A Dictionary of Tolkien

by David Day

  However, the name Atani was given to the Men of the Three Houses only for a brief time by the Noldor. Its true meaning is “Second-born”, which is what all the race of mortals who arose in the East of Middle-earth were called. For as Elves, who came into the World at the time of the Rekindling of the Stars, were named the Firstborn, so Men, who came at the time of the Rising of the Sun, were named the Secondborn – the Atani.

  In time, however, the name Atani faded altogether, for the Quenya tongue of the Noldorin Elves was not widely used in Mortal Lands. The Men of the Three Houses became the Edain in the more common Sindarin language of the Grey-elves, and it is under that name that the greater part of the tales of these Men in the lost lands of Beleriand are told.

  Athelas

  Among the many tales in the “Red Book of Westmarch” is recorded a part of the Grey-elven rhyme concerning the healing herb Athelas. The meaning of the rhyme has in the passing of Ages been lost to the understanding of all but the wisest of Men, though by the time of the War of the Ring it remained a folk cure for mild ailments of the body.

  In the terrible days of that war Aragorn, son of Arathorn, who was a true descendant of the kings of Númenórë from where the magical woodland herb had come, came to the kingdom of Gondor. It is told in tales that Aragorn, who had the healing hands of these kings, broke the long-leafed herb into cauldrons of steaming water and released its true power. The fragrance of orchards, the coolness of mountain snow, and the light of a shattered star poured into the dark rooms where the victims of poisoned wounds and black sorcery lay, until they stirred again with life and youth, and the long trance that had held them in sway broke before it had taken them to an evil death.

  So Athelas was named Kingsfoil, the “leaf of kings”, by Men and its use by a true king of Númenórë was a sign of the end that would soon come to that greatest evil of Mordor, east of Gondor, which threatened all who inhabited Middle-earth.

  Aulë

  Vala called “the Smith”, but also called the Maker of Mountains, for Aulë did more than any of the Valar in the Shaping of Arda. He made the Lamps of the Valar, and forged the vessels that hold the Sun and the Moon. Aulë is the master of all crafts, and the deviser of all metals and gemstones. By the Dwarves he is known as Mahal, meaning “the Maker”, for it was he who conceived and fashioned their race from earth and stone. And it was he who taught the Noldor Elves about the making of gems and carving of stone. The mansions of Aulë are to be found in central Valinor. His spouse is Yavanna the Fruitful.

  Avallónë

  The port and city of the Teleri Sea Elves on the Lonely Isle of Tol Eressëa in the Bay of Eldamar. It was here during the Third Age of Stars that the Teleri first learned to build ships, and it was from this port that they sailed at last to the shore of Eldamar in the Undying Lands. During the Second Age of the Sun, it was from the lamplit quays of Avallónë that the Sea Elves most often sailed to the land of Númenor with their many gifts and blessings which so enriched the lives of the mortals of that blessed realm. It was claimed that from the highest peak of Númenor, the keen-eyed could see that city’s glittering lights, and the massive white tower at its heart.

  Avari

  At the Time of Awakening, all Elves lived in the East of Middle-earth near Orocarni, the Mountains of the East, on the shore of Helcar, the Inland Sea. But in time the summons of the Valar came and all the Elves had to make a choice between starlight and the promise of a land of eternal light. Those who chose eternal light and set out on the Great Journey were named the Eldar, while those who remained were called the Avari, the “unwilling”.

  The Avari became a less powerful people, for their land became barbarous with Dark Powers and evil races, and so the Elves dwindled and hid themselves. They became as shadows and sprites that mortal eyes could not perceive. They lived always close to the wooded land, built no cities and had no kings. Later, in the years of Sun, the Avari were named Silvan or Wood-elves, and some of them wandered westwards and became involved in the great affairs of their Eldar kindred under whom they grew prosperous and strong for a while, before dwindling once again.

  Avathar

  That southern part of the continent of Aman in the Undying Lands that lay between the Pelóri Mountains and the Sea. Avathar means “shadows”, for indeed it was a dark, cold desert region. In this shadowland, Ungoliant the Great Spider lived until she was summoned by the evil Melkor and came forth and destroyed the Trees of the Valar.

