Daeron – A Grey-elf of the First Age; according to Elvish tradition, the minstrel and loremaster of Thingol King of Doriath. His is a shadowy figure (his name actually means ‘shadowy’, or perhaps ‘hidden’) on the borders of several tales of those days, chiefly that of Beren and Lúthien. Daeron is said to have loved Lúthien, and to have twice betrayed her to her father in the matter of Beren of the Edain. The minstrel afterwards went away into the east and became lost to the knowledge of the Elves.
His chief memorial remains his systemising and re-ordering of the ancient Grey-elven runic alphabet (the certhas), the use of which then gradually spread among other races. Daeron’s Runes may be considered the oldest known form of common writing originated in Middle-earth.
See ALPHABET OF DAERON.
Dagnir ‘Victor’ (Sind.) – One of the twelve faithful Edain of Dorthonion who remained in that land with BARAHIR after the Dagor Bragollach, and waged a guerrilla war against the occupying armies of Angband.
Dagnir Glaurunga ‘Bane of Glaurung’ (Sind.) – Part of the epitaph engraved upon the tombstone of Túrin Turambar at Cabed Naeramarth. It was Túrin who had slain the greatest Worm of the Age, the fire-drake Glaurung of Angband, who had ravaged the north and sacked Nargothrond, and had been defeated only once before.
Dagor Aglareb ‘Glorious Battle’ (Sind.) – The third of the BATTLES OF BELERIAND. It was fought in about the 60th Year of the Sun and, as its name implies, was the greatest victory ever won by the Eldar over the forces of Angband. It began as an assault on all fronts by Morgoth, a broad southward push against the Eldarin kingdoms of the North; while separate hosts of Orcs and Trolls burst through the Pass of Sirion in the west, and through Maglor’s Gap in the east, the main army of Angband came up against the northern walls of the Dorthonion highland. There they were contained, and afterwards taken on both flanks, by the Elves. They broke, and, in retreating across the endless leagues of Ard-galen, were exposed to the cavalry of the Eldar, and annihilated. Those who had penetrated into Beleriand were afterwards ‘mopped up’ piecemeal.
Dagor Bragollach – The BATTLE OF SUDDEN FLAME.
Dagor Dagorath ‘The Battle of Battles’ – A reference to the Second Prophecy of Mandos, which is that at the end of Arda Melkor will return for one last and greatest battle against the Valar and all Free Peoples: it will take place on the Plains of Valinor and Manwë himself shall descend from Taniquetil to make war: but it shall be the hand of Túrin which deals the death-stroke and slays Evil for ever.
Dagorlad ‘Plain-of-Victory’ (Sind.) – The flat, barren plain which lay before the Gates of Mordor, and the location of the greatest battle of the Second Age, between the forces of Sauron and the armies of the Last Alliance.
Dagor-nuin-Giliath – The ‘Battle-Under-Stars’ (Sind.); the second of the BATTLES OF BELERIAND, fought in the year before the rising of the Moon by the newly returned Noldor of the House of Fëanor against a sudden – and badly timed and planned – assault from Angband. It was a swift and crushing victory for the High-elves, but Fëanor himself was mortally wounded.
Dáin I – A King of Durin’s Folk; a ruler of the Dwarves of the Grey Mountains (Ered Mithrin), and a descendant of Thráin I, who had founded the kingdom of Erebor after the Dwarves fled from Moria. It was under Thráin’s son Thorin I that most of Durin’s Folk left Erebor for the unexplored riches of the Ered Mithrin further north. There, for some three hundred years, their wealth grew, until rumours of it eventually reached the ears of the Dragons of the Northern Waste and Withered Heath. In 2589 Third Age one of these slew King Dáin and his second son Frór at the very doors of their Hall. Soon afterwards, most of the Dwarf-colony deserted the Grey Mountains and many returned to Erebor, where their skills soon rendered them even more prosperous than before. Dáin’s heir Thrór then became King under the Mountain.
Dáin (II) Ironfoot – The greatest warrior and one of the wisest kings of Durin’s folk. He was born in the year 2767 Third Age, the son of Náin son of Grór, King of the Dwarves of the Iron Hills in the far North-east. Thus he was only thirty years of age – and considered still a stripling by his people – when called upon to fight at the BATTLE OF AZANULBIZAR, the greatest and final clash of arms in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. The army of the Iron Hills arrived late on the battlefield, and Dáin’s father Náin soon fell at the hands of Azog. Dáin then slew the great Orc with his axe. He later led his folk back to the Iron Hills, where he became King. In the year 2941 the Dwarves of Thorin Oakenshield’s party, besieged in the Lonely Mountain by hosts of Men and Wood-elves, sent to Dáin for aid; he duly arrived with a great force of mail-clad Dwarves who played a prominent part in the BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES. In that great fight Thorin Oakenshield, heir of Durin, was slain, and Dáin, as Thorin’s true heir, was then made King under the Mountain. He proved a wise ruler, having the friendship of the Men of Dale and Esgaroth and the respect of the Elves of Mirkwood. But during the War of the Ring, even Dáin’s great prestige was insufficient to prevent an invasion of Dale and Erebor by Easterlings of Sauron’s rule. The combined forces of Men and Dwarves failed to stem the tide and were driven back to Erebor. There, Dáin Ironfoot, standing over the body of his fallen ally King Brand, continued to wield his famous axe until, in his turn, he fell – in the 252nd year of his life.
Dairuin – One of the Edain of the First House; a companion of Barahir in Dorthonion; slain (as were all save Beren) by treachery and ambush.
Daisy Gamgee – The eighth of the thirteen children of Samwise Gamgee, named after his eldest sister.
Dale – A city-state established by Northern Men during the Third Age on the southward slopes of Erebor in Wilderland; it was traditionally friendly with the Dwarf-kingdom under the Mountain. The township prospered through this long association: in exchange for works of metal and stone, the Men of Dale traded foodstuffs, cloth and other essentials necessary to the Dwarf-community. For many years the two settlements lived in peace and mutual prosperity (like the realms of Eregion and Moria long before). But when Smaug the Golden, greatest Dragon of his time, came against the Lonely Mountain (in 2941 Third Age), the nearby town of Dale was burned and its people dispersed. Most of them made their way south to swell the numbers of the lake-community of Esgaroth, becoming fishermen and boatmen.
In the last third of his own narrative, There and Back Again, Bilbo Baggins gives a clear account of how the Dwarves retook Erebor, how the Dragon was slain by Bard of Esgaroth (descended from King Girion of Dale), and how Dale and Erebor were re-established in peace and prosperity.1 However, in the War of the Ring, Dale – always vulnerable to invasion from the East – was captured by armies of Easterlings sent by Sauron to clear the route from Rhûn to Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. Brand son of Bain, son of Bard the Bowman, was slain, and his son Bard II became King and drove the enemy away. In the Fourth Age which followed, Dale prospered.
Damrod – A scout for the Rangers of Ithilien, who were led by Faramir in their guerrilla attacks against the Harad Road at the time of the War of the Ring.
Dark Door – The ancient entrance from the foot of the Dwimorberg Mountain in Dunharrow to the maze of tunnels and passages under the White Mountains. Delved in the Black Years by a forgotten race, this later became known as the ‘Paths of the Dead’.
