The Complete Tolkien Companion (90 page)

Wandering north, alone and miserable, he chanced to follow a stream to its source deep under the Misty Mountains; for Gollum had always hated and feared the light of Sun and Moon, and it seemed to him that under the bowels of the Mountains he would be safe for ever from such things. In the underground caverns beneath the Orc-mines of the High Pass he made his home. And there he remained for many lives.

For from the first the terrible power of the Ruling Ring was on him, though to Gollum it gave power according to his measure: long life but little else (save the power of invisibility), and for many centuries he eked out a miserable existence, growing thin and unnaturally strong as his years lengthened beyond their natural measure – but never ‘fading' or becoming a wraith, for in the endless darkness he found little need to wear ‘the Precious' (as he termed the Ring). And so, although almost wholly ruined, Gollum was slow to fall completely under the power of the Ring.

Such was the misshapen, evil-minded creature encountered by Bilbo Baggins in the year 2941 Third Age, almost five hundred years after the finding of the Ring and the murder of Déagol; and with that meeting the Great Ring chose for itself a new bearer, for it was plain that as long as it stayed with Gollum it would never again leave the cave under the Misty Mountains. Bilbo found the Ring and Gollum was left desolate in the dark. But three years afterwards, his desire finally overcame his fear and he ventured forth into the world to begin his long search for the ‘thief' of the Precious.

During the next seventy years Gollum hunted the length and breadth of Wilderland, being captured at last by Sauron while prying on the very borders of Mordor. There he was put to the Question – and in this way the Lord of the Rings at last learned the truth concerning the whereabouts of his long-lost treasure. And so began the War of the Ring.

Released from Mordor with instructions to hunt for the Ring, Gollum finally located the Fellowship while they were passing through Moria, and from that time onwards he was almost continually within sight of the Ring-bearer and his burden, from Lothlórien down the length of the Great River, across the Emyn Muil and into Mordor itself.

Yet it was later acknowledged by the Ring-bearer that, but for Gollum's self-serving treachery (oddly mixed with a genuine devotion to Frodo), the Quest could not have been achieved at all: for at the very last stroke, the power of the Ring overcame Frodo, and without the (ill-intentioned) intercession of Gollum at the brink of the Cracks of Doom, there can be little doubt that Sauron would have prevailed. In this way Gollum atoned for all the evils committed during his long life.

Smial
– A translation of the original Hobbit-word
trân
(‘burrow'), being the name given by Hobbits to the tunnels and delvings which were their most ancient (and most characteristic) form of dwelling-place. The practice of living in holes in the ground was indeed archaic, but by the time of the War of the Ring the custom had fallen somewhat out of use in the Shire, due to the shortage of suitable land; and thus it was ‘only the richest and the poorest Hobbits that maintained the old custom'.

Naturally enough, smials varied greatly in size and splendour. Some of the larger examples (such as Brandy Hall and the ‘Great Smials' of the Tooks) were of vast dimension, with many branching tunnels and passages, while Bag End was a well-preserved example of ‘manor-hole'.

Snaga
‘Slave' (Black Speech) – A contemptuous name given by larger breeds of Orc (such as the Uruk-hai) to lesser Goblins.

Snowbourn
– A river of eastern Rohan. It rose in Harrowdale and flowed northwards as far as the hill of Edoras, after which it bent eastward to join the Entwash.

Snowmane
– The steed of King Théoden of Rohan. Snowmane bore his royal master throughout the War of the Ring and perished in battle on the Pelennor Fields (March, 3019 Third Age). The horse was slain by a dart from the Witch-king, and crushed Théoden beneath him when he fell. Snowmane was afterwards buried where he had fallen, in a mound later called Snowmane's Howe.

Solmath
– The second month of the year in the Shire and Bree Reckonings, equivalent to
Nenimë
in Kings' Reckoning and to our February.

Song of Parting
– The lament made by Beren of the Edain for his beloved, Lúthien Tinúviel, daughter of Thingol Greycloak.

Sorontil
– A great mountain of Númenor; it stood on the North Cape of the Forostar (north region) and was second in height only to the Meneltarma.

Soronúmë
‘Eagle of the West' (Q.) – One of the constellations made by Varda (Elbereth).

South Downs
– A broad ridge of downland in Eriador, an eastern outlier of the Barrow-downs, which lay to the south of the Bree-land. The Great North Road passed between the two ranges of downs.

‘Southern Star'
– A highly-regarded brand of Pipe-weed grown in the Southfarthing of the Shire.

Southfarthing
– One of the four quarters or ‘farthings' of the Shire. The Southfarthing was the sunniest region of the Hobbit-land, and was rightly famous for its viticulture and its leaf-plantations.

South Ithilien
–
See
ITHILIEN
.

South-kingdom
–
GONDOR
.

Southlinch
– A variety of Pipe-weed grown in Bree, on the south slopes of Bree Hill. By all accounts this brand of weed, though acceptable, was inferior to varieties grown in the Southfarthing of the Shire.

‘Speaking-peoples'
– A name given in the lore of the early Elves to the articulate races of Middle-earth; by which the Elves meant those of the Free Peoples able to converse with Elvenkind. The ‘speaking-peoples' were: Ents, Hobbits, Dwarves, Men and, of course, the Quendi (Elves) themselves.

Spies of the Valar
– An epithet for the
FAITHFUL
or Elendili of Númenor, used only by the (heretical) royalists.

Spoken Tongues
– The diagram below is intended to show, in as clear a manner as possible, the ancestry and development of the various languages used by Men and Elves of Middle-earth during the First, Second and Third Ages.

Springle-ring
– A country dance common in the Shire.

