The Complete Tolkien Companion (61 page)

Two of Malbeth's prophecies concerning the destiny of the Dúnedain are recounted in the Red Book. The first dealt with the fate of King Arvedui. Malbeth foresaw two possibilities: either Arvedui would be the last King of Arthedain
and
the first of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor; or he would perish, and the Kingship in the North would end with him. Arvedui duly laid claim to the Throne of Gondor when it fell vacant upon the death of King Ondoher in 1944 Third Age, but the Council of Gondor refused his claim, choosing instead a victorious General, Eärnil. This choice of the Dúnedain eventually led, as the Seer had prophesied, to the failing of the Kingdom in the North, and the end of Arvedui.

Malbeth's second prophecy concerning the fate of the Númen-orean race in Middle-earth remained dark and unexplained for a thousand years after his death. It concerned the awakening of dead Oathbreakers, a horn ringing in the haunted hills and an appointed hour at the mysterious Stone of Erech.

Malduin
‘Golden-river' (Sind.) – A tributary stream of the Teiglin; it rose in the most north-easterly part of East Beleriand, in the Ered Wethrin.

Malinalda
‘Golden-tree' (Q.) – One of the many names in the lore of the High-elves for the Golden Tree of Valinor, the Younger of the Two Trees:
Laurelin
as it was commonly known.

Malinornë
–
See
MALLORN
below.

Mallor
– From 1029–1110 Third Age, the third King of Arthedain.

Mallorn
‘Tree-of-Gold' (Sind. from Q.
Malinornë
) – A species of tree found nowhere else in Middle-earth save the forest of Lothlórien, called the Golden Wood for its trees; tall and beautiful, with trunks of silver bark, and leaves and flowers of deep gold, recalling to the High-elves (who had named the forest
Laurelindórenan
) the ‘Singing-Gold' of Laurelin the Golden, one of the Two Trees of Valinor. Unlike other trees of Middle-earth the
mellyrn
did not shed their leaves until spring, when the new leaves were already thrusting through. Then the Wood was carpeted and roofed with gold, and shaded with silver.

The mallorn did not originate in Middle-earth. A late source informs us that seedlings of this great tree were given by Elves of Tol Eressëa (where it grew to great heights) to Men of Númenor. It arrived in Middle-earth in the days of the sixth King, Tar-Aldarion, who gave some seedlings to Gil-Galad of the Noldor in Lindon. The
mellyrn
would not grow in that windy land, so Gil-galad in turn passed the seeds to his kinswoman Galadriel, who planted them in Lothlorien. All the trees of the Golden Wood emanated from that original planting, far back in the Second Age.

Note:
in the Fourth Age a new mallorn appeared, the only one ever to grow outside Lothlórien. This was the tree grown in the Shire from a single mallorn-seed given to Samwise Gamgee by the Lady Galadriel. It was planted in the place where the Party Tree had once flourished, and soon became the wonder of the neighbourhood.

Mallos
‘Snow-gold' (Sind.) – A small, belled, golden flower which, together with the flower
Alfirin,
blossomed in the green fields of Lebennin during the early springtime.

Malta
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘gold'; also the title of Tengwa number 18, used to represent the sound
m
in most cases.

Malvegil
– From 1272–1349 Third Age, the sixth King of Arthedain. After his reign, the Kings of Arthedain again claimed the rule over all ancient
ARNOR
(the Line of Isildur being extinct by this time in both Cardolan and Rhudaur); and in token of this claim, they all took the royal prefix
Ar-.
The first such King was Argeleb I, son of Malvegil.

Mandos
– In Eldarin tradition, the name given to the Vala Námo, the elder of the two Fëanturi or ‘Masters of Spirits'; more properly, the name of his domain, the ‘castle of custody' in the Uttermost West of Valinor, where the spirits of the dead linger according to due before passing on, with the consent of Mandos, to their long homes.