Dark-elves – A translation of the Quenya word Moriquendi; the Eldarin term for all those of Elvenkind who never came to Valinor, Eldamar or Eressëa – as opposed to the Calaquendi or ‘Light-elves’ (and also the Sindar, who, though they did not go to Aman while the First Age lasted, afterwards journeyed there, as the Sea-longing took them, and were thus reunited with the remainder of the Eldar; as a result they are not accounted among the ‘Dark-elves’). Included in the category of Moriquendi are two Telerin peoples: the Nandor and the Laiquendi; and all the Avari, the ‘Unwilling’, separated from the Eldarin kindreds at the Beginning of Days. But an extraneous source tells us that this term ‘Dark-elves’ underwent a shift of meaning during the First and Second Ages, and often carried overtones that did not strictly refer to the ancient (and somewhat blurred) dichotomy between Light-elves (of Aman) and Dark-elves (of Middle-earth). The extent of the problem can be easily understood when one considers that, of three Eldarin kindreds, the Vanyar went to Aman and dwelt there everafter; the Noldor went to Aman and returned in exile to Middle-earth; and the Teleri became split into many subdivisions, some of whom went to Aman, some of whom remained in Beleriand (the Sindar) and some of whom abandoned the Great Journey while still east of the Misty Mountains: the Nandor, though later a further subdivision of the latter (the Laiquendi) came into Beleriand after all, and dwelt in Ossiriand. The Vanyar and the Noldor and the first kindred of the Teleri are all Calaquendi; the Nandor, the Laiquendi and the Avari are all Moriquendi; while the Sindar, Nandor and Laiquendi form a separate category altogether, the Úmanyar ‘Not of Aman’.
Dark Enemy (of the World) – A translation of the Sindarin name Morgoth.
Dark Lord – Sauron the Great, Lord of the Rings, Ruler of Mordor.
Dark Power of the North – The realm of ANGBAND during the First Age.
Dark Tower – A translation of the Grey-elven words Barad-dûr.
Dark Years – See ACCURSED YEARS.
‘Daro!’ – A Sindarin imperative, meaning ‘Stop!’
Days of Flight – See ACCURSED YEARS.
Daystar – The Sun.
Dead Marshes – An area of low-lying, swampy ground west of Dagorlad, between the Emyn Muil and the Black Gate. The change of climate brought about by Sauron’s resettlement of Mordor in the middle years of the Third Age caused the marshland bordering the Nindalf to expand until it enveloped the burial-places of the Men and Elves slain at the Battle of Dagorlad. It was said that, at night, when the will-o’-the-wisp lights flickered above the meres, one who looked into the noisome pools would see the phantom faces of those dead warriors.
Dead Men of Dunharrow – See PATHS OF THE DEAD.
Deadmen’s Dike – The name given in Bree and the northlands of Eriador to the green mounds and grass-grown earthworks which had once been Fornost Erain, Norbury of the Kings, capital city and fortress of Arthedain before its fall.
Déagol ‘Secret’ – The translated name (orig. Nahald) of the Stoor, or River-hobbit, who, when fishing on the Anduin about the year 2463 Third Age, accidentally discovered in the mud of the river-bed a shiny golden ring. This was, of course, the Ruling Ring, lying where it had slipped from the finger of Isildur nearly an Age before.
Unfortunately for the finder of the Ring, he was accompanied on this outing by a friend, Sméagol (Gollum), who murdered Déagol for the precious object and buried his body far from home. It was never found.
Death Down – After the battle of Hornburg (3019 Third Age), in which the Rohirrim defeated the Army of Isengard, the heaps of dead Orcs were too great for burial or burning, causing concern to those charged with repairing the damage of the battle and disposing of the dead. However, during the night, the HUORNS of Fangorn gathered the carrion together in one great pit which they covered with a vast cairn of stones. This mass grave was called the ‘Death Down’ ever after in Rohan. No grass grew there.
Deathless Lands – Aman the Blessed.
Deep-elves – A rendering of the name Noldor into the Common Speech.
Deephollow – A village of the Shire, north of the Overbourn Marshes and close to the Brandywine river.
Deeping Coomb – The name given in Rohan to the coomb or bay in the northern White Mountains, to the south of the Westfold Vale. Through it ran the Deeping Stream. Early in the Third Age, Men of Gondor built a mighty fortress (the Hornburg) at the point where the coomb narrowed into a gorge. Much later, the entire upper reaches of the coomb were strengthened by similar fortifications added by Men of Rohan. Chief of these was the Deeping Wall, which sealed off the mouth of the gorge. Below the wall lay Helm’s Dike, a vast earthwork through which the Deeping Stream ran in a green gully to water the Vale below.
Deeping Wall – The crenellated wall which ran from the Hornburg tower across the mouth of Helm’s Gate, the entrance to the gorge of Aglarond in western Rohan. Twenty feet tall, it was wide enough for four men to walk abreast along the parapet, and was so constructed that the top leaned out over the base, forming a completely smooth, unscalable façade. At the further end of the wall stood another bastion, the Deeping Tower, though this was not as strong, nor as tall, as the Hornburg.
Deldúwath ‘Deadly-Nightshade’ (Sind.) – One of the many perjorative names given to the former land of Dorthonion, after its capture by Morgoth in the years following the Battle of Sudden Flame.
Denethor (of Ossiriand) – An Elf-lord of the First Age, of the kindred of the Laiquendi (‘Green-elves’) of Ossiriand. He was the chieftain who had led this kindred across the Blue Mountains into the lands beyond, the last of the Telerin peoples to do so. It had been Denethor’s father Lenwë who first forsook the main Telerin host on the march, and led his people, the Nandor, into regions unknown (or unrecorded); but as the Years of the Trees in faraway Aman wore away, evil things awoke in Middle-earth and the eastern lands became perilous. Lenwë’s son Denethor therefore gathered up his people and crossed the Ered Luin into Beleriand, there to seek the friendship of the Sindar, long-sundered kinsmen of the Nandor. He was granted the Land of the Seven Rivers – Ossiriand as it was called – as his abode. There followed centuries of peace, for in those days evil things did not yet come into Beleriand, where Thingol ruled in power and splendour. But as events over the Sea moved towards their climax and Morgoth came fleeing back to Middle-earth, his armies went boldly on to the offensive, and fast-moving columns invaded Beleriand from north and east. Thingol was hard put to it, and an eastern host which had broken through from the north might have wreaked untold damage, had it not been for the Green-elves of Ossiriand, led by Denethor. In this first of all battles of Beleriand, Denethor played an heroic part, but was overmastered in the end by the iron weaponry of the Orcs and died on Amon Ereb, in a last stand that immortalised the valour of his people in the annals of the Elves.
Denethor I – From 2435–77 Third Age, the tenth Ruling Steward of Gondor. During his rule, the evil breed of Uruk-hai, great Orcs of Mordor, first appeared in Ithilien.
Denethor II – From 2984–3019 Third Age, the twenty-sixth and last Ruling Steward of Gondor. Like most of his House he was of true Númenorean blood: proud, wise, powerful of will and a man who took his many responsibilities in deadly earnest. He perceived early in his rule that the final assault of Mordor would come in his time. Nevertheless, the power of Gondor was so diminished by the time he came to the Stewardship that he could do little more than watch, and wait, and occasionally harass the Harad Road to prevent Southron forces marching north to swell Sauron’s power. In 2976 Third Age, this proud and lonely man had married the lady Finduilas, daughter of Adrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth. But her heart grew sad in the great stone city of Minas Tirith, so far from the Sea that she loved, and she died twelve years later, having borne Denethor two sons: Boromir and Faramir. With her passing, the Steward grew ever more withdrawn, given to silent vigils and long thought in the high Tower of Ecthelion. Being a man of iron will, he dared to use the palantír (seeing-stone) of that Tower, to gain intelligence concerning the Enemy’s moves against Gondor. His strength of mind was too much for Sauron – who possessed the Ithil-stone – to overcome by this means, yet the Dark Lord was still able to direct the visions shown in the stone: thus Denethor was fed endless images of the power of Mordor opposed to him. In the end this broke his mind, with grievous consequences for Gondor. His unfortunate prejudice against Gandalf the Grey is accounted for by the knowledge, acquired early in his life before coming to the Stewardship, that the Wizard desired – indeed, was planning – the accession of Aragorn, last Heir of Isildur, to the throne of Gondor. As this would have supplanted his own House, Denethor, unwilling to perceive the benefits that such an event would bring, grew deeply suspicious of the Grey Wanderer – seeing him as a bitter rival if not an actual enemy. So it was that pride and despair combined in this great man to cause deep depression, followed by madness, followed by death by his own hand.
