Glossary (78)

Key terms of the legendarium, briefly explained.

Adûnaic: The native speech of Númenor, from which the Common Speech of Middle-earth grew.
Ages of the World: The great eras of Middle-earth's history — First, Second, Third and Fourth Age — reckoned by momentous events.
Ainulindalë: The Music of the Ainur — the great theme by which the world was first envisioned and sung into being.
Akallabêth: The Downfallen — both the name of drowned Númenor and the title of the account of its fall, told after the Silmarillion proper.
Aman: The Blessed Realm in the uttermost West, home of the Valar, removed from the circles of the world after Númenor's fall.
Angerthas: The long rune-rows developed from the Cirth, chiefly used by the Dwarves.
Aratar: The eight High Ones of Arda, greatest among the Valar: Manwë and Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna and Aulë, Mandos, Nienna and Oromë. Melkor was struck from their number.
Arda: The world set within Eä, the realm in which the history of Elves and Men unfolds.
Athelas: A healing herb, also called kingsfoil; in skilled hands it works against wounds ordinary craft cannot reach.
Avari: The “Unwilling”: Elves who refused the call to Aman and remained in Middle-earth.
Balrog: A demon of shadow and flame, a Maia corrupted by Melkor in the ancient days.
Black Speech: The tongue Sauron devised for his servants — the only language of Middle-earth that was made rather than grown.
Cirth: The runic alphabet of Middle-earth, devised for carving into wood and stone — the counterpart to the written Tengwar.
Dagor Bragollach: The Battle of Sudden Flame, fourth of the great battles of Beleriand. Morgoth broke the long siege of Angband with rivers of fire; Glaurung came at the head of it, Balrogs and the hosts of the Orcs behind.
Dagor Dagorath: The Last Battle foretold at the end of days, in which the world is to be remade.
Drúedain: The Woses, a people of Men of the woods, small and watchful, long thought lost by others.
Dúnedain: The Men of the West — descendants of Númenor, longer-lived than other Men.
Dunlendings: Men of Dunland west of the Misty Mountains, of older stock than the Rohirrim and long at odds with them.
Eä: The universe — all of creation, called into being when Ilúvatar spoke the word Eä, “Let it be.”
Easterlings: A collective name for peoples of Men from the East, repeatedly drawn into the service of the Enemy.
Edain: Elvish for the three houses of Men who came into Beleriand in the First Age and stood with the Eldar against Morgoth. From them descended the people of Númenor.
Eldar: The Elves who answered the summons of the Valar and set out on the great westward journey.
Elder Days: The First Age and what came before it — the time of the great wars against Morgoth.
Eru Ilúvatar: The One, the supreme being who alone existed before all else and who created the world and everything in it.
Fëa and Hröa: The pair of terms for soul (fëa) and body (hröa) of the Incarnate. It explains why Elves do not perish at death but wait in the Halls of Mandos.
Fell beasts: The winged mounts of the Nazgûl in the War of the Ring — featherless, and older than the age they served in.
Fell Winter: The winter of 2911–12 of the Third Age, when the Brandywine froze and wolves crossed into the Shire.
Free Peoples: The kindreds who stood against Sauron — Elves, Men, Dwarves, Ents and Hobbits.
Gift of Men: Mortality — that Men leave the world entirely, a fate the Elves cannot follow and do not understand.
Halflings: What Men call the Hobbits — after their height, roughly half that of a Man.
Halls of Mandos: Where the spirits of the slain Elves await; Men pass through only briefly, bound elsewhere.
Helcaraxë: The Grinding Ice in the far north, where Middle-earth and Aman come near to one another. Fingolfin’s host crossed it on foot after Fëanor burned the ships behind him.
Huorn: Something between Ent and tree: watchful, able to move, and dangerous to those who are not Ents.
Istari: The order of the Wizards, Maiar sent to Middle-earth in the shape of old men to work against Sauron by counsel, not by force.
Khuzdul: The language of the Dwarves, kept secret by them and rarely revealed to outsiders.
Kin-strife: The civil war of Gondor in the fifteenth century of the Third Age, over the mixed descent of the king.
Last Alliance: The alliance of Elves and Men at the end of the Second Age, which overthrew Sauron and cost both kings their lives.
Lembas: The waybread of the Elves, which strengthens on long roads and keeps far longer than the bread of Men.
