The Complete Tolkien Companion (107 page)

Chief among the Dark Lord's war-captains was the King of Minas Morgul. Throughout the year of 3018 he mustered a great host and, in March the following year, led his evil army forth across the Morgulduin bridge and down to Osgiliath. So began the siege of Gondor, in which the Dúnedain, defeated at the crossings, were driven back to Minas Tirith and forced to endure a two-day siege in which the host of Morgul, led by their Black Captain, prepared to demolish the Great Gate of Gondor. This they accomplished at dawn on March 15th, and the Witch-king prepared to enter ‘under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face'.
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Yet in the instant of victory the initiative was snatched from the Witch-king. Checked at the Gate by Gandalf, he suddenly discovered that his armies were being violently attacked by the Riders of Rohan. And in attempting to stem this new tide, he was confronted by two warriors against whom all his ancient power availed him nothing. Two swords, wielded by a Shieldmaiden of Rohan and a Hobbit of the Shire, broke the ancient spell which knitted his sinews together, and he was cast down into the void at last – in fulfilment of an ancient prophecy that he would not fall ‘by the hand of man'. With his passing the armies of Morgul were left without a captain, and in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields which followed his fall they were utterly destroyed. None returned to Minas Morgul, which was later cast down by the Dúnedain.

Withered Heath
– A desolate region in the eastern range of the Grey Mountains, notoriously the abode of Dragons.

Withywindle
(‘Winding-willow-river') – A brown river, bordered by many hundreds of ancient willow-trees; it arose in the Barrow-downs and flowed through the Old Forest to join the Baranduin at Haysend (the southern part of Buckland). Its central valley was known as ‘The Dingle'.

Witnesses of Manwë
– Three great eagles that dwelt on or near the summit of the Meneltarma, the holy mountain of Númenor.
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Wizards
– The name given in western Middle-earth to the five members of the Order of Istari (
Heren Istarion
), who first appeared in the early years of the second millennium.

It was afterwards said that they came out of the Far West and were messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to resist him; but they were forbidden to match his power with power, or to seek to dominate Elves or Men by force and fear.
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The Wizards were of the race called
MAIAR
; and the prohibition laid upon them at the commencement of their mission – that they should renounce all native-born power and conduct themselves within the limitations of Middle-earth itself – would seem to indicate a desire on the part of those who sent them to intervene in the affairs of mortals as indirectly as possible. The Wizards together formed an Order sworn to the service of ‘the Secret Fire'. They were five in number, ‘graded' by means of coloured vestment: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown and two ‘Blue Wizards' whose names may have been Alatar and Pallando, Maiar of Oromë. Each bore a Wizard's staff as a symbol of his membership of the Order. All were wise, and each had some speciality or particular interest, though their ranks were sundered by time and the natural processes of Middle-earth.
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Wizard's Vale
–
See
NAN CURUNÍR
.

Wold
– The name given in Rohan to the wide grasslands between Fangorn Forest and the Anduin, south of the river Limlight. Many horses and studs were kept there by the Rohirrim.

Wolf-riders
– Orcs of small stature who habitually rode into battle mounted upon Wargs. They were ferocious in battle; their speciality was slashing at the underbellies of horses.

Wolves
–
See
WARGS
.

Wood-elves
– A translation of
Tawarwaith
(Sind.).
See
AVARI; ELVES; NANDOR
.

Woodhall
– A village in the Eastfarthing of the Shire, at the northeastern corner of the Woody End.

Woodland Realm
–
See
THRANDUIL
.

Woodmen
– In the First Age, this term was applied solely to the Haladin of Brethil; in the Second Age, to the dwellers in Minhiriath and Enedhwaith, also foresters; and in the Third Age to a tribe related to the Northern race of Middle-earth (like the Beornings and the Men of Dale), who lived in scattered settlements in western Mirkwood.

Woody End
– The largest forested area in the Shire, some fifteen miles broad at its widest point. It lay between the Stock-Tuckborough road, the river Shirebourn and the Green Hill Country, and was the wildest part of the Shire.

Wormtongue
– Gríma son of Galmód, a Man of Rohan. He was a clever but corrupt and mean-spirited person, and in the years before the outbreak of the War of the Ring was easily seduced by the Wizard Saruman into betraying his people. He afterwards worked secretly for Saruman, and by dint of guile had himself appointed King Théoden's chief counsellor. His task was to lull the King's fears concerning Isengard – until it was too late – and simultaneously to undermine the King's morale by constant emphasis on Théoden's age (actually a mere 71 at the time of the War of the Ring) and supposed decrepitude. For some years he succeeded in this task, although he earned the hatred of all those members of Théoden's house who saw beneath the mask; hence his nickname Wormtongue. In 3019 his counsels of despair came close to bringing about the downfall of the Mark. But his treachery, well-known to all except Théoden, was exposed to the King by Gandalf the Grey, and Gríma the Wormtongue was obliged to flee for his life.