Déor – From 2699–2718 Third Age, the seventh King of Rohan.
Déorwine – The chief of the housecarles of Théoden, King of Rohan, during the time of the War of the Ring. He fell in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (March, 3019 Third Age).
Derndingle – A natural bowl-shaped dell deep in the heart of Fangorn Forest; the traditional meeting-place of the Ents of that land.
Dernhelm – The name assumed by Éowyn, niece of King Théoden of Rohan, when she rode disguised in the host of Rohan.
Derrilyn – A poetic invention in the Hobbit style, supposedly a river-name. It can be found in Bilbo’s poem ‘Errantry’, No. 3 in the selection of such Hobbit-verse found under the collective title of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
Derufin – See DUILIN AND DERUFIN.
Dervorin – This noble of Gondor was the son of the Lord of Ringló Vale (which lay between Lamedon and Lebennin, south of the White Mountains). During the War of the Ring he personally led three hundred footmen of his father’s household to help defend the city of Minas Tirith; the remainder of his folk stayed behind to protect the southern fiefs against an invasion by the Corsairs of Umbar.
Desolation of Smaug – See following entry.
Desolation of the Dragon – The region surrounding the Lonely Mountain and ruined township of Dale, during the years of Smaug’s dominion in Erebor (2770–2941 Third Age). The land was so described because every village, house and blade of grass had been scorched and destroyed by the roving Dragon on his frequent forays from Erebor.
Desolation of the Morannon – The desert that lay before the Black Gate.
Diamond Took – A Hobbit-maid descended from Bandobras Took, and a member of the North-Took clan. She married Peregrin Took early in the Fourth Age and bore him one son, Faramir (who later married Goldilocks, daughter of Samwise, thus uniting the Gamgee/Gardners and the Tooks).
Dimbar ‘Sad-dwelling’ (Sind.) – The vale of Dimbar was a narrow, enclosed land in the north of Beleriand. It was perhaps ten leagues across at its widest point (in the north) and twenty long, being shaped like a spearhead between the arms of the Sirion and one of its tributaries, the Mindeb. On the far banks of both rivers lay the forests of Doriath and Brethil, silent and impenetrable. Across Dimbar, from west to east, ran an old road, from the Brithiach to the valley of Nan Dungortheb (keeping close to the skirts of Doriath) and so, given good fortune, to Himlad. Overshadowing Dimbar from the north reared the Crissaegrim, the southern faces of the Encircling Mountains.
Dimholt – A gloomy copse of dank trees upon the Hold of Dunharrow in Rohan. It stood between the inner glen of the Dark Door and the Firienfeld (the open field of the Hold).
Dimrill Dale – The name given in the Common Speech to the deep valley known to the Dwarves as Azanulbizar and to the Elves as Nanduhirion.
Dimrill Gate – The ancient Gate of Moria, high in the mountain-wall which overlooked the vale of Azanulbizar and the lake of Kheled-zâram. It was so named to distinguish it from the western gate: the Doors of Durin.
Dimrill Stair – The eastern descent of the high pass known as the Redhorn Gate, which ran from Hollin in Eriador to the Dimrill Dale on the eastern side of the Misty Mountains.
Dimrost – The Rainy Stair. See CELEBROS.
Dior Eluchíl – The son of Beren of the Edain and Lúthien Tinúviel daughter of Thingol Greycloak of Doriath; called Aranel ‘Star-king’ (during his childhood), and afterwards Eluchíl (‘Thingol’s Heir’). He was born in Ossiriand, on the isle of Tol Galen, in the days after the Quest of the Silmaril, and dwelled at Lanthir Lamath. He took to wife a distant kinswoman of Thingol named Nimloth. Their children were Eluréd, Elurin and Elwing the White.
Possession of the Silmaril brought disaster upon Thingol, who was slain in his own halls of Menegroth by jealous and greedy Dwarves; the Silmaril itself was captured by these Dwarves (of Nogrod) and borne away eastwards. Then the Dwarf-army was caught and destroyed by the Elves of Ossiriand, led by Beren. At that time Dior left Ossiriand and went to Menegroth, to become the Heir of Thingol. But there was still a store of tragedy hoarded up within the fate of the Silmaril. Not long afterwards, Beren and Lúthien died for the second – and final – time, and the Jewel then passed to Dior’s keeping. And again shortly afterwards, the Sons of Fëanor heard of the Silmaril, and came against King Dior of Doriath with war, to wrest it from his keeping. The assailants were slain, but Dior likewise fell in battle, his wife Nimloth was killed, and his two young sons, Eluréd and Elurin, were abducted and left to starve. Only Elwing escaped; and the Silmaril.
Note: also the name of the ninth Ruling Steward of Gondor, who ruled from 2412–35 Third Age.
Dirhael – One of the royal Dúnedain of the North-kingdom in the late Third Age. He was indirectly descended from Aranarth, first Chieftain, and his daughter Gilraen was the mother of Aragorn II, last Chieftain.
Dírnaeth ‘Man-spearhead’ (Sind., from Q. nernehta) – An aggressive military evolution developed by the Númenoreans; it involved a shock attack by a group of spearmen in a tight wedge formation, designed (over short distances) to break up an enemy cluster before it cohered.
Dís – The only Dwarf-woman mentioned in surviving records, possibly because the Dwarves were exceedingly jealous of their women and went to great pains to conceal their whereabouts (if not their actual existence). She was the sister of Thorin Oakenshield and the mother of Fíli and Kíli, and was thus of Durin’s Line.
Dispossessed – The NOLDOR; specifically, the HOUSE OF FËANOR.
Dol Amroth ‘Amroth’s Hill’ (Sind.) – This towering coastal hill-fortress was the chief bastion of Gondor’s power in the Bay of Belfalas throughout the Third Age. Though the castle itself (Tirith Aear, ‘Seaward Tower’) had been raised to protect the provinces of Anfalas and Belfalas from seaborne raiding, it also had other, older associations. Below its rocky promontory lay long-deserted Elfharbours (Edhellond), where Elves of Lórien, sailing down Morthond to the Sea, had rested and refitted their ships before undertaking the great voyage West. For this reason it was widely believed (in Gondor) that folk of Dol Amroth had elven-blood in their veins. Indeed, the name of the hill itself recalls the Silvan Elflord AMROTH, who was tragically drowned off these coasts in the middle years of the Age.
Of all the Dúnedain of Gondor, the Princes of Dol Amroth were accounted second in rank only to the Heir of the Steward himself. At the time of the War of the Ring, Dol Amroth was ruled by Prince Imrahil son of Adrahil.
Dol Baran ‘Brown-head’ (Sind.) – The southernmost of all the foothills of the Misty Mountains.
Dol Guldur ‘The Hill of Sorcery’ (Sind.) – For nearly two thousand years this evil fortress was the most feared place in Middle-earth, save only Mordor itself. Built in the early years of the Third Age on Amon Lanc, a stony hilltop in the southern-western highland fastness of Greenwood the Great, Dol Guldur soon acquired a fearsome reputation. Dark clouds hung over it and evil beasts began to terrorise the forest, which was then renamed Mirkwood. The Council of the Wise (the Wizards and the Chief Eldar) assumed that one of the Ringwraiths had occupied it; even then they did not realise that Sauron was gradually taking shape once again. For it was the Lord of the Rings himself who had settled in Dol Guldur. To prevent his enemies striking before his own power was fully reborn, he carefully concealed his identity, so the people of the Forest knew the Power of Dol Guldur only as ‘the Necromancer’.
In 2063, increasingly perturbed at the growth of evil in southern Mirkwood, Gandalf the Grey secretly entered the Tower; but Sauron managed to retreat into the East without revealing himself. Nearly eight hundred years later the Wizard again entered Dol Guldur: this time he found the dying Dwarf Thráin in the dungeons, and discovered that the Necromancer was indeed Sauron. Gandalf subsequently summoned the White Council and strongly urged an attack on the fortress. But, swayed by the arguments of Saruman the White (who wished only to further his own purposes), they did nothing.
