Talan (pl. Telain) – The name given by the Galadhrim (Tree-elves) of Lothlórien to the dwelling-platforms (or flets) which they were accustomed to build amid the branches of the Mallorn-trees in their land. It is Sindarin in form.

Talath Dirnen ‘Guarded Plain’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Elves of Nargothrond – and later by the Men of Brethil – to the region of empty moorland which lay between the rivers Narog and Teiglin, in West Beleriand. It was so-called because it was accounted the north march of the Realm of Nargothrond, and was accordingly frequently patrolled by Elves of that kingdom, in peace and war.

Talath Rhûnen ‘East Vale’ (Sind.) – The oldest Elven-name for the land of THARGELION.

‘The Tale of Adanel’ – The legend of the Fall of Man, in the days before the Edain crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand; as repeated by ANDRETH of the First House to Finrod of the Eldar in the debate remembered as the ATHRABETH FINROD AH ANDRETH. The tale, attributed to ADANEL of the Third House, deals with Men’s slow emergence from ignorance, the way in which Melkor corrupted and enslaved them, and the revolt and flight of some of them (the Edain) from his domain. But unlike the Elves, when they reached the coasts of the Sea, they could go no further.1

‘The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen’ – A manuscript written in Gondor during the later second century of the Fourth Age by Steward Barahir of Emyn Arnen, who was the grandson of Faramir, Prince of Ithilien and Steward to King Elessar (Aragorn II). As its title indicates, the text deals chiefly with the life, hopes and eventual triumphs of Aragorn II, Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North who, in his eighty-eighth year, became the first King of both Gondor and Arnor since Elendil himself; and with his long betrothal to the Lady who later became his Queen: Arwen Undómiel, Evenstar of her people and only daughter of Elrond of Rivendell. The union of Aragorn and Arwen was of deep historical significance to both the Eldar of Middle-earth and their heirs, the Dúnedain of Arnor and Gondor. For by this means the two branches of the Peredhil (Half-elven) were reunited at last after more than five thousand years of separation (see LINES OF DESCENT). Moreover Aragorn, who at his birth was accounted merely sixteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain, was later to become Elessar Telcontar, the Renewer, first King of the Reunited Kingdom. But the granting of Arwen’s hand in marriage was made conditional on the securing of the High-kingship for his House, for reasons which are revealed in the Tale itself. He succeeded in this task and reigned in great glory and splendour until the Year 120 Fourth Age; and his dynasty was firmly established in the kingdom of Arnor and Gondor.

The much-abbreviated section of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen which appears in Appendix A was in origin added to the Thain’s Book by scribes of Gondor after the Passing of the King, and was afterwards incorporated into the later copy of that famous volume made by Findegil, King’s Writer, in the year 172 Fourth Age. The Thain’s Book was a copy of the Red Book of Westmarch, made by the Tooks at the request of the King and presented to him by Peregrin Took in Year 63; and Findegil’s copy (complete with authoritative correction and annotations) was presented to the Hobbits in return. In this way the Tale, in which Hobbits had played some part, came to the attention of Shire-scholars, and was afterwards incorporated in their Annals.

‘The Tale of Grief’ – An alternative name among Men for the NARN I HIN HÚRIN (Tale of the Children of Húrin).

The Tale of Years – A Chronology of the Third and early Fourth Ages, together with a much-abbreviated approximate chronology of the Second Age, which may be found in most translations from the Red Book of Westmarch in somewhat reduced form (see Appendix B). It was compiled at the request of Peregrin Took, thirty-second Thain of the Shire, by his descendants (who maintained links with Gondor, from which most of the material contained in the chronologies was derived).

The chronologies also include plentiful information supplied by Meriadoc Brandybuck, who kept in close touch with Rohan and as a consequence came to learn much of the history of the House of Eorl. Meriadoc also visited Rivendell on several occasions, and doubtless it was from the libraries of Rivendell that many of the (largely conjectural) dates for the Second Age were derived; for in Rivendell, even after the departure of Elrond, there were many Elves whose memories reached back into those distant times.

Taniquelassë – One of the FRAGRANT TREES of Númenor.

Taniquetil ‘High-white-peak’ (Q.) – One of the oldest names given by High-elves of Eldamar to that mountain known as Oiolossë.

Tar- ‘High [Royal]’ (Q. from orig. tara, ‘lofty’; fem. tari) – An ancient word-element in the High-elven tongue which was used as a royal name-prefix by all Kings and Queens of Númenor, excepting Vardamir (son of Elros) and five of the last six rulers who took Adûnaic – Ar-prefixed – names. It also occurs in the High-elven form of the (Sindarin) name Elbereth: Elentári ‘Star-queen’; it may likewise be found in many of the royal names adopted by rulers of Arnor and Gondor (e.g. Atanatar, Tarcil, Tarondor, Tarannon, Envinyatar), and in many other names besides.

See also AR(A).

Tarannon ‘Royal-gate’ (Q. +Sind.) – The birth-name of the twelfth King of Gondor, later known as Falastur, ‘Lord-of-the-Coasts’.

Taras – The westernmost of all the mountains of Middle-earth during the First Age. It was a promontory in the south-west of Nevrast, and looked over the Sea. On its slopes Turgon of the Noldor built his first dwelling in Middle-earth, the sea-facing halls of Vinyamar.

Tarcil – From 435–515 Third Age, the sixth King of Arnor.

Tarciryan ‘Royal-ships’ (Q.) – The younger brother of Tarannon (Falastur), who was twelfth King of Gondor and first of the fabled ‘Ship-kings’. Falastur was the first ruler of Gondor to die childless, and Tarciryan’s eldest son succeeded him (as Eärnil I).

Targon ‘Royal-stone’ (Sind.) – A Man of Gondor. During the War of the Ring he was a member of the Third Company of the Citadel Guard of Minas Tirith, in charge of the butteries and storehouses of that Company.

Tárion (Q.) – An alternative name for Valanya, the sixth and last day of the week in the Elvish Calendar of Imladris, and the seventh and last in the Kings’ Reckoning of Númenor and Middle-earth.

Tarkil – The original (as opposed to translated) name given in the Common Speech (the Westron) to a member of the race of Gondor. It appears to be a worn-down form of the Quenya word Tarcil. The epithet tark, used by some tribes of Orcs to mean a Man of Gondor, was doubtless a further debased version of tarkil.

Tarlang’s Neck – A narrow pass through a southern spur of the White Mountains, which opened the way from Morthond Vale to the province of Lamedon.

Tarmasundar ‘Roots of the Pillar’ (Q.) – The five ridges which were extensions of the mountain Meneltarma in Númenor.

Tarmenel ‘King-of-the-Heavens’ (Q.) – An Elvish poetic reference, possibly a term for Oiolossë, the highest of the Mountains of Valinor (the Pelóri). If this is so, then it may be assumed that the Meneltarma, highest mountain in Númenor, was named after this greater peak, as it bears a (subtly diminished) form of the same name.

Tarn Aeluin ‘Blue-mere’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Grey-elves and the Edain to a small lake in the centre of the Dorthonion highland, at the entrance of the shallow pass which led to Ladros. This name was remembered by the Edain for its associations with Barahir, and his twelve comrades, who based their guerrilla activities around this desolate place in the three years following the Dagor Bragollach.

Tarondor – From 515–602 Third Age, the seventh King of Arnor. Also the name of the twenty-seventh King of Gondor who ruled from 1636–1798 Third Age, longest to reign of all the Line of Anárion. He succeeded his uncle Telemnar, twenty-sixth King, who was slain, together with all his children, in the Great Plague of 1636 Third Age; and to Tarondor fell the arduous task of reordering the Realm. As many folk had fled from Osgiliath – which had been particularly ravaged by the pestilence – he removed the King’s Seat to Minas Anor, where he planted a seedling of the White Tree to replace that which had died during the Plague.

Tarostar ‘Royal-forts’ (Q.) – The birth-name of the eighth King of Gondor, later known as Rómendacil I.

Tasarinan – See NAN-TASARION.

Taurelilómëa, Tauremorna, Tauremornalómë ‘Forest-many-shadowed, Forest-of-darkness, Forest-black-shadowed’ (Q.) – Three somewhat discouraging terms for the ancient Forest of Fangorn, used by Treebeard the Ent in various chants and songs. They are all High-elven in form but Entish in style.

Taur e-Ndaedelos – See GREENWOOD THE GREAT.

Taur-en-Faroth ‘Forest of the Hunters’ (Sind.) – The name given in West Beleriand to the highlands which lay upon either side of the Narog, actually the westernmost outlier of the Andram. Deep underneath these tree-clad heights lay the caves of Nargothrond. Also called High Faroth.

Taur-im-Duinath ‘Forest-between-the-rivers’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Grey-elves of Beleriand to the great region of scrub and woodland, largely uninhabited except by individual wandering Wood-elves, which lay between the Bay of Balar and the lower reaches of the Gelion. The [two] rivers implied in the name are Gelion and Sirion.

Taur-na-Neldor Forest-of-Beeches (Sind.) – See NELDORETH.

Taur-nu-Fuin ‘Forest-under-Nightshade’ (Sind.) – See DORTHONION.

Tauron ‘The Forester’ (Q.) – One of the earliest names among the Eldar for the Vala OROMË THE GREAT.

Tawarwaith ‘Wood-elves’ (Sind.)

Ted Sandyman – The only son of the Hobbiton Miller, and by all accounts a rather ignorant and narrow-minded Hobbit. He was not over-friendly to Samwise and, during the War of the Ring and the Occupation of the Shire, was easily persuaded to abet the agents of Saruman. His eventual fate was never recorded, although there can be little doubt that his later relations with local Hobbits were somewhat strained, to say the least.

Teeth of Mordor – The Towers of the Teeth, Narchost and Carchost.

Tehta (pl. tehtar) ‘Sign’ (Q.) – The tehtar were an informalised series of diacritic marks used in the Fëanorian alphabet for many purposes, which differed according to the language or ‘mode’ of writing employed. The Fëanorian Alphabet (the TENGWAR) was, of course, fully phonetic, and vowels were held to be merely modifications of consonants; these modifications were shown by using the tehtar in conjunction with the necessary consonantal symbols. Later these marks came to stand for certain consonantal combinations, guides to stress and pronunciation, and as abbreviations for whole words or elements.

Note: for examples of the ‘full’ Fëanorian writing (i.e. incorporating the tehtar vowel-substitutes) see inscriptions on the title-pages of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and the second inscription under the entry ALPHABET OF FËANOR.

Teiglin – One of the largest rivers of West Beleriand; it was a tributary of Sirion, rising from three sources in the southern slopes of Ered Wethrin. Like all the rivers of Beleriand, the Teiglin flowed southerly for many leagues before turning east, south of the Forest of Brethil, to join the Sirion. From source to confluence it was fifty leagues long. For the second half of its journey the Teiglin was a single great rapid, flowing through deep gorges called the Ravines of Teiglin. (The highest of these cliffs was CABED-EN-ARAS.)

Telchar – A great Dwarf-smith of the First Age; he dwelled in the city of Nogrod in the Blue Mountains, most renowned of all the craftsmen of that city. He is chiefly remembered as the maker of the sword Narsil (Andúril) and the dagger Angrist, which Beren used to cut the Silmaril from the Iron Crown of Morgoth.

Telco – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘stem’, but more properly the title of one of the two primary brush-strokes upon which most of the Fëanorian Tengwar (‘letters’) were constructed. Each telco was vertical, and its size and position relative to the central line of the ‘stave’ indicated the tyelle or ‘grade’ of the letter, i.e. its phonetic series. See also LUVA.

Telcontar ‘Strider’ (Q.) – The dynastic name adopted by King Elessar (Aragorn II) after his accession to the Throne of the Reunited Kingdom in 3019 Third Age. Curiously, two of Aragorn’s royal names – Elessar (‘Elf-stone’) and Telcontar – were chosen for him in their original forms by folk later to become his subjects, which may explain his later reluctance to abandon either of them. Aragorn was also known as Envinyatar, ‘The Renewer’ (Q.).