Spring of Arda
– The name given in the traditions of the Eldar to the epoch at the very beginning of time, after the making of Arda (the World), when the Valar dwelled in Almaren and the two Lamps, Illuin and Ormal, shone out over the face of the Earth, giving Light. During this vanished time the first plants began to grow, and the first beasts awoke and walked in the wild. But the Spring came to a sudden and shocking end, with the launching of war upon the Valar by Melkor. He overthrew the Lamps and Middle-earth was plunged a Darkness that was to endure until the Making of the Moon and Sun.

Staddle
– A village of the Bree-land. It stood to the east of Bree village on the south-eastern slopes of Bree Hill, and was the main dwelling-place for the Little Folk (Hobbits) of the area.

Stair Falls
– An ornamental waterfall over which the Sirannon (‘Gate-stream') of Moria originally flowed, on its way down to the lowlands of eastern Eriador. When the stream was dammed during the later part of the Third Age, the water ceased to flow over the Stair Falls in any measurable quantity.

Standelf
– A village of the Buckland, at the southern end of the trackway which ran northwards to meet the Great East Road near the Brandywine Bridge.

Standing Silence
– A moment of ceremonial silence observed by the Dúnedain at the commencement of each meal. All who were to dine faced west, ‘towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be'.
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Starkhorn
– The name given in Rohan to a great peak of the northern White Mountains. The Starkhorn overlooked the (southern) head of Harrowdale valley.

Star of Elendil
– A translation of the Quenya word
ELENDILMIR
.

Star of the Dúnedain
– The rayed brooch that Aragorn II, Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North, wore on his cloak when he served Gondor as ‘Thorongil' (‘Eagle of the Star'). He later presented it to Samwise Gamgee.

Star of the House of Fëanor
– The heraldic emblem of the Noldorin Elves of Fëanor's House. It was a Star of eight rays. An example may be found in the designs on the Westgate of Moria, which was etched by the hand of Celebrimbor of Eregion during the Second Age. Celebrimbor was Fëanor's grandson.

Steelsheen
– An admiring name given by the Rohirrim to the Lady Morwen of Lossarnach, wife of King Thengel of Rohan, mother of Théoden, and grandmother of Éowyn (who was said to have inherited her temperament from this noble lady).

Sterday
– A later form of the word
Sterrendei,
which was the first day of the week in the Shire Reckoning, equivalent to Elenya (‘Stars' day') in Kings' Reckoning and the Elven Calendar of Imladris.

Stewards of Gondor
– The chief counsellors to the royal Line of Anárion in the South-kingdom of the Dúnedain. They were traditionally appointed by the King from among his close advisers, but after the middle years of the Third Age the Stewardship became hereditary and all subsequent Stewards of Gondor were afterwards chosen from among the descendants of Húrin of Emyn Arnen, who had been Steward to King Minardil (1621–34).

The waning of the Line of Anárion produced a corresponding strengthening of this hereditary Stewardship, and all holders of the Office after Pelendur, Steward to Ondoher and Eärnil II, received the Rod of Stewardship by virtue of being the eldest son. Pelendur was followed by Vorondil (the Hunter), and Vorondil by Mardil Voronwë, who officiated for both Eärnil and his son Eärnur. Mardil was later accounted the first of the
RULING STEWARDS
.

Stewards' Reckoning
– A calendar-system of the Dúnedain of Gondor, introduced by Mardil the Good Steward in the year 2060 Third Age to replace
KINGS' RECKONING
. It was in essence the older system which had already been adopted piecemeal by most of the inhabitants of the Westron-speaking area, updated and adjusted in order to eradicate the accumulated deficits of five and a half millennia of the Númenorean calendar. Hador (seventh Ruling Steward) later added one day to the year 2360 to complete this adjustment process, but no further revisions were made during the Third Age. In the Fourth Age Stewards' Reckoning was replaced in Gondor by the New Reckoning, which represented a return to the older Kings' Reckoning adapted to begin the year in spring. Stewards' Reckoning was the final form adopted by the Westron-speaking peoples during the Third Age (although the Shire- and Bree-dwellers continued to employ their idiosyncratic versions of the older system, together with their own nomenclature).

Sting
– The name given by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to the short Elvish sword (or long Elvish knife) discovered by him in a Trolls' hoard during an early adventure in the year 2941 Third Age. The weapon was forged by Elven-smiths of Gondolin during the First Age for the wars against Morgoth the Enemy, but fell into evil hands after that city was destroyed. The sword's history throughout the Second and Third Ages is of course unknown, but one may surmise that it passed from hoard to hoard until it finally came to rest in a remote Troll-lair in eastern Eriador. The possessors of that hoard were slain by Gandalf the Grey, and shortly afterwards their intended victims were able to ransack the cave for wealth and weapons. Brought to light in the same cache were the Elf-swords Glamdring and Orcrist (borne afterwards by Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield of the Dwarves). Like all Elf-blades, Sting gleamed with a cold blue light if any servants of the Enemy were nigh at hand, and its cutting edge was sharper by far than any weapon made in later Ages. Bilbo used Sting many times during his adventure, and later passed the sword to Frodo, who bore it from Rivendell to the borders of Mordor. Samwise Gamgee bore it as far as the Cracks of Doom. After the War was over, Sting became an heirloom of the Gamgee family.

Stock
– The chief village of the Marish in the Shire. It lay near the river Baranduin (Brandywine), between the Great East Road and the Bucklebury Ferry.

Stockbrook
– A stream which arose in the Woody End of the Shire and flowed north-east to join the Baranduin a little way south of the village of Stock (after which it was presumably named).

Stock Road
– A trackway which ran from the Great East Road near the Three-farthing Stone and bent south and east in a wide loop through the Green Hill Country and Woody End to the village of Stock in the Eastfarthing.