The Complete Tolkien Companion (31 page)

Elfstan Fairbairn
– The eldest son of Elanor ‘the Fair', daughter of Samwise Gamgee. He was the founder of the Fairbairn family.

Elfwine
– The nineteenth King of Rohan and the son of Éomer and Lothíriel, daughter of Imrahil of Dol Amroth.

Ell
– A unit of measure, roughly one-and-a-half yards.

Elladan and Elrohir
– The twin sons of Elrond. Like their father (and his brother, Elros Tar-Minyatur), they were Peredhil (‘Halfelven') and therefore possessed the life of the Eldar – while Elrond himself remained in Middle-earth. In 2509 Third Age their mother, Celebrían, was journeying across the passes of the Misty Mountains when her party was ambushed by Orcs. The brothers rode swiftly to their mother's aid – and succeeded in rescuing her – but they never forgot the days of torment she experienced at the Orcs' hands while in captivity. Both Elladan (‘Man-of-the-Stars') and Elrohir (‘Star-rider') rode with the Dúnedain of the North to Aragorn's aid during the War of the Ring and, with the Grey Company, passed the Paths of the Dead and fought their way to Pelargir. There they took ship with the host of Lebennin and Langstrand up the Anduin, in time to arrive at a crucial moment during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. After the Passing of the Three Rings, they remained with the Dúnedain of Arnor. Like their sister Arwen – although for different reasons – both brothers elected to become of mortal-kind.

Elmo
– The younger brother of Elwë and Olwë of the Teleri. Little is said of him in records, other than that he was the grandfather of Celeborn.
See
LINES OF DESCENT
.

Elostirion
– The name of the tallest of the towers of Emyn Beraid, in which the chief or master
palantír
was kept. It was built by Gil-galad during the Second Age.

Elrohir
–
See
ELLADAN AND ELROHIR
.

Elrond
‘Star-dome' (Sind.) – Son of Eärendil and brother of Elros Tar-Minyatur; Herald of Gil-galad; Bearer of the Great Ring Vilya, mightiest of the Three, and Master of Rivendell throughout the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth. The sons of Eärendil were Elros and Elrond, the Peredhil or Halfelven. ‘In them alone the line of the heroic chieftains of the Edain in the First Age was preserved; and after the fall of Gil-galad the lineage of the High-elven Kings was also in Middle-earth only represented by their descendants.'
8

The lineage of the Peredhil was indeed impressive. Eärendil the Mariner, their father, was the son of Tuor (of the Third House of the Edain) and Idril Celebrindal, daughter of Turgon, High-elven King of Gondolin. Their mother Elwing the White was the daughter of Dior, son of Beren (of the First House of the Edain) and Lúthien Tinúviel, daughter of Thingol Greycloak and the Lady Melian of the Valar.

At the end of the First Age Elros and Elrond were appointed a choice: to become Mortal – albeit with greatly increased lifespan – or to accept the life of the Eldar. Elros decided to stay with the Edain, and was thus chosen to be Númenor's first King. But his brother's heart lay with the Eldar of Middle-earth, and so Elrond chose to be of Elven-kind. Ultimately the same choice was later inherited by his own three children: Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen Undómiel.

The early years of the Second Age were peaceful, and at that time Elrond dwelt with Gil-galad in Lindon, north of the Lune. The fabled refuge of Imladris (Rivendell) was not established until the middle of the War of the Elves and Sauron, which began in the year 1693. After Sauron's invasion of Eriador, Elrond was sent by Gil-galad to the aid of the Elven-smiths of Eregion. Although he could not save Eregion, he rescued the survivors and retreated northwards with them to a hidden valley deep in the foothills of the Misty Mountains; there Elrond founded the ‘Last Homely House' of his kin. For the remainder of the Second Age Elrond, now an Elvenlord of power, defended Imladris against all who would overcome it. And during the War of the Last Alliance, which secured Sauron's overthrow at the end of the Age, he marched with the Host as the Herald of Gil-galad. Gil-galad had already bequeathed Vilya, greatest of the Three Rings to Elrond; and thus it was saved from destruction when Gil-galad perished at Sauron's hand.