Telemmaitë (Tar-Telemmaitë) – From 2386–2526 Second Age, the fifteenth King of Númenor. With him the royal prerogative of surrendering the Sceptre to an Heir before death altogether ceased.

Telemnar – From 1634–36 Third Age, the twenty-sixth King of Gondor. He died, together with all of his children and many of his people, when the Great Plague swept across Gondor in 1636. His successor, his nephew Tarondor, removed the royal seat from plague-stricken Osgiliath to Minas Anor.

Teleri ‘Hindmost’ (Q.) – The name given by the first two kindreds of the ancient Eldar to the third of their peoples formerly known as Lindar ‘the Singers’, during the Great Journey from Cuiviénen to the Sea; for this Third Kindred of the Eldar were always last on the line of march. But they were also the largest of the Kindreds. From the Teleri came many subdivisions of the Eldar. For the Vanyar (the First Kindred) and the Noldor (the Second) held together in a body throughout the Journey, but the Teleri journeyed more slowly, frequently fragmenting – so that by the time the Noldor had returned to Middle-earth, three Ages later, the Teleri had long become diversified into three quite distinct peoples: the Falmari of Eldamar; the Sindar (or ‘Grey-elves’) of Beleriand; and the Nandor of Wilderland and Eriador (with further subdivisions of the Sindar and the Nandor to reckon into the account). At the outset of the Great Journey none of these divisions had yet taken place. The Lindar were led in those early days by two lords, the brothers Elwë and Olwë. But almost from the first they lagged, for one reason or another, despite Elwë’s impatience to return to the Far West (which he had already visited); and by the time the Host had reached Wilderland it had become dispersed along the line of march.

Hindmost of all was a large clan led by a certain Lenwë; these turned aside from the Journey while still east of the Misty Mountains, vanishing out of the affairs of the Eldar of Middle-earth and Eldamar. They were called Nandor, ‘Those-who-turn-back’. (From them later came the Laiquendi or ‘Green-elves’ of Ossiriand.) The second sundering of the Teleri came about in Beleriand. Having crossed the last mountain-range which lay between them and the Sea, the re-united Eldar of the Journey lingered for a while in this country, while their erstwhile Guide (the Vala Oromë) passed across the Sea to consult with the remainder of the Valar in Valimar. During this period Elwë was lost. And soon afterwards the remainder of the Eldar, save only the Teleri, passed across the Sea, leaving the Third Kindred behind in Middle-earth. Olwë brother of Elwë then became Lord of all this people, and dwelled by the Sea. Still Elwë was not found, and once more the call came from Valinor for the Teleri to forsake Middle-earth and join their kindred in the Undying Lands; and after delaying as long as possible, Olwë sadly led the greater part of his people across the Sea. But he departed without a portion of his kindred, those who would not be parted from Elwë, and who refused to believe him dead (see EGLATH). These were the Sindar, the ‘Grey-elves’ (as they were later called by the Exiles); and from them came in time the Falathrim, the Coast-elves whose lord was Círdan. But soon afterwards Elwë appeared again among his people, and founded a realm in Doriath, and there most of the Grey-elves dwelt, save only those who preferred the wandering life, or who loved the sound of the Sea, and dwelled with Círdan in the Havens of Eglarest and Brithombar.

But the vanguard of the Teleri, led now by Olwë alone, passed safely across the Great Sea and came to the Bay of Eldamar; there they stayed their journey – at the plea of the Sea-Maia Ossë – and the island which had transported them was rooted in the waters of the Bay, and never moved again. This was now named Tol Eressëa, the ‘Lonely Isle’, and upon it the people of Olwë dwelled for many centuries, growing wise beyond all other Elves in the ways of the Sea. Only much later did they build ships and come to the shores of Aman, to be reunited at last with the Vanyar and the Noldor. Olwë afterwards made his dwelling at Alqualondë.

The Teleri therefore ‘straddle’ the Eldarin race-classification system. (Indeed, they created most of the differences which necessitated the devising of the system in the first place.) The people of Olwë, the Falmari of Eldamar, are accounted both Calaquendi and Amanyar; but the Sindar and Nandor are named Úmanyar, while the Nandor, alone of all the Eldar, are classed, together with the Avari, as Moriquendi. For the greater part of this people never came to Aman, and dwindled with the passing years to become ‘a rustic folk of dell and cave’.2

Telperiën (Tar-Telperiën) – From 1556–1731 Second Age, the second Ruling Queen (and tenth ruler) of Númenor. She never wedded or had issue, and on her death (for she did not resign the Sceptre as was the custom) the kingship passed to a nephew (Tar-Minastir).

Telperion – The Eldest of Trees, one of the TWO TREES raised, by the Vala Queen Yavanna, on the Mound of Ezellohar at the Beginning of Days, to illuminate the land of the Valar.

Telumehtar ‘Warrior-of-the-sky’ (Q.) – The older of the two High-elven names for that constellation of stars known to Men of later times as Orion. Its later Quenya name was Menelmacar ‘Swordsman-of-the-Heavens’ (from which the Grey-elven word Menelvagor, which carried the same meaning, was derived).

Also the name of the twenty-eighth King of Gondor, who reigned from 1798–1850 Third Age. He was the son of Tarondor (the longest to reign of all the kings) but he inherited a realm which, if internally somewhat stronger than in his father’s day, was militarily weaker, due to the lingering effects of the Great Plague of 1636. By the time Telumehtar came to the Throne, enemies of the Dúnedain were already stirring once more, and the Corsairs of Umbar, led by descendants of Castamir the Usurper, were again attacking and pillaging the long and vulnerable coastlines of Anfalas and Belfalas. Indeed, these pirates had long gone unpunished for the death of King Minardil, which had taken place nearly two centuries earlier. Accordingly Telumehtar assembled a great fleet and took Umbar by storm in 1810, and in that savage encounter the last descendants of Castamir were slain. Telumehtar afterwards took the royal title Umbardacil (‘Victor-of-Umbar’), but Gondor was not to retain the Haven for long: before many years had passed it had fallen into the hands of the Men of Harad, who afterwards wielded all the sea-power of the Corsairs.

Telumendil – The name of one of the constellations created by Varda (Elbereth).

Téma– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘series’; also the name used in the Fëanorian Alphabet (the Tengwar) for each of the four subdivisions into which all of the primary letters (nos. 1–24) were arranged. The Alphabet of Fëanor being fully phonetic, these groupings indicated the point of articulation, and each had six separate (but related) consonant symbols arranged according to ‘grade’. Each of these carried a lúva (‘bow’) denoting the téma to which it belonged; for example, those in Series I (tincotéma) bore ‘open’ bows on the right of the letter-stem, while in Series IV (quessetéma) the bows, whether single or doubled, were all to the left of the stem and were closed by a horizontal stroke. The names of the four témar were as follows: I (tincotéma), the dental series; II (parmatéma), the labial series; III (calmatéma), the k-series, and IV (quessetéma), the labialised series. The High-elves also possessed a palatal series of sounds (tyelpetéma) which was not found in the Fëanorian Alphabet, so to indicate consonants of this sort they used the quessetéma (Series IV) reinforced with a tehta meaning ‘following y’. Series III (the calmatéma) was then used for the labialised consonants (kw-, gw-, hw- etc.).

Tengwar – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘letters’; more properly the name used for the cursive phonetic alphabet devised during the Elder Days by the Elf Rúmil and later revised and almost completely reconstructed by Fëanor of the Noldor.

It is primarily essential to remember that the Tengwar were designed to form a fully phonetic system of writing when incorporated into a single alphabet, unlike our modern alphabets which are based for the most part on linguistic principles which are only partly phonetic. Using the Tengwar one may devise a system of lettering to fit almost any language which produces sounds by means of breath impacting upon vocal cords, and which articulates and controls those sounds by means of palate, teeth, lips and tongue.

Because of this very singular versatility, the Tengwar of Fëanor, which were brought to Middle-earth by High-elves exiled from the Undying Lands in the First Age, were adopted by other races, the-first being the Grey-elves, who made changes of their own (see MODE OF BELERIAND). Men also learned the system, afterwards taking it to Númenor, where it was prized as an alphabet of high lore and ceremony. From Númenor the Tengwar were brought back once more to Middle-earth, and were used in houses of learning in both Gondor and Arnor during the Third Age. For the Elvish letters could always be adapted to the Mannish tongues of the westlands, and could be used even for Dwarvish speech. (Four individual tengwar indeed later came to symbolise the points of the compass, even on maps drawn by folk unfamiliar with the rest of the alphabet.)

The Tengwar of Fëanor were 24 in number, with a further 12 ‘extra’ letters of flexible purpose. The 24 were arranged in four ‘series’ (témar) of letters, cross-divided into six ‘grades’ (tyeller). The series represented degrees of ‘voice’ and the grades stood for modes and points of articulation. Each tengwa could therefore be located by means of phonetic principles, and furthermore bore a proper name or title, which often contained an example of the consonant in question. Vowels were indicated by means of tehtar, ‘signs’, written diacritically in association with the consonant to be modified.

Naturally enough, many peoples who learned the Tengwar of Fëanor afterwards developed characteristic combinations of letters to suit their own speech (e.g. in the disposition of the tehtar in the Mode of Beleriand), while others reallocated some of the tengwar according to their own purposes. The system explained above was the most usual in Middle-earth during the late Third Age.

Thain – The title given to the titular chief of the Shire by the Hobbits who dwelt there. The role of the Thain was that of a Chief Executive appointed to hold the King’s authority; at times of emergency he also commanded the Shire-muster and the Shire-moot. In short, his authority began where that of the Mayor ended.

The first Thain of the Shire was Bucca of the Marish, appointed in 379 Shire Reckoning – five years after the fall of the North-kingdom – to represent the King’s person. Bucca’s descendants, the Oldbuck clan, inherited the title which afterwards became completely hereditary; but in 740 Shire Reckoning the Oldbucks migrated eastward across the Baranduin to found the Buckland, and the Thainship passed to the equally eminent Took family. The first Took to become Thain was Isengrim I; he was the thirteenth holder of the office since Bucca, and the first of a long and illustrious line of Took-thains.

At the time of the War of the Ring the serving Thain of the Shire was Paladin II, father of Peregrin Took, the thirty-first to hold the Office since Bucca. He played a valiant part in resisting the occupation of the Shire by Saruman’s agents, although such power as he possessed could effect little more than a stubborn defence of the Tookland. The return of his son Peregrin, together with his Companions, enabled Paladin to take the offensive in the Southfarthing against the stray gangs of Men who were to be found there, and these he dispatched to the borders with little difficulty. Paladin was succeeded in 1434 Shire Reckoning (Year 13 Fourth Age) by Peregrin, who then became the thirty-second Thain of the Shire as well as The Took. Fifty years later, when Peregrin finally departed the Shire, he passed the thainship to his son Faramir.

Thain’s Book – A copy of the original Red Book of Westmarch, made in Great Smials by Took-scribes of Thain Peregrin I at the request of King Elessar (Aragorn II). It was afterwards taken to Gondor by Peregrin when he retired there in Year 63 Fourth Age, and after his death received much annotation (and correction) by loremasters of Gondor. This revised copy was again copied, some fifty years after the Passing of the King, and the new volume was presented to the descendants of Peregrin, probably by King Eldarion, the son of Aragorn and Arwen. But the original Thain’s Book was kept ever after in Gondor.

Thalion ‘Steadfast’ (Sind.) – See HÚRIN THALION.

Thalos – One of the six tributaries of the river Gelion.

Thangail ‘Shield-wall’ (Sind., from Q. sandastan ‘shield-barrier’) – A defensive military evolution practised by the Númenoreans; the creation on command of a linked barrier of shields to prevent the ingress of an attacking enemy.

Thangorodrim ‘Mountains of Tyranny’ (Sind.) – The name of the chain of grim peaks raised above the Gates of Angband by Morgoth, after the theft of the Silmarils and his return to Middle-earth. There were three such mountains, and they were constructed of the ash and slag brought to the surface by the delvers of Angband. Dark smoke hung about them; and they could be seen even from afar, an ever-present reminder (to the Noldor) of the menace which brooded in the North. Thangorodrim was destroyed in the tumults of the Great Battle.