  Azaghâl

  Dwarf king of Belegost. Through the Ages of Starlight and the First Age of the Sun, King Azaghâl’s realm in the Blue Mountains of Beleriand was famous for the forging of the finest steel blades and the best Dwarf-mail armour the world had ever seen. These arms were put to the test during the terrible Battle of Unnumbered Tears, when only Azaghâl’s Dwarves could withstand the blaze of Dragon fire. It was the bravery and strength of King Azaghâl alone that caused the Dragons to retreat.

  For though it cost him his life, Azaghâl drove his sword deep into the belly of Glaurung, the Father of Dragons, and forced him to withdraw from the field of battle.

  Azanulbizar

  The once fair pass outside the gates of Khazad-dûm was called Azanulbizar. Since the destruction of the Dwarf kingdom at the hands of the Balrog, the pass, along with the kingdom (later called Moria), suffered many evils. Once beautiful and sacred, it was the source of the Silverlode River and contained Mirrormere, the lake of vision and prophecy. Towards the end of the Third Age of the Sun it was a dark and threatening place ruled by evil powers and in the year 2799 was the battleground of the final bloody conflict in the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs. Called Dimrill Dale by Men, by the time of the Fellowship of the Ring it was a wasteland buffer between Moria and the Golden Forest of Lothlórien. The Fellowship of the Ring travelled through Azanulbizar on their way to the Elf refuge in the Forest of Lothlórien.

  Azog

  Orc king of Moria. Azog ruled the hordes within the old Dwarf realm of Moria. He was a particularly large and obnoxious Orc, possibly one of the Uruk-hai, a breed of Orkish soldiery. He was responsible for the murder and mutilation of the Dwarf King Thrór in 2790 of the Third Age. Azog’s murder of Thrór led to the bloody War of Dwarves and Orcs, and in 2799, the final struggle of the Battle of Azanulbizar, in which the Orcs were annihilated. In revenge for the mutilation of Thrór, Azog was decapitated by Dáin Ironfoot and his severed head impaled on a stake.

  Bb

  Bag End

  Bag End was considered by Hobbits to be one of the finest hobbit-holes in the whole of Hobbiton, if not the entire Shire. Built in the twenty-eighth century of the Third Age, at the end of Bagshot Row, it was the home of three generations of Baggins’s: Bungo, Bilbo and Frodo. In 3018, when embarking on the Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo sold Bag End to Lobelia and Lotho Sackville-Baggins. From September 3019, during the last months of the War of the Ring, it became the headquarters of Saruman the evil wizard during his brief reign of terror over the Shire. After Saruman’s destruction, Bag End was given back to Frodo Baggins by Lobelia. When Frodo Baggins departed from the shores of Middle-earth on an Elven ship bound for the Undying Lands, Bag End became the home of Sam Gamgee, his family and his heirs.

  Balar

  In its beginning the Isle of Balar was a part of Tol Eressëa, the floating island that was the ship of Ulmo the Ocean Lord who used it to take the Teleri into the Undying Lands. However, in the Bay of Balar off the coast of Beleriand, the island ran aground, and that part called Balar broke off and remained. Balar was favoured by the servant of Ulmo, Ossë the Master of the Waves, and its shores were famous for their wealth of pearls. The island became a part of the domain of Círdan and the Falathrim, and during the Wars of Beleriand it became a refuge for first the Sindar, and then the Noldor under Gil-galad. At the end of the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age of the Sun, Balar, along with the rest of Beleriand, is believed to have sunk beneath the sea.

  Balchoth

  I
n the time of Cirion, the twelfth Ruling Steward of Gondor, some fierce barbarian people lived in Rhovanion on the eastern borders of the realm. They were the Balchoth and they were part of the Easterling race. The Balchoth caused great terror in the southern Vales of Anduin, for their ways were evil and their deeds were directed by the Dark Lord Sauron, who resided in Dol Guldur in Mirkwood.

  The savagery of the Balchoth was legendary and their numbers were very great. In the year 2510 of the Third Age, the Balchoth barbarian tribes launched a huge fleet of boats upon the Great River and at last crossed into the realm of Gondor. They despoiled the province of Calenardhon and slaughtered its people, until they were set upon by the Men of Gondor in a mighty army led by Cirion. Yet, a black army of Orcsd came from the mountains and attacked the Men of Gondor from behind. In that darkest moment aid came to the Men of Gondor: the Rohirrim sent into battle a great force of cavalry that routed both Balchoth and Orc. This was the Battle of the Field of Celebrant, at which the power of the Balchoth was broken for ever. The barbarian army was annihilated and no history tells of the fierce Balchoth after that day. They were a vanquished people and they soon disappeared completely from the lands of Middle-earth.

