unrest among the Dúnedain. At the same time the energetic Regent fortified the west shore of Anduin as far north as the Emyn Muil, and built the Argonath (the Pillars of the Kings) at the entrance to Nen Hithoel as a sign of Gondor’s northernmost border.

Shortly afterwards, Rómendacil sent his son Valacar to Rhovanion, to dwell with the mightiest of their princes; for he had foreseen that Gondor needed to strengthen still further the alliance with the Northmen; he could hardly have foreseen that his son would marry a woman of that race. At all events, he came to the Kingship in his own right after the death of Calmacil and ruled for a further 62 years, leaving a realm with robustly fortified frontiers and a fatal seed buried in its heart. See also KIN-STRIFE.

Rómenna ‘East-home’ (Q.) The chief eastern harbour of Númenor, part of the Arandor or King’s Land. In the days of the twenty-second King, Ar-Gimilzôr, this city and province was swelled by an influx of political exiles: the Faithful, uprooted by edict from their old homes in Andúnië and sent to the east of the land. (The most illustrious of these was Amandil, last Lord of Andúnië and kinsman of the king.) From the harbour of Rómenna the fleet of nine ships set sail on the day of the Downfall, to survive the wild waters and so come back to Middle-earth in exile.

Roper – A family of Shire-hobbits, descended, like the Gamgees, from old Wiseman Gamwich, who removed from the village of the same name to Tighfield in the Northfarthing, in the century preceding the War of the Ring. Wiseman’s son Hob (‘Old Gammidgy’) adopted the trade of rope-weaving; and this craft had become well enough established a generation later for Hob’s son Hobson to be nicknamed Roper Gamgee. The Tighfield Gammidges (now calling themselves Ropers) prospered in following years, with Hobson’s son Andwise (‘Andy’) continuing the family trade.

Roper Gamgee – See previous entry.

Rorimac ‘Goldfather’ Brandybuck – From 2963–3008 Third Age (1363–1408 Shire Reckoning), the Master of Buckland. He was renowned for his wealth, as well as for his love of good food and wine. His grandson was Meriadoc Brandybuck.

Rose Gamgee – The eldest daughter of Farmer Tolman (‘Tom’) Cotton of Bywater, and the wife of Samwise Gamgee, Hero of the Shire. She wedded Sam in 1420 Shire Reckoning and bore him thirteen children in the years that followed, of whom the eldest was Elanor the Fair. She died after a long and happy life in 1482 Shire Reckoning; a few weeks afterwards Samwise left the Shire and passed West over Sea.

Rothinzil ‘Foam-flower’ (Adûn.) – See VINGILOT.

Rowlie Appledore – A Man of Bree, killed in a skirmish with outlaws during the early part of 3019 Third Age.

Ruby Gamgee – The eleventh child and sixth daughter of Samwise and Rose Gamgee.

Ruling Ring – The Great Ring of Sauron the Great, Lord of Mordor; it mastered all the other RINGS OF POWER. From the middle years of the Second Age, when it was made, until the end of the Third, when it was at last destroyed, it was the single greatest peril in a world full of dangers; and when it was consumed in the Fires of Doom its passing brought about the fading of the power of all other Rings. Apart from the Silmarils of the First Age, it was the most potent artefact ever wrought. Its maker was Sauron himself.

By strange chance most of the Ruling Ring’s history is known – at least, its history after it was taken by force from Sauron’s own hand at the end of the Second Age by Isildur son of Elendil. Isildur intended the Great Ring of the Enemy (which had burned him fiercely when he first seized it) to become an Heirloom of the North-kingdom of Arnor, but he himself lost it when ambushed at the Gladden Fields in Year 2 Third Age. In his hour of need the Ring abandoned him and it afterwards lay on a river-bed for over two thousand years, quiescent, while, in the world above, its Master slowly awakened to strength once more.