Tharbad ‘Cross-way’ (Literally thara-pata, Sind.) – A town on the borders of Enedhwaith and southern Eriador, founded by Númenorean mariners during the later Second Age. It was the centre of the extensive logging operation mounted by the Dúnedain at this period, the wood being required for shipbuilding. This wholesale despoliation of the great woods of Minhiriath angered the woodmen who dwelt there, descendants of the Haladin of the First Age; for this reason Tharbad was fortified. It stood upon either side of the river Greyflood (Gwathló), and where once the road had forded the stream there was now a great bridge.

The town did not survive the wars of the early Third Age. Arnor fell, and Gondor withdrew from north of the White Mountains, and the lands between Fornost and Isengard grew wild and desolate. Nonetheless, Tharbad was probably not altogether abandoned until after the Great Plague of 1636, the effects of which were especially severe in Enedhwaith and Minhiriath. But by the time of the War of the Ring the town was totally deserted and ruinous, and its bridge broken down; and only folk who desired to ford the Greyflood – a dangerous exercise – ever went near the place. So far as is known, Tharbad was not rebuilt in the Fourth Age.

Thargelion ‘Land-beyond-Gelion’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Noldorin Exiles to the region which lay between the river Gelion, the border of East Beleriand, and the Blue Mountains, bordered in the north by Mount Rerir and in the south by the river Ascar. (Previously it had been known, to the Grey-elves of Beleriand, as Talath Rhúnen, the ‘East Vale’ of Thingol’s domain.) Forty leagues separated the mountain in the north from the river in the south, and thirty leagues of open country, partially wooded, lay between the Gelion and the Ered Luin.

Following the return of the Noldor, and the initial victories against Morgoth, this region was taken by Caranthir (one of the sons of Fëanor) as his realm, and accordingly became known as Dor Caranthir, ‘Caranthir’s Land’. It was at this time that the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains again began trading across the mountains into Beleriand, and it was through Thargelion that their caravans and trading-parties travelled. Caranthir was thus the first of all the Noldor to encounter the Khazâd; and though he did not love them, he was too avaricious to relinquish the chance of acquiring wealth in this way. Tolls exacted on the Dwarves enriched Caranthir greatly. But after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad all the Elven-realms of the North were swept away, and Thargelion became infested by servants of Morgoth. At the ending of the Age only a remnant of this land survived, renamed Forlindon (‘North Lindon’) by the Eldar.

Tharkûn ‘Staff-bearer’ (Khuz.) – The name by which the wizard Gandalf the Grey was known to eastern Dwarves. Those of Durin’s Line called him Gandalf for the most part, for that was the old Wizard’s name among Northern Men, whose languages the Dwarves of Erebor habitually used.

Thellamie – A poetic invention in the Elvish style, though not in fact Elvish at all. It has been used (by Bilbo in his celebrated poem ‘Errantry’) as the name of a supposed Elf-kingdom.

Thengel – From 2953–80, the sixteenth King of Rohan, seventh of the Second Line of the House of Eorl. He was the youngest child and only son of Fengel, who was by all accounts a greedy and ill-tempered ruler, at constant loggerheads with his children. Doubtless because of Fengel’s unpleasant temperament, Thengel left Rohan after coming of age and passed south to the land of Gondor, where he later won renown and honour in his own right.

In his thirty-eighth year he met and wedded a Lady of the Dúnedain: Morwen of Lossarnach. She loved the tall Northerner and while in Gondor bore him three children: Théoden, the second child, was the only son. They continued to dwell in Gondor for some years but in 2953 Third Age Fengel of Rohan died at last, and the Rohirrim summoned Thengel, last of the House of Eorl, to return to the Mark. Reluctantly he left Gondor and passed north to the land of his childhood, and there became King. He reigned for twenty-seven years, and during this time his wife Morwen bore him two more children, of whom Théodwyn, the youngest sister of Théoden, was the last (born 2963).

However, during the reign of Thengel (which was for the most part wise and constructive, although the King made no secret of his affection for Gondor) a crisis came to the Mark, which Thengel was unable to resolve. Saruman the Wizard, long an ally of Gondor and the Mark, openly renounced his self-assumed Wardenship of Isengard and claimed the fortress as his own, even though he protested continuing friendship towards Rohan. This potential danger outlasted Thengel and grew to deadly proportions during the reign of his son, Théoden.

Note: it has been recorded (in The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen) that Aragorn II, sixteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain, disguised as a soldier of fortune, served Thengel of Rohan for some years as a captain of war. In this way Aragorn came to learn the language of the Rohirrim.

Théoden Ednew ‘The Renewed’ – From 2980–3019 Third Age, the seventeenth King of Rohan, the eighth – and last – of the Second Line of the Mark. Théoden was the only son of Thengel, and was born in Gondor before the death of his grandfather Fengel, whom he never knew. He was thus five years old when his father was summoned to rule the Rohirrim, and he was thirty-two when his own time came. In his youth Théoden was said to have been tall and no less proud than the greatest of his forebears, but tragedy struck at him during the middle years of his reign and he sank into a decline (which was later exacerbated by evil counsels). Nine years after he came to the kingship, his youngest (and most beloved) sister Théodwyn had wedded a Marshal of the Mark: Éomund of Eastfold; and although she bore him two children – Éomer and Éowyn – she sickened and died shortly after the turn of the century, leaving the children orphaned (for Éomund had been slain by Orcs one year before).

Théoden already had a son and heir of his own: Théodred, born during the early part of the King’s reign. But Théodred’s mother, the Queen Elfhild, had died in childbed. Therefore Théoden took his dead sister’s children under his care, calling them Son and Daughter. Yet while the sight of these children growing up might have rescued Théoden from the morass of his despond, the times were again growing perilous, and Saruman the White, the master of Isengard, was beginning to prove troublesome to the Rohirrim. Théoden he despised, for the old King was already defeated in spirit – or so it then seemed to all – and accordingly Saruman won over a certain man of Rohan, one Gríma son of Galmód, bidding him ensure that the King’s torpor and despondency continue. Gríma made himself powerful in Meduseld through guile and flattery, and during the years immediately before the War of the Ring played Saruman’s part and spoke with the Wizard’s voice. Théoden sank still further, and it seemed to those that watched that the days of the Mark were doomed.

For now the peril of Saruman loomed closer, and at last in 3018 open war broke over Westfold. Théoden’s heir Théodred was slain at the first Battle of the Fords of Isen (February 25th), and although Erkenbrand lord of Westfold continued to hold off the hosts of Isengard, it seemed that in the end nothing could save Rohan if her King would not. It is told elsewhere how, in the very nick of time, Gandalf the Grey and his three companions arrived at Edoras – on the very morning of the second battle at the Fords, where Erkenbrand was defeated and the Westfolders scattered in the darkness. But the power of Gandalf proved (not for the first time) greater than the spells of Saruman, and Gríma the Wormtongue was exposed as a traitor to the King and banished from the Mark. More importantly, Gandalf healed the aged King of his long sickness of spirit; indeed, Théoden was shown how the imagined feebleness of old age was, in his case, little more than a product of the oft-repeated whisperings of a turncoat. So rapidly did Théoden revive that later that same day he himself led the host of Edoras westward to the help of Erkenbrand.

There is little which needs to be added to the story of the heroic campaigns undertaken by the King of Rohan and his Riders during the War of the Ring. The reverses at the Isen were atoned for by a crushing victory over the armies of Isengard at Helm’s Deep (see BATTLE OF THE HORNBURG); and with the threat of Saruman eliminated the King was freed to lead the greater part of his Host to the aid of Minas Tirith in Gondor, besieged by her foes. Before he rode south he named Éomer his heir, and himself led no less than six thousand cavalry, with stores and spare horses, on the great ride through Eastfold and Anórien which saved Gondor – and the West – from destruction.

Indeed, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, greatest military encounter of the Third Age, may be said to have commenced with the classic cavalry charge executed by Théoden’s Six Thousand at dawn, March 17th, 3019 Third Age. The King personally led this onset, and was one of the first to fall; yet the account of his death leaves no impression that Théoden was anything but content with the manner of his ending. Before he passed away in the midst of the battle, he hailed Éomer as King of the Mark, and so died. Afterwards he was laid to honourable rest in the last barrow of the Second Line.

Théodred – The only son of King Théoden of Rohan. He was born in 2978 Third Age, the King’s Heir, and later became Second Marshal of the Mark. Yet he never came to the throne of Meduseld, for he was slain in his fortieth year while defending the borders of Rohan against attack. He fell at the first of the BATTLES OF THE FORDS OF ISEN, dying in the arms of the marshal Grimbold.

Théodwyn – The youngest sister of Théoden King of the Mark. She died in the year 3001 Third Age, shortly after her husband Éomund, and was greatly mourned by her brother the King. Théoden afterwards adopted her two children, Éomer and Éowyn.

‘There and Back Again’ – The title given (after much cogitation and indecision) by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to the narrative of his great adventure in the East, written by his own hand in the years following his triumphal return from Erebor. Bilbo completed the tale by the year 1401 Shire Reckoning, but contrived to keep his writings secret (except from his cousin Frodo) and took the manuscript away with him when he retired to Rivendell. He afterwards gave the complete work to Frodo; and the younger Hobbit completed the Tale of the Great Ring with a (longer) account of his own adventures. There and Back Again has been published in several different editions over the last sixty years under the title of The Hobbit, and it was the first tale concerning this people to become widely known.

Thingol Greycloak – The greatest King of the Eldar of Middle-earth during the First Age, the spouse of Melian the Maia, Lord of Doriath and High King of Beleriand; and father of Lúthien Tinúviel. With his younger brother Olwë, he led the Host of the Teleri on the Great Journey from Cuiviénen to the West of Middle-earth in the Elder Days. For nearly three Ages afterwards he reigned in Menegroth, his capital, in great glory and splendour, the only one of all the Eldar to wed with the race of Valinor, being also accounted High King of all Elves East of the Sea; but in the end he became enmeshed in the Doom of the Silmarils, and disaster came upon his house, and he was slain in his own halls before the Elder Days had passed. But his Line survived; and though Doriath was ruined and Beleriand was drowned under the Sea, this descent passed on through many generations of Elves and Men, and indeed survived until the Fourth Age: for so it had long been prophesied.

His Quenya name was Elwë (Elu in the Sindarin tongue), but he was known in later days as Singollo (from the older form Sindacollo) ‘Grey-cloak’, of which the Grey-elven form is Thingol; and together with his brother Olwë, he was the ruler of the Third Kindred of the Eldar, the Lindar (later called Teleri) at Cuiviénen. Elwë was one of the three Kings of the Eldar (the other two were Ingwë of the Vanyar and Finwë of the Noldor) who were taken to Valinor by Oromë the Vala, and afterwards persuaded their respective peoples to make the Great Journey out of Middle-earth. So began the march into the West, and though the Teleri were always last in the line of march, this was chiefly because of the great size of their host; and it is not recorded that Elwë was anything other than impatient to return to Valinor and once again behold the Light which shone over that distant and blessed land.

Yet he was fated to come there never again while his life lasted. When at long last the Third Kindred came across the Blue Mountains into Beleriand – by now somewhat reduced in number – Elwë, wandering abroad in the unpeopled woods of that fairest of mortal lands, was lost to his people for a time; and during that time the other Eldarin kindreds forsook Middle-earth and passed into the West – without him, for they believed him dead. Yet it was not so: Elwë had not been in peril, but been under an enchantment of love; and after a while he came forth from the woods with his bride – to learn that most of the Eldar, including his own brother Olwë, had already departed into the West. Only a portion of the Teleri had lingered in Beleriand, and these were those who had not believed him dead. Thingol then renounced any desire to pass West, and made his domain in Beleriand, eldest and greatest of all Elves on Hither Shores. His followers dwelt for the most part with him, in Doriath – the great forested region in central Beleriand wherein he made his realm; or wandered the empty lands. But all acknowledged his lordship and obeyed his decrees; for of all of them, Elwë Thingol was the only one who had ever beheld the Light of Valinor, a memory of which now abode with him in Doriath.

