The Complete Tolkien Companion (3 page)

Aftercomers
– A translation of the Grey-elven word
Hildor,
a name for the race of Men.

Afterlithe
– The name given in the Shire Reckoning to the month of July, being the seventh month of the year. In Bree, the name used for this month was
Mede.

Afteryule
– The name given in the Shire to the first month ‘after Yule' of the year. The Bree name was
Frery.

Agarwaen
‘Bloodstained' (Sind.) – Part of the riddling name assumed by Túrin Turambar when he dwelt in Nargothrond for a while during the wars against Morgoth. The full name was
Agarwaen son of Umarth
(‘The Bloodstained, Son of Ill-fortune').

Aglarond
‘Halls-of-Glory' – The Sindarin name for the ‘Glittering Caves' of Helm's Deep. The existence of this name shows that these remarkable natural wonders were known in Gondor long before the Men of Éothéod took possession of the land which afterwards became known as Rohan. In fact the first fortification of this area – the tower known to its builders as Aglarond – was raised by the Dúnedain, to serve with Angrenost (Isengard) as a guard-post for the Gap of Calenardhon.

The Rohirrim themselves paid scant courtesy to the beauty of the caverns (which they called
Glœmscrafu,
‘Caves of Radiance') using them as store-houses to supply the fortress known as Helm's Gate: the Hornburg, the Deeping Wall and the Deeping Tower. Thus the gorge of Aglarond formed the strongest fortress in all Rohan, and the caves and their wonders went unseen by folk of other races – until the Fourth Age, when a colony of Dwarves, led by Gimli Glóin's son, settled there.

Note:
see jacket illustration of this
Companion
for Ted Nasmith's illustration of the Glittering Caves of Aglarond.

Aglon
–
See
PASS OF AGLON
.

Aha
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘rage', but more properly the title of the Tengwa (or ‘letter') number 11 which represented the sound of hard
h.
(
Aha
replaced the more ancient name
harma,
‘treasure'.)

Aiglos
‘Snow-thorn [Icicle]' (Sind.) – Also spelt
Aeglos.
A gorse-like plant with white flowers that grew on Amon Rûdh; also the name given to the Spear of Gil-galad, last of the High-elven Kings in Middle-earth. He used this weapon throughout his long wars with Sauron; at the Battle of Dagorlad (3434 Second Age) the Spear was indefatigable. It was destroyed with Gil-galad on the slopes of Orodruin, in final combat with Sauron.

Ainu
(pl.
Ainur
) ‘Holy One' (Q.) – The name given in High-elvish tradition to the Spirits brought into being by Ilúvatar (God) before the Beginning, who participated in the Creation and who made and ordered the World (Arda), in preparation for the arrival of the Erusen, the Children of God. As is told in the
AINULINDALË
, many of them afterwards came to Arda and dwelt there, whereafter they were known as the
VALAR
and
MAIAR
.

Ainulindalë
‘Music-of-the-Ainur' (Q.) – The Myth of the Creation, as set down long ago in the First Age by the earliest of the Noldorin loremasters, Rúmil of Tirion, in the Undying Lands. It is by far the most ancient of all creation myths. The Ainulindalë appears in its entirety as the first part of
The Silmarillion;
no need therefore exists for a repetition or summary in these pages. Of interest, however, is the demiurgic role played in the Creation by the Ainur, or Holy Ones, some of whom afterwards dwelt in Arda (the World) and were known as
Valar
and
Maiar.
Their part was active in all aspects of the Creation – save their own creation – yet the Ainulindalë stresses throughout that, in so doing, the Ainur were but following a Theme already chosen by the Creator. Their role in the Beginning is one of embellishment, refinement, preparation and amendment. They have no part of the basic Design; they are but agents.

And yet their role is very great. It is the Ainur who shape the World, who cause new stars to shine, who set waters on the face of the earth and who raise mountains on the edges of the seas. They build great lamps to bring Light to Arda, and when these lamps are thrown down (by one of themselves, a renegade) they cause Trees to grow – which also bring Light. They cause beasts to thrive, and birds to multiply. Only from the creation of intelligent Life do they hold back, for here their agency ceases.

This ‘demiurgic' role is of interest when contrasted with the later legends of Men, who, although they have not altogether forgotten the part played at the Beginning by the Holy Ones, have for long minimised or overlooked it. The Powers are seen, or remembered, only in their lesser (and later) role of intercessaries (
see
FANUILOS
); and the story of their own beginnings is nowadays a matter for poets rather than theologians.

Akallabêth
‘The Downfall [of Númenor]' (Adûn.) – A moral and historical work in the keeping of the Stewards of Gondor. It detailed the arising, eventual seduction and fall of the Númenoreans, and the swallowing up of that land under the Sea.

Alatar
– A name for one of the ‘Blue Wizards',
Istari
who came to Middle-earth in the third Age and then passed away out of all knowledge into the East. He is said to have been of the Maiar of Oromë.

Alcarin (Tar-Alcarin)
– From 2637–2737 Second Age, the seventeenth King of Númenor.

Alcarinquë
‘Jupiter' (Q.) – One of the stars created by Varda (Elbereth).

Alcarondas
‘Castle of the Sea' (Adûn.) – The great warship which bore the last Númenorean King, Ar-Pharazôn, on his last sea journey, from Númenor to the Undying Lands.