Throughout the Third Age Elrond dwelt in Rivendell, wielding Vilya in concert with the other two Rings. But he could hardly stand aside from the affairs of his kinsfolk and other Free Peoples, and when, during the middle years of the Age, the North-kingdoms of the Dúnedain began to break up, the surviving Men of those lands relied heavily on Master Elrond's aid. He gave them sanctuary when they needed it, and sent a force to the last battle at Fornost against the Witch-king (in the year 1974). And when the North-kingdom finally fell, Elrond took the Heirs of Isildur into his own house, where also were kept the treasures of Isildur's Line: the Ring of Barahir, the Shards of Narsil, and the Sceptre of Annúminas.

But the House of Rivendell was not a fortress, nor a camp of war. It was a place of learning, merriment and quiet, beside a running stream, deep in a forest-clad northern valley. There, with his children, his loremasters and many of the chief Eldar of Middle-earth as his counsellors, Elrond dwelt until the end of the Age. Then the Master of Rivendell, friend of Elves and Men, passed in his turn ‘West-over-Sea'; and with him went the Three Rings of the Elves. Thus Elrond was finally reunited with his wife Celebrían (who had gone over Sea long before); but he was sundered at the last from his sons Elladan and Elrohir, and from his beloved daughter Arwen.

Elros Tar-Minyatur
– The son of Eärendil the Mariner and twin brother of Elrond; from 32–442 Second Age, the first King of Númenor; and the founder of the Dúnedain royal line. He was known to the Edain by the High-elven title
Tar-Minyatur
(‘High First-ruler';
Elros
means ‘Star-glitter'), and he reigned over the Land of the Star for more than four hundred years; for to him and his descendants the Valar granted a great lifespan. His son Vardamir Nólimon succeeded him (albeit briefly).

Elu Thingol
–
See
THINGOL GREYCLOAK
.

Eluchíl
‘Thingol's Heir' (Sind.) –
See
DIOR ELUCHÍL
.

Eluréd
‘Thingol's Heir' (Sind.) – The elder of the two infant sons of Dior Eluchíl. He was left to starve in the forest by the sons of Fëanor, after the sack of Doriath, together with his younger brother Elurin.

Elurin
–
See
preceding entry.

Elvenhome
– A translation of
ELDAMAR
.

Elven rings
– The Three Rings.

Elven-smiths
– Prior to the rebellion of the Noldor, and the return of this people in Exile during the First Age, Elvish craft in Middle-earth had chiefly taken the form of skills with speech, song and enchantment. But the war which the Noldor then began against Morgoth compelled them to develop anew the art of smithying, and so forge their own weaponry.

Naturally this was of a uniquely Elvish nature, though at first many of the techniques were acquired from the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains. One notable feature of the swords and daggers they created was the happy faculty of warning their owners of approaching evil creatures (such as Orcs and Trolls) by shining with a cold blue light. But for the Orcs – who captured much Elvish weaponry in the First Age – such blades were objects of fear and abhorrence.

During the Second Age, the craft of smithying was further developed by the Noldor of Fëanor's House, in Eregion (where they had access to metals mined by the Dwarves of Moria). They forged the Great Rings, perhaps the supreme examples of Elvish skill after the Silmarils. Yet all such Elvish essays into high craftsmanship now seem ill-starred, and the fate of the Great Rings echoes that of the Great Jewels: they were marvellous beyond measure, but great peril was brought into the world with them – and remained until they were finally removed from the Circles of the World.

Elven-swords
–
See
preceding entry.

Elves
(Trans. from
Quendi
‘the Speakers') – In the Beginning of Days, long before Good or Evil moved in Middle-earth, when only the wild beasts and ancient trees inhabited the forests and valleys, the first of the ‘speaking peoples' awoke. These were the Elves, the Firstborn, the immortal Elder Race of Middle-earth, noblest of the Children of God. No subsequent race has ever had such a profound effect upon Middle-earth; for the Elves were, materially and spiritually, more closely bound to Middle-earth than Men; and all that they did was done long ago; and as a result the long effects of the presence of Elves in Middle-earth are more deeply rooted than the works of Men, though the full measure of them can no longer easily be discerned.