By this time the Necromancer’s plans were nearly complete. So, in 2941, when the White Council finally agreed to attack, Sauron simply withdrew and soon afterwards openly declared himself in Mordor. The Nazgûl then occupied the Tower, and it remained a place of great fear until the Elves of Lórien finally overthrew the fortress at the very end of the Age.
Dolmed ‘Wet-head’ (Sind.) – The tallest of the Blue Mountains, a great spur projecting westwards from the middle of the range. During the First Age this was Dwarf-country: to the north lay their city of Belegost, and to the south Nogrod.
Dome of Stars – The palace in the City of Osgiliath where the sages of Gondor kept one of the three palantíri (seeing-stones) of the Realm. (The other two were at Minas Ithil and Minas Anor.) During Gondor’s civil war, the Kin-strife, the City was burned and the Dome of Stars destroyed: the palantír was lost in the waters of Anduin.
Doom of Mandos – See CURSE OF MANDOS.
Doom of Men – Archaic tradition contains many parables and legends which serve to illustrate and emphasise the basic differences between Elves and Men. Of these distinctions, by far the most significant was the Elves’ possession of immortality, which was ultimately to create an all but unbridgeable gulf between them and the Atani.
The Valar soon perceived that the Gift of Immortality bestowed on the Elder Children was no gift at all in a Middle-earth that was itself mortal. Elves might be bound to the Circles of the World, but they could die by mischance, or be killed. As a refuge from the Mortal Lands, the Valar therefore provided the shorelands of their own land of Valinor: the Undying Lands, wherein Eldar and Valar might dwell for ever.
But when it came to His younger children, Men, Eru was careful to create them of the same stuff as Middle-earth itself, as Mortals – dying and leaving the World for ever. The mortality He gave them was then called the Gift of Men. But over the years, Men grew more powerful, and kingly, and noble. And some, notably the Númenoreans, thought themselves like to the Eldar in all ways, except one. Not perceiving the mercy implied in the Gift, they cursed their inheritance, calling it the Doom of Men. They feared death; and from that fear came the seeds of their long decline from Númenor to Middle-earth.
Doom of the Noldor – See CURSE OF MANDOS.
Doomsman (of the Valar) – Mandos.
Doors of Felagund – The threefold gateway of Nargothrond.
Dora Baggins – Eldest daughter of Fosco Baggins, Hobbit of the Shire. She was reportedly a prolix letter-writer. Bilbo, somewhat unkindly, left her a waste-paper basket in his will.
Dor Caranthir ‘Caranthir’s Land’ (Sind.) – See THARGELION.
Dor Cúarthol ‘Land of Bow and Helm’ (Sind.) – For a brief period the name given to all the lands between the rivers Teiglin and Mindeb, including Dimbar. The region had become infested with guerrillas of the Edain under the dual leadership of Túrin Húrin’s son and Beleg Cúthalion, the Strongbow, Marchwarden of Doriath. In those days Túrin wore, and was known as, the DRAGON-HELM (OF DOR-LÓMIN); and Beleg, of course, was famous for the skill with which he wielded his great bow, Belthronding.
Dor Daedeloth ‘Land of the Shadow of Horror’ (Sind.) – A name among the Eldar and the Edain for ANGBAND.
Dor Dínen ‘Silent Land’ (Sind.) – Like Himlad, a narrow fenced-in land between Doriath and Dorthonion. No creatures lived there. It lay between the upper waters of Esgalduin and Aros, spear-shaped, with the Forest of Doriath to the south. The road from Dimbar, having passed through Nan Dungortheb, crossed the Bridge of Esgalduin (also called the Old Bridge or Iant Iaur) a league north of Doriath and turned north-east through Dor Dínen, reaching the Arossiach after perhaps two days’ journey (on foot). After the Dagor Bragollach this region of Beleriand fell under the dominion of Morgoth.
Dor-en-Ernil ‘Land-of-the-Princes’ (Sind.) – One of the southern fiefs of Gondor. It lay between the rivers Ringló and Gilrain.
Dor Firn-i-Guinar ‘Land of the Dead That Live’ (Sind.) – The name given in the lore of the Sindar and the Green-elves to that region of southern Ossiriand which lay about the waters of Adurant, including the island of Tol Galen – after Beren Erchamion and Lúthien Tinúviel came to dwell there, towards the end of the First Age. Both, of course, had been granted a second (mortal) lifespan by the Grace of the Valar.
Dori – With his companions Ori and Nori, one of the twelve Dwarves who accompanied Thorin Oakenshield on the Quest of the Lonely Mountain (in 2941 Third Age). All three were of Durin’s Line, but only remotely related to Thorin. Dori and Nori remained in Erebor after its conquest; Ori accompanied the ill-fated expedition of Balin, and made the last entries in the Book of Mazarbul before being slain by Orcs.
Doriath ‘Land of the Fence’ (Sind.) – The name given by the Sindar to the former Forest of Eglador, after this region of Beleriand had become enclosed and defended by the ‘Girdle of Melian’: a web of enchantment woven by the Maia Melian, wife of Thingol, and set around the borders of the forest to protect their realm from attack or intrusion.
The Realm of Doriath, as it was in the days of Thingol’s lordship, consisted of the two forests of Neldoreth and Region, with the Esgalduin flowing between. In the centre of the land Thingol built Menegroth, the ‘Thousand-caves’, and there afterwards for many long years he dwelt, impregnable in his silvan citadel. Doriath endured throughout the greater part of the First Age, protected by the enchantments of the Lady Melian. Only twice were these defences breached: by Beren of the Edain, and by the Wolf of Angband, Carcharoth. But in later years the Silmaril brought thither by Beren (at Thingol’s bidding) enmeshed Thingol, Melian and the land of Doriath within the web of its destiny; and Thingol was slain, by Dwarves, in his own treasury. With his passing Melian withdrew her power; the Girdle was relaxed, and a further army of Dwarves broke through the forest to reach Menegroth and there avenge their kinsmen. It was not long afterwards that Doriath fell for ever; for Melian had by this time departed into the West, and the land became undefended save by elven-swords, and the Sons of Fëanor made sudden war upon Dior Thingol’s Heir, in order to obtain the Silmaril. In that onslaught many Elves died, on both sides; the realm of Doriath was cast down, and never arose again.
Dorlas – One of the Edain of the Second House, the Haladin of the Forest of Brethil. He was the leader of a small band of Woodmen who were attacked by Orcs not far from the ravines of the Teiglin, and subsequently rescued by Túrin son of Húrin, at that time seeking for Finduilas, daughter of Orodreth king of Nargothrond; for she had been taken prisoner by Orcs in the sack of that Elven-city, and he still hoped to deliver her. Dorlas it was who told Túrin of Finduilas’ fate; after which Túrin allied himself to the Woodmen of Brethil and made war upon the Orcs and their allies. It was three years later that the Men of Brethil were again attacked by Orcs – this time from captured Nargothrond, sent against the Edain by the Dragon Glaurung. This time Túrin did not go to the war; and it was Dorlas who spoke scornfully to him, causing Túrin to change his mind and take the field. A year later Glaurung himself came against the Woodmen, and this time Túrin needed no prodding. He determined to fight the Dragon, and asked for volunteers to help him. Dorlas was the only one bold enough to stand forward – yet this man’s courage, when put to the test, failed him at the last; and he withdrew from the expedition even before they had espied the Dragon. Afterwards he was slain by Brandir, his former chieftain, whom he himself had publicly derided for lack of courage.
