The Complete Tolkien Companion (29 page)

‘Edro!'
– A Sindarin imperative, meaning ‘Open!'

Egalmoth
– From 2698–2743 Third Age, the eighteenth Ruling Steward of Gondor.

Egladil
‘Angle' (Sind.) – That part of Lothlórien which lay between the confluence of Anduin and Silverlode.

Eglador
‘Land of the Forsaken' (Sind.) – The earliest of all Elven-names for the land of
DORIATH
.
See also
EGLATH
.

Eglantine Took
– The wife of Paladin and mother of Peregrin Took.

Eglarest
– The southernmost of the two Havens of the Falathrim on the shores of Beleriand, founded by
CÍRDAN THE SHIPWRIGHT
early in the First Age. It lay at the mouth of the river Nenning (its sister-haven was Brithombar at the outflow of the Brithon). Círdan himself dwelt there throughout most of the war against Morgoth, but in the year following the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, both Havens were assaulted by great armies from Angband, and fell at last. They were never rebuilt. Círdan and the survivors of the Falathrim went to dwell on the Isle of Balar, and afterwards, when the Age was ended and Beleriand drowned and broken, to the Grey Havens of Mithlond on the shores of Lindon.

Eglath
‘Forsaken Ones' (Sind.) – The name assumed by those of the Teleri (the Third Kindred of the Eldar) who would not depart from Middle-earth at the Beginning of Days, but instead lingered in Beleriand, seeking for Elwë Thingol their lord, who had been lost to them for many years.

Eilenach
– One of a series of seven
BEACON-HILLS
between Gondor and Rohan. Eilenach was a tall hill in the midst of the Forest of Druadan, at the southern end of the chain.

Eilenaer
– An older (pre-Númenorean) name for the
HALIFIRIEN
.

Eilinel
– The wife of
GORLIM THE UNHAPPY
, murdered in Dorthonion by soldiers of Sauron after the Dagor Bragollach.

Eithel Ivrin
‘Ivrin's Well' (Sind.) – A spring and cataract beneath the southernmost buttresses of the Shadowy Mountains in West Beleriand; it was the source of the river Narog. Also called the ‘Falls of Ivrin' and the ‘Pools of Ivrin'.

Eithel Sirion
– The source of the great river Sirion, on the eastern slopes of the Ered Wethrin (the Shadowy Mountains) on the borders of Ard-galen.

Eket
– A short Númenorean sword, with a blade between twelve and eighteen inches long, two-edged and pointed.

Ekkaia
– The name given in the lore of the Eldar to the Outer or Encircling Sea of Arda – the ocean which encompassed all the lands of the earth in the days before its reshaping at the time of the fall of Númenor.

Êl, Elin, Elenath
– The Sindarin word for ‘star'. (
Elenath
was the collective plural.)
See
ELEN, ELENI, ELENION; GIL, GILIATH
.

Elanor
‘Sun-star' (Sind.) – A small, golden winter flower found in the forest-glades of Lothlórien. It was also known to grow in Tol Eressëa, so presumably it came to Middle-earth via Númenor.
1

Elanor ‘the Fair' Gamgee
– The eldest child of Sam Gamgee, born to Sam and Rose in the last year of the Third Age. Like a number of the children born then, she had golden hair, which was previously most unusual in a Hobbit-maid. After her father was made a Counsellor of the North-kingdom (Year 13 Fourth Age, 1434 Shire Reckoning), she was appointed Maid of Honour to the Queen of Gondor and Arnor.

In her thirty-first year, Elanor married Fastred of Greenholm and four years afterwards the couple moved to Undertowers, beneath the Tower Hills on the borders of the Westmarch. There the family long continued to dwell – and to preserve the Red Book, given by Samwise to Elanor in the year 61 Fourth Age, on his way to the Grey Havens and the Western Shores.

See also
RED BOOK OF WESTMARCH
.

Elatan
– A lord of Andúnië in Númenor; he wedded
SILMARIËN
daughter of King Tar-Elendil. Their son was Valandil, the forefather of Elendil and all the Kings of Arnor and Gondor.

Elbereth
‘Star-queen' (Sind.) – The title or name by which the Grey-elves knew that Lady revered (by the High-elves) as
VARDA
the Exalted, spouse of the Lord of the Valar.

