The Complete Tolkien Companion (92 page)

The chronologies also include plentiful information supplied by Meriadoc Brandybuck, who kept in close touch with Rohan and as a consequence came to learn much of the history of the House of Eorl. Meriadoc also visited Rivendell on several occasions, and doubtless it was from the libraries of Rivendell that many of the (largely conjectural) dates for the Second Age were derived; for in Rivendell, even after the departure of Elrond, there were many Elves whose memories reached back into those distant times.

Taniquelassë
– One of the
FRAGRANT TREES
of Númenor.

Taniquetil
‘High-white-peak' (Q.) – One of the oldest names given by High-elves of Eldamar to that mountain known as
Oiolossë.

Tar-
‘High [Royal]' (Q. from orig.
tara,
‘lofty'; fem.
tari
) – An ancient word-element in the High-elven tongue which was used as a royal name-prefix by all Kings and Queens of Númenor, excepting Vardamir (son of Elros) and five of the last six rulers who took Adûnaic – Ar-prefixed – names. It also occurs in the High-elven form of the (Sindarin) name
Elbereth:
Elentári
‘Star-queen'; it may likewise be found in many of the royal names adopted by rulers of Arnor and Gondor (e.g. Atanatar, Tarcil, Tarondor, Tarannon, Envinyatar), and in many other names besides.

See also
AR
(
A
).

Tarannon
‘Royal-gate' (Q. +Sind.) – The birth-name of the twelfth King of Gondor, later known as
Falastur,
‘Lord-of-the-Coasts'.

Taras
– The westernmost of all the mountains of Middle-earth during the First Age. It was a promontory in the south-west of Nevrast, and looked over the Sea. On its slopes Turgon of the Noldor built his first dwelling in Middle-earth, the sea-facing halls of Vinyamar.

Tarcil
– From 435–515 Third Age, the sixth King of Arnor.

Tarciryan
‘Royal-ships' (Q.) – The younger brother of Tarannon (Falastur), who was twelfth King of Gondor and first of the fabled ‘Ship-kings'. Falastur was the first ruler of Gondor to die childless, and Tarciryan's eldest son succeeded him (as Eärnil I).

Targon
‘Royal-stone' (Sind.) – A Man of Gondor. During the War of the Ring he was a member of the Third Company of the Citadel Guard of Minas Tirith, in charge of the butteries and storehouses of that Company.

Tárion
(Q.) – An alternative name for
Valanya,
the sixth and last day of the week in the Elvish Calendar of Imladris, and the seventh and last in the Kings' Reckoning of Númenor and Middle-earth.

Tarkil
– The original (as opposed to translated) name given in the Common Speech (the Westron) to a member of the race of Gondor. It appears to be a worn-down form of the Quenya word
Tarcil.
The epithet
tark,
used by some tribes of Orcs to mean a Man of Gondor, was doubtless a further debased version of
tarkil.

Tarlang's Neck
– A narrow pass through a southern spur of the White Mountains, which opened the way from Morthond Vale to the province of Lamedon.

Tarmasundar
‘Roots of the Pillar' (Q.) – The five ridges which were extensions of the mountain Meneltarma in Númenor.

Tarmenel
‘King-of-the-Heavens' (Q.) – An Elvish poetic reference, possibly a term for Oiolossë, the highest of the Mountains of Valinor (the Pelóri). If this is so, then it may be assumed that the Meneltarma, highest mountain in Númenor, was named after this greater peak, as it bears a (subtly diminished) form of the same name.

Tarn Aeluin
‘Blue-mere' (Sind.) – The name given by the Grey-elves and the Edain to a small lake in the centre of the Dorthonion highland, at the entrance of the shallow pass which led to Ladros. This name was remembered by the Edain for its associations with Barahir, and his twelve comrades, who based their guerrilla activities around this desolate place in the three years following the Dagor Bragollach.

Tarondor
– From 515–602 Third Age, the seventh King of Arnor. Also the name of the twenty-seventh King of Gondor who ruled from 1636–1798 Third Age, longest to reign of all the Line of Anárion. He succeeded his uncle Telemnar, twenty-sixth King, who was slain, together with all his children, in the Great Plague of 1636 Third Age; and to Tarondor fell the arduous task of reordering the Realm. As many folk had fled from Osgiliath – which had been particularly ravaged by the pestilence – he removed the King's Seat to Minas Anor, where he planted a seedling of the White Tree to replace that which had died during the Plague.

