The Complete Tolkien Companion (54 page)

Kheled-zâram was shaped like a great spear-head, with its point thrust deep into the north of the mountain-spur which curved east and south to embrace the Vale. At its northern end, near the ‘gore', one of the main passes across the mountains, the Dimrill Stair, descended beside the cascading waterfall which fed the lake.

Khîm
– One of the ‘Lesser-Dwarves' (the
Noegyth Nibin
) of Amon Rûdh; he was a son of
MÎM
. Khîm was slain by a member of the outlaw band then led by Túrin Turambar.

Khuzdul
‘The-Speech-of-the-Khazâd' (Khuz.) – A secret tongue of great age which the Dwarves revealed to no one (apart from a few battle-cries and place names which became generally known). It was not a language of everyday congress between Dwarves, being rather a tongue of lore, a memory of their ancient past; and, like the Quenya (High-elven) speech, it was preserved lovingly as a prized treasure, guarded from changefulness.

To the ears of the Elves – the first of the ‘speaking-peoples' and the race with the most natural skill in such matters – Dwarvish speech seemed somewhat guttural. Indeed, the few examples of Khuzdul recorded in the Red Book reveal a strong Dwarvish predilection for spirants and glottal stops which doubtless affected the Dwarves' pronunciation of Elvish and Mannish languages (and may even have affected some Mannish languages in return). Conversely, Elves never learned the Dwarvish tongue, though on one or two occasions they incorporated into their lexicon Sindarin (phonetic) approximations of Khuzdul sounds.

Note:
because of the secrecy surrounding Khuzdul, the Dwarves normally spoke the languages common to those lands in which they lived and travelled. The Dwarves of Erebor, for example, regularly used the tongues of Northern Men; all the personal names for Dwarves found in the Red Book derive from the language of the Men of Dale.

Kibil-nâla
– In Khuzdul (the Dwarvish speech), the name given to the icy-cold source of the river Silverlode, rising from a natural well in the Vale of Azanulbizar.

Kíli
–
See
FÍLI AND KÍLI
.

Kine of Araw
– As late as the Third Age, large white, horned cattle were often to be found in the lands near the shores of the Inland Sea. They were wild, noble animals, greatly prized as beasts of the Chase. Indeed, their forebears were said to be the legendary Kine of Araw, who was the Huntsman of the Valar. (
Oromë
is the Quenya form of his name.) For it was believed that far back in the Elder Days he had brought such beasts from across the Sea. (The horses of Éothéod – or, more particularly, the Mearas, Princes of Horses – were also thought to be descended from animals brought to Middle-earth by Araw.)

King of the Sea
–
ULMO
.

Kingsfoil
– The name given among rustic folk of Gondor to the healing herb
Athelas.

King's Men
– The name given to their own party by the larger of the two Númenorean political factions: the group opposed to the Eldar and the Valar. The smaller faction, destined eventually to lose all influence in Númenor, were the
FAITHFUL
(as they called themselves).

Kings' Norbury
– The name given in the Common Speech to
Fornost Erain
(literally, ‘Northern-fortress of the Kings'), the capital of Arthedain from 860–1974 Third Age. After it became desolate the ruins there were known as ‘Deadmen's Dike' – especially in Bree, only one hundred miles to the south.

Kings-of-Men
– In the lore of the exiled Men of Westernesse, the title applied by the Dúnedain to their own race, for they reckoned all Men as follows: High (the Men of the West, i.e. the Dúnedain themselves), Middle (the ‘Men of Twilight' such as the Rohirrim and other Northern Men), and Wild (meaning the ‘Men of Darkness', such as the degenerate Dunlendings).

From the very founding of their realms-in-exile, at the closing of the Second Age, it was an overriding concern of the Dúnedain to preserve the ancient Line of Númenor – and eventually this obsession, fervently pursued in Gondor, brought about a civil war which came near to destroying the very inheritance it was meant to protect (
see
KIN-STRIFE
).

Later, many of the noble Dúnedain were forced by circumstance to ‘dilute' their blood with that of lesser Men. However, it was long before this produced any discernible deterioration or lessening of life span – indeed, for a while the influx of fresh vigour greatly benefited the race of Númenor.