To the High-elves Varda had three aspects: as the Exalted (spouse); as
Tintallë,
the ‘Star-kindler', ruler of the Firmament; and as the divine or demiurgic intercessary,
Fanuilos.
The Sindar (Grey-elves) of Beleriand called her
Gilthoniel,
‘the Kindler', which corresponded closely with her other name
Elbereth
(the Quenya equivalent of
Elbereth
was
Elentári
); and both titles were often spoken together when invoking her aid or blessing.

Two hymns or ceremonial addresses to Elbereth occur in the text of the Red Book. The former example (‘
A ELBERETH GILTHONIEL
') is in the Sindarin tongue;
2
the latter, Galadriel's Lament in Lórien, is in the ancient High-elven Quenya and is the longest extant example of that language recorded anywhere.
3
The verse is examined elsewhere (
see
NAMÁRIË
), but it is worth noting here that it pleads for a specific boon in terms which, though formal, are almost ‘personal'. For Galadriel of Lothlórien was the most royal of Elven women living in Middle-earth during the Third Age, being of the House of Finarfin of Eldamar; and she had once dwelt in the Undying Lands where Elbereth herself reigned.

Elbereth was said to dwell, together with her spouse, Manwë, the ‘Elder King', in a lofty palace upon the summit of Mount Oiolossë, highest of the Pelóri of Valinor and therefore of all mountains. In the Second and Third Ages the High-elves who made pilgrimage to the Emyn Beraid (‘Tower Hills') to gaze into the
palantír
of the Tower were sometimes rewarded with a vision of Elbereth standing on the mountain, dressed in raiment of snowy white, listening to the cries of Elves and Men for aid and succour.

Eldacar I
– From 249–339 Third Age, the fourth King of Gondor.

Eldacar II
– From 1432–37 and 1447–90 Third Age, the twenty-first King of Gondor. The ten-year interregnum was caused by the temporary triumph of disloyal elements (led by
CASTAMIR THE USURPER
) during Gondor's civil war, the Kin-strife.

Eldacar was born the son of Valacar, twentieth King, who held the Northmen of Rhovanion in great esteem, having lived among them (at the wishes of his father Rómendacil II). Indeed, Valacar took to wife one of their race, the Lady Vidumavi, and from their union was born Eldacar (who was named Vinitharya in the land of his birth). But the Dúnedain of the South were suspicious and angry at this ‘mingling' of their race of ‘Kings-of-Men' with what they saw as lesser blood; and when Eldacar succeeded his father in the year 1432, there was rebellion and civil war.

However, Eldacar showed all the tenacity of the Dúnedain in refusing to be thus arbitrarily deposed; and he held out against the rebels for five years, eventually enduring a bitter siege in his capital city of Osgiliath. But the besiegers, led by Castamir, the Captain of Ships, finally drove him out, leaving the greatest city of Gondor in flames. Eldacar then retreated into the North, to Rhovanion, where he waited and planned.

Meanwhile Castamir, who had crowned himself King after the fall of Osgiliath, then began to lose – or squander – much of the support he had originally commanded. For he had shown himself to be a cruel and despotic man (having executed Ornendil, Eldacar's son, when Osgiliath fell into his hands). In 1447 Eldacar marched south once more, gathering supporters daily, until at last he met the armies of Castamir at the Crossings of Erui. There was a great battle; Castamir was slain by Eldacar's own hand, and the Line of the Kingship was restored.

Thus Eldacar proved that, for all his ‘mixed' blood, he was as noble a king and as courageous a soldier as Gondor could wish for. Indeed, he showed no signs of premature ageing, reigning for over forty years more in wisdom and majesty.

Eldalië
‘Elven-folk' (Q.) – The
ELDAR
.

Eldalondë the Green
– The chief port of the
BAY OF ELDANNA
in Western Númenor; it lay on the meridian between the provinces of Andustar and Hyarnustar, and was the chief port of call for visiting Elves from Eressëa. All around this city grew
FRAGRANT TREES
that the Eldar brought as gifts from the West.

Eldamar
‘Elven-home' (Q.) – The ancient home of the Elves in the Undying Lands; that part of Aman allotted to the Calaquendi and all those who also passed ‘West-over-Sea'. It comprised the shoreline of the Blessed Realm and all the middlemost lands on the eastern side of the Pelóri, but not the ‘Lonely-isle' of
Tol Eressëa,
which lay some little distance offshore; it was in fact at Eressëa that Elven-ships first docked, after the long journey out of Middle-earth.