  Balin

  Dwarf of Thorin and Company. Balin was born in the Kingdom under the Mountain at Erebor in 2763. However, in 2770 Smaug the Dragon drove all his people out. In 2790, Balin followed King Thrain II into the bloody War of Dwarves and Orcs, after which he settled for a time in a Dwarf-colony in the Blue Mountains. In 2841, Balin began an ill-fated quest with King Thrain II to return to Erebor. This journey resulted in the disappearance and eventual death of Thrain II. Balin returned to the Blue Mountains. Exactly a century later, he set out with Thorin and Company in the successful Quest of Erebor, which resulted in the slaying of Smaug the Dragon and the re-establishment of the Kingdom under the Mountain. In 2989 Balin left Erebor in an attempt to re-establish a Dwarf-kingdom in Moria. For five years Balin struggled against the Balrog and his Orkish hordes, but finally he and his followers were overwhelmed and slain.

  Balrogs

  The most terrible of the Maiar spirits who became the servants of Melkor, the Dark Enemy, were those who were transformed into demons. In the High Elven tongue they were named the Valaraukar, but in Middle-earth were called Balrogs, the “demons of might”.

  Of all Melkor’s creatures, only Dragons were greater in power. Huge and hulking, the Balrogs were Man-like demons with streaming manes of fire and nostrils that breathed flame. They seemed to move within clouds of black shadows and their limbs had the coiling power of serpents. The chief weapon of the Balrog was the many-thonged whip of fire, and, though they also carried the mace, the axe and the flaming sword, it was the whip of fire that their enemies feared the most. This weapon was so terrible that the vast evil of Ungoliant, the Great Spider that even the Valar could not destroy, was driven from Melkor’s realm by the fiery lashes of the Balrog demons.

  Most infamous of the Balrog race was Gothmog, Lord of the Balrogs and High Captain of Angband. In the Wars of Beleriand three High Elven-lords fell beneath the whip and black axe of Gothmog. After the Battle under Stars, Fëanor, the most renowned of Elven-Kings, was cut down by Gothmog at the very doors of Angband. In the Battle of the Sudden Flame, he slew Fingon, High King of the Noldor. Finally, again in the service of Noldor, Gothmog led the Balrog host and its Troll-guard and marshalled the Orc legions and the Dragon brood, before storming and sacking the kingdom of Gondolin and killing Ecthelion, the Elf-lord. But it was here at the Fall of Gondolin, in the Square of the King, that Gothmog met his end, by the hand of Ecthelion, whom he himself had just slain.

  In each of Melkor’s risings and in each of his battles, the Balrogs were among his foremost champions, and so, when the holocaust of the War of Wrath ended Melkor’s reign for ever, it largely ended the Balrogs as a demon race.

  It was said that some fled that last battle and buried themselves deep in the roots of the mountains, but after many thousands of years nothing more was heard of these evil beings and most people believed the demons had gone from the Earth for ever. However, during the Third Age of Sun the deep-delving Dwarves of Moria by accident released an entombed demon. Once unleashed, the Balrogs struck down two Dwarf-kings, and, gathering Orcs and Trolls to aid them, drove the Dwarves from Moria for ever. As is told in the “Red Book of Westmarch”, the Balrog’s dominion remained uncontested for two centuries, until he was cast down from the peak of Zirak-zigil by the Wizard Gandalf after the Battle on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.

  Banakil

  It was not until the first thousand years of the Third Age of the Sun had passed in the Vales of Anduin, east of the Mountains of the Mist, that men first became aware of the Banakil, the “Halfling” race called the Hobbits. Smaller than Dwarves and shy of other races, they lived quietly and no history tells of their beginning before this time. Though they were of little importance to Elves and Men, the “Red Book of Westmarch” tells how their deeds determined the wars of the mightiest that inhabited Middle-earth in the Third Age. Under the name Hobbit they became far-famed in the songs and tales that tell of the great War of the Ring, which ended the evil dominion of Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor.