‘The Man in the Moon'
– Two Hobbit-poems concerning the Man-in-the-Moon are recorded in the Red Book and have been published together as Nos. 5 and 6 in
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
While the more serious of the two (No. 6) is thought to have had its origins in Gondor, both poems are good examples of the Hobbit taste for comic doggerel with a hint of moral to it.

Mannish Tongues
– The various languages developed by Men of western Middle-earth and Númenor during the First, Second and Third Ages. Though differing greatly from each other in any number of ways, many of these tongues shared the same basic origin, being descended from the Adûnaic speech of the Edain of the First Age.

Hardly anything is known of the pure Adûnaic spoken by the Edain before they came into contact with the Elves; and almost nothing is known of the way this language spread in Middle-earth as the early descendants of the Edain were gradually dispersed over the years. However, at the opening of the Second Age, most of the tribes of the Edain left Middle-earth to found the distant island-realm of Númenor; and the broad development of Adûnaic in Númenor is better recorded.

Although the Edain – or Dúnedain – of Númenor long preferred to use Elven tongues for all high matters, Adûnaic endured as a vernacular speech (greatly enriched by Sindarin and Quenya), and eventually it replaced these Elvish tongues, when it was elevated for nationalistic and racial reasons late in the Second Age. Thus, in a renewed and nobler form, Adûnaic was ultimately carried back to the shores of Middle-earth with the Númenorean ship-captains and traders. There, mingled with the languages of lesser Men, it formed the base for a
lingua franca
of all the Westlands. This was the earliest form of the Westron or Common Speech. Yet not long after this modified language began spreading throughout Middle-earth, the late (Númenorean) form of Adûnaic disappeared altogether. For the people of that island committed a great evil and their land was drowned under the Sea; and those few who escaped the Downfall were not users of the Mannish tongue. Therefore, by the very end of the Second Age, traces of Adûnaic survived only in the Westron, and in the various tongues of Men descended from the few Edain (and their close kin) who had remained in Middle-earth.

During the early years of the Third Age these remote descendants of the Edain were mostly settled in the northern parts of Eriador and Wilderland, and thus can be conveniently referred to as Northern Men. They ultimately included: Men from the Carrock and the vales of Anduin, Men of Dale and Esgaroth, the Woodmen of Western Mirkwood and the Riders of Rohan. Other peoples who adopted the Mannish tongues used by these Northern Men were Dwarves, and Hobbits (who eventually abandoned their older Northern tongue for the Common Speech).

There were a number of other Mannish tongues known in the Third Age which were not even remotely akin to the Adûnaic-based Westron and the Northern language group, and these included one particularly mysterious tongue. This was the language of the Dunlendings, a secret race of Men who dwelt on the borders of Rohan. Although their speech was apparently never recorded, it was thought to be a degenerate descendant of the language spoken by their ancestors of the Second Age, the Men of the White Mountains. Some trace of this earlier tongue spread to northern Eriador with a tribe of their remote descendants, who eventually settled in Bree; and much later a tongue related to Dunlendish was carried to the Shire by the Stoors (Hobbits) who had once dwelt in Dunland. This accounts for some of the odd words and names found in Bree and Buckland in the late Third Age.

Other unrelated Mannish tongues included the strange speech of the
Woses
or ‘Púkel-men' of Druadan Forest, as well as the tongues of the Haradrim and Easterling peoples.

See also
SPOKEN TONGUES
.

Manwë Súlimo
– The noblest of the Ainur, and the brother of Melkor; afterwards Lord of the Valar (those Ainur who came to dwell in Arda after the Creation): the ‘Elder King' of the World, who rules, together with his spouse Varda (Elbereth), from his high palace on the summit of the mountain Taniquetil, tallest of the Pelóri, in Valinor; Lord of Winds (which is a meaning of the Quenya title
Súlimo
), and friend of birds, especially Eagles.

