The Complete Tolkien Companion (76 page)

Yet the Uruk-hai were able to ignore the presence of the Sun, unlike all other Orcs, and they fought with swords which had straight blades, unlike the usual curved and jagged scimitars; and they displayed more tenacity and courage than ordinary Orcs, and were as a consequence worthier foes. Most of them perished at the Battle of the Hornburg (March, 3019 Third Age).

Orë
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘heart' or ‘inner mind'; also the title of Tengwa number 21, which represented the sound of (untrilled)
r
in those languages which required it.

Orfalch Echor
– The name given by Elves of Gondolin to the narrow and secret pass through the Encircling Mountains, the hidden gate of their land. It was guarded at one end by a tunnel, and by the hidden door to the world outside, and throughout its length by seven more guarded gates, each of which had to be passed before the traveller at length passed out of the Orfalch and beheld, far off across the valley, the city of Turgon.

Orgaladh
‘Tree-day' – The Sindarin form of
Aldëa
(Q.), the name given by the Númenoreans to the fourth day of the week. The name
Orgaladh
was used only by the Dúnedain of Middle-earth, direct descendants of the Númenoreans. Most other folk of Middle-earth who used the Dúnedain calendar-systems retained the original (Quenya) names for the months and days; although the Hobbits used translated forms of these names. Thus their name for
Aldëa
or
Orgaladh
was
Trewesdei
(later
Trewsday
).

Orgaladhad
‘Trees'-day' (Sind.) – The Grey-elves' name for the fourth day of the Eldarin six-day week. Its High-elven equivalent was
Aldúya,
the name originally given in honour of the Two Trees of Valinor. In the later, Mannish system of Kings' Reckoning the Númenoreans created a seven-day week and the name
Aldúya
was replaced by
Aldëa,
‘Tree-day' – in reference to the (single) White Tree of the High-elves, of which a descendant, Nimloth, grew in the King's Court in Númenor.
Orgaladh
(‘Tree-day') was therefore the Sindarin word for the fourth day of the Mannish week, while the plural form
Orgaladhad
referred only to the same day in the Elvish week.
See also
previous entry.

Orgilion
‘Stars'-day' (Sind.) – The name given by the Grey-elves and the Dúnedain of Middle-earth to the first day of their respective weeks – the six-day week of the Eldar and the seven-day week of the Kings', Stewards' and New Reckonings used by the Dúnedain and many other folk of western Middle-earth. Its High-elven form was
Elenya;
the Hobbits' name was
Sterrendei
(later
Sterday
).

Ori
– A Dwarf of Erebor, one of the twelve companions of Thorin Oakenshield on the famous expedition of 2941 Third Age. After the successful conclusion of that mission, Ori lived for many years in peace and honour in the Lonely Mountain until, in the year 2989 he joined Balin's fated expedition to Moria. It was Ori's hand which recorded (in the famous Book of Mazarbul) the last days of the doomed colony some five years later. He fell defending the Chamber of Mazarbul and Balin's tomb, one of the last to perish.

Orithil
‘Moon's-day' (Sind.) – The name used by the Grey-elves and the Dúnedain of Middle-earth for the third day of both the (six-day) Eldarin and the (seven-day) Númenorean week. The High-elven equivalent – also used by most of the Westron-speaking peoples of Middle-earth – was
Isilya.
The Hobbits' (translated) name for it was
Monendei
(later
Monday
).

Orkish Tongues
–
See
BLACK SPEECH
.

Orleg
– A member of Túrin's outlaw band, slain by Orcs.

Ormal
–
See
ILLUIN
.

Ormenel
‘Heavens'-day' (Sind.) – The fourth day of the week in both the Elvish and Mannish usage, equivalent to
Menelya
(Q.).
Ormenel
was used by the Grey-elves and by the Dúnedain of Middle-earth, while the Quenya name was used by the High-elves, the Númenoreans of the Second Age, and most of the Westron-speaking peoples of the Third Age. The Hobbits used a translated form,
Hevenesdei
(later
Hevensday
or
Hensday
).

