The Complete Tolkien Companion (104 page)

The Vanyar were the least numerous of the Three Kindreds; and unlike all other Elves, their hair was golden (which accounts for their name). Few are mentioned by name in records.
Ingwë
the King was, and is, their Lord, and dwells with Manwë atop Oiolossë; Indis is the name of the Lady whom Finwë of the Noldor took as his second wife, after the passing of Míriel Serindë. From her the yellow hair of her kindred descended among the Noldor (in the House of Finarfin).

Varda
‘The Exalted' (Q.) – The High-elves' name for that Lady of the Valier known (to Grey-elves) as
ELBERETH
.

Vardamir Nolimón
– From 442–43 Second Age, the second King of Númenor, the son of Elros Tar-Minyatur. He came to the Throne in 442 Second Age but immediately resigned the Sceptre to his own eldest son, Tar-Amandil, but in records thereafter was deemed (as became general practice in cases of this sort) to have reigned for one year. He was named Nolimón because of his love of lore and old books.

Vardarianna
– One of the
FRAGRANT TREES
of Númenor.

Variags
– A barbarous race of Men, dwellers during the Third Age in the remote region of Khand, to the south-east of Mordor. Like other Easterlings, they were apt to Sauron's will and did battle for his part during the War of the Ring.

Vása
‘Heart of Fire' (Q.) – A Noldorin name for
ANAR
(the Sun).

Vëantur
– The name of the Númenorean mariner who was the first to achieve the voyage to Middle-earth, in about the sixth century of the Second Age. His ship was called
Entulessë
(‘Return', Q.) and made landfall at the Havens of Mithlond.

Veil of Arda
– The atmosphere.

Vidugavia
‘Wood-dweller' – The most powerful of the Princes of Rhovanion during the thirteenth century of the Third Age, and the valiant ally of King Rómendacil II of Gondor. His daughter Vidu-mavi wedded Rómendacil's son Valacar.
See also
KIN-STRIFE
.

Vidumavi
‘Wood-maiden' –
See also
previous entry.

Vilya
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘air' or ‘sky'; and the title of Tengwa number 24 (whose value is not known). Also the name in Eldarin tradition of the Ring of Air, mightiest of the
THREE RINGS
of the Elven-kings made by Celebrimbor the Smith during the middle years of the Second Age. It was given by Celebrimbor to Gil-galad, High King of Lindon, and was later passed on by Gil-galad to Elrond Half-elven shortly before the final battle of the Last Alliance. Elrond bore it throughout the Third Age and carried it over Sea. It was a ring of gold, and bore a large sapphire.

Vingilot
‘Foam-flower' (Q., from older form
Vingilótë
) – The name given by
EÄRENDIL
to the ship he built of birchen planks felled in the woods of Arvernien, in which he and Elwing journeyed to Aman and besought the aid of the Valar against Melkor (Morgoth). The (later) Adûnaic form of this name was
Rothinzil.
Vingilot was afterwards set in the sky (so the Eldar say) by Elbereth, to traverse the Heavens as the Evening Star.

Vinitharya
– The birth-name of King Eldacar of Gondor, given by his mother Vidumavi, daughter of Prince Vidugavia of Rhovanion. The word is in the Northern tongue of the men of Rhovanion, and its meaning has not been recorded.

Vinyalondë
‘New-Haven' (Q.) – Havens founded early in the Second Age on the coast of Middle-earth at the mouth of the Gwathló (Greyflood) by Aldarion the ‘Great Captain' of Númenor. They were later sacked by enemies and, still later, partly washed away by a rise in sea level. In after times the ruins were called Lond Daer.

Vinyamar
‘New Home' (Q.) – The name given by Turgon of the Noldor to his first dwelling in Middle-earth during the years of his exile from Eldamar. Vinyamar was a great hall built upon the slopes of Mount Taras in Nevrast, the ‘First Homely House' East of the Sea. But it was unfortified, and never more than a temporary dwelling. Turgon and his people afterwards removed to Gondolin, and dwelt there until the fall of that city, four centuries later.

Vinyarion
– The birth-name of King Hyarmendacil II of Gondor. It is Quenya in form.

Viressë
– The fourth month in Kings' Reckoning, equivalent to April. The Dúnedain of Middle-earth, descendants of the Númenoreans, used instead the Sindarin equivalent
Gwirith.
The Hobbits' name was
Astron.

Vorondil the Hunter
– From 1998–2029 Third Age, the Steward to King Eärnil II of Gondor. From him all subsequent Ruling Stewards (beginning with his son Mardil) were descended. He was renowned as a great huntsman, and the great ox-horn which was borne ever after by the Steward's eldest son was the result of a successful expedition on the part of Vorondil to the plains of Rhûn, where many of the fabled Wild White Kine were to be found.

Voronwë
‘Steadfast' (Q.) – One of the Noldor of the First Age, of the People of Fingolfin; he was one of those sent by Turgon of Gondolin into the Western Seas after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, to beseech the pardon and the aid of the Valar. Seven ships set out, but of all that sailing only one Elf-mariner returned: Voronwë son of Aranwë; and this was many years later. It was afterwards said (by the Eldar) that the Vala Ulmo had played a part in this preservation, for Voronwë was cast ashore in a place where he would easily be encountered by Tuor of the Edain – another instrument of the King of the Sea – so as to furnish Tuor with a guide to Gondolin. Voronwë indeed led Tuor by the secret ways to Turgon's city, and so played his part after all in the great events which were to end the Age and bring succour to Middle-earth. His fate is not recorded.

