The Complete Tolkien Companion (55 page)

Unfortunately for the King, the growing number of those opposed to him had the support of Gondor's invincible navy, battle-tested but idle at Pelargir for some time. Indeed, the Captain of the Fleets later emerged as the leader of the rebels; this was
CASTAMIR THE USURPER
, a cousin of the King, who had easily gained the support of the people of Pelargir and the coastal provinces. Eldacar opposed this confederacy as far as he could, but was forced to take refuge in Osgiliath, where he was later besieged and finally driven out in the year 1437. He then escaped into the North, to take sanctuary in the land of his mother's people.

As might have been expected, the new ‘King' proved unwise and arbitrary, cruel and vindictive. It was not long before the very people who had originally supported his faction perceived their error in elevating such a man to the Throne. Indeed, after a mere ten years of Castamir's rule, Eldacar was able to return to Gondor – with an army which rapidly increased in number each day that he marched south. He met the Usurper at the Crossings of Erui (1447 Third Age). Castamir was then defeated and slain by Eldacar, who thus avenged the death of his elder son Ornendil, put to death by Castamir ten years before. But the Usurper's own sons and near kin escaped to Pelargir, where the Fleets still remained loyal to the rebels. The following year they departed to Umbar, where they established an independent lordship at permanent feud with Gondor.

To repopulate the devastated areas of his kingdom, Eldacar brought south many of the Northmen who had given him sanctuary. Contrary to the old fears, this did not instantly bring about the dwindling of the ‘Kings-of-Men'. Eldacar himself lived to be 235 years old and was succeeded by his second son Aldamir in 1490.

Kiril
–
See
CIRIL
.

Kirinki
– Small scarlet-feathered birds of Númenor.

Kirith Ungol
–
See
CIRITH UNGOL
.

Kûd-dûkan
– In the original – as opposed to translated – speech of Northern Men, this conjoined word meant ‘hole-dweller'. It has been translated from the Red Book as
holbytla
(pl.
holbytlan
), of which the diminished form,
hobbit,
is meant to represent
kuduk
(apparently the diminished form of
kûd-dûkan
).

See
the Note at the end of Appendix F for a fuller explanation of the system of ‘rendition' used in translating proper names from the Red Book.

Labadal
‘Hopafoot' (Sind.) – Túrin's pet-name for the crippled family retainer
SADOR
. It was not given in malice and not resented by Sador.

Ladros
‘Fortified-plain' (Sind.) – The name given by the Eldar and the Edain to the extreme north-eastern region of Dorthonion; a broad, shallow valley which opened on to the northern grassland and provided a natural route of access from the North into the highlands. Ladros was therefore of immense strategic importance to the Eldar, forming as it did a weakness in the wall of the Siege. Accordingly, Angrod and Aegnor, the two youngest sons of Finarfin, who dwelt in Dorthonion, were more than happy to grant this ‘front-line' region to a House of Men, newly-come to Beleriand: the First House, descendants of Bëor the Old. The first Lord of Ladros was Boromir, grandson of Bëor.

For over a century the Edain held Ladros in alliance with the Eldar, but in the Year of the Sun 455 war again broke out in the North and for the first time the Edain felt the power of Angband. The Lord of Ladros, Bregolas the grandson of Boromir, was slain (together with Angrod and Aegnor of the High-elves) and the Orcs poured into Dorthonion.

Ladybarrow
– An approximate translation of the Sindarin phrase
Haudh-en-Arwen
(‘Mound-of-the-Maiden-Queen'), the Grey-elven name for the burial-barrow or tumulus wherein lay Haleth, first chieftain of the Haladin. It stood in the Forest of Brethil. The name in the tongue of the Haladin was
Tûr Haretha
(‘Haleth's Mound').

Laer
–
See
LAIRË
below.

Laer Cú Beleg
‘The Song of the Great Bow' (Sind.) – The title given by Túrin Turambar to the Lament made by him in memory of his slain friend, the Elf-warrior Beleg Cúthalion of Doriath.

Lairë
‘Summer' (Q.) – The name of the second of the six Elvish ‘seasons', and the second of the four observed in Kings' Reckoning and later systems used by Westron-speaking peoples. The Sindarin form of this word was
laer.

Lairelossë
‘Summer-snow-white' (Q.) – One of the
FRAGRANT TREES
of Númenor.

Lake Helevorn
–
See
HELEVORN
.

Lake Nurnen
–
See
NURN, NURNEN
.

Lake-town
– The town of
ESGAROTH
on the Long Lake in the north of Wilderland.

Lalaith
‘Laughter' (Sind.) – The pet-name given by Húrin and Morwen of Dor-lómin to their first-born daughter, Urwen, the younger sister of Túrin their son; she died in infancy from an evil plague that came out of Angband. Morwen afterwards bore another daughter, Nienor.

Lambë
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘tongue'; also the title of Tengwa number 27, which represented the value of the sound
l.

Lamedon
– A province of Gondor which nestled in the protective embrace of the White Mountains, between the river Ringló and the pass of Tarlang's Neck. Its chief settlement was the small town of Calembel, on a hill overlooking the Fords of Ciril (or Kiril), the principal river of the province.

Lammoth ‘
The Great Echo' (Sind.) – A cold waste which lay to the west of the Ered Lómin, between mountains and sea-coast. As its name implies, it was a region where a single shout or cry awoke tumultuous echoes from the rocky countryside. According to Elvish tradition, these were the echoes of the voice of Morgoth, for it was in Lammoth that he was said to have been attacked by Ungoliant, and to have cried for help so loudly that the terrible sound of his voice became imprinted for ever in the stone.