Ornendil
– The first son of Eldacar II, twenty-first King of Gondor. Civil war broke out in Gondor on Eldacar's ascension to the throne in 1432 Third Age, and eventually the rebels, led by Castamir the Usurper, gained the upper hand. For several years they besieged Osgiliath, the capital, and in 1437 finally captured it. Although Eldacar managed to escape, his son was taken by the rebels and, at the orders of Castamir, executed. His father later avenged him.

See also
KIN-STRIFE
.

Orocarni
–
See
MOUNTAINS OF THE EAST
.

Orod-na-Thôn
‘Pine-mountain' (Sind.) –
See
DORTHONION
.

Orodreth
– The second of the four sons of Finarfin; together with his brothers and sister (Galadriel) he came back to Middle-earth in exile during the First Age, and fought in the earlier battles against Morgoth. For the first four centuries of his exile, Orodreth was Finrod's warden, in the tower of Tol Sirion which the sons of Finarfin – under Finrod's leadership – had built; but at the Dagor Bragollach, and in the months afterwards, this tower came under siege, and it was captured by Sauron, and then Orodreth fled from the North and joined Finrod in Nargothrond (as did some other Elven-princes of those days). And when Finrod departed into the North with Beren, never to return, Orodreth succeeded him as King of Nargothrond.

Orodreth had one daughter, Finduilas, born in Nargothrond. She, formerly the betrothed of Gwindor son of Guilin, fell in love with Túrin of the Edain, when that warrior came to her father's city in the years following the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (at which Orodreth had not been present). But it was by the coming of Túrin that Nargothrond's fate was sealed. Bold and stirring though his leadership was (Orodreth virtually abdicated the generalship of the armies of Nargothrond to Túrin during this time), his counsels proved not all wise, and in the end he led the Elven-hosts to destruction, upon Tumhalad. There Orodreth was slain in battle. Finduilas, taken prisoner by the Orcs, was slain shortly afterwards. Túrin alone survived.

Also the name taken by one of the Dúnedain: the sixteenth (from 2655–85 Third Age) Ruling Steward of Gondor.

Orodruin
‘Burning Mountain' (Sind.) – The ancient name for the greatest active volcano in western Middle-earth, which thrust its smoking cone almost vertically up from the very centre of the plain of Gorgoroth in Mordor. The ‘Fire-mountain' was the heart of the ancient realm of Sauron the Great, and the forge of his might; there he made the Ruling Ring during the middle of the Second Age.

Indeed, the existence of the volcano – thought to be a relic of Morgoth's early destructive activities in Middle-earth
6
– was undoubtedly a deciding factor when Sauron originally chose Mordor to be his stronghold (
c.
1000 Second Age). To the east of the Mountain, upon a lofty spur of the Ered Lithui, he raised the Dark Tower; and a road he made from the Barad-dûr to the volcano, thrusting straight across the smoking plain to ascend the mountain's side in a great spiral. In the side of the cone he delved great chambers, the
Sammath Naur,
‘Chambers of Fire', and thereby gained access to the eternal fires which burned at Orodruin's heart.

But after his initial domination over the Westlands, during the Accursed Years, Sauron was finally defeated and taken prisoner by Ar-Pharazôn of Númenor in the late Second Age, and in his absence the Fire-mountain became once more dormant. Nonetheless, before the Age had passed he returned to wreak vengeance upon the Dúnedain survivors of Númenor, and then Orodruin erupted once more, and was renamed in Gondor
Amon Amarth,
‘Mount Doom'. It was afterwards known by this later name.

Orofarnë
–
See
‘
O OROFARNË, LASSEMISTA, CARNIMÍRIË
!'