  Barad-dûr

  The greatest fortress-tower on Middle-earth during the Second and Third Age of the Sun was Barad-dûr in the evil land of Mordor. Called the Dark Tower by Men and Lugbúrz by Orcs, it was built after the first millennium of the Second Age by Sauron, with the power of the One Ring. For over two thousand years of the Second Age, Barad-dûr was the centre of the Ring-Lord’s evil empire, but in the year 3434 it was besieged by the combined forces of Elves and Dúnedain. After a seven-year siege, in the year 3441, the tower was captured and Sauron overthrown. For the next twenty-nine centuries of the Third Age, Barad-dûr was a massive ruin, but because it was made by the sorcerous powers, its foundations could not be destroyed while the One Ring survived. So, when Sauron at last returned to Mordor in the year 2951 of the Third Age, he was able to rebuild and restore the Dark Tower to its former power. It now appeared invincible. However, Sauron had not counted on the discovery of the Ring. In the year 3019, the One Ring was destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom, and the very foundations of Barad-dûr cracked and collapsed. With the One Ring unmade Sauron’s powers were utterly destroyed and the tower of Barad-dûr fell into a pile of rubble.

  Bard the Bowman

  Man of Dale and Dragon Slayer. Born and raised among the Lake Men of Esgaroth, Bard was an exile of Dale, which had been destroyed by Smaug, the Golden Dragon. He was a strong and grim-faced Man who claimed descent from a famous archer called Girion of Dale. In 2941 of the Third Age, while the city fathers fled for their lives, Bard used his archer’s skills to strike the mighty Smaug beneath his armour in his one vulnerable spot. He then led the army of Men to victory in the Battle of Five Armies. After that battle, Bard used a part of the Dragon’s golden hoard to rebuild both Esgaroth and Dale. He became the first in a long line of kings of Dale. He died in the year 2977 and was succeeded by his son, King Bain.

  Bardings

  Among the strong Northmen who lived between Mirkwood and the Iron Hills, there were those who, in the last century of the Third Age of the Sun, were called the Bardings. Previously these people had been known as the Men of Dale and had inhabited the wealthy city of Dale below the Lonely Mountain. But, when the Dragon Smaug came to the Lonely Mountains, Dale was sacked and the people fled. The Lake Men of Esgaroth gave them sanctuary for almost two centuries. In that time, among these exiles of Dale rose the heir to the king who was called Bard the Bowman. He was a great warrior and a grim and strong man. When the Dragon of the Lonely Mountain attacked again, it was Bard who shot the beast through the breast with a black arrow and freed the land.

  So Bard became the ruler of his people and, with a portion of the wealth of the Dragon’s hoard, he rebuilt Dale and once again made a rich kingdom around it. Thus, in honour of this hero, all the people of Dale from tha
t time bore his name.

  Barrow Downs

  The downlands east of the Shire and the Old Forest were called the Barrow Downs because of the great barrow graves built there. Considered by many during the Third Age to be the most ancient burial ground of Men on Middle-earth, they were revered by the Dúnedain of Arnor. There were no trees or water on the downlands, only grass covering dome-shaped hills that were ringed and crowned with stone monoliths. During the wars with the Witch-king of Angmar, the last of the Dúnedain of Cardolan found refuge for a time among the barrows. However, by 1636 the barrows became haunted by evil spirits called Barrow-wights, demons sent out from the Witch-king’s realm of Angmar to do what evil they could. These undead spirits made the Barrow Downs a dread and fearful place. Into such a haunted land, in the year 3018 of the Third Age, came the Ringbearer, Frodo Baggins. But for the intervention of the strange forest spirit Tom Bombadil, the Hobbit adventurer would certainly have lost his life to the evil beings of the Barrow-downs, and the Quest of the Ring would have come to an early end.

  Barrow-Wights

  West of the Brandywine River beyond the Old Forest were the Barrow-downs, the most ancient burial ground of Men in Middle-earth. There were no trees or water there, but only grass and turf covering dome-shaped hills that were crowned with monoliths and great rings of bone-white stone. These hills were the burial mounds that were made in the First Age of Sun for the Kings of Men. For many Ages the Barrow-downs were sacred and revered, until out of the Witch-kingdom of Angmar many terrible and tortured spirits fled across Middle-earth, desperately seeking to hide from the ravening light of the Sun. Demons whose bodies had been destroyed looked for other bodies in which their evil spirits could dwell. And so it was that the Barrow-wights, the Undead, who animated the bones and jewelled armour of the ancient Kings of Men who had lived in this land in the First Age of the Sun.