The Complete Tolkien Companion (80 page)

Quarry
– A village of the Eastfarthing, situated near the village of Scary in the stone-cutting country of the Shire.

Quellë
‘fading' (Q.) – The name given by the High-elves to the fourth of the six ‘seasons' – of fixed length – in the Elvish Calendar. The Númenoreans and the Westron-speaking peoples of Middle-earth used the same word to indicate the period of indefinite length which fell between the ending of autumn (
yavië
) and the onset of winter (
hrivë
). Its alternative Quenya name was
lasse-lanta
(‘leaf-fall'), while to the Grey-elves it was known as
firith
(or
narbeleth,
‘sun-waning').

Quendi
‘The Speakers' (Q.) – The High-elven name for all Elvenkind (cf.
Quenya
‘the Speech'). The origins of this word are doubtless to be found in the Elves' age-old desire to communicate with other living things: they were the first ‘speaking-people' to awake and wander in Middle-earth, and at that time the gift of speech was what set them apart from all other creatures.

Quenta Silmarillion
‘History of the Silmarils' (Q.) – The title of a prose collection, itself a series of encapsulations and renditions of far older works, assembled and edited over the years by many hands. The
Quenta Silmarillion
forms the core of the published work known simply as
The Silmarillion,
though it is preceded in the text by the (still more ancient)
Ainulindalë
and
Valaquenta,
and followed by the
Akallabêth
and by an abbreviated version of the
Tale of the Rings of Power.
However, it is by far the largest of these five sections of text.

The
Quenta Silmarillion
is almost entirely in prose form, and divided into chapters arranged in chronological series. These chapters are derived from many different sources, others from single sources, as is made obvious by the many variations in style and tone. The older works from which the Quenta Silmarillion is thought to have been drawn are as follows: the
Aldúdenië,
or Lament for the Trees; the
Narsilion
or Song of the Sun and Moon; the
Noldolantë
or Fall of the Noldor; the Lay of Leithian; and the
Narn i Hîn Húrin,
or Tale of the Children of Húrin. It is believed that these ancient works were copied out in their entirety and thus rescued for posterity by none other than the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, during his long sojourn in Rivendell as Elrond's guest. Under the unassuming title
Translations from the Elvish
the collection was handed down, by various means, to the present day.

Quenya
‘The Speech' (Q.) – The oldest of all recorded languages. Although it was first written down in Eldamar, after the Great Journey of the Eldar, the Quenya tongue was in fact descended virtually unchanged from the Ancient Speech once spoken by all the Quendi, and this accounts for its name.

Little is now known of the proto-Quenya spoken by the Elves before the separation of the Eldar (West-elves) from the other Silvan races. Certain changes had already begun to take place in its structure even before the vanguard of the Eldar crossed the Great Sea to Eldamar, far back in the Eldar Days. But in the Undying Lands the Eldar were unaffected by the changefulness of mortal lands, and after many years of the world outside they began to record their Ancient Speech in writing, using the
Tengwar
(Eldarin cursive letters) of Rúmil, and afterwards the Alphabet of Fëanor: a modified form of the same writing-system. Later still, the High-elves brought the Fëanorian alphabet and the (virtually unchanged) Quenya language back to Middle-earth, where both became known to the Grey-elves and to the Edain.

In fashion the Quenya was unlike the Sindarin tongue of the Grey-elves, to which it was of course distantly related. It was a stately and ceremonious language, with polysyllabic word-linkage and a comprehensive formal literature that was considerably more antique than anything the Sindar possessed. The Ancient Speech may be said (by some) to resemble Latin (to which it is quite unrelated), but it was far more inflected than any contemporary Mannish speech, and far more ancient.

But if the introduction of Quenya into the culture of the Grey-elves can be said to have influenced the subsequent development of Sindarin, then the reverse is less true. The High-elves exiled in Middle-earth adopted, for the most part, the language of the Grey-elves with whom they then dwelt, and the Ancient Speech was put aside as a ‘High' language of ceremony and song. It was therefore consciously preserved in its ancient form, and as a language of pageant it passed to the heirs of the High-elves in Middle-earth: the Edain of Númenor and of the Realms in Exile. But for the most part the later Dúnedain used the Sindarin or the Mannish tongues of their own early history, and little by little the Ancient Speech (and Sindarin) became known only to those who held true to the ways of the Eldar.
See also
SPOKEN TONGUES
.

Quessë
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘feather'; also the title of the Fëanorian Tengwa number 4, which was used (in Quenya) for the sound
kw
-.

Quessetéma
‘
Quessë
-series' (Q.) – One of the four
témar
(series) which made up the complete Fëanorian Tengwar alphabet of letters. Quessëtéma was used for the labialised sounds (
kw-, gw-, hw-
etc), which occurred frequently in the High-elven speech.

Quickbeam
– A translation of the Sindarin name
Bregalad,
adopted as a ‘short' name by an Ent of Fangorn Forest.

Quick Post
– A luxury or emergency messenger-service, used in the Shire for the rapid conveyance of letters (a social service much in demand among Hobbits) from Farthing to Farthing. Its administration was the responsibility of the Mayor of Michel Delving. The mode of transport has not been recorded.