Tarostar
‘Royal-forts' (Q.) – The birth-name of the eighth King of Gondor, later known as Rómendacil I.

Tasarinan
–
See
NAN-TASARION
.

Taurelilómëa, Tauremorna, Tauremornalómë
‘Forest-many-shadowed, Forest-of-darkness, Forest-black-shadowed' (Q.) – Three somewhat discouraging terms for the ancient Forest of Fangorn, used by Treebeard the Ent in various chants and songs. They are all High-elven in form but Entish in style.

Taur e-Ndaedelos
–
See
GREENWOOD THE GREAT
.

Taur-en-Faroth
‘Forest of the Hunters' (Sind.) – The name given in West Beleriand to the highlands which lay upon either side of the Narog, actually the westernmost outlier of the Andram. Deep underneath these tree-clad heights lay the caves of Nargothrond. Also called
High Faroth.

Taur-im-Duinath
‘Forest-between-the-rivers' (Sind.) – The name given by the Grey-elves of Beleriand to the great region of scrub and woodland, largely uninhabited except by individual wandering Wood-elves, which lay between the Bay of Balar and the lower reaches of the Gelion. The [two] rivers implied in the name are Gelion and Sirion.

Taur-na-Neldor
Forest-of-Beeches (Sind.) –
See
NELDORETH
.

Taur-nu-Fuin
‘Forest-under-Nightshade' (Sind.) –
See
DORTHONION
.

Tauron
‘The Forester' (Q.) – One of the earliest names among the Eldar for the Vala
OROMË THE GREAT
.

Tawarwaith
‘Wood-elves' (Sind.)

Ted Sandyman
– The only son of the Hobbiton Miller, and by all accounts a rather ignorant and narrow-minded Hobbit. He was not over-friendly to Samwise and, during the War of the Ring and the Occupation of the Shire, was easily persuaded to abet the agents of Saruman. His eventual fate was never recorded, although there can be little doubt that his later relations with local Hobbits were somewhat strained, to say the least.

Teeth of Mordor
– The Towers of the Teeth, Narchost and Carchost.

Tehta
(pl.
tehtar
) ‘Sign' (Q.) – The
tehtar
were an informalised series of diacritic marks used in the Fëanorian alphabet for many purposes, which differed according to the language or ‘mode' of writing employed. The Fëanorian Alphabet (the
TENGWAR
) was, of course, fully phonetic, and vowels were held to be merely modifications of consonants; these modifications were shown by using the
tehtar
in conjunction with the necessary consonantal symbols. Later these marks came to stand for certain consonantal combinations, guides to stress and pronunciation, and as abbreviations for whole words or elements.

Note:
for examples of the ‘full' Fëanorian writing (i.e. incorporating the
tehtar
vowel-substitutes)
see
inscriptions on the title-pages of
The Lord of the Rings
and
The Silmarillion,
and the second inscription under the entry
ALPHABET OF FËANOR
.

Teiglin
– One of the largest rivers of West Beleriand; it was a tributary of Sirion, rising from three sources in the southern slopes of Ered Wethrin. Like all the rivers of Beleriand, the Teiglin flowed southerly for many leagues before turning east, south of the Forest of Brethil, to join the Sirion. From source to confluence it was fifty leagues long. For the second half of its journey the Teiglin was a single great rapid, flowing through deep gorges called the Ravines of Teiglin. (The highest of these cliffs was
CABED-EN-ARAS
.)

Telchar
– A great Dwarf-smith of the First Age; he dwelled in the city of Nogrod in the Blue Mountains, most renowned of all the craftsmen of that city. He is chiefly remembered as the maker of the sword Narsil (Andúril) and the dagger Angrist, which Beren used to cut the Silmaril from the Iron Crown of Morgoth.

Telco
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘stem', but more properly the title of one of the two primary brush-strokes upon which most of the Fëanorian
Tengwar
(‘letters') were constructed. Each
telco
was vertical, and its size and position relative to the central line of the ‘stave' indicated the
tyelle
or ‘grade' of the letter, i.e. its phonetic series.
See also
LUVA
.