Dor-lómin ‘Echoing Land’ (Sind.) – The southern part of Hithlum, a plain some thirty leagues wide at its broadest point and fifteen leagues long, enclosed on three sides by mountains: in the west, the Echoing Mountains; in the south-east, the Ered Wethrin, the ‘Shadowy Mountains’, and in the east, the Mountains of Mithrim. Dor-lómin was first occupied after the Second Battle of Beleriand, by Fingon son of Fingolfin, who for many years held the land subject to his father.
But in the years between the Dagor Aglareb and the Dagor Bragollach, the race of Men came for the first time into Beleriand, and the most numerous of their three Houses – the Third House, now led by Hador Lórindol – went into the service of the Noldor of Fingolfin’s house, and were as a result given the land of Dor-lómin in fief; though their main military strength was maintained further north and east, on the marches of Hithlum.
For three generations the Edain of Hador’s House held Dor-lómin, and wrought great deeds in the service of the Eldar; but at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad all were at last slain, save Húrin the son of Galdor son of Hador, who was taken alive. Hithlum, Mithrim and Dor-lómin fell at last under the dominion of Morgoth, and were never regained by the Eldar and the Edain.
Dor-nu-Fauglith – See ANFAUGLITH.
Dorthonion ‘Pine-tree-land’ (Sind.) – The forest-clad uplands of northern Beleriand. This great highland was seventy leagues by twenty leagues, extremely mountainous, and thickly wooded with coniferous trees, particularly pines, as the ancient name of this country reveals. (Another form is Orod-na-Thôn, ‘Pine-Mountain’.) The land – more particularly Ladros, the eastern region of Dorthonion, on the edge of the plains of Ard-galen – was occupied by the First House of the Edain; but as the years progressed Morgoth’s power waxed, and after the great Battle of Sudden Flame Dorthonion was abandoned, by all save BARAHIR and his band – and fell into evil. The very trees became malevolent. At about this time Dorthonion began to be known as Taur-na-Fuin (‘Forest-under-Night’) and Deldúwath (‘Deadly-Nightshade’).
Dorwinion ‘Land of Maidens’ (Sind.) – A country to the north-west of the Inland Sea of Rhûn. The highly praised wines of this region were much desired by the Wood-elves of Mirkwood, and part of the harvest was regularly shipped up the Carnen Celduin to Esgaroth and beyond.
Downs – Smooth, treeless uplands, often of chalk or limestone overlaid with turf.
Dragon-helm (of Dor-lómin) – The chief heirloom of the House of Hador in the First Age, called also the Helm of Hador. It was made by Telchar the Smith of Nogrod for Azaghâl King of Belegost soon after the first appearance of the dragon Glaurung; afterwards it was given to Fingon the High King, and by him to Hador. It was of grey steel, ornamented with gold, and a gold dragon-crest; and in front was a terrifying visor which, when lowered, concealed the wearer’s face and presented another. Surprisingly, it was not captured by the agents of Morgoth in the years which followed the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and the fall of Dor-lómin, for its whereabouts was kept hidden by Morwen wife of Húrin the Steadfast. Later she sent the Helm to Doriath, for at this time it belonged by rights to Túrin Húrin’s son, as the Heir of Hador; and he was now dwelling in Doriath with Thingol.
Now Túrin, in the event, fled from Doriath without the heirlooms of his house, but it was afterwards brought to him in his self-imposed exile (on Amon Rûdh) by Beleg Cúthalion, the strongbow of Doriath – and Túrin’s comrade. Then Túrin put on the Helm of his fathers for the first time and went to war.
So successful were he and Beleg in their prosecution of this offensive that the country in which they fought was named the ‘Land of Bow and Helm’, and Túrin in pride adopted the second of his many noms-de-guerre, calling himself Gorthol, the Dread Helm. Yet when all was said and done he was unwise thus to advertise his presence – and his existence – to Morgoth. For after a time Orcs came against him, and they were betrayed; in the ensuing fight Túrin was captured, and Beleg was left for dead, and the treasures and weapons of the outlaws were taken or despoiled by the Orcs. No further mention of the Helm of Hador is made in the annals of the Age.
Dragons – Of all the many evil creatures ever to appear in Middle-earth, among the most ancient, as well as the most awesome, were the Great Worms. Although there were once many Dragons in the world, few of their names have been recorded. GLAURUNG was the most feared Worm of the Elder Days, and ANCALAGON THE BLACK was the first of the kindred of flying dragons; but there were many other lesser worms whose titles and names were never learned.
The Great Worms were divided into three distinct breeds: the Uruloki, fire-breathing beasts who however were unable to fly (Glaurung was one of these); their evolved kindred who could both fly and breathe fire (Ancalagon and SMAUG THE GOLDEN were of this type); and many lesser ‘cold-drakes’ whose power lay in speed and size alone (the beast that dwelt in the lake of Moria and attacked the Ring-bearer may have been one of these). Most wielded great powers of enchantment; and all were immensely strong, quick-witted, intellectual, greedy – and callous beyond belief. It is possible that the race of Dragon-kind was not originally evil but lured into evil ways by Morgoth the Enemy far back in the Elder Days had passed, though other theories say they were in fact demonic powers of the same order as the Balrogs, MAIAR in the service of the self-styled Lord of Middle-earth. In either case the Dragons’ natural vices would soon have brought them into conflict with that other race of Middle-earth whose traits most closely resembled their own; for the Dwarves of those far-off days were even less renowned for philanthropy than their later descendants. And their wealth was very great (even as Dwarves reckoned such things). Both races fought for possession of the same hoards. Usually, the Dragons won. Yet Dragons had other foes, especially during the First Age. The High-elven city of Gondolin was overcome in the end by a terrible host of Dragons aided by Balrogs and Orcs.
With the passing of Morgoth and the end of the First Age, most of his Dragons were slain, and only the strongest and most cunning survived. At least two royal Dragons still lived during the Third Age: Scatha of the Grey Mountains and Smaug the Golden, who attacked the Lonely Mountain in the year 2770, driving away the Dwarves of that realm and taking their amassed wealth for himself. Smaug and Scatha were both slain by Men, and in each case there was further dispute between the parties involved as to the disposition of the hoard.
Dramborleg ‘Thudder-sharp’ (Sind.) – The war-axe of TUOR, kept as a trophy of the heroic past in Númenor but lost with the Downfall.
Draugluin ‘Blue-wolf’ (Sind.) – The chief of the werewolves (or ‘wargs’) of Angband, the forefather of Carcharoth. He was slain by the Hound of Valinor, Huan, on the drawbridge of Tol-in-Gaurhoth (Tol Sirion).
Drogo Baggins – The father of Frodo Baggins. Drogo and his wife Primula (Brandybuck) were tragically drowned while boating on the Baranduin. Frodo, their only child, was later adopted by his cousin Bilbo.
Druadan Forest – A large, brooding forest which huddled against the north wall of the White Mountains in the land of Anórien. Though it lay within ten leagues of Minas Tirith, this eerie place was shunned by Men of Gondor; for in its depths dwelt a strange, forgotten race of men, if Men they were. These were the WOSES, the ‘Púkel-men’ whose ancestors had in the dim past inhabited the seaward lands south of the Isen. It is not known when the Púkel-folk first came to Druadan, but even at the end of the Third Age a few still lingered there, wary and fearful. In the early days of Gondor, the Dúnedain took little notice of these ‘Wild Men’ of Druadan. Indeed, they made a great road directly through the Forest for their wagons which brought quarried stone from Min-Rimmon to Minas Anor. This road was later abandoned and forgotten.
Drûg – See WOSES.
Druwaith Iaur ‘Old Púkel-land’ (Sind.) – The coastal lands south of the river Isen; the ancient home of the WOSES, who later migrated inland to Druadan Forest.
Dry River – The entrance to the vale of Tumladen through the wall of the Encircling Mountains; in archaic times it had been formed by a river which had drained the (former) lake of Tumladen.
Duilin and Derufin – The sons of Duinhir, Lord of Morthond Vale. The Men of that land (in western Gondor) were fine bowmen; accordingly, Duinhir and his two sons led five hundred of their best archers to help defend the city of Minas Tirith during the War of the Ring. Both brothers were slain as they courageously attacked the war-oliphaunts of Harad at a crucial stage during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (March, 3019 Third Age).