Alda
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘tree'; also the title of Tengwa number 28, representing the sound
Id.
In Sindarin-inflected languages, this letter stood for the sound
lh.
Naturally enough, the name for ‘tree' was much used in Elvish speech, and
alda
forms a root for many words and names of Quenya origin. The Sindarin form of the same name was
galadh.

Aldalómë
– A poetic combination of images and ideas in a single word, typical of Quenya. It means ‘Tree-shadow' and, as used by Treebeard the Ent,
3
refers to the ancient black heart of the forest of Fangorn.
See also
ALDA
above.

Aldamir
– From 1490–1540 Third Age, the twenty-third King of Gondor and the second son of Eldacar. His elder brother was killed in the war that temporarily deposed his father from the throne of Gondor (
see
KIN-STRIFE
), and so Aldamir came to rule after his father. He was killed in battle.

Aldarion (Tar-Aldarion)
– From 883–1075 Second Age, the sixth King of Númenor. He was a great mariner, and because of this took a great interest in forestry – his interest being in the furnishing of timber for shipbuilding rather than the trees themselves. His incessant voyaging to Middle-earth brought him into conflict with his father the King Tar-Meneldur and, even more disastrously, with his wife Elendis; after she had borne him a daughter, Ancalimë, they separated. Aldarion never had a son and for this reason was succeeded by his daughter, who became the first Ruling Queen.
4

One fruit of his great voyages to Middle-earth, however, was that he became the close friend and counsellor of Gil-Galad of the Elves; and it was through Aldarion that the Elven-king first asked for the help of Númenor against the new Shadow arising in the East of Middle-earth – aid that was furnished on an ever-increasing scale thereafter.

Aldaron
‘Lord of Trees' (Q.) – One of the Elves' most ancient names for
OROMË THE GREAT
of the Valar.

Aldburg
– The chief settlement of the Folde of Rohan. Here Eorl the Young built his house (it was his successors who raised Meduseld). In due course the settlement became the operational base of the men of Eastfold in days of war. At the time of the War of the Ring Aldburg was occupied by Éomer, Third Marshal of the Mark.

Aldëa
– The name given in
KINGS' RECKONING
to the fourth day of the week. Although the Númenoreans took the Elvish week and left it largely intact, they changed the older name of this day –
Aldúya,
given in honour of the Two Trees of Valinor – so that it referred only to the White Tree. Aldëa was later used in Middle-earth (when the Dúnedain week became adopted by most of the Westron-speaking people). However, the Dúnedain themselves used the Sindarin equivalent
Orgaladh.
The Hobbits called this day
Trewesdei
(later
Trewsday
).
See also
ALDA
.

Aldor the Old
– From 2570–2645 Third Age, the third King of Rohan and grandson of Eorl the Young. At the feast given by his father Brego to celebrate the building of the King's Hall Meduseld, Aldor's elder brother Baldor publicly vowed to walk the ‘Paths of the Dead'. He did not return. A sorrowing Brego died the following year and Aldor became King.

During his long (75-year) reign, the Rohirrim consolidated their newly acquired territory of Calenardhon, moving both north and westward, driving out the last of the Dunland people who dwelt in the valleys of the White Mountains, and re-occupying older fortresses such as Dunharrow and the Hornburg. It was thus around this time that the Rohirrim earned the particular enmity of the Men of Dunland.

Aldudénië
‘Lament-of-the-[Two] Trees' (Q.) – A song of mourning, now lost, made in the Elder Days by Elemmirë of the Vanyar; its theme is the poisoning of the Two Trees of Valinor by Morgoth.

Aldúya
‘Trees'-day' (Q.) – The ancient Eldarin name for the fourth day of the week, from which the Númenorean
ALDËA
was derived.

Alfirin
– A small white flower which grew in the fields of Lebennin, south of the White Mountains in the realm of Gondor. Also called
Uilos
and (in Rohan)
Simbelmynë.

Almaren
– The name given by the Valar to their first earthly dwelling. Where the light of the great lamps Illuin and Ormal met and blended, lay a green isle in the midst of a lake. This was Almaren; the first of all Blessed Lands. It was destroyed in the early conflicts between the Valar and the renegade Ainu, Melkor; after which the Valar left Middle-earth and went to dwell in the isle of Aman.

Almarian
– An early queen of Númenor; she was the daughter of the hero-mariner Vëantur – who first achieved the voyage back to Middle-earth in year 600 – and wife of Tar-Meneldur. Their son was Anardil (Aldarion) the Mariner.

Alphabet of Daeron
– The name given, in Grey-elven (Sindarin) lore, to the
certhas
(runes) devised in Beleriand in the First Age by Daeron, minstrel and loremaster to King Elu Thingol (Greycloak) of Doriath. Although runes had been used by the Sindar from earliest times, Daeron's system was a significant departure from the older unfinished forms, for it was greatly influenced and enriched by the
Tengwar
script of the High-elves (whose return to Middle-earth in the First Age had an overwhelming effect on Grey-elven culture as a whole).

The Dwarves held Daeron's runes in such high esteem that the House of Durin in Moria later adopted the alphabet for its own, after which these
certhas
became known as the
Angerthas
(‘Long-rune-rows') of Moria. These runes were subsequently further adapted by the Moria Dwarves to their own specialised needs. Much later, the Dwarves of Erebor further modified the Angerthas in a manner that reverted more closely to the original (Elvish) forms.