Thingol’s bride was the Lady Melian of the Maiar; and after a time she bore him a daughter, Lúthien; and his joy was complete. Never again while his life lasted was Thingol to reach such a pinnacle of bliss. For although Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the Elves, and although Thingol’s people loved her as greatly as they revered Thingol himself, far across the Sea the will of Morgoth was once more awake after two Ages of imprisonment; and in Middle-earth echoes of his dark thought were at work among the ruined strongholds of the North.

At first little of this was felt in Thingol’s domain, but Melian, sensing the evil, foresaw the dangers which must follow. Taking her counsel Thingol sought the aid of the Dwarves, who built him an underground city and palace, after the fashion of their own deep-delved homes. This hidden citadel of great strength (and beauty; for Elves also had a part in its making) was named Menegroth, the Thousand Caves; and it stood under a hill on the southern bank of the enchanted river Esgalduin, in the middle of Doriath. Thingol and his court and people went and dwelled there, and it became the fairest palace of any King of the Eldar east of the Sea.

An Age passed. Across the Sea, Morgoth’s imprisonment came to an end; and the Valar released him from the Halls of Mandos. Almost straightaway he began to plot and scheme for the downfall of his former enemies; for his repentance was only feigned. And after a while he had struck a deadly blow at the Valar and the Eldar; and then he came flying back across the Sea to Middle-earth, to build anew his evil kingdom in the North; and with him he bore the three Silmarils of the Noldor. Immediately the evil creatures of Middle-earth were filled with new and deadly purpose. And before the ships of Fëanor had even set out in pursuit, the armies of Angband had struck at Beleriand. Thingol, though not altogether unprepared for war, was hard put to it. But although he won a great victory over the Orcs (with the aid of allies; see DENETHOR) in East Beleriand, in the West he was less successful, and his people who dwelled on the coasts (the Falathrim) were besieged, while Thingol himself was forced to withdraw into his impregnable citadel of Doriath. This scattered affray was afterwards called the First Battle of Beleriand, and it was the only one of the five such battles in which the King of Doriath took any part. Nonetheless, West Beleriand was soon cleared of Orcs – but by the Noldor, who had now returned to mortal lands in pursuit of Morgoth. And it was the valour and swords of the High-elves which threw the armies of Morgoth back into the North with great loss and kept them there for many centuries.

Nonetheless, the King of Beleriand was less than overjoyed at the coming of the Noldor; but he gave them leave to make realms in the North, so long as they did not interfere in the affairs of the Teleri. It was the Noldor who now called his people ‘Grey-elves’, though their name for the King of the Grey-elves, Singollo, had been given to Elwë long before, in the days when, with Olwë, he was the Lord of the Lindar. But as far as the more prideful among the Noldor were concerned, Thingol was merely King of Doriath; and though they did not at this time defy Thingol’s writ, they resented his attitude and, moreover, considered him an ingrate; for it had been their arms which had liberated West Beleriand from the Orcs, and not those of the Sindar. In this way seeds of mistrust were sown between the Noldor and the Sindar. And worse was to come; for after a time Thingol learned of the evil deeds of the Noldor in Eldamar, and of the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, in which many of his kinsmen had been cruelly cut down; and then he proscribed the Quenya tongue, and barred all save his close kin among the Noldor from Doriath. And he never came forth from Menegroth while his life lasted.

For Thingol, wisest of the Eldar in Middle-earth – and, moreover, counselled by Melian – now perceived that a curse lay upon the enterprises of the Noldor, and he vowed to have nothing to do with the war for the Silmarils. The Sons of Fëanor he named as his enemies; and he forbade his people to aid or serve them. For he still hoped to ride the storm. Yet doom came to him in the end, in the person of Beren of the Edain, who sought the hand of his beloved daughter Lúthien. Of that tale much is said elsewhere. By his own rash words, uttered in wrath and contempt, Thingol was ensnared in the trap of the Silmarils and brought under the Curse of Mandos: for he named them in desire, and in so doing set in motion a chain of events which ended in his own fall and in the ruin of his long-defended kingdom, oldest and fairest in Middle-earth. Against his every expectation, Beren succeeded in recovering a Silmaril from Angband, and it was brought to Doriath, and kept by Thingol in his hoard. And so his doom drew nearer. For, possessing it, his heart turned more and more towards it, and to its beauty; and in seeking to enhance this he made himself vulnerable to unforeseen perils.

For although Thingol was of a great and noble kind, and would not easily have fallen into evil by his own acts, he was lured into displaying the Jewel before those whose resistance to such attractions was not so stern. They, falling under the spell, also desired the Silmaril – and slew Thingol to acquire it. So he died. And though his Heir Dior son of Lúthien and Beren succeeded for a time in restoring Doriath and Menegroth to its former splendour, this was to prove but a brief sunset. After a few years Dior and most of his kin were also slain, and Doriath was ruined for a second time – and again it was lust for the Silmaril which brought about the disaster.

But the Silmaril itself survived, and with it the Line of Thingol Greycloak of Doriath, noblest in Middle-earth. Mingled with the descent from the Noldor and all three Houses of the Edain, it was carried across the Sea to Númenor as well as continuing unbroken in Middle-earth: Two Ages after Thingol’s death these two branches of his Line were re-united, in the wedding of Aragorn with Arwen daughter of Elrond – in whom, it was said, the likeness of Thingol’s daughter Lúthien again walked the earth. But Elwë Thingol himself was never seen again East of the Sea, by Elves or Men.

Third Age – The name given by the Elves and the Dúnedain to the period of 3,021 years between the first overthrow of Sauron the Great and the final Passing of the Three Rings, together with their Bearers, across the Sea to the Undying Lands.

The Third Age of Middle-earth was essentially an age of decline and transition, for after the victory of the Last Alliance the power of the Elves in Middle-earth was greatly diminished – and that of Men, their inheritors, greatly enhanced. Yet many Elves still lingered, especially in the North and in the great forests of Wilderland, while in the westlands the Realms in Exile grew to power.

For the first millennium there was peace in most lands, save for the expansionist wars fought by Gondor against her foes in the South and East, and it was not until the beginning of the second millennium that serious attempts were made to challenge the power of the Dúnedain. This period, from 1300 (the rise of Angmar) to 2002 (the fall of Minas Ithil), was grievous for the Númenorean Exiles, and although Gondor managed to withstand the many trials imposed upon her, the North-kingdom was swept away.

Scant years after the fall of Arthedain, the ancient Dwarf-city of Moria was finally captured by evil creatures, and Durin’s Folk were expelled from their ancestral home. Only the Elf-kingdoms survived the turmoils at the end of the second millennium, while Gondor lost some of her royalty and became an embattled state.

Yet the Third Age was also an age of great migrations and folk movements. The Men of Rhovanion emigrated to northern Wilderland, and later to Gondor; the Hobbits journeyed from Wilderland to Eriador and Dunland, and back to Eriador; while for many years successive hordes of Easterlings and Southrons attempted to occupy the fertile lands west of the Anduin. More ominously, the second millennium saw the reawakening of Sauron the Great, whom all had believed overthrown at the end of the previous Age; and the final years of the Third Age were dominated by his machinations.

Nonetheless the power of Gondor proved strong enough to withstand Sauron’s return to power, and with a final effort the Free Peoples, working in league, were able to accomplish his downfall at the very end of the Third Age. In this way the Elves were able to depart from mortal lands in peace, and so pass on their inheritance at last to the ‘Kings-of-Men’, whose reconstituted realms formed the foundation on which the Dominion of Men in the Fourth Age was built.

Third House (of the Edain) – The House of HADOR LÓRINDOL of Dor-lómin.

Third Line (of the Mark) – The Kings of Rohan after Théoden Ednew. Each time the direct line of descent (from Eorl the Young) was broken, a new line of mounds was begun in the Barrowfield of Edoras. Éomer, nephew of Théoden, was the first King of the Third Line.

Third Theme (of Ilúvatar) – According to the traditions of the Eldar, the Third Theme of the Great Song was that which dealt with the race of Atani, ‘the Secondborn’ (i.e. Men).

Thistle Brook – A stream of the Shire; it arose in the Green Hill Country and joined the river Shirebourn near Willowbottom.

Thistlewool – A family of Big Folk (Men) of Bree.

Thorin I – From 2190–2289 Third Age, the first king of the Dwarves of the Grey Mountains colony; it was he who led a great part of Durin’s Folk away from newly founded Erebor into the North.

Thorin (II) Oakenshield – From 2845–2941 Third Age, the King of Durin’s Folk in Exile, and for a brief period in the last year of his life (2941) the King Under the Mountain. He was the leader of the renowned expedition in which Smaug the Golden was destroyed and the Lonely Mountain freed from the Dragon’s dominion; and he was the last bearer of the Elf-sword Orcrist.

Thorin was born in Erebor in 2746, the son of Thráin son of Thrór the King, and was thus only 24 years of age when the Dragon descended upon the Dwarves in the year 2770. Together with his grandfather, his father, his brother Frerin and his sister Dís, he went to Dunland in exile; but the murder of his grandfather twenty years after the fall of Erebor brought about the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, and in this Thorin won great renown (not to mention his famous nickname). He was in the vanguard of the Dwarf-host which attacked the Orcs of Azog at Azanulbizar; this force was driven back by the Orcs, and Frerin was slain. Thorin’s shield was broken and for a while he made shift with a handy branch of oak, for there was no time to acquire another shield. Even so he was wounded. Nonetheless Thorin survived the Battle of Azanulbizar – where many others did not – and afterwards went with his father and their kin to the Blue Mountains, where they founded a small and modest colony.

But in 2845 Third Age Thorin’s father Thráin II was captured by Sauron, and Thorin became King of Durin’s Folk in Exile. For many years he husbanded the strength of his people, until at last he felt strong (or angry) enough to attempt revenge on the Dragon and the recovery of the treasure of Erebor. In this project he had the unexpected aid of Gandalf the Grey.

The story of that expedition, undertaken by Thorin and Gandalf together with twelve other Dwarves and a single Hobbit, has been told with admirable lucidity elsewhere and needs little elaboration here. By great good fortune the Dragon was slain and Thorin then became King Under the Mountain.3 But in the hour of triumph his heart, inflamed perhaps by the wealth of Erebor and the long injustices done to his House, turned towards pride and rashness. Rather than accord his erstwhile allies a fair share of the wealth won, he planned to deprive them of even this amount, and defied them at the Gates of Erebor. This ill-considered action nearly brought about a disastrous battle between Dwarves, Elves and Men; luckily, the opportune arrival of an Orc-host united the potential enemies in a desperate defence, and in this last fight Thorin came once more to his senses. He died heroically after slaying many Orcs and wolves, and was buried under the Lonely Mountain with the Arkenstone of Thráin upon his breast. He was succeeded in Erebor by Dáin Ironfoot.

Thorin (III) Stonehelm – The son of Dáin Ironfoot, and King Under the Mountain after the death of Dáin during the War of the Ring. Dáin was slain during the (second) Battle of Dale (March 17th, 3019 Third Age), in which hordes of Easterlings poured into Dale and drove the surviving Men and Dwarves to take shelter behind the Gates of Erebor. However, ten days afterwards news came north of the Passing of Sauron and, led by Thorin and his ally King Bard II of Dale, the besieged came forth and drove the Easterlings away.

Thorondir – From 2872–82 Third Age, the twenty-second Ruling Steward of Gondor.

Thorondor ‘King of Eagles’ (Sind., from Q. Sorontar) – The greatest of all the Eagles of the Elder Days, and the ancestor of all the Eagles of the North. The Messenger of Manwë, who built his eyries high in the Crissaegrim during the First Age, Thorondor took many a part in the affairs of the time. He aided Fingon of the Noldor in his successful attempt to rescue Maedhros from torment upon Thang-orodrim; and he took part in the combat of Fingolfin and Morgoth, rescuing the body of the fallen Elven-king from defamation by the triumphant Enemy; and Thorondor wounded Morgoth in the face with his great claws. At the same time two of his kin rescued Húrin and Huor from peril, and bore them to Gondolin, so initiating a series of events which were to end with the fall of Gondolin but the survival of the royal Line of Descent of that Elven-city.