Duilwen – A river of Ossiriand; one of the tributaries of Gelion.
Duinhir – See DUILIN AND DERUFIN.
Dumbledors – A piece of comic invention in the Hobbit style. The Dumbledors were insects, vanquished by the hero in Bilbo’s poem ‘Errantry’.2
Dúnadan (pl. Dúnedain) ‘Man-of-the-West’ (Sind.) – The Dúnedain, or Men of Westernesse, were the Númenoreans and their descendants, the ‘Kings-of-Men’: survivors of the disaster which overtook rebellious Númenor at the end of the Second Age.
In return for their endeavours in the cause against Morgoth the Enemy during the First Age, the Edain of Middle-earth had been rewarded with the great gift of the Island of Elenna in the middle of the Western Seas. Accordingly, at the beginning of the Second Age, most of them sailed away from Middle-earth to their new land. They named this realm Númenor, ‘Heart-of-the-West’ (Q.), and thenceforth they were known to the Elves as Dúnedain, ‘Men-of-the-West’. For three thousand years they grew ever more powerful, gifted and lordly, but in the end most of them were corrupted by pride, by fear of death – and by design of Sauron; and Númenor fell at last.
Yet the Dúnedain did not all perish in the Downfall. Those BLACK NÚMENOREANS who had already settled the coastlands of Middle-earth during the years of Sauron’s dominion lived on; while the FAITHFUL of Númenor, who alone endured the Deluge and survived it, then returned to Middle-earth where they founded the Realms in Exile: Arnor and Gondor. During the Third Age, the Black Númenoreans died out, or were dispersed in wars and invasion. But the loyal Dúnedain, descendants of Elendil the Tall and the Lords of the Faithful, somehow contrived to keep a foothold in Middle-earth – though grievously reduced in number by long years of war, pestilence and increasing assault by forces of Sauron. Of the Realms in Exile, only the South-kingdom survived the Third Age and into the Fourth. Yet the Dúnedain of the South habitually married late, or not at all; and as the years passed, the race slowly dwindled and the lifespan of the ‘Kings-of-Men’, originally three times that of other Men, grew less.
The ancestors of the Dúnedain, the Edain, had been accounted by Elves as the noblest of all races of Men; and the royal Houses of the Edain had been enriched by Elven-blood through two notable unions of Elves and Men during the Elder Days. Even at the end of the Third Age the kinship between the two races could still be seen in the dark hair, grey eyes and noble bearing of the Men of Wester-nesse and in their gifts of wisdom and foresight. And though some of the race may have become corrupted, the true descendants of the Dúnedain never forgot the ancient kinship with Elves, and esteemed Elven-lore above all other learning. Of all Men of Middle-earth, only they knew and used an Elven-tongue as their daily speech. Many spoke the Grey-elven (Sindarin) language, and their sages studied the yet more ancient Quenya tongue of the High-Elves.
The Dúnedain were also great scholars, and from them were derived the various systems of reckoning and writing which later became widespread in Middle-earth. But they themselves had learned this lore from the Elves long before. From the Elves the Men of Westernesse also derived the lineage of their Kings – the first Ruler of Númenor had been himself Half-elven: Elros Tar-Minyatur, brother of Elrond of Rivendell and son of Eärendil the Mariner. Yet by the time of the War of the Ring, the last direct descendant of that ancient Line, Aragorn son of Arathorn, could only claim the title of Chieftain of the Dúnedain of Arnor.
Dungortheb ‘Dreadful Death’ (Sind.) – See NAN DUNGORTHEB.
Dunharg – An archaic form of the name Dunharrow. See following entry.
Dunharrow ‘Dark-burial-place’ – The most mysterious of the ancient sites which the Rohirrim found when they explored the new land ceded to them by Gondor in the late Third Age. Unlike all other fortifications in Rohan, Dunharrow, in the vale of Harrowdale, had not been built by Gondor. Long before the Númenoreans came back to Middle-earth, before Sauron established his dominion in the Accursed Years, a prehistoric race of Men had laboured long in shaping this unassailable fortress, temple and tomb complex.
Harrowdale was a steep valley through which the river Snowbourn ran down from the White Mountains to water the Eastfold. On the eastern side rose three mountains: the Irensaga, the Dwimorberg, and the Starkhorn to the south. An ancient winding road climbed from the ford of the Snowbourn to a mountain-meadow high above the valley, on the knees of the Dwimorberg. Across this plateau marched a double line of menhirs, running like an avenue towards the mountain-wall, through the Dimholt and into the haunted glen beyond. In the time of the Rohirrim, the plateau was valued for its defensive merits, but men did not serve there gladly.
Dúnhere – The lord of Harrowdale in Rohan. He fell at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (March, 3019 Third Age) and, like all Rohan’s dead in that fight – save the King – he was buried with the fallen of Gondor. He was the nephew of Erkenbrand of Westfold.
Dunland – A fair green country of hills and glens in the region known as Enedhwaith, south of the river Swanfleet (Glanduin) and west of the Misty Mountains. It was inhabited by scattered settlements of hillmen, wary, secretive and hostile to strangers. Though Hobbits and Dwarves had once also dwelt there, only these hill-folk, the DUNLENDINGS, remained at the time of the War of the Ring.
Dunlendings – The hill-folk of Dunland. Though a dispirited, backward race at the time of the War of the Ring, the Dunlendings were remotely descended, according to one authority, from the Haladin (People of Haleth) of the First Age and thus were of Adûnaic stock3. In the Second Age a remnant, much diminished in culture, dwelled in the woods of Minhiriath, but were hunted and persecuted by the later returning Númenoreans; whence came this people’s abiding hatred of the Dúnedain. Many of them left the woods and emigrated north into Eriador. Others remained, dwindling slowly in the White Mountains until first Gondor, then Rohan, drove them from their ancient valleys. By the time of the late Third Age, the largest surviving remnant of this race dwelt in the hills of Dunland, north of the Isen and west of the Misty Mountains.
Wild and uncouth, the Dunlendings were nonetheless fierce fighters when roused: and their chief enemies were the Men of Rohan, whom they called Forgoil (‘Strawheads’). In the great Dunlending invasion of 2758, these peoples, led by the renegade Wulf (son of Freca), overran the Mark. Many of the Rohirrim died in that invasion – which coincided with the Long Winter and a great assault of the Corsairs upon Rohan’s ally Gondor, so that help from that quarter was delayed. But in the end Wulf was slain and, with the spring thaw, the Dunlendings were finally driven out again, even from the Ring of Isengard which they had occupied some fifty years earlier.
Durin (I) the Deathless – According to legend, the eldest of the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves. Far back in the Elder Days he awoke from the sleep laid on him by Ilúvatar and came to Azanulbizar, the great vale on the east of the Misty Mountains. There he looked into the lake of Kheled-zâram (the Mirrormere) and saw, even though it was daytime, a crown of seven stars reflected around his head. In the caves above Kheled-zâram he then made his dwelling: which afterwards became the great realm of Khazâd-dûm (Moria). Durin lived so long that he became widely known as ‘the Deathless’, and, even after his eventual passing, ‘five times an heir was born in his House so like to his Forefather that he received the name of Durin’,4 for the Dwarves believed that it was indeed the Deathless who had been reincarnated.
Durin III – During the sixteenth century of the Second Age the Ruler of Khazâd-dûm and the Dwarf-king most renowned for friendship with the Elves. He was given the chief of the Seven Rings.
Durin VI – From 1731–1980 Third Age, King of Moria. He ruled at the time of the final great exploratory delving under Barazinbar (Caradhras) for the mother mithril-lode. In these excavations, miners accidentally released the BALROG which slew Durin – and, the following year, his son Náin I. The Dwarves of Durin’s Line then fled from Moria into exile.