In those most ancient of all days the subsequent differences between the Elf-kindreds had not yet begun to manifest themselves, and for a timeless period the Firstborn roamed freely around the waters of Cuiviénen, and in the eastern forests, learning, understanding, and, above all, speaking: to each other (most of all) and to those beasts and growing things (
kelvar
and
olvar
) whose thoughts the Elves most desired to know. Their role in the affairs of Middle-earth is therefore one of awakening and teaching, rather than creation, or as in the case of Morgoth (and, unfortunately, Men) sub-creation. The Elves were the Quickeners of intellect, and articulation; they did not, strictly speaking, ‘invent' these gifts; but they stimulated them, in themselves and in others; and having awakened and taught to the full extent of their ability (and their destiny) they departed from Middle-earth, leaving the remaining ‘speaking-peoples' with the same hereditary task.

Yet the changefiilness of Mortal Lands affected the Elves in time, and, as is told in many places, they came to be divided into two main branches: the East-elves (or Avari), who loved the forests and were content there: and the West-elves, who conceived an awareness of their destiny and awaited a manifestation of it. These latter were the
ELDAR
; the Three Kindreds who were summoned to dwell across the Sea in Eldamar, and who began the Great Journey into the West for that purpose. Thus, far back in the First Age, two of these Kindreds at last sailed out of Middle-earth to the Undying Lands, and dwelt there agelessly in peace and exaltation. However, the lesser Elves remained in Middle-earth throughout the Elder Days; and with them lingered a part of the Third Kindred of the Eldar, the Sindar (Grey-elves), who had stilled the Eldarin Sea-longing and had chosen to pass their days in Mortal Lands rather than sail into the West.

Yet not all the High-elves were content to remain in the Undying Lands; a great number of the Noldor (the Second People) returned in exile to Middle-earth before the end of the First Age, thus initiating a series of changes for other peoples of mortal lands. Naturally enough, the return of the Exiles most directly affected their Grey-elven kin, who quickly adopted much of their lore (including the Tengwar, the High-elven alphabet of cursive letters). The Grey-elves themselves – who were numerous and whose language, Sindarin, was the most widely spoken among all Elves – subsequently passed on some of the Noldorin culture they had absorbed to the Wood-elves (another name for the Nandor), with whom they often dwelt in latter years. Ultimately, this gradual cultural transfer reached other races altogether. Thus, for example, the Grey-elves' own runic system (
see
ALPHABET OF DAERON
) eventually spread to the Dwarves, and even, in a greatly debased form, to the Orcs and other servants of the Dark Power.

However, the peoples most profoundly affected were the Edain: the Three Houses of Men who came west into Beleriand before the Elder Days had passed, and who adopted the ways of the Elves they found there. The Elves of Middle-earth gave this knowledge freely, for in Men the Firstborn had recognised the shapes of their future inheritors; and so they enriched the minds of the Edain with all that Elven-lore could endow, even while they themselves began to prepare for their own separate destiny.

For the Undying Lands of Eldamar and Eressëa, in the Far West, had been set apart from the Beginning of Days as a refuge for all Elven-kind: to be a final home, removed from the perils and mortality of Middle-earth. And deep within the breasts of most Elves slumbered the ‘Sea-longing', an innate desire to pass West to Eldamar and dwell there for ever. It was of course the exiled High-elves who felt this call most keenly, for they themselves had already once dwelt beyond the Sea. Accordingly, with the ending of the First Age and the lifting of their exile, most of the Noldor returned once more into the Undying Lands, and with them went a great number of the Grey-elves.

After the passing of the Three Rings, two full Ages later, few indeed of the Eldar (whether High-elves or Grey-elves) still tarried in mortal lands – though the Elven-woods of Wilderland long remained peopled by the lesser kindreds. For in the hearts of the Wood-elves the Sea-longing seldom awoke, and for the most part this people never came to Eldamar. They lingered instead in Middle-earth and eventually declined altogether, sharing the fate of all those whose destiny it remains to dwell on the Hither Shores.

Note:
today only dim memories of the Elder Race survive in the legends and traditions of Men, though once there was great friendship between the peoples. Folk-stories, garnered from all quarters of the world, afford glimpses into remote antiquity – but little more. For example, most northern and western lands of Men have tales of ‘sprites', ‘piskies', ‘brownies' and other diminutive creatures of wisdom, enchantment and malice. Indeed such creatures take many forms, and are given many names; and in many cases a confusion has obviously occurred between two or even three quite distinct races.