The Complete Tolkien Companion (83 page)

It was always a measure of Sauron's true nature and of the rewards to be gained in his service that the most evil destinies invariably overtook those who served him most faithfully. The Nine Lords had once been proud rulers of great tracts of Middle-earth; and they had fallen into evil practices and deeds even before they began to worship Sauron, or he to plan their downfall. In the sixteenth century of the Second Age they individually accepted from him Rings of Power, made, so Sauron said, to give them power over all other Men and to give long life; and by this means he trapped them. The promised immortality of the Rings was revealed as a deadly and everlasting lengthening of days, so that life grew wearisome beyond belief yet the consolation of death was denied. Power they gained – the power of terror alone, for unable to relinquish their Rings, the Nine Lords became in the end wraiths, deathless spirits with no will to oppose he who wore the One Ring. It was a fearful doom, and it was to endure for over four thousand years.

The first recorded appearance of the
Úlairi
in Middle-earth was in the year 2251 Second Age, although in what connection is not now remembered. They served Sauron faithfully for the remainder of the Age, becoming even then his most feared followers, and when he was temporarily overthrown at the end of the Age they went ‘into the shadows' to await his return. When again he began to materialise – in the thousandth year of the Third Age – they also took shape again; and for many years, while he slowly grew to power once more, they made strokes on his behalf against the Free Peoples, sundered as these were and thus easy prey for the Nine.

Their Chief was known as the
WITCH-KING
. In the early fourteenth century he appeared in the barren lands north of the Ettenmoors and there founded a realm called
ANGMAR
. It lay in close proximity to the Dúnedain states of Arthedain and Rhudaur. And it grew so swiftly to power under the rule of its Sorcerer King that the Dúnedain themselves were unable to prevent its further expansion. But the Witch-king bided his time, using the days thus bought to bring about the fall of Rhudaur, his closest neighbour, by means of subversion; and when this was completed to his satisfaction he launched a great attack through the lands of Rhudaur, not at Arthedain, his more powerful foe, but at Cardolan, the weaker. And although Cardolan made desperate alliance against him with Arthedain, he captured the strategic tower of Amon Sûl and ravaged her lands far and wide. Thus Arthedain was isolated. And although she fought on for another six hundred years of intermittent war, in the end the Witch-king achieved his aim and Arthedain followed Cardolan and Rhudaur down into the dark.

But in 1975 Third Age Angmar was itself overthrown by a league of Elves and Men, such as had broken the power of Sauron two thousand years before, and the Witch-king was expelled from Eriador. He came south, to Mordor, and there assembled the Nine; and in 2000 he crossed the Pass of Cirith Ungol on the borders of Gondor and laid siege to Minas Ithil, one of the fairest cities of the South-kingdom. Two years later it fell to the Ringwraiths, and was never again recaptured by the Dúnedain. Not content, the Witch-king later contrived to rob the Men of Gondor of the last King of the Line of Anárion (
see
EÄRNUR
); and so he lessened their royalty and sowed the seeds of their downfall.

Yet having achieved so much on behalf of their Master, the Ring-wraiths then fell quiescent while he began to plot and manoeuvre on his own behalf. Meanwhile the Nine Riders began to prepare Mordor against the day when he would return in power, and in 2941, after a millennium filled with lasting defeats and temporary victories for the Dúnedain, Sauron abandoned his lesser fortress of Dol Guldur and passed south to Mordor. Three of the Nazgûl he despatched to his older dwelling, while he himself set in motion the opening moves of the War of the Ring.

In this War the Ringwraiths, chief servants of Sauron, played a prominent part. All Nine were sent into Eriador in 3018, disguised as riders in black, to seek the Ring and to take it from the Hobbits who then possessed it. In this vital task they failed. Foiled in Eriador, they returned to Mordor and to Minas Morgul (Minas Ithil renamed) and they took to the air, mounted on evil flying beasts, and searched the lands for the fugitives, or carried their Master's messages across leagues of Middle-earth swifter than any bird could fly. Mounted on these beasts a number of them – probably four – accompanied the Host of Morgul in the attempt upon Minas Tirith in 3019; and when their leader was slain in that affray they retreated into the gloom-shrouded upper airs, shadowing the march east of the last Host of Gondor.