Thorondor himself rescued Beren and Lúthien from Angband, after the recovery of the Silmaril; and he warned Turgon king of Gondolin concerning the presence of the fugitive Húrin at his gates (though at this time Turgon did not act as the King of Eagles urged).

Soon afterwards came the long-prepared attack upon Turgon’s city; and for the last time Thorondor came to the aid of the House of Fingolfin. His timely arrival enabled a party of survivors to escape from the stricken city. And by means of this deed another deed was enabled to come to pass: the summoning of the Valar from the Far West. In the battle which ensued Thorondor and the Eagles of the Crissaegrim played a notable part; but the ancient eyries in the Encircling Mountains were destroyed in the inundation of Beleriand, and in later years Thorondor’s descendants dwelled in the high places of the Misty Mountains.

Thorongil ‘Eagle-of-the-Star’ (Sind.) – The nom-de-guerre by which Aragorn II, sixteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North, was known to Men of Gondor, during the period in which he served Ecthelion II, twenty-fifth Ruling Steward, as a captain of war. Aragorn was, of course, highly incognito at this time and the origin of the nickname was the star-shaped brooch he wore on his cloak.

See also STAR OF THE DÚNEDAIN.

Thousand Caves – A translation of MENEGROTH.

Thráin I – From 1981–2190 Third Age, the King of Durin’s Folk; he led the exodus from Moria after the death of his father Náin I, and founded the Kingdom Under the Mountain in 1999 Third Age. There, in the ‘Heart of the Mountain’, Thráin discovered the great jewel, the Arkenstone, which afterwards became an heirloom of Durin’s House.

Thráin II – From 2790–2850 Third Age, the King of Durin’s Folk in Exile; he was the son of Thrór and father of Thorin Oakenshield, Frerin and Dís. Together with his father and his family, he was driven into exile from Erebor in 2770 Third Age, and later still led the Dwarf-armies at the Battle of Azanulbizar (2799), in which epic encounter he was gravely wounded, losing an eye.

Thráin was the last of the Dwarf-kings to possess one of the Seven Rings, and it was by this means that Sauron later managed to ensnare him. For after the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, he became restless and unable to accommodate his spirit to the humble Dwarf-dwellings in the Blue Mountains; together with a few chosen companions, he left the Ered Luin and wandered far abroad. And slowly his footsteps took him ever closer to Mirkwood. There he was captured and taken prisoner by agents of Sauron.

For five long years Thráin endured torment in Dol Guldur, whither he had been carried after being captured. There, Gandalf the Grey found him while exploring the fortress of the Necromancer in secret (2850 Third Age). Shortly afterwards, Thráin died – but not before he had passed on to Gandalf the Key of Erebor and a secret map of the Lonely Mountain. In this way these heirlooms came to his heir Thorin Oakenshield; but the last of the Seven Rings was taken from Thráin by Sauron, who kept it ever after.

Thranduil – A Lord of the Sindar, and for an Age of the World the Elven-king of Northern Mirkwood; his realm lay between the Forest River and the north-eastern eaves of the forest itself.

Thranduil was the son of Oropher of the Grey-elves of Doriath, who had been accepted as King early in the Second Age by the woodland people of northern Greenwood. He fought at his father’s side during the Battle of Dagorlad, and had seen his father slain and the Wood-elves all but wiped out. Thranduil thereafter became King of Greenwood, though his writ only ran in the northern reaches; and after a thousand years the name of the wood was changed, to Mirkwood. A rival power arose in the forest, and Thranduil’s borders were threatened by evil things. Nevertheless he delved strong halls underneath the hill in the manner of Thingol of old, and resisted the forces of Dol Guldur till the end of his strength – and as a result the Wood-elves survived when all else in the forest was darkened.

In 2941 Thranduil’s Elves encountered the errant Dwarves of Thorin Oakenshield’s expedition, and the Elven-king (somewhat hastily) imprisoned them, for those were watchful days. Later that same year his people brought succour to the Men of Esgaroth afflicted by the Dragon Smaug, and Thranduil (with a score of his own to settle), sent a host to aid the Lake-men when they marched upon Erebor to demand compensation for their injuries from the Dwarves. Luckily, a fourth host – of Orcs and wolves – united the Wood-elves with both Men and Dwarves and in the end the allies had the victory. Thranduil and his people received rich reward from the Dwarves and they returned in peace to their woodland halls.

Yet although many Orcs and wolves were destroyed at the Battle of Five Armies, the lands were not freed altogether from peril and by 3018 Mirkwood was again an evil place. In that year Aragorn II, a friend of Elves, came to Thranduil’s kingdom, and with him he brought the creature Gollum as a prisoner. The Elven-king agreed to lodge Gollum until it should be decided what was to be done with him, but that same year Gollum escaped – and then Thranduil sent his son Legolas to Elrond with the tidings. (In this way Legolas was present at the Council of Elrond, and so came to be chosen as a member of the Fellowship of the Ring.)

In the meantime Thranduil, alerted by the escape of Gollum, prepared for war. On March 15th forces of Dol Guldur made a great attack upon the Woodland Realm, but although many trees were burned and many Elves slain, Thranduil succeeded in repelling the attacks. Dol Guldur was later destroyed and Thranduil returned to the North. He lingered in Middle-earth beyond the turn of the Fourth Age, but whether or not he eventually sailed over Sea has not been recorded.

Three-farthing Stone – An obelisk erected by Hobbits of the Shire shortly after the founding of their land to mark the common boundary of the West-, East- and Southfarthings. It stood on the Great East Road, a mile or so south of Bywater Pool.

Three Houses – The Edain.

Three Kindreds – The Eldar.

Three Rings – The three mightiest of the RINGS OF POWER made during the Second Age by Celebrimbor of the Noldor and the Elvensmiths of Eregion. They were wrought – by the Elven-smiths alone – for the purposes of understanding, making, and healing, and the hand of Sauron (who assisted in the making of all other Rings of Power) ‘never touched them or sullied them’. Unhappily the Smiths of Eregion were betrayed by Sauron, who forged a single Ring mightier than the Three; while this Ruling Ring remained in the world, the powers of the Elven-rings were limited by uncertainty, and when it was finally destroyed the Three were shorn of all potency.

The names of the Three Rings were: Vilya, the Ring of Airs, mightiest of all, which bore a great blue stone and was originally possessed by Gil-galad, who gave it to Elrond at the end of the Second Age; Nenya, the Ring of Waters, with a single hard white stone of great beauty, which was always in the keeping of the Lady Galadriel; and Narya, the Ring of Fire, borne by Círdan the Shipwright until the end of the first millennium of the Third Age, when he surrendered the Ring with its great red stone to the Wizard Gandalf the Grey. Gandalf wielded Narya throughout the remainder of the Age in pursuit of his sworn task: the uniting of the Free Peoples against Sauron the Great, Lord of all the Rings of Power.

Thrihyrne ‘Three-horned-peak’ – The name given in Rohan to the tall, triple-spired mountain which lay to the south of Aglarond and Helm’s Deep. The Deep was in fact a ravine in the northern face of the Thrihyrne.

Thrimich – See following entry.

Thrimidge – The Hobbits’ name for the fifth month of the year (equivalent to May). It corresponded to Lótessë in Kings’ Reckoning. At the time of the War of the Ring it was most usually written Thrimich (an earlier form of the same word was Thrimilch).

Thrimilch – See preceding entry.

Thrór – From 2590–2770 Third Age, the King Under the Mountain, and from 2770–90, King of Durin’s Folk in Exile. He was the Dwarf-king who led his people back from the failed Grey Mountains colony to Erebor (the Lonely Mountain) in 2590, following the deaths of his father (Dáin I) and younger brother the previous year. Thrór re-founded the dormant Kingdom Under the Mountain and ruled there in great splendour until the sudden appearance in the northern skies of the Dragon Smaug the Golden one hundred and eighty years later (2770). Luckily Thrór and his son Thráin knew of a secret escape route from Erebor, and so were saved from the Dragon. Thrór then led the surviving Dwarves into exile in Dunland, but grew weary and dispirited in his straitened circumstances. Ten years after the beginning of his exile he left Dunland and went wandering in the wilderness, taking with him one old companion, called Nár. By ill chance he decided to enter Moria, long lost to his House and to his people; and in Moria he was taken and slain by Orcs. This murder – and the ensuing desecration of Thrór’s body – brought about the brimming-over of the wrath of the Dwarves, who made war upon the Orcs. Thrór was eventually avenged, but at terrible cost.

Thúle – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘spirit’; also the alternative title for Tengwa number 9, which carried the phonetic value of th in Sindarin and Mannish tongues and s in Quenya. See also SULE.

Thurin ‘Secret’ – A name given to Túrin in Nargothrond by Finduilas daughter of Orodreth.

Thuringwethil ‘Woman of secret shadow’ (Sind.) – During the First Age a monstrous messenger of Sauron’s. She flew the night-skies in the shape of a huge and loathsome vampire-bat.

Tighfield – A village of the Northfarthing, settled by a branch of the Gamgee family (after Wiseman moved there from the village of Gamwich). The Gamgees eventually settled in Hobbiton but the Tighfield branch remained in the Northfarthing to practise the prosperous family craft of rope-weaving. This family later became known as the Ropers of Tighfield.

Tilion – One of the MAIAR, of the following of Oromë; he was a lover of the Silver Tree Telperion, and after the death of the Tree was granted the honour of becoming the eternal guardian of the last Silver Flower; and the Steersman of Isil (the Moon).

Timeless Halls – Eä; the Universe.

Tinco – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘metal’; also the title of Tengwa number 1, which represented the sound t among users of the Fëanorian Alphabet.

Tincotéma ‘Tinco-series’ (Q.) – The first of the four self-contained ‘series’ of Fëanorian letters (the Tengwar). The tincotéma included all the letters (nos. 1, 5, 9, 13, 17 and 21) with a dental point of articulation (tinco, ando, thúle, anto, númen, óre). See also TÉMA.

Tindómë (Q.) – The name given by the High-elves to the period of twilight which came just before dawn, hence at the ending of the Elves’ day. The Grey-elven equivalent was minuial (called morrowdim by the Hobbits). See also UNDÓMË.

Tindrock – Tol Brandir.

Tintallë ‘The Kindler’ (Q.) – The secondary title given by the High-elves to the Lady Varda (Elbereth). Its Grey-elven equivalent was Gilthoniel. Varda was also called, by the High-elves, Elentári (‘Star-queen’).

Tinúviel ‘Twilight’s Daughter’ [i.e. a nightingale] (Sind.) – A title of Lúthien of Doriath, bestowed upon her by Beren of the Edain.

Tirion ‘Great-watch-tower’ (Q.) – The name given by the Eldar of the Undying Lands to the beautiful city built by the Vanyar and the Noldor upon the Hill of Túna, at the entrance to the Pass of Calacirya which led into Valinor from Eldamar. Its walls were white, and its stairs of crystal; and it had many tall towers, of which the highest was the Mindon Eldaliéva. At the feet of the hill of Túna upon the east lay a dark lake, the Shadowmere, and in the West the light from the Calacirya illuminated the city. The first lord of Tirion was the King of the Vanyar, Ingwë, builder of the Mindon. But after an Age had passed he and his people departed from the city, and journeyed through the Calacirya to Valinor, and ever after dwelt on the western side of the Pelóri. The lordship of the city upon Tuna then passed to Finwë of the Noldor who ruled there until the release (from imprisonment) of Melkor (Morgoth), and his slow corruption of the soul of Fëanor, Finwë’s eldest son. With the rebellion of Fëanor – and the death of Finwë – Tirion was abandoned by most of the Noldor, though in after years Finarfin (the youngest son of Finwë) became its lord. He ruled over all those of the Noldor who did not join the revolt, and who never went into Exile. But those Noldor who journeyed to Middle-earth, and, surviving the wars, returned to the West, never again dwelled in the city their fathers had built, though they often visited it. The Light that had illuminated its western walls in ancient days was now extinguished for ever; eternal twilight lay over Aman, the Calacirya was dark, and ‘the lamplit towers of Tirion [were] mirrored in the Shadowmere’.

