The Complete Tolkien Companion (23 page)

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.