Also the admiring title bestowed by folk of Gondor (Third Age) upon Mardil the Good Steward.

Wainriders
–
See
EASTERLINGS
.

Walda
– From 2842–51 Third Age, the twelfth King of Rohan, third of the Second Line of the Mark. He had been King only nine years when he was trapped and slain by Orcs in the mountains near Dun-harrow. His son Folca mounted a great campaign against the Orcs and succeeded in driving them from the Mark.

Wall's End
– A translation of the Grey-elven name
Ramdal.

Wandlimb
– A translation of the Sindarin name
Fimbrethil
(literally ‘slender-birch').

Wargs
– A Northern Mannish name for wolves, but more properly applied to the evil werewolves (
Gaurhoth,
Sind.), which appeared in Middle-earth during the First Age and remained to plague the wilderness ever after. Unlike real wolves, the Wargs were phantasms which only assumed real (and deadly) shapes after darkness had fallen; like Orcs, they were afraid of the Sun.

War of the Dwarves and Orcs
– A bitter six-year conflict between two ancient races of Middle-earth, the first attempt on the part of one of the Free Peoples deliberately to exterminate the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. It raged from 2793–99 Third Age, and reached a climax with the bloody Battle of Azanulbizar, in which the Dwarves gained a pyrrhic victory over their foes.

The enmity was brought about by the Orcs of Moria and their murder of King Thrór. The Dwarves of Durin's Line had fallen on evil times and had been driven from Erebor by the Dragon Smaug, and as a result their pent-up wrath overflowed when the news – of the murder, and the contemptuous desecration of Thrór's body which followed – was brought to Thrór's heir Thráin II. He mustered all his people, ‘and they were joined by great forces sent from the Houses of other Fathers; for this dishonour to the heir of the Eldest of their race filled them with wrath.'
1

For six years the Dwarves pursued the fugitive Orcs the length and breadth of Wilderland, above and below ground, wreaking havoc among their foes and slaughtering all they could find. In the end they advanced upon Moria itself, and in the valley of Azanulbizar (the Dimrill Dale) they fought the greatest battle of the war against the Orcs. Many fell on both sides until in the nick of time reinforcements arrived from the Iron Hills; before the Sun went down the murderers of Thrór had been themselves slain, and those Orcs which had survived were fleeing south in terror and disarray.

The War of the Dwarves and Orcs was over, but the victorious Dwarves had themselves suffered cruelly in the final fight. Náin of the Iron Hills was slain, and so were Frerin son of Thráin and Fundin father of Balin. Thráin himself had lost an eye and Thorin had been wounded. Nonetheless, the Dwarves did not regret their victory, even while they begrudged its cost. They burned the bodies of their dead and marched away to their various homelands. And for over a hundred years no Orc dared show its face in the Vales of Anduin.

War of the Elves and Sauron
– The first great conflict of the Second Age, brought about by Sauron's betrayal of the Elven-smiths and his forging of the Ruling Ring, by which means he intended to make himself Ruler of Middle-earth. For the Elves, therefore, the War was a question of survival; and survive they did, though at great cost – and not without aid from an unexpected quarter.

The War commenced with Celebrimbor's discovery that he and his fellow Smiths of Eregion had been deceived by Sauron of Mordor. Sauron had aided in the forging of most of the Rings of Power, but unknown to the Elves had secretly planned to use this very means to overthrow the Free Peoples. In 1600 Second Age he succeeded in forging the Ruling Ring – and upon the instant, across the leagues between Orodruin and Eregion, Celebrimbor ‘was aware' of Sauron's treachery and of his intentions. The Elf immediately hid the Three Elven-rings and declared his hostility to the Lord of Mordor. In 1693 the first clashes between the Elves and Sauron's forces took place, but the Elves had waited too long and Sauron's power was greater than theirs. Two years afterwards he advanced into Eriador.

Although little is now known of the strategies of the War, it may be assumed that Sauron's initial advance into the North was made with the object of surrounding Eregion and (presumably) seizing the Three Rings. Accordingly, he drove a great wedge between the Elven-smiths' land and Gil-galad's forces further to the north and west, and bent all his attention upon the siege of Eregion. Nonetheless, Gil-galad contrived to send reinforcements (led by Elrond) to Celebrimbor. Too late. In 1697 Eregion was captured and ravaged, and Celebrimbor was slain. The surviving Noldor retreated northwards beyond the Bruinen and founded the refuge of Imladris (Rivendell), and Sauron turned his attention to the Elves of Lindon, led by his oldest remaining foe, Gil-galad of the Noldor.

Luckily the Elven-king had foreseen Sauron's treachery to some extent and so had not entirely been caught unprepared by the outbreak of war. Many Elven-warriors resisted Sauron's westward advance, yet by 1699 the armies of Mordor had overrun Eriador and were at the very borders of Lindon. All seemed lost – and then, just in time, a great fleet and host arrived in the Gulf of Lune, sent by King Tar-Minastir of Númenor to the aid of Gil-galad. Minastir's motives seem to have been somewhat mixed, for while he entertained great regard for the Eldar, he yearned for their immortality. Nonetheless, the help he sent was welcome indeed, and with it Gilgalad was able once more to mount an offensive against the Dark Lord. Sauron was defeated in Eriador in 1700 and, the following year, driven out altogether. So ended the War.