Tirith Aear ‘Sea-guardian’ (Sind.) – The watch-tower which stood on top of the coastal promontory of Dol Amroth in Belfalas, ancestral dwelling and stronghold of the Princes of that tributary fief.

Tîw (coll. plural tîwhin) ‘Letters’ (Sind.) – The Grey-elves’ name for the alphabet of cursive characters brought to Middle-earth by Fëanor of the Noldor. These letters were known as TENGWAR.

Tobold Hornblower – A Hobbit-gardener of the village of Longbottom in the Southfarthing during the latter part of the Third Age. ‘Old Toby’ was reportedly the first Hobbit to cultivate the herb nicotiana in the Shire (c. 2670 Third Age), and was afterwards immortalised for this accomplishment. See also PIPE-WEED.

Tol Brandir – The Tindrock; a tall isle with precipitous sides which rose out of the Anduin in the centre of the stream between the hills of Amon Hen and Amon Lhâw, above the Falls of Rauros. It was said by the Dúnedain of Gondor that no man or beast had ever been known to set foot on its slopes. In the days of Gondor’s power, the Tindrock marked the northernmost border of the South-kingdom.

Tol Eressëa ‘Lonely-Isle’ (Sind. +Q.) – See ERESSËA.

Tolfalas ‘Coastal-island’ (Sind.) – A great isle which lay at the mouth of the Anduin, between the cape of Belfalas and the shores of Harondor (South Gondor).

Tol Galen ‘Green Isle’ (Sind.) – The long, leaf-shaped isle in the midst of the river Adurant, in southern Ossiriand; the dwelling of Lúthien and Beren after the granting of their second mortal lifespans, and the birthplace of their son Dior Eluchíl.

Tol-in-Gaurhoth ‘Isle of Werewolves’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Eldar and the Edain to the former island of TOL SIRION, after its capture by Sauron.

Tolma-An original (as opposed to translated) Hobbit-forename; it has been translated from the Red Book as Tom.

Tolman Cotton – Farmer Cotton.

Tolman Gamgee – The youngest son of Samwise Gamgee.

Tol Morwen ‘Morwen’s Isle’ (Sind.) – The name given in the Second Age to the crag of CABED NAERAMARTH and the burial-mound which stood there, for this place was not buried under the destroying seas at the end of the Age, but stood above the waves as an offshore rock (in fulfilment of a prophecy spoken among the Edain). Underneath the mound were buried Morwen Eledhwen of the Edain and her only son Túrin Turambar.

Tol Sirion ‘Sirion’s Isle’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Eldar to the strategic island in the river Sirion, which guarded the Pass of the same name against attack from the North. The island was first held by Finrod of the Noldor, who garrisoned it with warriors of his House (of Finarfin) and built there a watch-tower, called Minas Tirith. But after a while Finrod departed from the North, and went to dwell in Nargothrond, and the island – and the responsibilities which went with it – he delegated to his younger brother Orodreth. Orodreth held Tol Sirion and its tower until the Dagor Bragollach; but although he held out during that battle, shortly afterwards Sauron, the servant of Morgoth, came against him with great strength, and the Elves fled, abandoning Minas Tirith and Tol Sirion to the Enemy. The island was then renamed Tol-in-Gaurhoth the ‘Isle of Werewolves’. But Sauron was not to retain this fortress for long: he was driven out, by Lúthien, Beren and Huan, and fled in his turn. No folk dwelled there afterwards, nor made any lasting stronghold in that region of the North.

Tomba – An original (as opposed to translated) Hobbit-forename; it has been translated from the Red Book as Tom.

Tom Bombadil – The ‘Master of wood, water and hill’, eldest of all ‘speaking-peoples’ in Middle-earth; he dwelt throughout the Second and Third Ages in the Old Forest east of the Shire, which was itself one of the last surviving reaches of the great primeval woods of the Elder Days, Bombadil’s domain since the Beginning.

It was not recorded in the Shire what kind of creature Bombadil was, but it seems certain from all available evidence that he was a unique being, ‘oldest and fatherless’ as the Elves deemed him. In the First Age he was known to the Eldar, who called him Iarwain Ben-adar, and acknowledged him as the oldest of all creatures. They considered him a benevolent spirit of the forest, a veritable incarnation of the ancient life-force present there, under no laws but his own, acknowledging no master.

Of his history little is known, save only those brief and veiled allusions such as he revealed to his guests. As the mighty woods of the Elder Days shrank with the passing of years, he too retreated until he finally took up his abode ‘down under Hill’ in the Old Forest. There he lingered, walking, weeding and watching the country – and so in due course became known to the Hobbits, especially the Bucklanders, who had many strange tales and songs concerning the old man of the forest. Tom Bombadil is in fact a Bucklandish name; the Dwarves called him Forn, and in the legends of Northern Men he was known as Orald. But only the Elves were aware of his true origins – and by the end of the Third Age even Elrond himself had forgotten that Bombadil existed. See also ‘THE ADVENTURES OF TOM BOMBADIL’.

Tom Cotton – FARMER COTTON.

Tom Pickthorn – A Man of Bree. Early in the year 3019 Third Age he was slain in a skirmish between the Bree-folk and the renegades led by Bill Ferny and Harry Goatleaf.

Took – A rendering of the original Hobbit-name Tûk; more properly, an aristocratic and adventurous clan of Shire-hobbits, who from earliest days played a prominent part in the doings of the little land. The head of the family was traditionally known as ‘The Took’, and ruled the clan from the family seat in the Tookland, a hilly region in the Westfarthing of the Shire.

Tooks were known to be descended from Fallohides, and were indeed far more adventurous than most of their kind; many younger sons vanished from the affairs of their fellow-hobbits because of this strange predilection. According to the family Genealogical Tables, Hildifons (sixth son of Gerontius ‘The Old’ Took) ‘went off on a journey and never returned’, while his youngest brother Isengar ‘is said to have “gone to sea” in his youth’; and so on. However, the first Took to become prominent in the Shire at large was Isumbras (afterwards called Isumbras I), who in 740 Shire Reckoning (2340 Third Age) became the thirteenth Thain of the Shire and the first of the Took-thains. The Office remained in the family ever after (see also OLDBUCK).

It was Bandobras Took, the younger son of the eleventh Took-Thain, who became the most renowned warrior and leader in Shire-history (until the War of the Ring). Not content with growing to greater stature than any other Hobbit, ‘Bullroarer’ also won acclaim as a military captain when, in Shire-year 1147, he led the Shire-muster which defeated an invading force of Orcs at the BATTLE OF GREENFIELDS. He also founded the North-took clan of Long Cleeve.

A third prominent Took was Gerontius, fourteenth Thain, who lived to the prodigious age of 130 years and accordingly became known as ‘The Old Took’; his age was exceeded in all Shire-history only by Bilbo’s score of 131, and his descendants were numerous indeed. Nonetheless, most of these continued to live in the ancestral mansion-smials in Tuckborough, and it was there, in 1390 Shire Reckoning, that the greatest and most renowned Took of all was born: Peregrin, son of Paladin, who jointly captained the Shire-muster which won the Battle of Bywater in 1419 – and who also outgrew the legendary Bullroarer. Peregrin later became the twentieth Thain of the Took line and was afterwards appointed Counsellor of the reconstituted North-kingdom of Arnor. He also wedded Diamond of Long Cleeve, a descendant of the Bullroarer, thus reuniting the North-Tooks with their Southern kindred.

Tookbank – A village in the Westfarthing of the Shire.

Tookland – The hilly area of the Shire chiefly settled by the Took clan, whose centre was the village of Tuckborough.

Torech Ungol ‘Lair of the Spider’ (Sind.) – The name given in Gondor to the highest point of the Pass of Cirith Ungol, where the secret road ran through a dark, noisome tunnel past a foul pit. Here the spider SHELOB THE GREAT had her lair.

Torog – See TROLLS.

Tower Hills – A translation of the Sindarin name Emyn Beraid.

Tower of Cirith Ungol – A watch-tower constructed high on the inner, eastern side of the Mountains of Shadow by Gondor early in the Third Age. Its purpose – like that of Durthang, Isenmouthe and the Towers of the Teeth – was to guard Mordor against the entry (and exit) of evil creatures, and for many years it fulfilled this duty. Nonetheless by the end of the second millennium the power of Gondor was greatly diminished, and the Tower fell into the hands of Sauron’s servants, who afterwards garrisoned the outpost on his behalf. See also SILENT WATCHERS.

Tower of Ecthelion – The highest tower of the city of Minas Anor in Gondor, originally built by King Calimehtar in the last century of the second millennium of the Third Age, and later strengthened and improved by Ecthelion I, seventeenth Ruling Steward, in the year 2698. It was three hundred feet tall in its completed form, and in its topmost turret the Palantír of Minas Tirith was kept.

Tower of Ingwë – The MINDON ELDALIÉVA.

Towers of Mist – A translation of the Grey-elven name Hithaeglir. See MISTY MOUNTAINS.

Towers of the Teeth – Narchost and Carchost.

Town Hole – The dwelling-place and Official Residence of the Mayor of Michel Delving in the Shire.

Trahald – In the original (as opposed to translated) Northern Mannish tongue, this name meant ‘burrowing-in’; it has been translated from the Red Book (into Early English, for contextual reasons) as Sméagol. See SMÉAGOL-GOLLUM.

‘Translations from the Elvish’ – The name given by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to his greatest scholarly achievement: three bound red volumes compiled and annotated by him during the years (3003–18 Third Age) of his retirement in Rivendell. The books were later presented by Bilbo to Frodo, and by Frodo to Samwise, and were preserved together with the Red Book of Westmarch by the Fairbairn family.

Treebeard – A translation of the Sindarin name FANGORN.

Treegarth of Orthanc – The name given by the Ents of Fangorn Forest to the former valley of Isengard, after the area had been reforested following the victory of the War of the Ring and the eviction of the Wizard Saruman. The ancient walls of Isengard were, of course, destroyed by the Ents during the War, but instead of rebuilding them, they encouraged many wild and hitherto homeless trees to come and dwell there. Isengard ceased to exist as a fortress, but the Tower of Orthanc, being impregnable – even to the Ents – remained where it stood and reverted to the custodianship of Gondor.

Tree of the High-elves – GALATHILION. See also TWO TREES.

Trewesdei – An archaic form of the Hobbit-name for the fourth day of the week, corresponding to Aldëa in the Númenorean Kings’ Reckoning system. A later form of the same name was Trewsday (equivalent to Tuesday).

Trolls – A translation of the Sindarin word Tereg (sing. torog), being the name most widely used in Middle-earth for the race of giant, man-eating creatures which first appeared during the First Age and which remained to trouble the world for many Ages afterwards. Trolls were strong, fierce and exceedingly dull-witted, with hides of overlapping scales resistant to all but the most well-forged weaponry; and though brutish and ignorant, they were readily adapted by Morgoth the Enemy to serve the cause of Evil during the War of the Great Jewels. It was later said that Trolls were corrupted by Morgoth from an older, less dangerous race ‘in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves’4 and that ever after they proved apt to his will, and to that of his servants.

It is plain that this is the same race remembered in the folktales of Northern Men5, although the years which lie between the Elder Days and our own are numerous and the memory has been accordingly diminished (which might also be said of worthier creatures). One detail has lingered with especial clarity: the association of the Troll-race with stone. Trolls bore the same relationship to stone as Ents did to wood; and to stone they returned if caught by the direct rays of the noonday Sun; for like the Orcs they were bred during the years of the Great Darkness of the First Age, and the Sun was their enemy.

To avoid this peril, therefore, many Trolls took to dwelling in caves and under stone, and so the breeds became diversified, resulting in Hill-trolls, Cave-trolls, Snow-trolls and Stone-trolls (the most common sort). Yet all were fierce if stupid creatures, with lumpen minds and brutal instincts, whose main value to Morgoth lay in their sheer strength – which, if less great than that of the Ents, was unmatched by any other living creature.