By the twenty-fifth century of the Third Age the Ring was no longer inert – stirred up, maybe, by the strengthening emanations from Dol Guldur – and it revealed itself to a simple riverside fisher, a creature of Hobbit-kind called Déagol. He was almost instantly dispossessed of it by a murderous crony, Sméagol (Gollum), who retreated with the precious object to a forlorn sanctuary deep in the bowels of the Misty Mountains. There he (and it) remained until the thirtieth century of the Age, for by that time it had become apparent that the Purpose was no longer being served by the degenerate creature. It then ensnared a passing traveller, another Hobbit of different race called Bilbo Baggins, who luckily took little harm from the encounter and returned with the Ring to the Shire of his home, unaware that what he bore in his pocket was the Peril of the world.

Bilbo continued to possess the Ring – although he seldom found use for its more obvious properties – for many years in the Shire; indeed his life was greatly lengthened by it. In 3001 he departed his homeland and (with some effort, for the Ring was beginning to wear him down) left the prized object to his nephew and ward Frodo Baggins, together with the rest of his estate. Frodo, already aware that all was not as it should be with this mysterious and wonderful ring, continued to guard it nonetheless until the year 3018, when for the first time the real history of his Heirloom was revealed to him.

Little more need be said of the Ring. It was borne into Mordor by Frodo and his companion Samwise, and there it was cast into the fires of the volcano Orodruin, where alone in Middle-earth it could be destroyed. With its passing its ancient hold over the other surviving Rings of Power was loosed, and the bond of their being was snapped. They faded, and with them all that had been wrought with them during an Age or more. This was the lasting achievement of the Great Ring.

Ruling Stewards – The name given in the lore of Gondor to the family of the House of Húrin, hereditary Stewards of Gondor and Counsellors to the Kings, who themselves ruled the South-kingdom from 2050–3019 Third Age after the failing of the Line of Anárion and before the restoration of the Line of Elendil (by Aragorn II). The first Steward to rule was Mardil Voronwë, son of Vorondil (the Hunter), who took office after the death of King Eärnur to prevent a clash among the Dúnedain over the succession.

Although none of the Ruling Stewards at any time claimed the Throne for the House of Húrin, after many years their formal Oath of Office – in which they swore to rule ‘until the King shall return’ – ceased to carry other than a symbolic meaning, and they acted as Kings in all but name. Their dynastic banner – a plain standard of silver with no device or distinguishing emblem – flew from the White Tower where once the White Tree of Elendil had fluttered, and the Stewardship passed from father to eldest son in the manner of kingly houses. The Heir of the Ruling Steward was habitually accorded the rank of Captain of the Host of Gondor, and as a token of his rank to come bore the chief heirloom of the House: a wild ox-horn worked with silver.

The Ruling Stewards of Gondor were: Mardil, Eradan, Herion, Belegorn, Húrin I, Túrin I, Hador, Barahir, Dior, Denethor I, Boromir, Cirion (the longest to rule), Hallas, Húrin II, Belecthor I, Orodreth, Ecthelion I, Egalmoth, Beren, Beregond, Belecthor II, Thorondir, Túrin II, Turgon, Ecthelion II and Denethor II, the twenty-sixth and last. After the passing of Denethor the rule of Gondor reverted to the King, although the Stewards continued to serve in their old capacity of hereditary counsellors and nobles of the Realm.

Rúmil of Tirion – One of the Noldor of Eldamar, a precursor of Fëanor. He was the first great Elven-poet, and is credited with the composition of the Ainulindalë. But Rúmil is perhaps better remembered as the sage who devised the earliest known system of writing, the Tengwar (‘Letters’), which were later re-ordered and – arranged by Fëanor, and in the end came to be more closely associated with him than with their original inventor.

Runes – A translation of the Quenya word Certar (or of the Sindarin Cirth), referring in general to any incised forms of inscriptive writing, but in particular to the various alphabets developed by the Grey-elves (and later by other folk) during the First and Second Ages. The Eldarin runic system devised in Beleriand during the Elder Days was known as the ALPHABET OF DAERON or the Certhas Daeron, and was older by far than all the others, although less ancient than the Tengwar (‘letters’).9