Radagast the Brown
– A Wizard of Middle-earth, one of the Order of
Istari,
who arrived from the Undying Lands about the year 1000 Third Age. His special skills and responsibilities concerned the welfare of beasts and birds, but it was later felt, by some of those who had sent him, that he had become too enamoured of these
kelvar
and thereby neglected his real mission.
1
His home was in Rhosgobel, in the southern vales of the Anduin, near the borders of the forest then known as Mirkwood.
Radagast
is said to mean ‘tender-of-beasts' in the Grey-elven tongue. In Quenya he was known as
Aiwendil,
‘lover of birds'.

See also
WIZARDS
.

Radbug
– Reportedly the name of one of the Orcs in the garrison of the Tower of Cirith Ungol. According to the account of Samwise Gamgee, this unfortunate Goblin was slain for insubordination by one of his own sergeants, the villainous Shagrat, shortly after the fight between the Tower-orcs and the Morgul-patrol over certain items of booty.

Radhruin
– One of the Outlaws of Dorthonion, a companion of Barahir. He was slain in an ambush, together with all his comrades (save Beren son of Barahir).

Ragnor
– One of the outlaws of Dorthonion; as preceding entry.

Rainbow Cleft
– A translation of the Grey-elven name
CIRITH NINNIACH
.
See also
ANNON-IN-GELYDH
.

Rainy Stair
– A translation of the Grey-elven name
DIMROST
.

Ramdal
‘Wall's End' (Sind.) – The easternmost point of the
Andram
(Long Wall), a great escarpment which ran south-east from Tauren-Faroth in West Beleriand and separated the populated north of Beleriand from the (largely uninhabited) south. At Ramdal the ground became level and the hills waned, and between here and the lonely height of Amon Ereb stood five leagues of open country. This region was ruled for a while by Amrod and Amras, the two youngest sons of Fëanor, but in later years Ramdal became the second line of defence for more of the Noldor.

Rammas Echor
‘Encircling Walls' (Sind.) – An outer defence-work of Minas Tirith, constructed by Steward Ecthelion II after the final loss of Ithilien (in 2954 Third Age). It was a great wall, over ten leagues in length, encircling the Fields of Pelennor, the hitherto defenceless townlands of the City. Nonetheless, the defensive value of the Rammas was open to doubt: for at its furthest point it was some four leagues from the City and thus could not be manned in strength, since the main defence of Minas Tirith lay in its city-walls and Great Gate. Moreover, defenders on the out-wall might find themselves cut off from retreat were a breach to be made and the gap stormed in strength. At best, the Rammas could only serve to delay unsupported cavalry forces or foot-soldiers without breaching tools.

See also
BATTLE OF THE PELENNOR FIELDS
.

Rána
‘The Wayward' (Q.) – A High-elven name for the Moon.
See
ISIL
.

Ranga
– A Númenorean unit of measure, a full pace.

Rangers of Ithilien
– A guerrilla force maintained by Gondor in North Ithilien, for the purpose of harassing the enemy and discomfiting his occupation of that land in the years leading up to the War of the Ring. These forces operated from secret bases (
see
HENNETH ANNÛN
) prepared some years before on the orders of a far-seeing Steward, Túrin II. In later years the Rangers of Ithilien were led by Túrin's great-great-grandson, Faramir, the younger son of Denethor II.

Rangers of the North
– At the time of the War of the Ring it was the ironic fate of the Dúnedain of the North that, while their royal Line of Descent had been kept intact throughout the turmoils of three millennia, their Kingdom had been lost and their circumstances so grievously reduced that even their own kin in Gondor were unaware of their very existence.

The long process by which royal
ARNOR
was first split into three smaller states and then overcome piecemeal is well detailed elsewhere. After the fall of
ARTHEDAIN
in 1974 Third Age, the then stateless Heirs of Isildur passed into the shadows, emerging only as wandering strangers whose true identity was unsuspected by the inhabitants of Eriador, where they spent most of their days. The long wars launched upon them by Sauron and his servants had greatly reduced the Dúnedain in numbers, but their pride and sense of duty were intact: their task, as they saw it, was the continued protection of the Northlands, at whatever cost to themselves.

The labours they undertook in this worthy purpose were long, hard and yet not without result. Of course the Northlands were still threatened by groups of pillaging Orcs from the Misty Mountains, and the occasional cave-troll in business on his own account; but the hoped-for result was, by and large, attained, and the folk of Eriador were safely guarded, although they knew it not.

It was realised that Eriador could never be kept free from the Enemy if he once suspected that the Dúnedain – whom he had long hated – still survived there. And since Sauron never lacked for spies to serve him, the Rangers took great care to work in secret. The Elves of Rivendell were, of course, privy to the latent hopes and current duties of the Dúnedain Chieftains and their followers; indeed, the Eldar of Rivendell often rode with the Heirs of Isildur on their missions. But the Bree-dwellers and the Hobbits of the Shire were totally unaware of this long guardianship, and their names for the tough-looking, weatherbeaten Men who occasionally visited
The Prancing Pony
were anything but complimentary.

The first Chieftain of the Dúnedain was Aranarth, the son of Arvedui Last-king of Arthedain. In the intervening centuries there were a further fourteen before the last Chieftain, Aragorn II: the travel-stained Ranger who was known in Bree simply as ‘Strider'.