But they took no part in the battle which followed, for upon the instant the armies clashed at the Black Gate, the eight remaining Ringwraiths were summoned with fierce urgency by their Master to fly south to Orodruin, where his Realm was in the greatest peril it had ever known. Once more they failed to arrive in time, and in the violent eruption of the volcano which followed the melting of the Ring they were destroyed for ever, and so passed away at last.

Rivendell
– A translation of the Sindarin name
Imladris,
being the name of the dwelling of Master Elrond Half-elven in eastern Eriador, in the foothills of the Misty Mountains between the rivers Mitheithel (Hoarwell) and Bruinen (Loudwater). It was founded by Elrond and the Noldor in 1697 Second Age, following a perilous retreat from overrun Eregion during the War of the Elves and Sauron. Elrond dwelt there ever after (save a brief period at the end of the Second Age and a shorter one still at the end of the Third), maintaining the ‘Last Homely House East of the Sea' as a refuge for all Elves and folk of goodwill. Many of the remaining Noldor dwelt there.

The House of Elrond lay beside a hurrying stream amid the pine-scented air of that deep vale (
Imladris
literally means ‘Deep-cloven-valley'). House and Valley were guarded on two sides by the Bruinen's chief tributary and by the Bruinen itself. The Ford was under Elrond's power but ‘the might of Elrond lay in wisdom not weapons',
8
and the Power that dwelled in Rivendell desired only strength enough to defend itself.

River Running
– The
CELDUIN
.

River-woman
– A poetic term for the river Withywindle, used by Tom Bombadil.
See
GOLDBERRY
.

Rivil
– The most northerly of the many tributaries of the Sirion. It rose at Rivil's Well on the plateau of Dorthonion, and fell over the western edge of the highland into the Fen of Serech, at the southern end of which was its confluence with the Sirion.

Rivil's Well
–
See
preceding entry.

Roäc
– The Chief of the Ravens of Erebor, and the son of old Carc. The Ravens of the Lonely Mountain were traditionally friendly to Dwarves, and Roäc continued the alliance by rendering great aid to Thorin Oakenshield when the members of his expedition were besieged in Erebor by their foes (2941 Third Age).

Robin Gamgee
– The twelfth child and sixth son of Samwise Gamgee.

Robin Smallburrow
– A Hobbiton villager. Early in his life he was persuaded to join that fine body of official Hobbitry, the Shirriffs; but with the ‘reorganisation' of the Watch which followed Saruman's seizure of the Shire in 3019 Third Age (1419 Shire Reckoning), young Smallburrow found himself posted to Frogmorton, as part of the First Eastfarthing Troop, doing work he liked a lot less.

Rochallor
– The steed of Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor. He rode this noble horse throughout the wars, and to single combat with Morgoth before the Gates of Angband during the Dagor Bragollach; after the High King's death the horse escaped and galloped back to Mithrim, where he broke his heart and died.

Rochon Methestal
–
See
BORONDIR
(
THE STIRRUPLESS
).

Rodyn
–
See
VALANYA
.

Rohan
‘Land-of-Horses' (Sind. from Q.
Rochand
[
e
]) – The wide and spacious realm which lay north of Gondor, upon the further side of the White Mountains. It was famed for its horses, which were unmatched for lineage, grace or beauty anywhere in Middle-earth, and for its leagues of grassland, rich and abundant, where the horses of Rohan ran free in great herds, watched over by their proud masters. These were a people of Men, known in Gondor as the
Rohirrim,
‘Masters-of-Horses', traditionally friendly to the Dúnedain, and much respected in Gondor for their loyalty, bravery and nobility of soul.