Believing Saruman on the point of victory, he rode to Isengard, just in time to be captured by Treebeard and imprisoned (with his master) in the Tower of Orthanc. He later accompanied Saruman when the Wizard was expelled from Orthanc, and journeyed with him to the Shire. But Saruman's constant contempt and ill-treatment drove Wormtongue mad, and in the hour of the Wizard's expulsion from the Shire Gríma murdered Saruman in a frenzy of rage and despair. He was killed by the Hobbits as he attempted to flee.

Woses
– An ancient race of aboriginal Men, the origins of whom have not been recorded, and whose physical appearance was markedly different to other Men. From available evidence it seems that, in the late First Age, they were known to – and lived among – the Haladin in Brethil, having perhaps even arrived in advance of them: they were said to have come from the far south-east of Middle-earth and to have been persecuted by all other races of Men.
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The name for them among the Haladin was
Drûg
– said to be a name (orig.
Drughu
) in their own tongue – though the Eldar called them
Drúedain,
which indicates their recognition of these creatures as True Men, despite their unlovely (by comparison with the Edain) appearance.

In the early Second Ages, they were found in the region between the river Isen and the westernmost spur of the White Mountains (this region was afterwards called
Drúwaith laur,
‘Former
pûkel
-land' on maps made during the Third Age). Later they moved eastward into the vales of the White Mountains, driven perhaps by fear of the Númenorean mariners who were even then beginning to make settlements on the coastlands of Middle-earth and, in Minhiriath, cutting down trees by the square mile for ship-building. The Woses continued to live by hunting rather than agriculture or craft, and preserved their elusive and wary way of life for as long as they could. But in those years another race of Men came to the White Mountains, and these incomers drove the ‘púkel-men' away from the high vales. Fleeing from the Men of the White Mountains, the Woses came by mountain-paths to their last refuge: the ancient Forest of Druadan (as it was later called), at the very eastern end of the Ered Nimrais range. There they vanished into the Wood, and were afterwards hardly ever seen by unfriendly eyes.

Throughout the Third Age the Wild Men of Druadan Forest continued to dwell in the depths of the wood, hunting as they had always done and avoiding all contact with other Men. It seems certain that they suffered at the hands of the Orcs (when the Orcs could catch them), and on this account conceived a great hatred for the
gorgûn,
as they termed these creatures. They turned their weapons – bows and blowpipes – upon those who hunted them and took care to avoid the sight of all other living creatures; for they were ‘woodcrafty beyond compare', and they learned the ways of the forest better than any other creature, save Elves. But by the time of the War of the Ring their uneasiness at the worsening taste in the wind which blew from the East led them to make overtures to the Rohirrim, offering aid in return for a peaceful life; this offer of help was gratefully accepted, and led directly to the great victory of the Pelennor Fields (
see
STONEWAIN VALLEY
). After the War King Elessar (Aragorn II) of neighbouring Gondor declared the Wild Men free of the Forest for ever, and he forbade any man to enter it without their leave.

Note:
a late source indicates that the stone images of the ‘púkel-men' that could be seen on the approach to Dunharrow in Rohan had been carved by the Drúedain themselves in earlier ages, as warnings to intruders.
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Presumably those who had collected them up – the builders of Dunharrow – had recognised the latent power still inhabiting these ancient images and employed it in their own works.

Wulf
– The son of Freca, a renegade of mixed Dunlendish and Northern blood. After his father had been slain (for insolence) by King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan, Wulf made overtures to the Hillmen of Dunland, and in concert with other enemies of the Mark invaded Rohan in 2758 Third Age. This force was too great for the Rohirrim to withstand, and Helm was driven in retreat to the Horn-burg fortress; Helm's son Haleth remained to defend Meduseld, and was slain before the doors of the Golden Hall by Wulf. The renegade then entered in and called himself King.

But meanwhile many of the Rohirrim had not been defeated, although they endured a siege of a whole winter (the Long Winter of 2758–59) in the Hornburg and Dunharrow. The latter fortress was occupied by Helm's sister's son Fréaláf, and in the spring he made a secret descent from the Hold and captured Meduseld, slaying Wulf with his own hand. With the death of their leader the Dunlendings were easily driven out of the Mark, and as Helm had perished during the winter Fréaláf then became King of Rohan. He was the first of the Second Line.

Yale
– A village of the Eastfarthing. It stood between Whitfurrows and the Stock-Tuckborough road.

Yanta
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘bridge'; also the title of Tengwa number 35, which represented the sound of consonantal
y
in most languages,
e
in the Mode of Beleriand.

Yavanna Kementári
– One of the great Valier (Valar Queens), the elder sister of Vana and spouse of Aulë the Smith. In the lore of the Elves she is accounted second only in might to Varda (Elbereth). Her powers are directly connected with growth and life, and it is said that she made the first
kelvar
and
olvar
(fauna and flora) in Middle-earth (at her prayer the race of Onodrim, or
ENTS
, was created by Ilúvatar, to protect from harm the trees of Middle-earth which were her especial love). But her most renowned accomplishment was the making of the fabled Two Trees, Telperion and Laurelin.
Yavanna
(Q.) means ‘Giver of Fruits'; her secondary title
Kementári
is translated as ‘Queen of the Earth'.