Oromë the Great
– The Huntsman of the Valar, one of the seven ‘High Ones' (Aratar) of Arda, ‘who alone of the Valar came often to Middle-earth in the Elder Days'; the Rider of the horse Nahar, and bearer of the great horn Valaróma; and first master of the Hound Huan. He is called by the Calaquendi
Oromë
(which may be onomatopoeically derived, meaning ‘blowing of horns'), and by the Grey-elves
ARAW
.

During the First Age Oromë came many times to Middle-earth, and pursued the evil creatures of Morgoth to the death – for sport – and so he was the first of all the Valar to encounter the Firstborn Children of Eru. At this time they named him
Tauron
and
Aldaron,
for they deemed (rightly) that the Huntsman was also a lover of trees. It was he who bore three of their kings away to Valinor, so that they might see the Light which shone there with their own eyes, and so persuade their people to make the Great Journey; and afterwards Oromë himself led his first stage of the march from the East, as far as Beleriand. After that time he came to Middle-earth only as a member of the Host of the Valar.

Oromë's spouse was Vána the sister of Yavanna. His own sister Nessa was the spouse of Tulkas.

Oromet
– A hill of the province of Andúnië in Númenor. Upon this hill stood a tower which gazed into the West; it had been built by Tar-Minastir, who sent a force to the aid of Gil-galad.

Oropher
– One of the Sindarin princes who emigrated eastwards after the Fall of Morgoth to rule forest-realms of their own. He was King in the north of Greenwood the Great until the end of the Second Age, when he led a conjoint force of Wood-elves of his realm and a smaller contingent from Lórien, led by Amdir, to the Battle of Dagorlad. The Wood-elves suffered severely at this great battle and few of them ever returned to the forests. Oropher was slain; his son Thranduil survived and became King of the Woodland Realm in the Third Age.

Orophin
– A Wood-elf of Lothlórien who, together with his brothers Haldir and Rúmil and other Elves, guarded the western borders of that land at the time of the War of the Ring.

Orrostar
‘Eastlands' (Q.) – The easternmost cape-province of Númenor. It was the granary of the realm.
7

Orthanc
‘Mount-fang' [literally ‘Forked Height'] (Sind.) – The Tower of Isengard, built by Men of Gondor shortly after the founding of the Realms in Exile at the end of the Second Age. It stood within the Ring of Angrenost, and was constructed from four pinnacles of hard, glossy black stone, welded into a single tower five hundred feet high. Just below the summit, these pinnacles ‘opened into gaping horns … sharp as the points of spears, keen-edged as knives. Between them was a narrow space … and a floor of polished stone, written with strange signs'.
8

For many years after its completion the fortress of Angrenost with its impregnable Tower remained useful to Gondor; but by the middle years of the Third Age the South-kingdom of the Dúnedain had withdrawn its forces from an area so far north, and for many centuries the Tower remained locked while the Ring of Angrenost fell into disrepair. Yet secreted somewhere within Orthanc still remained one of the
palantíri
(Seeing-stones) of the South-kingdom, and it was the lure of the Stone which attracted Saruman the Wizard – who, by the closing years of the Age, was actively seeking independent power in Middle-earth. As is told elsewhere (
see
ISENGARD
), in the year 2953 Saruman came to Rohan and made friendly overtures to the King of that land – and to Beren, Ruling Steward of Gondor, desiring that the custodianship of the fortress be given up to him. In need of a strong ally in this important strategic position, Beren gave Saruman the keys of Orthanc, which the Wizard then occupied.

In this way Saruman gained possession of one of the most powerful fortresses in Middle-earth. After much seeking he discovered the missing Palantír, and armed with this invaluable device he at once began to extend the web of his plots. Little by little he altered and strengthened Isengard, while secretly taking many evil creatures into his service. So it was that when the Ruling Ring of Sauron was once more discovered, Saruman turned the power of Orthanc against the Free Peoples in an attempt to seize the Ring for himself. In this he was unsuccessful: his armies were destroyed, his fortress-walls were torn down by the vengeful Ent-folk and he himself was expelled from the Order of Wizards and from the Tower of Orthanc, which then reverted to its rightful ownership.