The Complete Tolkien Companion (6 page)

Andúril
‘Flame of the West' (Q.) – The Sword of Aragorn, greatest heirloom of the House of Isildur, so named after its re-forging by the Elven-smiths of Rivendell for use in the War of the Ring. It had formerly been Isildur's own sword
NARSIL
, and was of immense age, having been made by the Dwarf master-smith Telchar of Nogrod during the First Age. The re-forged sword's new name was engraved upon the blade and its sheath, together with many runes of virtue and designs of seven stars (to symbolise the High kingship) with a rayed Sun and crescent Moon (for the twin realms of Gondor and Arnor).

Andustar
‘Westlands' (Q.) – The name given by the early Númenoreans to the westernmost cape-province of their land.
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Andwise ‘Andy' Roper
– Son of Hobson ‘Roper' Gamgee of Tighfield in the Shire, and uncle of Samwise Gamgee, to whom he imparted some of his rope-lore and tricks with knots.

Anfalas
‘Long-coast' (Sind.) – The long northern coastline of the great Bay of Belfalas; a region of Gondor. Sometimes translated
Langstrand.

Anfauglir
‘Jaws-of-thirst' (Sind.) – A name for the great Wolf of Morgoth, Carcharoth.

Anfauglith
‘Gasping-dust' (Sind.) – Alternatively
Dor-nu-Fauglith
‘Land-[buried] under-choking-ash'. The name given by the Eldar and the Edain of Beleriand to the former rich grasslands of
ARD-GALEN
, devastated and destroyed in the Battle of Sudden Flame.

Anga
– The Quenya word for ‘iron' (used in various place- and personal-names, such as
Angmar, Angbor
and
Carach Angren
). Also the name of Tengwa number 7, used to signify a soft j sound; in Sindarin it represented a harder
g.

Angainor
– A mighty chain forged during the Eldar Days by Aulë the Smith of the Valar; twice used as a fetter for the renegade Vala, Morgoth: after the Battle of the Powers, and at the overthrow of Angband.

Angamaitë and Sangahyando
– Great-grandsons of Castamir the Usurper and leaders of the Corsairs of Umbar. Together, they led the band of Corsairs who slew Minardil, twenty-fifth King of Gondor, during a raid on the port of Pelargir in 1634 Third Age.

Angband
‘Prison-of-Iron' (Sind., from Q.
Angamando
) – The lesser and more westerly of the two fortresses built in Middle-earth by Melkor (Morgoth) during the First Age. The older, and far greater, of these strongholds was called
UTUMNO
(‘The Pit'). Angband was delved in the far north-west of Middle-earth, being conceived and planned by Melkor as a western outpost of his domain, a first defence against the West. Like Utumno, it was protected from the south (and partly from the west) by a giant range of peaks, called Ered Engrin, the ‘Iron Mountains'. The raising of this barrier had been the first defensive work undertaken by Morgoth.

Like Utumno, Angband was almost wholly delved in the ground. In the Battle of the Powers, the Valar's first-ever assault upon the evil of Melkor, the fortress of Angband gave them little trouble; they razed it rapidly and with haste, passing on to set a siege about the greater fortress of Utumno to the east wherein Melkor then dwelt, but in their haste they omitted to destroy all of Angband, or seek out its lowest pits; and so many evil creatures, by lying hidden or buried, escaped their wrath. Among these who thus survived the first ruin of Angband was its lord, the Lieutenant of Morgoth, Sauron the Abhorred. Not for the last time did Sauron thus by unhappy chance escape annihilation at the hands of his enemies.

Many ages passed, of captivity for Melkor, who had utterly lost the war. The eerie ruins of Utumno and Angband in the north slumbered; but after a while, the evil creatures which had escaped the vengeance of the Valar bred anew, and came forth to plague the lands round about, especially those to the south and east. Indeed it was this above all which first caused the Valar to fear for the Elves, and for the later Children who were yet to come. Therefore they summoned the Elves to make the Great Journey into the West and there dwell for ever, free – as they thought – from peril.

A further age passed. Melkor was released and ‘paroled'. But his repentance was feigned; and after a time he hatched his plots anew. Poisoning the Two Trees of Valinor, and stealing the Silmarils, he fled back to Middle-earth, a renegade once more and for the last time. His first act was to build himself a new stronghold in Middle-earth. Utumno was ruined beyond hope of reconstruction, but Angband less so; and Morgoth chose this more westerly site as the place for his new domain. Old delvings were repaired; new mines and shafts and tunnels were dug and excavated – all underground, for the Dark Lord meant to make this fortress of Angband no less strong than Utumno of old. But because the Iron Mountains, his bulwark against the south, were also a hindrance to his own forces, he delved a great tunnel under the range, a boring which issued from the ground in the north-west of the plain of Ard-galen, through a great door of iron, closely guarded. As a final buttress against attack, he protected the lands between the doors of Angband and the Ered Engrin behind with an artificial range of jagged peaks: Thangorodrim, the Mountains of Tyranny.

Such was the dreadful realm of Angband in the days of its power. From here Morgoth directed the war against the Eldar and Edain – a war which went at first against him, so that Angband became ringed on its southern approaches by a chain of hostile Eldarin kingdoms; but the initiative inevitably passed to the Dark Power of the North; then the gates opened; the hosts of Angband poured forth, and overthrew the siege, and Morgoth became, not a prisoner, but the greatest power in Middle-earth, the ultimate source of all the miseries of that and all later times. In Angband's deepest chamber he sat on his throne and wore the Iron Crown in which were set the Silmarils he had stolen. But in the end he was overthrown, and in his ruin Angband, his last stronghold in Mortal Lands, was also destroyed: totally, unto the last pit. In its overthrow the world itself was changed, and the freezing seas poured in. The lands that remained became bitterly cold and desolate. Apart from this Northern Waste, little trace remained, two full Ages later, of the Dark Power that had broken endless hosts of Elves and Men. Only the evil colds of Morgoth lingered.