Durin’s Bane – The BALROG of Moria.
Durin’s Bridge – Between the First and Second Halls of Old Moria lay a great abyss, so deep that none of Durin’s Folk was ever able to sound its depths. Spanning it was a slender bridge of stone which could only be crossed in single file, built during the First Age as a defence against any enemy that might penetrate far enough into Moria to capture the Great Gates and First Hall. It was broken by Gandalf in his single combat with the Balrog.
Durin’s Crown – The name given by the Dwarves to the halo of seven stars seen by Durin the Deathless as he gazed for the first time into the Mirrormere.
Durin’s Day – The Dwarves’ New Year’s Day; the first day of the last new crescent of autumn, when Moon and Sun appeared in the sky simultaneously.
Durin’s Folk – The most ancient and (at one time) most numerous and powerful of the Seven Houses of the Dwarves was that founded by Durin the Deathless. Dwarves of this House were known to the Elves as the Longbeards, for their beards – always symbolic of age and wisdom among Dwarves – were longer than any competing growths, invariably forked, and worn thrust into the belt.
Though their vast ancestral halls of Khazâd-dûm (Moria) held out for an Age or more against would-be dispossessors, in the end this greatest of all Dwarf-strongholds was taken from Durin’s Folk, in 1981 Third Age, and they became a wandering people. From Moria they came to the North, to Erebor (where Thráin I founded a new Dwarf-kingdom ‘under the Mountain’); to the Ered Mithrin (Grey Mountains), from whence they were later driven by attacks from depredatory Dragons; and to the Iron Hills, where a cadet branch of the Line established itself in comparative security. Yet Erebor was also taken from them, when the great Dragon Smaug drove the Dwarves out in the year 2770; and for a time many of the Heirs of Durin wandered in Eriador in exile and (relative) poverty. Although they later recovered much of what had been lost to the Dragon, their race was much depleted, and the Dwarves of Durin’s Line were never to regain their old glories. And the lost realm of Moria remained forbidden to them while the Third Age lasted.
Durin’s Stone – An ancient, weathered pillar on the greensward near Lake Kheled-zâram (the Mirrormere) in the vale of Azanulbizar. It marked the place where Durin the Deathless first looked into the lake and saw, reflected around his head in the cool waters, a crown of seven stars shining as a symbol of royalty.
Durin’s Tower – A chamber and ledge on the pinnacle of the Silvertine, where the Endless Stair reached the upper airs after a climb of many thousand unbroken steps.
Durthang ‘Dark-oppression’ (Sind.) – At the beginning of the Third Age, after the first overthrow of Sauron, the victorious people of Gondor resolved that no evil creature should re-enter the neighbouring land of Mordor. They therefore built several strong fortresses inside the Black Land to control any movement in or out of that country. One of the most important of these was the castle of Durthang, high upon the rock-wall overlooking the Isenmouthe and the pass from Gorgoroth to Udûn behind the Black Gate. As Gondor’s power waned, around the middle of the Third Age, the castle – like all other Mordor-keeps – was taken by the Nazgûl, and became an orc-hold.
Dwalin – One of the twelve Dwarves who accompanied Thorin Oakenshield on the Quest of the Lonely Mountain. After the recovery of Thorin’s inheritance, he remained in Erebor, content to live in peace – unlike his brother BALIN, who led a misguided expedition to recover the ancient Dwarf-realm of Moria.
Dwarrowdelf – The translated Westron name (orig. Phurunargian) which meant ‘Dwarf-delving’ and was applied by Men to the great underground city of Moria.
Dwarves – The Children of Aulë the Smith of the Valar, of all ‘speaking-peoples’ the only race not created by the direct will of God – though He intervened in the hour of their Making, adopted them, amended their design and commanded that their Seven Fathers remain asleep until after the appearance in Middle-earth of the Elves, whom He had long before purposed should be the first to walk the world. Later the Seven Fathers awoke for the second time, and went abroad, and commenced the works of their hands; and after a time spent in these labours, like all peoples they wandered ever westward, until they crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand, and there encountered the Elves – and so entered the records of the Ages.
They called themselves Khazâd, but the Elves called them Naugrim, the Stunted People, and Nogothrim, which means ‘Dwarf-folk’, and Gonnhirrim, ‘Stonemasters’; and other names besides. But there was seldom great love between Elves and Dwarves – as so often between natural and adopted children – and as the First Age wore away, and the tragedies of that time unfolded, enmities arose between the races, the memory of which lingered into later days and was never entirely eradicated.
Of the three Elder Races – Elves, Dwarves and Men – it was undoubtedly the Dwarves who exhibited the greatest love for the lands of Middle-earth and the treasures to be found there. For the Elves were, from the beginning, destined to find their long home on further shores, away from Middle-earth to the West. And although Men loved the creations of the world after their own fashion, they continually aspired to greater things, desiring to be like the Elves. Not so the Dwarves. Their love of possession for its own sake was balanced by the delight they took in ever more majestic and skilful feats of craftsmanship. From their beginnings they throve, the miner’s chisel and smith’s forge bringing them riches, power and great influence over the affairs of the Elder Days.
Of their origins the Dwarves told little to strangers; the small amount which is recorded in the Red Book comes from the tales of Men of Dale, who dwelt near them for many years and had commerce with them. The first of their race to enter the lands of the Elves in the west were the Noegyth Nibin, the ‘Petty-Dwarves’, who mined and delved in Beleriand long before the coming of the Noldor from the deeps of the Sea. It was this people who excavated the caves of Narog – in their own tongue Nulukkizdin – but they were fugitives from their own people, and the Sindar did not love them; and there was persecution of this people by the Elves of the woods; which only ceased when more Dwarves, of the true race of the Khazâd, came into Beleriand in later years.
These second-comers were altogether a more impressive people; indeed, long before their crossing of the Ered Luin into Beleriand, they had already created for themselves many vast and populous cities in the east of Middle-earth, the most ancient of which was Moria, but the most westerly of which were the twin cities of Nogrod and Belegost, delved in the eastern side of the Blue Mountains.
The Dwarves of these cities had much to do with the Elves during the First Age, both good and evil. They fought on occasion with the Eldar against Morgoth (see AZAGHÂL), and traded with Caranthir’s people, and made roads into Beleriand, and delved the halls of Thingol, and performed many works of craft and smithwork on behalf of the Eldar – yet somehow there was never the same kind of abiding affection between the peoples which is the most cherished memory of Elves and Men. And on occasion the Dwarves marched against the Eldar, being seduced from their good sense by their lust for riches or their desire for vengeance. It was Dwarves of Nogrod who murdered King Thingol Greycloak of Doriath, and Dwarves of that same city who sacked Menegroth and stole the Nauglamir, made long before by their own forefathers; and it was a Dwarf who betrayed Túrin Turambar.
To the south-east, on the far side of the Misty Mountains, there stood the Gates of a city already of vast dimensions and legendary repute: Khazâd-dûm, the ancestral Halls of Durin, eldest and most royal of all the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves. The Golden Age of Moria lay still in the future but even in the First Age it was already the greatest of all Dwarvish accomplishments. The almost endless dolven Halls, Deeps, Levels, roads, chambers and pits were lit with glittering crystal lamps; the walls, cut with marvellous skill from the living rock with scarcely a chiselmark, shone with banners, helms, shields, proud spears of steel and corslets of silver set with gems. Far below, in the Deeps, patient miners worked with pick and basket, while masons above busily extended old roads or carved new, lofty chambers to the glory of Durin’s name. At the great Eastern Gate, mail-clad guards watched over the Vale of Azanulbizar and the lovely lake of Kheled-zâram.
Such was the splendour of Moria in those days. Its power was too great to overcome and it remained inviolate throughout the tumults of the First Age; while Nogrod and Belegost were ruined when Beleriand was drowned under the Sea. Thus many dispossessed Dwarves of those cities flocked to Khazâd-dûm, swelling its numbers and its craft. And so the realm grew ever more rich and powerful while outside was ruin and a Change of the World.