Lamps of the Valar
–
See
ILLUIN
.

Lampwrights' Street
– A Westron translation of the Sindarin name
Rath Celerdain.
It was a busy thoroughfare in the city of Minas Tirith, encircling completely the first level and leading eventually to the Great Gate in the East Wall. The chief inns of Minas Tirith were to be found there.

Land of Mist
– A translation of the Quenya name
Hisilómë
(Sindarin
HITHLUM
).

Land of Seven Rivers
– A translation of the Grey-elves' name for the country between Gelion and the Blue Mountains:
OSSIRIAND
. The Noldor knew this land as Lindon.

Land of Shadow
– A Third Age epithet for Mordor.

Land of the Dead That Live
– A translation of
DOR FIRN-I-GUINAR
(Sind.).

Land of the Girdle
– Doriath.
See
GIRDLE OF MELIAN
.

Land of the Star
– Númenor. Although the Kings of that Realm had no crown, they sometimes wore a diadem made of a plain silver band with a single glittering star on the brow. This represented both the Star of Eärendil – which had guided the Edain to their far western island at its founding – and the original name of Númenor itself,
Elenna
‘Star-wards' (Q.).

Land of Willows
–
NAN-TASARION
(
Nan-tathren
).

Landroval
– A Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains; the brother of Gwaihir the Windlord, who, at the time of the War of the Ring, was himself the mightiest and swiftest of all the Eagle-lords.

Langflood
–
See
LANGWELL
below.

Langstrand
‘Long-shore' – A Mannish rendering of the Grey-elven word
Anfalas.

Langwell
– The name given by the Men of Éothéod to a river that flowed east from the Misty Mountains and in due course became one of the sources of the Anduin. After its junction with the Greylin (another source) it was called the Langflood.

Lanthir Lamath
‘Echoing Cataract' (Sind.) – The house in Ossiriand of
DIOR ELUCHÍL
, near a waterfall of the same name.

Lár
– The Númenorean league (slightly under three miles).

Largo Baggins
– The third son of Balbo Baggins and the greatgrandfather of Frodo.

Lasse-lanta
‘Leaf-fall' (Q.) – An alternative name for
quellë
(‘fading'), the fourth season in the Calendar of Imladris; this term was also used in
KINGS' RECKONING
. In Elvish usage, this season had 54 days and was especially evocative to the Eldar. The Grey-elven name was
narbeleth
(‘sun-waning').

Lassemista
‘Leaf-of-[shadowy]-Silver' (Q.) – A tree-name in the ancient Elven High-speech, used by the ‘young' Ent Bregalad when mourning the untimely slaughter of many of his friends: the rowan-trees of Fangorn Forest.

Last Alliance
– The name given among Elves and Men to the Confederacy of the two Peoples which waged war against Sauron the Great from 3430–41 Second Age, overthrowing him and laying his first Realm in ruins. But though losses were heavy, and Gil-galad of the Elves and Elendil of the Dúnedain were both killed, the victory thus dearly purchased was, in the end, made fruitless by the survival of Sauron's Ruling Ring; and so the Dark Lord was able to grow and take shape once more. In a sense, therefore, the War of the Ring was the final act of the Last Alliance – formed a full Age earlier – and its purpose was the completion of the same task.

The Alliance itself, between Elves of Lindon and Dúnedain of Gondor and Arnor, was formed in the year 3430, as a result of war which had broken out a year earlier, when Sauron of Mordor – whom all believed had perished in the ruin of drowned Númenor – unleashed a fierce and sudden attack upon the South-kingdom of the Dúnedain. Fortunately, his own strength had been diminished during the years of his captivity (in Númenor); while the Dúnedain Realms in Exile had been granted over a century in which to take root. Nonetheless the first success was Sauron's: in 3429 he came over the Pass of Cirith Ungol and took Isildur's city of Minas Ithil; he burned the White Tree and then pressed forward to Osgiliath. But Isildur escaped the sack of his city and fled down the Anduin to the Sea, spreading the alarm as he went; for all guessed that this was Sauron's last stroke against Númenor. Most of the folk of the coastal provinces flooded to the aid of Isildur's brother Anárion, who was defending the bridges of Osgiliath and his own city of Minas Anor, while Isildur himself journeyed by ship to the North, to his father Elendil.

It soon became apparent that the Dúnedain alone were too few to make an end of the Dark Lord. The might of Númenor had nearly achieved it in the past, but that power now lay under the Sea (at Sauron's contrivance) and allies must needs be sought elsewhere. Accordingly, Elendil turned to Gil-galad, High-elven King of Lindon and an ancient enemy of Sauron's. One can be sure that Elendil had no need to remind the Elven-king of the aid afforded the Elves of Lindon by the Dúnedain long before (
see
MINASTIR
); indeed, there was an ancient and honourable tradition of friendship and alliance between the Eldar and the Edain which reached back more than an Age of the world and had not altogether been eroded by the later heresies of the Númenorean Kings. So Gil-galad agreed to join with Elendil, the Last Alliance of Elves and Men was forged, and the following year (3431), the combined hosts of Lindon and Arnor began to be mustered in Eriador. Three years later this Army crossed the Misty Mountains into Wilderland and marched south.