Kings' Reckoning
– The Calendar of the Dúnedain, largely derived from the far more ancient reckoning-system of the Elves (
see
CALENDAR OF IMLADRIS
).

Originally developed by the Dúnedain of Númenor after the creation of their realm at the opening of the Second Age, Kings' Reckoning was subsequently brought back to Middle-earth at the closing of the Age, by the surviving remnant of the Dúnedain who founded the realms-in-exile of Arnor and Gondor. From there it gradually spread throughout the Westlands until, by the latter part of the Third Age, a modified version of this system had been adopted by almost all folk who used the Westron, or Common Speech.

The Elves of Middle-earth, who devised the first forms of calendar computation, seem to have based them primarily upon observed cycles of growth; and even their larger and smaller divisions of time were clearly chosen for ritual (as opposed to practical) reasons. Such a system – in which an Elvish ‘year' or
yen
equalled 144 mortal years – was obviously unsuitable for Men; accordingly, the early Númenoreans devised a Calendar which, though deeply influenced by the Elvish system, was scaled more precisely to their own needs. Thus they eventually produced a workable system with significant alterations to the older computation of annual, seasonal, weekly and even daily cycles.

To begin with, they adopted the annual Eldarin cycle of 365 days, the
loa
(‘growth'), though they retained the venerable Mannish custom of commencing this at Yule, or mid-winter (the Elves began their cycle at the opening of spring). The Númenoreans also abandoned two of the six Elvish ‘seasons' (‘fading' and ‘stirring'), preferring to recognise only four: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In contrast to the Elven ‘seasons' these were of unfixed length and merely indicated discernible (to mortals) changes in temperature, length of day, and vegetation.

More significantly, the Dúnedain – desiring a simpler method of metering their 365-day year – redivided the
loa
into twelve months (
astar
) of nearly equal length (ten of 30 days and two of 31). The five special Eldarin days which belonged to no season were reduced to three and redistributed, and various accumulated deficits were adjusted at intervals. Later they added one day (
Eärenya
‘Sea-day') to the six-day Elvish
enquië
to produce a seven-day week; and at some time they also began reckoning the span of a day as being from sunrise to sunrise, rather than sunset to sunset, as the Elves did.

It was in this basic form that the system of Kings' Reckoning was observed by the Men of Westernesse during most of the Second Age. Naturally, their reverence for the Elves had led them to study the ancient Quenya tongue, and this they used for all season-, month- and day-names. (The Elves themselves, having no use for months, presumably never learned the names the Númenoreans gave to these, even though they were in their own Ancient Speech.)

The surviving Dúnedain of Númenor brought their Calendar back to Middle-earth after the Downfall (in 3319 Second Age). For the first two thousand years of the Númenorean realms-in-exile, the Kings' Reckoning was left virtually unchanged in both Arnor and Gondor; then the dwindling North-kingdom fell at last, and shortly afterwards Gondor's last King perished. Subsequently, in the year 2060 Third Age, Mardil the Good Steward introduced a revised Calendar. This was termed Stewards' Reckoning, although it was in reality mainly the old Númenorean system with the accumulated deficits of 5500 years re-adjusted. It was in this form that the Calendar was eventually adopted by most of the other Westron-speaking peoples of Middle-earth. (Curiously enough, many of these Westron-speakers used the
Quenya
names which the Dúnedain of Númenor had originally given to their months and incorporated for their seasons and days, whereas the Dúnedain themselves actually used the Sindarin equivalents for these.)

In any event, while almost all the other Westron-speaking folk adopted Stewards' Reckoning – and ultimately
New Reckoning
– only the Hobbits preserved the unrevised Kings' Reckoning, which they had taken up some time before settling the Shire, before the North-kingdom fell. The Hobbits' natural insularity preserved the ancient Númenorean system, which they modified only slightly, most notably in their numbering of years; thus the date when the Hobbits first crossed into the Shire, 1601 Third Age, was accounted Year One in their
SHIRE RECKONING
. Apart from a few minor innovations, the only other difference between Kings' and Shire Reckoning was in the calendar names which the Hobbits gradually evolved in place of the original Quenya names preserved elsewhere.