The disaster which overwhelmed Morgoth and his armies at the end of the First Age greatly decreased the numbers of Trolls, and as they were from the first slow to breed, they were not again a menace in Middle-earth until nearly two Ages later, when a new race, called Olog-hai, appeared in Mirkwood and on the western borders of Mordor. This breed was at once perceived to be vastly more dangerous, being a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and cunning, but harder than stone; who could, for a while and if their Master’s thought was with them, endure the sunlight. They were also less dull-witted than other Trolls, for Sauron had ‘improved’ the breed to such an extent that many of their foes mistook them for huge Orcs. Many Olog-hai fought in the War of the Ring, on the Pelennor Fields; but in the last Battle before the Black Gate, most of them were slain with the fall of their Master and the consequent withdrawal of his animating will.

Trollshaws – The dank, rocky and precipitous woodland which lay north of the Great East Road between the rivers Mitheithel and Bruinen. It was so named because the area was notoriously the abode of Stone-trolls wandering down from the Ettenmoors to the North. It was in the Trollshaws of Eriador that Thorin Oakenshield’s expedition had an unpleasant encounter with three members of this fell species (in 2941 Third Age).

True-silver – One of the many names for MITHRIL.

Tuckborough – The chief village or township of the Took clan; it lay in the heart of the Tookland, in the Green Hill Country of the Shire.

Tuilë ‘Spring’ (Q.) – The first of the six seasons in the Elvish ‘year’ (the loa). It was of fixed length, having 54 days. The name was also used by the Númenorean compilers of the Kings’ Reckoning calendar-system to indicate the first (approximate) season of their four. The Sindarin equivalent was ethuil.

Tuilérë ‘Spring-day’ (Q.) – The name given in Gondor to one of the five ‘extra’ days in the Stewards’ Reckoning calendar-system. Tuilérë fell between the third and fourth months (Súlimë and Viressë) and celebrated the advent of Spring. It was a holiday in Gondor.

Tûk – The original form of the Hobbit-surname translated from the Red Book as Took.

Tulkas (the Strong) – One of the Valar, the mightiest in battle and in deeds of strength. He is known also as Astaldo, ‘the Valiant’. Tulkas was the last of the Ainur to enter the World, and he came at a time of war – the first conflict between Melkor and the Valar. The arrival of Tulkas turned the balance against Melkor, who withdrew from Arda for that time.

Afterwards, Tulkas elected to remain in Middle-earth, and he was ever after accounted one of the Valar (though not of the Aratar); and although he is not seen as one of the wisest of the Valar, his permanent mistrust of Melkor, and scepticism over his ‘repentance’, proved more than justified. He wedded Nessa the sister of Oromë at the Feast of the Spring of Arda; and later fought in the Great Battle, as champion of the Hosts of the West.

Tumhalad ‘Shallow Valley’ (Sind.) – The name of a vale between the rivers Ginglith and Narog, in West Beleriand. For long it was accounted part of the Realm of Nargothrond; but Nargothrond was overthrown, in the great battle fought on this very plain.

Tumladen ‘Broad Valley’ (Sind.) – The name given (probably by Turgon of the Noldor) to the valley surrounded by the Encircling Mountains, in the middle of which stood the rocky hill of Amon Gwareth. Here the city of Gondolin was built. Also (Third Age) the name of a valley in Lossarnach, a south-eastern province of Gondor.

Tumunzahar – The Dwarvish (Khuzdul) name for the city known to Elves as NOGROD.

Túna – See TIRION.

Tunnelly – A family of Little Folk (Hobbits) of Bree.

Tuor – One of the greatest chieftains of the Edain of the First Age, and one of the only three mortals ever to wed with the Elves. He was the husband of Idril Celebrindal, Turgon’s daughter of Gondolin, and their child was Eärendil, afterwards called the Mariner, the saviour of Elves and Men. But it was afterwards said in the lore of the Eldar and the Edain that Tuor’s path had been long appointed: through his own life and deeds to unite the kindreds of the Eldar and the Edain, and so prepare the way for the forgiveness of the Valar, and the casting-out of Morgoth. This Tuor did, and he survived the Wars of Beleriand, and at the end of his life he set sail into the Far West, and never came again to Middle-earth.

The story of Tuor, and of his high destiny, of course forms the substance of one of the major (closing) themes of The Silmarillion, and needs little beyond recapitulation in these pages.6 He was the son of Huor of Dor-lómin (the younger brother of Húrin Thalion), and of the Lady Rían of the First House of the Edain (she was the daughter of Belegund of Ladros). He was conceived shortly before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears – at which his father Huor was slain in defence of the Pass of Sirion – and born shortly afterwards, in the winter of that same terrible year, in Mithrim, a land now occupied by Easterlings allied to Morgoth. But Rían and Tuor did not at this time fall into the power of the North, for they were sheltered by the Grey-elves of Mithrim. But when Tuor was in his seventeenth year he was taken by the Easterlings, and endured three years of servitude at their hands. Then he escaped, and returned to the secret place where he had lived all his life (now abandoned by the Grey-elves) and waged a lone war upon the occupiers and despoilers of his native land. But after three years he forsook this lonely and dangerous existence, and – moved by some impulse which he did not at that time fully understand – made his way, not south, but west, to the deserted land of Nevrast by the Sea. In time he came to the empty halls of Vinyamar under Mount Taras, and there he found the arms and armour which had been left there long before, by Turgon of the Noldor, at the bidding of Ulmo, the Sea-Vala. Ulmo himself was the only one of the Valar ever to maintain contact with the exiled Noldor, and it was his intercession in this matter which was to prove the salvation of the Exiles – and his instrument, as would later be seen, was Tuor of the Edain. Now he appeared to Tuor in a vision, and revealed something of his purposes; and he instructed Tuor to seek for Gondolin, and to make himself known to Turgon its lord, and there deliver a message.

Tuor then set out, guided by an Elf of Gondolin (whom Ulmo had set in his path for this very purpose). Together they reached the hidden gate in the Encircling Mountain, and entered in, and so came to Gondolin where Turgon had reigned for four hundred years, last of the Noldorin princes of Middle-earth, and now High-king of all the Exiles. There Tuor discharged his message from Ulmo – and beheld for the first time Idril Celebrindal, Turgon’s daughter. And Turgon loved Tuor for although he indeed had a great debt to discharge to Tuor’s kindred – which would in any case have caused him to treat the son of Huor as his own son – he recognised this tall Man as the very flower of the Edain, and though unwise enough to reject the counsel of Ulmo which Tuor had brought, he perceived that the Vala’s will was at work in this meeting. So Tuor became a lord of the Gondolindrim, and Turgon made him his Heir; and seven years later his daughter Idril wedded Tuor, and one year later bore a son, Eärendil, thus fulfilling the prophecy made in the last hour of his life by Huor, that a new star should arise from the joined Houses of Dor-lómin and Elven Gondolin.

But more wills than Ulmo’s were at work in Gondolin during those days. High in the counsels of the king was an Elf, Maeglin, Turgon’s nephew; he had long desired to be named as Turgon’s Heir, and to wed Idril. But she had not returned his favour, and the words of Huor, spoken at the Nirnaeth, had disturbed him; and now they were made manifest. Maeglin, plainly, would never inherit the lordship of the Noldor, and the bitterness in his heart darkened to jealousy – and if he now hated rather than loved Turgon, even more did he hate Tuor.

With hindsight it can clearly be seen that if Turgon had followed the counsel of Ulmo, and abandoned Gondolin, this rivalry might never have come to pass. But he did not do so, and so the evil worked its way deep into Maeglin’s heart, and after a while he fell into the power of Morgoth, and agreed to betray all that which once he had loved. For like Tuor his rival, Maeglin was but an instrument of a greater will – that of Morgoth, who did not desire the salvation of the Noldor, nor that any stars should ever again arise, but only the uncontested lordship of Middle-earth, and the annihilation of all those who opposed him. And by refusing the advice of Ulmo Turgon had played – as he was bound to do – into Morgoth’s hands. But in all this Tuor was blameless, and Idril also.

Seven years later, when Tuor was in his thirty-seventh year, there came the attack upon Gondolin, delivered with awful force and aided by the treachery of Maeglin. Turgon and many of his captains were slain, and the city was utterly destroyed by Dragons. Few escaped; those who did were led by Tuor (who had avenged Turgon by slaying Maeglin), Idril and the youthful Eärendil. After many perils, they came to the havens of the south, and there rested for a while, in the company and fellowship of the last surviving Eldar and Edain in all Beleriand, now utterly defeated, one by one, kingdom by kingdom, and driven to this last refuge.

Thereafter for many years Tuor made his dwelling. His son Eärendil grew to manhood, and wedded Elwing, the daughter of Dior Thingol’s Heir; and the royal Line of Descent of the Grey-elves of Middle-earth was thereby added to the Line of Gondolin and the descent of the Edain. But at about the time that his grandsons Elros and Elrond were born, Tuor determined to seek the West – he had by this time become a great mariner – and he and Idril built a vessel called Eärrámë, the Flower of Foam, and set sail. They were never again seen in Middle-earth, and their fate is not known for sure. But their line continued, and by their example they prepared their son Eärendil for the voyage he too would one day make. So at the very end of the First Age, the words of Huor came true, and a new star arose in the West to bring hope to Middle-earth.

Turambar ‘Master of Doom’ (Q.; Sind. Turamarth) – The last of the many noms-de-guerre assumed by Túrin son of Húrin of Dor-lómin.

Also (Third Age) the name of the ninth King of Gondor, who reigned from 541–667. When his father Rómendacil I was slain by invading Easterlings (in 541), Turambar led the army of Gondor which avenged his father and defeated the intruders. As a result Gondor’s eastern possessions were greatly increased.

Turgon ‘Stone-master’ (Sind. from Q. Turukáno) – The younger of the two sons of Fingolfin of the Noldor. He was born in Tirion before the passing of the Two Trees, and afterwards forsook the Undying Lands, together with his wife, his father and all their kin, and joined the rebellion led by Fëanor, and went into Exile in Middle-earth. There he came to be accounted one of the wisest and most far-seeing of the Noldor, and he built the renowned and beautiful city of Gondolin, in memory of Tirion the Fair; and in the end became High King of all the exiled Noldor, while Gondolin was the longest to endure of all the cities and realms made by the Noldor in Middle-earth.

Almost from the very first Turgon realised that the great enterprise of the Exiles was doomed to bitterness and failure (his own wife Elenwë perished even before setting foot in Middle-earth). Because of this, he held aloof from the remainder of his kin, sensing as he did that evil must follow them in all their deeds. Instead – for he was, nonetheless, committed to aid the enterprise as best he might – he determined to build a great city which would be at once a revered memory of Eldamar and a mighty redoubt against the power of Morgoth. (It was said that the Vala Ulmo put this thought in his mind, for Ulmo was a friend of both Turgon and Finrod son of Finarfin, and he knew that the heart of neither was fully set on recapturing the Silmarils. Both these High-elves indeed built great cities that were also great fortresses, and neither took a leading part in the Wars – until the end.) At this time – the first few decades of his exile – Turgon was dwelling by the Sea, in the most westerly part of Middle-earth: Nevrast. Underneath Mount Taras he had built a great hall, Vinyamar; but very soon he began actively to search for a hidden place where his greater, still unbuilt, city might arise.

It is told elsewhere how he came to find the vale of Tumladen in the Encircling Mountains, and how he kept the secret for many years while he planned in secret and built with care. At the beginning of the second century of his exile he quitted Vinyamar, and together with all his people made his way to Gondolin, and entered in; and the gates in the mountains were shut, and thereafter for many centuries not even Finrod his friend knew where Turgon dwelt.

