The Complete Tolkien Companion (28 page)

For this deed Eärnil was granted the Kingship of Gondor, after an interregnum of one year in which the Councillors of the Realm endeavoured to decide what was to be done: for there was no close relative of Ondoher who might claim the Crown, and all remembered the Kin-strife. Some held that the kingship should be given to Arvedui, King of Arthedain; others opposed his claim. At all events, Eärnil was awarded the Crown, nominally as the nearest relative (he was descended from Narmacil II). But he acknowledged Arvedui as his kinsman and promised to send to the aid of Arthedain if and when he could. It was some thirty years before he felt himself able to do so, however – although when he heard of the final preparations for Arthedain's destruction (in 1973), he sent his own son Eärnur north with a great fleet. This force destroyed the evil realm of Angmar, butarrived too late to save either Arvedui or Arthedain. Eärnur later succeeded his father.

Eärnur
‘Sea-lover' (Q.) – From 2043–50 Third Age, the thirty-third King of Gondor and the last to sit upon the Throne of that realm until the Restoration of the Kingship at the end of the Third Age. He was the son of the warrior-king Eärnil II, and resembled his father in his command of the martial skills. But whereas Eärnil also developed the qualities of wisdom, gentleness and restraint, his son did not, eschewing marriage and living only for the joys of battle; he was also burdened with a rash temperament. Yet for all that Eärnur was a great soldier, and his father appointed him Captain of the army which was sent to the aid of Arthedain in the far North.

In 1974 this army arrived by ship at the Harlond in the Gulf of Lune. It included many tall Men, brave banners and stout horses, for Eärnur himself proposed to lead the cavalry of Gondor in the forthcoming battle against the Witch-king of Angmar – who had already conquered Arthedain. In alliance with an Elf-host of Lindon, led by Círdan, the Army of Gondor crossed the Lune and advanced towards Fornost. The forces of Angmar came up against them rashly, for the Witch-king did not fear the Dúnedain or the Elves; but Eärnur's cavalry wheeled north around the hills of Evendim and fell upon the right flank of the enemy. Angmar's forces broke and scattered, and Eärnur pursued them north-eastwards across Eriador. He overtook the Witch-king west of the river Mitheithel – and at the same instant reinforcement arrived from Rivendell, led by the Elf-lord Glorfindel. Angmar was utterly overwhelmed and the Witch-king was driven from the North.

Yet the son of Eärnil had made a great enemy. The Witch-king remembered his defeat and resolved to be avenged. Therefore, when Eärnur became King in 2043, he received a challenge from the Nazgûl-lord of Minas Morgul (who was none other than the Witch-king himself). Eärnur was minded to accept the challenge but was restrained from doing so by the wise Steward, Mardil. But seven years later the Lord of Minas Morgul renewed the taunt, and Eärnur rode precipitately forth with a small escort to the gates of the Tower of Sorcery. He was never seen again.

Eärnur left no heir; therefore, after his death had been presumed, Mardil the Steward took office in the King's name – though neither he nor his Heirs, the Ruling Stewards, ever called themselves King or sat upon the great Throne. And for nearly a thousand years, the Crown of Gondor lay between the hands of King Eärnil, where he slept upon a stone bed in the Houses of the Kings.

Eärrámë
‘Sea-wing' (Q.) – The name of the ship built in Arvernien by Tuor of the Edain at the end of the First Age, in which he and his wife Elwing the White sailed into the West and were lost to the knowledge of dwellers in Middle-earth.

Eärwen
‘Sea-maiden' (Q.) – The daughter of Olwë of the Teleri and wife of Finarfin of the Noldor; she was the mother of Finrod, Orodreth, Angrod, Aegnor and Galadriel, and her children were able to claim kinship with Thingol Greycloak of Doriath (her father's brother).

East Bight
– The name given to the huge bay in the forest on the eastern flank of Mirkwood.

East-elves
– The people of the great forests east of the Misty Mountains; Silvan elves.
See also
AVARI
.

Eastemnet
– A low-lying area of Rohan between the rivers Entwash and Anduin.