King Under the Mountain
– The title borne by the ruler of Erebor in northern Wilderland, last mansion of the Dwarves of Durin's Line in the Third Age. The Lord of Erebor was habitually addressed as ‘King Under the Mountain', although the influence – if not the rule – of the Dwarves also extended over the valleys and nearby lands.

Kinslaying at Alqualondë
– The first and most evil of all the deeds committed by the rebelling Noldor; this act more than all others set the rebellion beyond the pale of forgiveness, and ultimately brought about the downfall of its perpetrators, of whom Fëanor was the chief. It was the fatal blow and (some have said) a greater evil than the poisoning of the Two Trees.

The two kindreds involved were the Noldor, led by Fëanor, and the Falmari, the ‘Sea-elves' of Alqualondë – their city and haven on the northern shores of the Bay of Eldamar – whose King was Olwë. Fëanor, hastening north at the head of the fleeing Noldor, desired to use the ships of the Sea-elves to transport his host to Middle-earth; also he desired to enrol the Falmari in his rebellion. But Olwë refused both, so Fëanor attempted to take the ships by force from the quaysides of Alqualondë where they were moored. There followed a fight with the Sea-elves, and before long the Noldor had drawn their new-forged swords, and had begun to kill. The Falmari, now reinforced from the city, still fought on, but Noldor of other Houses now rushed forward to join in the battle, for they were still unaware that it had been Fëanor who had opened the hostilities; and with their added strength Fëanor prevailed over the mariners of Olwë. Many of these were slain; and not a few of the Noldor. Fëanor then seized the ships – and shortly afterwards betrayed even his own allies by sailing back to Middle-earth with his own host, and then destroying the ships.

For this deed the Noldor were cursed by the Valar; and they forfeited whatever chance they might have had of gaining the friendship of Elwë Thingol, King of Beleriand, for Thingol was the brother of Olwë. The Noldor themselves had been bitterly divided over the Kinslaying ever since the truth about its cause had become known. Thus were the Noldor sundered from the Sindar, and from each other: to the clear profit of Morgoth. And the Kinslaying at Alqualondë was not the last time that Elves would slay Elves, though it was the last time in Aman.

Kin-strife
– The great Civil War of Gondor, which raged intermittently from 1432–48 Third Age, nearly destroying the South-kingdom of the Dúnedain and immeasurably weakening its internal resources. Among the immediate effects were the depopulation of whole provinces and the diminished respect in which Gondor was held by her traditional foes. More importantly, the ill-will engendered by the Kin-strife lingered between its factions long afterwards and played a part in the final extinction of the ruling Line of Anárion. And though Gondor was to regain her military strength in later years, she was never again able to rekindle the founding spirit inherited from Númenor.

And yet the origins of the civil war lay far back in the Númenoreans' own innate sense of their special destiny, and in the great (and justified) pride taken in their ancient lineage. Indeed, the Númenorean Kings were directly descended from the High-elves and from the heroic chieftains of the Edain of the First Age (through their first King, Elros Tar-Minyatur, son of Eärendil the Mariner). So the preservation of this blood-line undiffused by lesser stock became a severely maintained dictum in Númenor. The Kings of Gondor, directly descended from the early Númenorean rulers, but dwelling in the lesser lands of Middle-earth, naturally strove to maintain their incomparable lineage untainted. And although for over a thousand years the blood of Elendil remained unmingled, nevertheless, by the time of the twentieth King, Valacar, the Line of Anárion had been ‘diminished' in the eyes of many.

Valacar's father was the great warrior-king Romendacil II, who had overwhelmed a vast horde of Easterlings with the aid of the Men of Rhovanion, welcome allies of Gondor. Partly in token of this, he sent his son to dwell for a while with the nobles of Rhovanion. But Valacar came under the spell of this fair Northern race and eventually married his host's daughter. From their union came Eldacar (called Vinitharya in the land of his birth). As is told elsewhere,
2
this union of the Heir to the Throne and a lady of ‘lesser' race caused great friction in the South-kingdom. Therefore, by the time Valacar died and Eldacar became King (in 1432 Third Age), there was already open rebellion in many places.