For most of this time Turgon carefully husbanded his strength, and took little part in the Wars, not even in the great battle of the Dagor Bragollach. And all this time Gondolin grew still more fair; and within its bounds the High-elven tongue was still freely spoken in Middle-earth, and in the court of the King stood Two Trees. Few ever came there. Fewer still departed. The first of these was Turgon’s own sister Aredhel Ar-Feiniel – and this was much against the liking of Turgon. That story (see MAEGLIN) forms a great part of the tale of Gondolin’s eventual fall, for by Ar-Feiniel’s impulsive actions evil was allowed to enter Gondolin, though none realised it until the end. But others who came to the Hidden City while it stood were two princes of the Edain; and their story, and what came of it, is also woven into the tale of Turgon and Gondolin, with happier results. But for the most part Turgon defended his land, and wrapped it in secrecy, and of all those beyond its mountain-walls, Elves and Men, only Huor and Húrin ever knew its secret; they and the Eagles of the Crissaegrim.

Turgon, however, never forgot his ancient belief that the real hope of the Noldor lay in the West; and always he looked to the Sea. After the Dagor Bragollach he sent messengers west, in search of Valinor, but one only returned, and that was years afterwards. And in the meantime the tide of war flowed to and fro across the north-lands. At last Turgon could no longer hold aloof from the conflict, and he emerged from Gondolin for the first time in four and a half centuries, and brought his army to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad; and – despite great heroism – was defeated there. He and his host were saved from destruction, and enabled to make an uncontested retreat, only by the valour of the Men of Dor-lómin, led by Húrin and Huor. And though the days grew dark thereafter, Turgon never forgot this.

The last years of Turgon in Middle-earth were years of war and ravage in western Middle-earth, but a time of unreal bliss in Gondolin. Nothing had changed in Tumladen since the building of the city – and still no Elf departed from it, for Turgon now enforced his most ancient law with absolute determination. And after a time there came a Man from the Sea bearing tokens, and Turgon knew him for a messenger from Ulmo (see TUOR). Yet on this crucial occasion his old wisdom deserted him – overmastered by his pride in the city he had built – and he ignored the counsel thus vouchsafed him; and in so doing brought about the fall of Gondolin. For evil was awake in the city. But Turgon would not relinquish the creation of his heart, and remained in Gondolin, and was betrayed, and perished in the sack. Yet this grace was granted, on account of his long piety, and as a reward for his repentance: that his Line should continue in the world after the ending of the Age, and that the memory of Gondolin should be preserved among Elves and Men until the latest days, unstained and fair.

Also (Third Age) the name of the twenty-fourth Ruling Steward of Gondor, who reigned from 2914–53. Two years before his death Sauron the Great openly declared himself again and re-occupied Mordor.

Tûr Haretha – See HAUDH-EN-ARWEN.

Túrin Turambar – The most tragic of all the heroes of the Edain of the First Age, whose life and deeds are the chief subject of The Tale of the Children of Húrin, longest surviving Mannish poem of the Elder Days. Túrin was perhaps the mightiest warrior of all the Edain (save only his father Húrin), and the last but one of the valiant House of Hador of Dor-lómin; but although he fought bravely all his life, and did deeds of prowess that won him the love and respect both of Elves and Men, he was of the Children of Húrin, and therefore accursed by Morgoth; and he brought only grief and disaster upon those whom he in turn loved, and in the end slew himself in despair.

Túrin was the son of Húrin of the Third House of the Edain and Morwen Eledhwen of the First House, born in Dor-lómin. When he was nearly eight years old his father and uncle and all the warriordom of their nation marched away to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and never returned. But Húrin had been taken prisoner, and had defied Morgoth; so Morgoth cursed Húrin and all his kin; and as the chief instrument of his will in this matter he chose the Fire-drake Glaurung. But first he sought Túrin – and at first he did not find him, for soon after the Nirnaeth the boy had been sent to Doriath, to be fostered in the care of Thingol; and Túrin came to early manhood in that secret, fenced land. And then he went to war, as the Heir of Dor-lómin, wearer of the Dragon-helm, and won renown on the north marches.

Slowly his ordained fate began to close in. A quarrel ended in tragedy (see SAEROS) and Túrin fled from Doriath, to eke out a miserable rogue’s existence in the wilds beyond. But Thingol sent one of his greatest warriors, Beleg Cúthalion, to find the boy and, if necessary, protect him – if he could not first persuade him to return to Doriath. Beleg was unable to persuade Túrin to return, but he uplifted his life, and set the young man’s mind towards nobler occupations than mere banditry. Together they waged war upon Morgoth in the lands about Teiglin in West Beleriand.

But this campaign was to be short-lived. Túrin and Beleg and their band of guerrillas were betrayed, and Túrin was captured by Orcs, but afterwards freed by Beleg, whom he accidentally slew in the act. Crazed by grief for his dead friend, Túrin might then have fallen prey to the perils of the wild, but was befriended by Gwindor, an Elf, formerly of Nargothrond, who had escaped from Angband and was returning to his city. He brought Túrin to Nargothrond.

Túrin’s first comrades in the wild, the outlaw band of Amon Rûdh, and his oldest friend, Beleg Strongbow, were all dead. Now it had become the turn of Gwindor and the Elves of Nargothrond; for by succouring him and giving him their love – and later their respect and obedience – they too fell, as was afterwards seen, under the curse laid on Húrin’s kin. For though a Mortal Man, Túrin was a hardier and more skilful warrior than any Elf of Nargothrond; and by his valour and unbroken determination to wreak harm upon Morgoth was soon acknowledged – even by King Orodreth – as war-leader of Nargothrond. They called him Mormegil because of the Black Sword (once Beleg’s) that he wielded with deadly effect. But Túrin scorned secret ambush, for long the practice of the Elves of Nargothrond. An understandable pride in being the only Man ever to command an Elven-host in the field perhaps affected his judgement. Disregarding an ancient tactical precept of Finrod’s, he bridged the Narog – to permit, as he explained, the swift sortie of armies – but ignoring the fact that he also thereby laid bare the doors of Nargothrond. And later, when a great host came from the North, an army which included the Dragon Glaurung, Túrin would not await their onset but went boldly out to meet them in battle. But the host he led to Tumhalad was destroyed; Gwindor was mortally wounded and Orodreth the King was slain, and most of the warriors of Nargothrond besides. But Túrin, as was his doom, survived – only to reap the full horror when he learned that Nargothrond, left undefended, had been sacked by the Dragon – and this had only come about because of the bridge he, Túrin, had made; and that the King’s daughter Finduilas (who loved Túrin) had been taken prisoner by Orcs.

At the gates of Nargothrond, Túrin for the first time encountered the Dragon Glaurung, who bewitched him. He fled north, crazed and anguished, seeking both Finduilas and his own mother and sister, for the words of Glaurung had put him in fear for their safety. Now the curse hastened to its fulfilment. For in the meantime Morwen and her daughter Nienor, who were also accursed of Morgoth, had left Dor-lómin and had gone, like Túrin years before, to Doriath, hoping to find him there. But he, having now learned of the death of Finduilas, was at the same time seeking them in Dor-lómin. And so their paths crossed, Morwen never again setting sight on her only son. She and her daughter came to Thingol’s kingdom, and learning of Túrin’s long departure determined separately to seek him in the wild; for they had also learned of the fall of Nargothrond, and of the Mormegil. So while Túrin dwelt in Brethil and made lonely war on the enemies of his kin, Morwen and Nienor were seeking him near Nargothrond. At this time Nienor also encountered Glaurung the Dragon, and was bewitched, and lost her memory. She was found, wandering witlessly in the wild, by Túrin – who did not recognise her, for she had been but an infant when he had left Dor-lómin. He comforted her, and took her with him to Brethil – where he was now dwelling, with the Haladin – and after three years he wedded her. And she conceived his child.

Now the doom was complete; but Túrin who now called himself Turambar (‘Master of Doom’), still did not know of the evil he had unwittingly committed. And he gained no small revenge for his sufferings, by slaying the Dragon. But Glaurung spoke before he died, and lifted the bewitchment from Nienor and then she knew what was done, and slew herself. And when Túrin at last also learned the full truth, and realised the nature of the doom which had mastered him, he too now slew himself in despair, and was buried at Cabed Naeramarth, the place of his greatest victory and his greatest anguish.7

Note: during his life Túrin assumed many noms-de-guerre. He was, after all, always aware of his mighty inheritance, and also that Morgoth was seeking for him, the last heir of Dor-lómin; and so he cloaked his identity under a series of titles. These, in chronological order, were: Neithian (‘the Wronged’); Gorthol (‘the Dreaded Helm’); Agarwaen Úmarth (‘the Bloodstained, Ill-fortune’s child’); Adanedhel (‘Elf-man’); Mormegil (‘the Black Sword’), and finally Turambar (‘Master-of-Doom’). The only name awarded to him by others was ‘Wildman of the Woods’. The circumstances surrounding these titles are more fully detailed under the corresponding entries.

Túrin I – From 2244–78 Third Age, the sixth Ruling Steward of Gondor.

Túrin II – From 2882–2914 Third Age, the twenty-third Ruling Steward of Gondor, and a farsighted strategian of his day. Early in his rule he received warning that the Haradrim, traditional foes of the Dúnedain, were again planning an invasion of South Ithilien; accordingly Túrin invoked the alliance between his people and the Riders of Rohan, sending the Red Arrow, most urgent token of war, to King Folcwine in Edoras. The aid sent by Folcwine enabled Túrin to defeat the invaders at the BATTLE OF THE CROSSINGS OF POROS.

Some years afterwards Túrin perceived that Ithilien was becoming untenable, due to the growing strength of Mordor; he therefore ordered built the secret refuges of that province (see HENNETH ANNUN). At the same time he fortified the west bank of the Anduin, including the isle of Cair Andros which guarded the province of Anórien. These farsighted fortifications were of great value to the Dúnedain a century later during the War of the Ring.

Twofoot – A family of rustic Hobbits of Bywater and district.

Two Trees – The Two Trees of Valinor, made at the Beginning of Days by Yavanna Kementári of the Valar. They grew on the mound of Ezellohar, near the western gate of the city of the Valar, and brought the first Light into the world since the extinguishing of the still more ancient Light of the Lamps Illuin and Ormal.

The Trees were named Telperion (the elder) and Laurelin; and the one bore flowers which gave a silver Light, while the other had leaves of gold. They were the most beautiful trees that have ever been in the World, and they grew and flourished for Ages in the holiest place of Arda; but in the end Evil touched them, and they were poisoned, and died, and their Light was taken from the world – but not for ever, for some of it lingered in the three Silmarils which Fëanor of the Noldor had made.

Moreover, a scion of Telperion still grew in Tirion, a gift from the Valar to the Noldor; and a descendant of this Tree of the High-elves (Galathilion, as it was called), grew in Eressëa. This was Celeborn. In time a sapling of Celeborn’s line (Nimloth) found its way to Númenor, and a fruit of this Tree of Westernesse was taken to Middle-earth by Elendil and his sons, and in later days grew in Gondor. A last descendant of this exceedingly ancient Line still lived at the beginning of the Fourth Age.

But Laurelin had no linear descendants in Middle-earth; and thereafter the Golden Light was to be perceived only in the mingled Light of the Evening Star. Yet it is said by the Eldar that the Sun is itself the last leaf of the Tree of Gold, borne eternally aloft on fixed paths; and that the Moon is the last Flower of Silver, similarly piloted through the heavens by untiring agency.

Tyelle ‘Grade’ (Q.) – The name given by the High-elves to each of the six subdivisions of the Fëanorian Alphabet, all of which measured a certain mode of articulation and were further modified by the four temar (‘series’) which indicated the point of articulation. This cross-division was the basis on which the Tengwar were originally devised to function as a wholly phonetic writing-system.

Tyelpetéma ‘Ty-series’ (Q.) – The name given by the High-elves to the téma (‘series’) in the Tengwar (the Fëanorian Alphabet) which indicated a palatal point of articulation in the Quenya tongue. This series was not normally part of the Fëanorian regulating-system, and was written, where necessary, by using Series IV together with a Fëanorian diacritic mark (tehta) for ‘following y’ (actually a pair of full points placed under the consonant in question).

Tyrn Gorthad ‘Dreaded Mounds’ (Sind.) – The BARROW-DOWNS.