Easterlings
– The name given among folk of Gondor and Rohan to the various races and peoples from the lands of Rhûn and beyond. Most notable of these were the
BALCHOTH
and the Wainriders, whose incursions into Western Lands during the latter part of the Third Age often threw Gondor and her allies into great danger. Yet all peoples of Middle-earth had originally come from the East; the Edain themselves were merely the first Men to do so. Easterling tribes and clans first appeared in the west of Middle-earth during the latter part of the Elder Days: not many years, in fact, after the migration of the Edain. (For the most part these Men assisted Morgoth.) But by the time of the great Easterling invasions of the Third Age, the Edain had long returned from Númenor and their mighty realms stood in the path of this new drive westward. The North-kingdoms of the Dúnedain were shielded by the position of Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains, but the Men of Dale were exposed to assault; and Gondor herself was constantly threatened by the existence of a great natural route across the wide plains between southern Mirkwood and the northern fences of Mordor.

The earliest Easterling invasions took the form of mass migrations rather than military expeditions, and their forces were easily driven off; but later incursions were better organised and far more formidable – the Wainriders, for example, moved their people and baggage in huge wains, or carts, while their nobility fought from chariots. They were also stronger and more numerous than previous invaders, and better armed. From 1851–1941 they attacked Gondor repeatedly, forcing her to waste resources she desperately needed. In 1856 King Narmacil II fell in battle with the Wainriders, and Gondor withdrew all her forces behind the Great River. Rho-vanion, one of her traditional allies, was enslaved by the Easterlings, but rose in revolt in 1899. Seizing his chance, Narmacil's son Calimehtar then crossed the Anduin in force and brought the Wainriders to battle on the old Field of Dagorlad. The victory he won there brought Gondor relief from the Easterling attacks for some time, for it was not until the year 1940 that the Wainriders reappeared – in great strength, and in alliance with other peoples, passing north and south of Mordor in their last and greatest invasion. King Ondoher fell in battle during the first assault of this new campaign and only a fortunate victory by the Southern Army saved Gondor from being overrun.

Five hundred years later, another fierce Easterling people had made their way west as far as the brown meads south of Mirkwood. These were the Balchoth, a cruel clan completely under the sway of Sauron, and they terrorised the lands on both sides of the Great River. In 2510, discontented with sporadic raiding, a great host of Balchoth – aided by Orcs of the Mountains – crossed the Anduin on many boats and rafts. This sudden invasion was only thrown back because of the foresight of Cirion, twelfth Steward, and because of the valour of the horsemen of the North, led by Eorl the Young (
see
BATTLE OF THE FIELD OF CELEBRANT
). But not even the combined strength of Gondor and Rohan could continually stem the westward flood, and the Easterlings threatened their frontiers while the Third Age lasted.

Eastfarthing
– One of the four quarters, or ‘farthings', of the Shire.

Eastfold Vale
– The area of Rohan bordered by the White Mountains, the Mering Stream, and the rivers Entwash and Snowbourn. South of the Mering Stream, the land was called Anórien, and was accounted part of Gondor. Through the vale ran the chief road from Edoras to Minas Tirith.

East Lórien
– Throughout the last half of the Third Age, the evil power of
DOL GULDUR
dominated the southern reaches of Mirk-wood. But after overthrowing the dark fortress at the end of the War of the Ring, Celeborn of Lothlórien took all of this forest region, cleansed it, made it part of his realm and called it East Lórien.

East Vale
– A translation of the Grey-elven name
Talath Rhúnen. See
THARGELION
.

Echad i Sedryn
‘The Camp of the Faithful' – Túrin's stronghold on
AMON RÛDH
.

Echoing Mountains
– A translation of the Grey-elven name
Ered Lómin;
the western mountain-wall of the lands of Hithlum and Dor-Lómin.

Echoriath
‘Encircling Mountains' (Sind.) – A node or massif of tall peaks which buttressed the land of Dorthonion on the west, originally part of the Ered Wethrin but separated in later days from this range by the vale of the upper Sirion, and from the Ered Gorgoroth in the east by the Pass of Anach. In earliest times the Encircling Mountains had contained a deep lake amidmost, perhaps as a result of volcanic action and the formation of a caldera, which afterwards filled with water. But this lake drained away, and what was left was the deep, hidden vale of Tumladen, with the hill of Amon Gwareth in its centre. Upon this hill, and protected by the Encircling Mountains, Turgon of the Noldor in after days built his city of Gondolin.

Echuir
– The Sindarin word for ‘stirring', as applied to the final ‘season' of the Eldarin
loa
or year. The Quenya term was
coirë.