Telcontar
‘Strider' (Q.) – The dynastic name adopted by King Elessar (Aragorn II) after his accession to the Throne of the Reunited Kingdom in 3019 Third Age. Curiously, two of Aragorn's royal names –
Elessar
(‘Elf-stone') and Telcontar – were chosen for him in their original forms by folk later to become his subjects, which may explain his later reluctance to abandon either of them. Aragorn was also known as
Envinyatar,
‘The Renewer' (Q.).

Telemmaitë (Tar-Telemmaitë)
– From 2386–2526 Second Age, the fifteenth King of Númenor. With him the royal prerogative of surrendering the Sceptre to an Heir before death altogether ceased.

Telemnar
– From 1634–36 Third Age, the twenty-sixth King of Gondor. He died, together with all of his children and many of his people, when the Great Plague swept across Gondor in 1636. His successor, his nephew Tarondor, removed the royal seat from plague-stricken Osgiliath to Minas Anor.

Teleri
‘Hindmost' (Q.) – The name given by the first two kindreds of the ancient Eldar to the third of their peoples formerly known as
Lindar
‘the Singers', during the Great Journey from Cuiviénen to the Sea; for this Third Kindred of the Eldar were always last on the line of march. But they were also the largest of the Kindreds. From the Teleri came many subdivisions of the Eldar. For the Vanyar (the First Kindred) and the Noldor (the Second) held together in a body throughout the Journey, but the Teleri journeyed more slowly, frequently fragmenting – so that by the time the Noldor had returned to Middle-earth, three Ages later, the Teleri had long become diversified into three quite distinct peoples: the Falmari of Eldamar; the Sindar (or ‘Grey-elves') of Beleriand; and the Nandor of Wilderland and Eriador (with further subdivisions of the Sindar and the Nandor to reckon into the account). At the outset of the Great Journey none of these divisions had yet taken place. The Lindar were led in those early days by two lords, the brothers Elwë and Olwë. But almost from the first they lagged, for one reason or another, despite Elwë's impatience to return to the Far West (which he had already visited); and by the time the Host had reached Wilderland it had become dispersed along the line of march.

Hindmost of all was a large clan led by a certain Lenwë; these turned aside from the Journey while still east of the Misty Mountains, vanishing out of the affairs of the Eldar of Middle-earth and Eldamar. They were called
Nandor,
‘Those-who-turn-back'. (From them later came the
Laiquendi
or ‘Green-elves' of Ossiriand.) The second sundering of the Teleri came about in Beleriand. Having crossed the last mountain-range which lay between them and the Sea, the re-united Eldar of the Journey lingered for a while in this country, while their erstwhile Guide (the Vala Oromë) passed across the Sea to consult with the remainder of the Valar in Valimar. During this period Elwë was lost. And soon afterwards the remainder of the Eldar, save only the Teleri, passed across the Sea, leaving the Third Kindred behind in Middle-earth. Olwë brother of Elwë then became Lord of all this people, and dwelled by the Sea. Still Elwë was not found, and once more the call came from Valinor for the Teleri to forsake Middle-earth and join their kindred in the Undying Lands; and after delaying as long as possible, Olwë sadly led the greater part of his people across the Sea. But he departed without a portion of his kindred, those who would not be parted from Elwë, and who refused to believe him dead (
see
EGLATH
). These were the Sindar, the ‘Grey-elves' (as they were later called by the Exiles); and from them came in time the Falathrim, the Coast-elves whose lord was Círdan. But soon afterwards Elwë appeared again among his people, and founded a realm in Doriath, and there most of the Grey-elves dwelt, save only those who preferred the wandering life, or who loved the sound of the Sea, and dwelled with Círdan in the Havens of Eglarest and Brithombar.

But the vanguard of the Teleri, led now by Olwë alone, passed safely across the Great Sea and came to the Bay of Eldamar; there they stayed their journey – at the plea of the Sea-Maia Ossë – and the island which had transported them was rooted in the waters of the Bay, and never moved again. This was now named Tol Eressëa, the ‘Lonely Isle', and upon it the people of Olwë dwelled for many centuries, growing wise beyond all other Elves in the ways of the Sea. Only much later did they build ships and come to the shores of Aman, to be reunited at last with the Vanyar and the Noldor. Olwë afterwards made his dwelling at Alqualondë.