Long Winter: The winter of 2758–59 of the Third Age, which brought famine to Rohan and the Shire alike.
Longbeards: Durin's Folk, the eldest of the seven Dwarf houses.
Maia: One of the lesser spirits who came into the world with the Valar; the plural is Maiar.
Mathom: A hobbit word for anything kept although it has no use — too good to throw away.
Middle-earth: The central continent of Arda, the setting of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Mithril: The silver-grey metal of Moria, light and harder than steel; the Elves called it true-silver.
Moriquendi: „Elves of Darkness" — the Elves who never saw the light of the Two Trees, in contrast to the Calaquendi.
Music of the Ainur: The great theme from which the world was made, and into which even Melkor's discord was woven.
Nandorin: The Elvish tongue of the Nandor, who turned aside from the Great Journey east of the Misty Mountains.
Nauglamír: The Necklace of the Dwarves, made for Finrod Felagund from the gold he had brought out of Valinor. Thingol later had the recovered Silmaril set into it, and the quarrel over this one piece cost him his life and Doriath its peace.
Nazgûl: The nine Men who took Rings of Power and became Sauron's chief servants, neither living nor dead.
Nirnaeth Arnoediad: The Battle of Unnumbered Tears, fifth of the great battles of Beleriand. The union of Elves, Men and Dwarves broke on treachery, and afterwards Morgoth held the North unopposed.
Noldo: Singular of Noldor: one Elf of the second kindred, the people of craft and lore.
Palantír: One of the Seeing-stones of Númenor, by which the far-off could be seen and, at peril, minds could meet.
Periannath: The Sindarin name for the Hobbits; the singular is Perian.
Quendi: The oldest name the Elves gave themselves in their own tongue, meaning “those who speak”; it covers all the Elven kindreds.
Quenya: The High-elven language of the Noldor and Vanyar, a formal tongue of lore and ceremony.
Ring of Power: A ring forged in the Second Age to preserve, to dominate or to deceive; the One Ring ruled them all.
Scouring of the Shire: The last fighting of the War of the Ring — not in Mordor, but at home, after the Ring was gone.
Silmaril: One of three radiant jewels wrought by Fëanor, holding the imperishable light of the Two Trees.
Sindar: The Grey-elves: those Teleri who remained in Middle-earth on the march to Aman. Their tongue is Sindarin.
Sindarin: The Grey-elven language, the most widely spoken Elvish tongue in Middle-earth.
Smials: The large, branching tunnel-dwellings of well-to-do hobbit families — a house laid out underground. Where the ground would not take them, hobbits built above it instead.
Steward of Gondor: The hereditary office that ruled Gondor while no king returned — sworn to hold the rod, not the crown.
Straight Road: The path that still leads to the West for Elvish ships, after the world was bent and made round.
Teleri: The third and largest of the Elven kindreds who set out for Aman. Some reached Valinor, others stayed behind on the way.
Tengwar: The flowing alphabet devised by the Elves, used to write Quenya, Sindarin and other tongues.
Thain: The hereditary head of the Shire in name, an office of the Tooks, with little to do in quiet years.
The White Council: The council of the Istari and the greatest Elven rulers, taking counsel against Sauron. Saruman leads it — and works against it at the same time.
Two Trees of Valinor: Telperion and Laurelin, the silver and golden trees whose light illumined Valinor before Sun and Moon.
Uruk-hai: The larger, stronger breed of Orcs that appeared late in the Third Age and endured daylight.
Valaquenta: The account of the Valar and the Maiar that follows the Ainulindalë in the Silmarillion — the source for almost everything told of the Powers of Arda.
Valarin: The speech of the Valar among themselves — strange to Elvish ears and little recorded.
Valier: The seven queens among the Valar: Varda, Yavanna, Nienna, Estë, Vairë, Vána and Nessa.
Valinor: The land of the Valar within Aman, where the Two Trees stood.
Vanyar: The first and smallest of the three Elven kindreds who answered the call to Aman; they never left Valinor again.
War of the Ring: The war at the end of the Third Age over the One Ring, ending with its destruction and Sauron’s fall.
Watchful Peace: The long quiet in the Third Age while Sauron kept himself hidden — peace only on the surface.
Westron: The Common Speech of Middle-earth in the Third Age; in the book it appears as English (or the language of the translation).
Years of the Trees: The long age reckoned by the waxing and waning of the Two Trees, before Sun and Moon.