Ecthelion of the Fountain
– One of the Captains of Gondolin, whose particular duty was the guarding of the innermost gate of the seven which protected Gondolin from the world beyond the Encircling Mountains. He was one of Turgon's chief lieutenants, and fought at Turgon's side during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. But he is chiefly remembered as the Elf who slew – and was himself slain by – the Lord of Balrogs, Gothmog, in the last defence of the city.

Ecthelion I
– From 2685–98 Third Age, the seventeenth Ruling Steward of Gondor. He rebuilt the White Tower of the Citadel in the city of Minas Tirith.

Ecthelion II
– The father of Denethor II and, from 2953–84 Third Age, the twenty-fifth Ruling Steward of Gondor. Because of Gondor's growing need for men of worth, he initiated the practice of taking foreigners into his service, and some he rewarded with great honour. (One of these was none other than Aragorn II himself, in another guise.)

Edain
‘Men'; ‘The Second People' (Sind. from Q.
Atani
) – In its most ancient form, the name for the race of Men (as opposed to the ‘First People', the Elves). Later this title, in its Sindarin form (above), was applied more specifically to the Men who belonged to the Three Houses of the Elf-friends, who came across the Blue Mountains into Beleriand during the Elder Days, and fought alongside the Eldar in the long wars against Morgoth the Enemy; and it is in this later, Grey-elven form that the name is most often encountered.

Of the forging of this most ancient friendship, and of the trials undergone by the ‘Second People' in their defence of Beleriand against Morgoth,
The Silmarillion
has much to say. Arriving piecemeal in tribal groupings, the Three Houses first established independent chiefdoms and kingdoms in Beleriand; then, as one by one these peoples encountered the evil of Morgoth, they joined with the Eldar and held lands in fief from the Elven-kings. Thus for the most part they shared the fate of the Elves, and were nigh on annihilated before the greatest of their heroes, Eärendil, son of Tuor of the Third House of the Edain, and Idril, daughter of Turgon, King of Gondolin, sailed west over Sea to reach the Undying Lands and bring the aid which succoured Middle-earth.

At the ending of the First Age, in return for their sacrifices in the wars, the Edain were granted land ‘West-over-Sea' – the Isle of Elenna, most westerly of mortal lands. Using Eärendil's Star as their beacon, the greater part of them then set out for their future home. They named their new realm
Númenor.

The Elves then called this people
Dúnedain,
‘Men-of-the-West'. And the Númenoreans began to grow more kingly and proud, and more like the Eldar themselves, with whom they lived in friendship for the greater part of the Second Age; for they had also been rewarded with longer life than other Men, though not with that immortality they always desired. Yet Númenor withered and fell at last, and few survived: only the Faithful, led back to Middle-earth by Elendil the Tall. Like the Elves, they were a dwindling people.

Edennil
‘Friend-of-Men' (Sind.) – A title awarded to Finrod Felagund.

Edhellond
‘Elf-havens' (Sind.) – An ancient harbour of the Grey-Elves and Silvan Elves in the lee of Dol Amroth, on the coast of Belfalas. Throughout the Third Age, the tradition remained in Dol Amroth that Elves from Mirkwood and Lórien would sail down the Morthond from their Forests to the Sea, resting at the Edhellond before taking ship into the West. It was here that the ship of Amroth waited in vain for Nimrodel.

Edhelrim
‘The Elves' (Sind.) – The Grey-elves' collective plural for their own race. Also
Eledhrim.

Edoras
‘The Courts' – The chief city of Rohan, situated at the feet of the White Mountains near the river Snowbourn. It was built in the late Third Age, after the fashion of the North – as a hill-fortress with stockade and dike. Crowning the hill was the magnificent King's Hall, Meduseld, completed by Brego, second King of the Mark. Edoras was not a true stronghold, and the Kings of Rohan used Dunharrow, in the mountains further south, as a place of refuge in time of war.

Edrahil
– An Elf of the city of Nargothrond, chief of those loyalists who refused to forsake their King Finrod Felagund, and who accompanied him to his death in Tol-in-Gaurhoth. It was at Edrahil's suggestion that Finrod, instead of casting the crown of Nargothrond away in bitterness, gave it instead to his younger brother Orodreth to hold in keeping. But Finrod – and Edrahil – never returned from the north, and Orodreth later became King of Nargothrond by right.