Angbor the Fearless
– Lord of Lamedon, a province of Gondor in the southern vales of the White Mountains. During the War of the Ring Angbor's forces engaged the landing parties of the Corsairs at Linhir on the river Gilrain. They were still fighting when, unlooked for, assistance arrived from the north; for the Heir of Isildur came to Linhir on his way to Pelargir, and the host that he led swept the field of friend and foe alike. But Angbor mastered his fear and so met Aragorn, who bade him gather his folk and reinforce besieged Minas Tirith as quickly as he might. Seven days later his forces reached the City and augmented its garrison while the main army of Gondor advanced on the Morannon.

Angelimar
– The twentieth Prince of Dol Amroth in Gondor. He died in 2977 Third Age.

Angerthas Daeron
– Originally an Elvish runic script, attributed to the legendary Daeron, bard and loremaster to the Elven-king Thingol of Doriath during the First Age. It was later adopted by the Dwarves of Durin's House for their own exclusive use, after which it became known as the
ANGERTHAS MORIA
. (At this point the Grey-elves appear to have given up the use of runes altogether, turning instead to their distinctive adaptation of the
TENGWAR
.)

See also
ALPHABET OF DAERON
.

Angerthas Moria
– The name given to the
ALPHABET OF DAERON
sometime after this runic system had become more closely associated with the Dwarves of Moria than with the Elves of Beleriand who had originated and developed it. In general, Dwarves employed several modifications to the Elvish
certhas
(runes), mainly in order to reproduce certain sounds in the Dwarvish tongue (Khuzdul) which did not occur in Elvish or Mannish modes of speech. Later the Dwarves of Erebor (the Moria-exiles) made further changes but, by chance or design, these changes to the Alphabet tended to revert to an earlier, Elvish mode.

Note:
the inscription on the Tomb of Balin
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is in these Moriarunes. It reads:

In Khuzdul, this epitaph may be rendered: BALIN FUNDINUL UZBADKHAZADDUMU ‘[Here lies] Balin/Son of Fundin/Lord of Moria'.

Anghabar
‘Iron-mine' (Sind.) – A rich iron lode in the Encircling Mountains north of Gondolin, discovered and initially worked by the Elves of that city – in particular, by Maeglin Eöl's son, who was skilled in these crafts.

Anglachel
‘Iron-flame' (Sind.) – One of a pair of matching swords (the other was called Anguirel) made during the Elder Days by the Grey-elven smith Eöl from a strange metal found by him in the heart of a stone that had fallen from the sky. This metal, resembling common iron, was nonetheless harder than both iron and steel, and it was black, reflecting no light. The sword found its way into King Thingol's hoard (in payment of a fee); and afterwards was given by Thingol, on request, to the great warrior-elf Beleg Cúthalion – against the advice of the Lady Melian, who foresaw disaster in the ownership of the weapon.

So it proved. Beleg was afterwards accidentally slain, with his own sword Anglachel, by his great friend Túrin Turambar; after which the sword passed to the ownership of Túrin, who wielded it with renewed ferocity against the foes of the Eldar and Edain. In the Elven-city of Nargothrond it was re-forged for him, and named
Gurthang,
‘Iron-of-death', possibly in an attempt to evade the foretold disaster.

But there was no escaping the curse on the weapon. Under its new name the Black Sword took many lives that had been Morgoth's to command; but it also slew innocents: and in due course, when Túrin at last renounced his own life, it slew him at his own bidding. In this final act of bloodletting the Black Sword fractured into two shards, which were afterwards buried with Túrin.

Angle
– The Angle, as it was known to folk of Eriador, comprised all the land between the two tributaries of the Greyflood: Mitheithel and Bruinen. Early in the Third Age, when the Angle was part of the North-kingdom of Rhudaur, one of the three clans of Hobbits – the Stoors – dwelt there for a while. But when the climate grew colder as the land became infiltrated by evil from the neighbouring Witchrealm of Angmar, the Stoors deserted Eriador and many went back to Wilderland, not to return until the founding of the Shire.

There was also the Angle of the Naith of Lothlórien, known as Egladil. It was a cool green lawn which lay between the waters of Anduin and Silverlode.

Angmar
‘Iron-home' (Sind.) – The principal force behind the fall of Arnor and Arthedain was the evil and implacably hostile realm of Angmar, which rose early in the second millennium of the Third Age. Angmar, whose lands lay beyond the Ettenmoors on both sides of the Misty Mountains, was ruled from its beginnings by a dreadful Sorcerer known simply as the
WITCH-KING
, later revealed as Lord of the Ringwraiths and Sauron's most terrible Lieutenant. His task, to purge the North of his Master's enemies, was greatly eased by the division of Arnor into three separate successor-states, which had taken place some four centuries earlier at the death of Eärendur in 861. The Dúnedain were therefore already in self-inflicted disunity; but the Witch-king, now established in his great fort of Cam Dûm, was to be satisfied with no less than the utter destruction of his enemies. In wars that lasted no less than seven hundred years he ruined: first Rhudaur, by subversion; then Cardolan, by invasion; and finally Arthedain itself, last memory of royal Arnor, by massive assault.