In its beginning, Eldamar was lit in part by the ancient stars, and in part (especially in that region known as Calacirian) by the radiance of the Two Trees. On the eastern side of the great Pass through the Mountains of Valinor stood a high green hill, Túna; and on this hill the Vanyar and the Noldor built their city of Tirion, the chief city of the High-elves in Eldamar, whose silvery lamps were reflected in the waters of the Shadowmere beneath. To the east lay the great Bay of Eldamar, and on the horizon stood the ‘Lonely-Isle'
Tol Eressëa,
the abode of the Teleri for many ‘long-years' before they too completed the journey to Aman and built a city on the shorelands of Eldamar (
ALQUALONDË
).

Such was Eldamar in ancient days. But in the Second and Third Ages, like Valimar (‘Home-of-the-Valar', the lands to the west of the Pelóri), Eldamar lay under perpetual twilight. For although it had once been illuminated, in part, by the ancient Two Trees, these were poisoned before the ending of the Elder Days, and the light of Valinor and Eldamar then became that of a land ‘West of the Moon, East of the Sun', the unending evening of the Isles of the West.

Eldanna
–
See
BAY OF ELDANNA
.

Eldar
‘People of the Stars' (Q.) – The name given in remote antiquity by Oromë the Vala to all Elvenkind; subsequently used to distinguish the Three Kindreds who separated from the
Avari,
the Unwilling, and who, following the call of the Valar, made the Great Journey from Cuiviénen into the Uttermost West, at the Beginning of Days – though not all the Eldar arrived in Aman at the same time. Yet from the very beginning the destiny of the Eldar (West-elves) was set apart from that of Men – and even from that of the Avari, fated to ‘dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and be forgotten.'
4
For all Elves, immortality proved a burden rather than a blessing while they dwelled in mortal lands where death, by grievous mischance, might still occur. Therefore, far back in the Elder Days, the Three Kindreds were summoned by the Valar, Guardians of the World, to make the Great Journey, there to dwell with the Valar themselves in harmony and everlasting life, far removed from the dangers and fleeting mortality of Middle-earth.

The Three Kindreds of the Eldar were the
Vanyar,
‘Fair-elves',
Noldor,
‘Deep-elves', and
Lindar,
‘Singing-elves' – more commonly known as the
Teleri,
‘the Hindmost', for they were ever last on the Journey. The Vanyar were fated to pass west without hindrance, and so come to Valinor, where ever after they dwelt in bliss. The Noldor likewise completed the Journey without delay, and for long ages dwelt with the Vanyar and the Valar in Aman, though it has been told how their bliss became diminished. Then most of this people came back to Middle-earth in exile, and here most of them died and passed to the Halls of Waiting. The history of the Noldor is the most grievous of all the histories of the Eldarin kindreds.

The third Kindred, the Lindar or Teleri, alone dallied on the Journey from Cuiviénen to Valinor; indeed, so numerous and lengthy were the delays experienced by this people that several times they became dispersed along the route and so came to form the nuclei of several entirely new Eldarin groupings.

Little is known of the subsequent history of the Vanyar. They are the ‘Highest' of High-elves. In Eldamar, they dwelt at first in Tirion, their city upon the hill of Túna in the Calacirian; but they later removed to Valimar, and they came back to Middle-earth only once in after years, to the Great Battle whereby the Host of the West overthrew Morgoth the Enemy and so brought an end to the Elder Days. Their first and only Lord was, and is, Ingwë. The Vanyar dwell still in Aman and do not return, and the troubles of Middle-earth concern them not at all.

Better chronicled is the history of the Noldor, the craftsmen and loremasters of the Elves, whose skills flowered in ancient Eldamar, until in the end they overreached themselves and brought grief and misfortune to both the Blessed Realm and Middle-earth. Their first Lord was Finwë, but, as is told elsewhere, this great prince was slain by Morgoth in defence of the Silmarils – the first of all Elves to be slain in Valinor, though, sadly, not the last – and the lordship of the Second Kindred then passed to his sons: Fëanor (son of Míriel), Fingolfin and Finarfin (the sons of Indis of the Vanyar), though Fëanor was the chief. Few of those who went into exile before the Elder Days had passed ever returned to Valinor, except by way of the Halls of Mandos, where each lingered according to the extent of his share of the crimes that the Noldor had committed, or had caused to be committed. The Noldor were ‘High-elves' – as this term was understood in Middle-earth.