The land of Rohan had indeed once been but a northern province of Gondor, called Calenardhon ‘the Green Region'. Its borders were the Gap and the Fords of Isen (in the west), the river Limlight (in the north), the Mouths of Entwash (in the east) and the White Mountains (in the south). But the province became depopulated during the long wars of the Third Age, and by the twenty-sixth century few folk dwelt there. In 2510 Calenardhon was threatened from the east by a host of Balchoth and Orcs which crossed the Anduin north of the Limlight, and the Army of Gondor sent to contain the invasion was defeated and forced to retreat into an untenable position. But at the eleventh hour the Northmen of Éothéod, allies of the Dúnedain, arrived after a great ride down all the leagues of Wilderland and scattered the invaders with a great cavalry charge; for these Northmen were well mounted, and equipped as heavy cavalry, and their onslaught was too great for any Orcs or Easterlings to withstand. In gratitude for the Riders' heroism, the Ruling Steward of Gondor ceded Calenardhon which they had saved to the Riders; they named their realm the Riddermark, ‘Land-of-the-knights' in their own Northern tongue. In Gondor it was called
Rohan.

It was a fair and generous country, fertile and level for the most part, and ideal for the rearing and breeding of horses because of its grassland. The Riders were famed for their skill with their great steeds, and their herds and studs prospered in the years which followed the victory at the Field of Celebrant. The Rohirrim dwelt mainly in the West-emnet (the East-emnet was low-lying and marshy) and lived scattered in small settlements out upon the great wold, following the herds as they moved from pasture to pasture. Their chief town and capital was
Edoras
(The Courts'), built in the days of their second King upon a green hill at the feet of the northern range of the White Mountains. There the Kings of the Mark dwelt, save in wartime, when the royal household moved to Dun-harrow, an ancient fortress-plateau in the Mountains. The chief stronghold in the west of the land was the Hornburg.

Yet it was not a country easily defended against attack, not even by the valour of the Riders. The alliance with Gondor indeed benefited both realms alike, and on many occasions aid rendered by one to the other preserved both; for both countries shared the same enemies: Orcs, Easterlings, pirates from the South, Wild Men of the hills and, of course, Sauron of Mordor. All of these at times invaded Rohan during the later years of the Third Age, and on a few occasions Rohan was gravely threatened. But its lack of centralisation and its scattered people made the land difficult to occupy or subdue.

But during the War of the Ring the peril lay in the West, from the Wizard Saruman, and not in the East, where Sauron at first contented himself with physically severing the five-hundred-year alliance between the peoples; but Saruman was overcome and Sauron's screening armies were outflanked and the Riders of Rohan arrived in time to prevent the fall of Minas Tirith and the inevitable later destruction of their own land and its works.

In the Fourth Age which followed the Passing of Sauron the fair land of Rohan prospered and healed the ravages of war, and new links were forged between its people and the Dúnedain; for each realm, more than ever, valued the old alliance; and the peoples grew closer than ever before.

Roheryn
‘Horse-of-the-Lady' (Sind.) – The horse of Aragorn II, Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North, brought to him in Rohan during the War of the Ring by his kinsmen. He had been given to Aragorn by Arwen Evenstar.
See also
HASUFEL
.

Rohirrim
‘Masters-of-Horses' (Sind.) – The Riders of Rohan.

Rómen
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘East'; also the title of Tengwa number 25, which was used for the sound of full (trilled)
r.
It was also used, as a symbol, to indicate the direction East, even among peoples unaware of the full Fëanorian Alphabet.

Rómendacil I
– From 492–541 Third Age, the eighth King of Gondor. His birth-name was Tarostar. He was the son of Ostoher, who rebuilt the city of Minas Anor, and during whose reign the South-kingdom was first attacked by Easterlings. Tarostar captained the armies which defeated the Easterlings (and which incidentally gained Gondor much territory beyond the Anduin), and as a result of his victories took the royal name
Rómendacil
(‘East-victor') when he succeeded his father as King of Gondor. After a reign of 49 years he was slain in battle with an Easterling people, and was succeeded by his own son Turambar.