Marach
– An early chieftain of the Edain of the First Age; forefather of Hador, Húrin and Huor, and leader of the Third House on the great journey from the eastlands into Beleriand. He and his people settled at first in Estolad, near the encampment of the People of Bëor (the First House), to whom they were akin; and Marach never left that region, ruling until his death. He was succeeded as Chieftain of the Third House by his son Malach Aradan, who quitted Estolad and led the House of Marach into the north and west of Beleriand.

Marcho and Blanco
– The two (Fallohide) Hobbit brothers who founded the Shire in 1601 Third Age. Year One Shire Reckoning was calculated from the day they led their followers across the Bridge of Stonebows from eastern Eriador.

March of Maedhros
–
See
MAEDHROS
.

Mardil Voronwë
‘The Steadfast' – From 2029–80 Third Age, the first Ruling Steward of Gondor. He eased the South-kingdom through a perilous transitional period after the presumed death of the last King, Eärnur, while simultaneously bringing great honour and renown to his own House, from which all Ruling Stewards were descended.

Mardil was the eldest son of Steward Vorondil (the Hunter); and on the death of his father in the year 2029, he took over the (hereditary) office of the Stewardship and served King Eärnil II for a number of years. After Eärnil's death the Steward likewise served his son Eärnur, until Gondor's last King rode away to Minas Morgul in 2050 and never came back. When no heir to the Throne could be found, Mardil took the rule of the South-kingdom upon himself with the approval of all, and governed the Realm in the name of the King until his own death. For almost a thousand years afterwards this Ruling Stewardship then passed to Mardil's heirs, although no Steward ever called himself King.

Note:
Mardil is also remembered for introducing (in 2060, the tenth year of his rule) a series of minor innovations to the King's Reckoning calendar system then in use among the Dúnedain and other peoples of the Westlands – whereby a longstanding deficit of years was restored. This revised calendar became known as Stewards' Reckoning and, like its forerunner, was eventually adopted by most of the Westron-speaking folk of Middle-earth.

Marhari
– A prince of Rhovanion, descended from Vidugavia.
See also
following entry.

Marhwini
‘Friend of horses' – A prince of Rhovanion at the time of the invasion of the Wainriders (19th century Third Age). After the defeat of the Northmen by the Easterlings on the Battle of the Plains, and the death of his father Marhari commanding the rearguard, Marhwini led a remnant of his people away up the Anduin to the forest vales – the origin of the Men of Éothéod and later of Rohan. In 1899 he took a full part in the uprising of the enslaved northfolk – assisted by an attack by forces of Gondor – and led the cavalry charge that finally overthrew the Easterlings. But the former lands of Rhovanion remained in bitter dispute and Marhwini was forced to abandon them forever, and to remain by the Anduin.

Marigold Cotton
– The younger sister of the famed Samwise Gamgee. She wedded Tolman (Tom) Cotton, eldest son of Farmer Cotton and brother of Rose (to whom Samwise himself was wedded), thus further strengthening the links between the Cottons of Bywater and the Gamgee-Gardners of Hobbiton.

Marish
– The Marish of the Shire included all those marshy lands which lay on the western banks of the Baranduin (Brandywine) between the villages of Stock and Deephollow. Most of the Hobbits of this region were Stoorish in ancestry and, unlike all other Halflings, were accustomed to wear heavy boots in wet weather. The Marish was traditionally good farming country.

Mark of the Riders
– A translation of the word
Riddena-mearc
(also
Riddermark
); the name given to the country of Rohan by the Riders who dwelt there. They called themselves the
Eorlings
(orig.
Eorlingas
), ‘Sons-of-Eorl'.

Mar-nu-Falmar
‘Land-under-waves' (Q.) – A name given in the High-elven tongue to (Downfallen) Númenor.

Marshals of the Mark
– The highest military rank in Rohan; lieutenants of the King in different regions of the country and subordinate only to his lordship. Originally three in number, the Marshalates were only partly territorial; for the Second and Third particularly their areas of responsibility were far from fixed and might change as circumstances dictated. In any case each Marshal would be expected to raise, and lead in battle, an
éored
of at least several hundred men, and often more.
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