Although Dwarves had always been wealthy, the discovery of mithril under the roots of Barazinbar early in the Second Age made the inhabitants of Moria fabulously rich. The Smiths of the High-elves (who did not share the ancient prejudices of their Grey-elven kin against Dwarves) eagerly founded a settlement near the west-wall of Moria, to engage in trade for this metal, most prized by all Elves. And the friendship that existed between Elves of Eregion and Dwarves of Moria was the greatest that has ever been between the two peoples. Yet when war swept over the lands of Eriador, the Moria-dwellers, fearful for their treasures, shut the doors of the city. Thus Khazâd-dûm survived the War of the Elves and Sauron, and the long dominion of the Lord of the Rings over Middle-earth during the Accursed Years of the Second Age.
Nevertheless Moria fell at last. In 1980 Third Age the miners were once more tunnelling down into the roots of Barazinbar, seeking the full extent of the mithril-lode. At the heart of the vein slept an evil spirit from the Realm of Morgoth. Somehow it had escaped from the ruin of Thangorodrim at the end of the First Age – and had been slumbering in the depths of the mountain ever since. The Balrog slew Durin VI and, the following year, his son Náin I; then the Dwarves of Durin’s House fled from Moria, never to return while the Third Age lasted.
Many of those who escaped made their way into the North, to Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, where Náin’s son Thráin I founded the first Kingdom ‘under the Mountain’ (1999 Third Age). But his own son Thorin I, desiring to rule a kingdom of his own, passed still further into the north, to the Grey Mountains, taking with him the greater part of Durin’s Folk. There his people once again began to amass great wealth – until their ancient enemies, the Dragons, heard of this and made war upon them, driving the Dwarves from these mountains and back to Erebor in the year 2590. Yet while the expedition to the Grey Mountains had ultimately failed, the days of the Dwarves did not seem so very hard, for Erebor had already been made rich and fair, and the skill and industry of the returning Dwarves of Durin’s Line soon produced even greater results. Both Erebor and the Dwarf-dwellings in the Iron Hills prospered, until the year 2770, when the greatest Dragon of his time, Smaug the Golden, learned of the treasure under the Lonely Mountain, and came against King Thrór with consuming fire and great wrath. The Dwarves were scattered or slain, the nearby town of Dale was ruined and the surrounding country became a scorched, barren desert. Inside the Great Hall of Thrór, Smaug slept upon a vast pile of wealth and weapons.
Dispossessed yet again, the remaining Dwarves dispersed: some to the Iron Hills, some to Eriador and some to the meagre mines of the Blue Mountains, there to scratch a living as blacksmiths and ironmasters. In the end, Thrór could stand the shame no longer and, in his unreason, resolved to go to Moria. His murder by Orcs there and the bitter six-year war which followed brought about the last mustering of the Dwarves of the Seven Houses. In the year 2799, grim, mail-clad warriors bearing spears, mattocks and their beloved axes, marched to Azanulbizar to give final battle against the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. There, many of the Dwarves – and almost all of the Goblins – were slain.
Nevertheless, towards the very end of the Third Age, the fortunes of the Dwarves of Durin’s House unexpectedly revived. In the account he titled There and Back Again, the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins tells of the manner in which Smaug the Dragon came to be slain and the Dwarves of Erebor to regain their inheritance despite the fact that the ancient enmity between Dwarves and Elves (and in this case, Men), nearly led to a disastrous reversal of their fortunes.5 Bilbo himself took a significant part in these events; as a result, the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain thereafter showed great friendship towards Hobbits. More significantly, from this point onwards through the remainder of the Age, the Dwarves of Durin’s Line continued to ally themselves with all other Free Peoples.
Of the reasons for the Dwarves’ ancient feud with the Elves, little is said in the Red Book, but much in The Silmarillion. Each race attributed blame to the other. To Men it might seem likely that the Dwarves’ legendary avarice had played the stronger part in fomenting disagreements between the two peoples. Yet the Dwarves might well have been justified, in their own eyes, in taking exception to the somewhat lordly manner employed by many Elves in their dealings with them (for there was often trade between the peoples). Perhaps, more than anything else, the rift was simply due to cultural differences: for Dwarves were quite unable to perceive any particular merit in trees, skies and hunting under the stars; while the very contemplation of dwelling underground filled Elves with abhorrence – though they did so on many occasions, and often employed Dwarves in the delving of these subterranean kingdoms and fortresses.
At all events, while Elves were often unfriendly, it was the Dragons of Middle-earth who were traditionally the Dwarves’ most deadly enemies. In this, the Dwarves’ own fabulous wealth was their undoing: rumours of some Dwarf-hoard would, nigh and again, reach the ears of one of these avaricious beasts and he would rise up in wrath (and greed), coming against the Dwarf-settlement with fire and claw. Sometimes the Dragon would perish, pierced through by sharp spears and finally dispatched with axe-strokes; more frequently the Worm would conquer, destroying his foes with great gouts of flame and then systematically exterminating the survivors. That attended to, the Dragon would gather all the wealth and weapons into one vast bed, to lie there in watchful sleep till slain by adventurers or dead of old age. As Dragons were extremely difficult to slay (and hardly ever died of old age), a course of events such as this frequently meant permanent exile for the hapless Dwarves – unless some great warrior could be paid to slay the Worm. As exile usually meant penury, the treasure more often remained where it lay.
However, the prerequisite great warriors certainly existed even if their services could not often be employed. The emerging race of Men was a race of Heroes and some of them went in for Dragon-slaying on their own account. And here lie the origins of unfriendly relations between Dwarves and Men; for Dwarves were never slow to claim their own – and a warrior, having won a Dragon-hoard at great cost, was understandably reluctant to yield it up. Many early kingdoms of Men were founded on such hoards – and this did not improve relations between them and the dispossessed owners.
Whatever their relations with Men and Elves – and these were not always bad – Dwarves, like other races, regarded Orcs with unpitying hate. The Orcs, of course, coveted Dwarf-hoards as much as anyone else (not least for the matchless weaponry to be found there); and, as both races habitually dwelt underground, battle and cruel deeds between them were a common occurrence. The Dwarves defended their treasure with grim determination but, as the forces of evil grew in numbers and strength, many of their ancient mansions were taken from them. Even so, the Orcs never managed to enter Moria until the Dwarves were expelled by an enemy of far greater power, late in the Third Age. And even in those fading days, something of the old fire of the Naugrim of the First Age still lingered in the hearts of the Dwarves. But, like the Elves, they had long been a dwindling people, and ceaseless plundering of their ancient works had left them too long without secure dwellings. As a result, few of their records survived, and thus little further is known of their history or lore. For they were a secretive people and few of other race ever succeeded in learning their ancient tongue, Khuzdul (‘The-Speech-of-the-Khazâd’), apart from such words as the Dwarves themselves still used openly.
Dwarves were small, stout and bearded, wore heavy boots and great hoods over their leather jerkins and mail hauberks. They fought with axes and laid their dead under stone engraved with elf-runes, long adapted to their own language. They were grasping, industrious, fierce, jealous, brave, loyal – and unflinching in labour or adversity. With metal and stone and with all things of craft, they were wondrously skilled. But like the Elves, their days in Middle-earth are long past, and the proud race of the Khazâd is now little more – and often less – than a folk-memory to Men of later days.
Dwarvish – Khuzdul, the secret language of the Dwarves.
Dwimmerlaik – A name used in Rohan for a ghost or unclean spectre.
Dwimorberg – The ‘Haunted Mountain’ of the Ered Nimrais (the White Mountains). It rose above the ancient Hold of Dunharrow. Under it, a dark road ran from the Hold (in Rohan) to the Vale of Morthond (in Gondor).
Dwimordene ‘Haunted-valley’ – The name used among Northern Men for the (to them) legendary land of Lothlórien.