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Drûg

Drûg

In J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, the Drúedain, also known as Drûgin (singular being Drug), Woses, Wild Men of the Woods and Púkel-men, were a strange race of Men which was counted amongst the Edain. Tolkien got this term from the legendary Woodwoses. The Drûgin lived among the Second House of Men, the Haladin, in the First Age in the forest of Brethil. They were an alien folk to the other Men: a bit like Dwarves in stature and endurance, stumpy, clumsy-limbed (with short, thick legs, and fat, "gnarled" arms), had broad chests, fat bellies, and heavy buttocks. According to the Elves and other Men, they had "unlovely faces": wide, flat, and expressionless with deep-set black eyes that glowed red when angered. They had "horny" brows, flat noses, wide mouths, and sparse, lanky hair. They had no hair lower than the eyebrows, except for a few men who had a tail of black hair on the chin. Although a number of the Drúedain were present in Númenor they had left or died out before the Akallabêth, as had the Púkel-men of Dunharrow. At the end of the Third Age the Drûg still lived in the Drúadan Forest of the White Mountains, and at the long cape of Andrast west of Gondor. The region north of Andrast was still known as Drúwaith Iaur, or "Old Drûg land". The Woses of Ghân-buri-Ghân held off Orcs with poisoned arrows and were vital in securing the aid of the Rohirrim in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. King Elessar granted the Drúadan Forest "forever" to them in the Fourth Age.

External links


- [http://www.annalsofarda.dk/annals-of-arda/Others-index-tables/Alfahtms/Druadaintext.htm Annals of Arda Entry]
- [http://www.thetolkienwiki.org/wiki.cgi?Dr%faedain TolkienWiki Entry]
- [http://golwen.com.ar/mediawiki/index.php?title=Dr%FAedain Golwen Enciclopedia Entry (Spanish)] Category:Middle-earth Edain

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) is best known as the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings. He worked as reader and professor in English language at Leeds from 1920 to 1925, as professor of Anglo-Saxon language at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and of English language and literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was a strongly committed Catholic. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis', and a member of the Inklings, a literary discussion group to which both Lewis and Owen Barfield belonged. In addition to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's published fiction includes The Silmarillion and other posthumous books about what he called a legendarium, a fictional mythology of the remote past of Earth, called Arda, and Middle-earth (from middangeard, the lands inhabitable by Men) in particular. Most of these posthumously published works were compiled from Tolkien's notes by his son Christopher Reuel Tolkien. The enduring popularity and influence of Tolkien's works have established him as the "father of the modern high fantasy genre". Tolkien's other published fiction includes adaptations of stories originally told to his children and not directly related to the legendarium.

Biography

The Tolkien family

As far as is known, most of Tolkien's paternal ancestors were craftsmen. The Tolkien family had its roots in Saxony (Germany), but had been living in England since the 18th century, becoming "quickly and intensely English (not British)" (Letters, 165). The surname Tolkien is anglicised from Tollkiehn (i.e. German tollkühn, "foolhardy", the etymological English translation would be dull-keen, a literal translation of oxymoron). The character of Professor Rashbold in The Notion Club Papers is a pun on the name.

Childhood

Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State), South Africa, to Arthur Reuel Tolkien (1857–1896), an English bank manager, and his wife Mabel, née Suffield (1870–1904). Tolkien had one sibling, his younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel, who was born on February 17, 1894. When he was three, Tolkien went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of a severe brain haemorrhage before he could join them. This left the family without an income, so Tolkien's mother took him to live with her parents in Birmingham, England. Soon after in 1896, they moved to Sarehole (now in Hall Green), then a Worcestershire village, later annexed to Birmingham. He enjoyed exploring Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog and the Clent Hills and Lickey Hills, which would later inspire scenes in his books along with other Worcestershire towns and villages such as Bromsgrove, Alcester and Alvechurch and places such as his aunt's farm of Bag End, the name of which would be used in his fiction. Alvechurch Mabel tutored her two sons, and Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil. She taught him a great deal of botany, and she awoke in her son the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees. But his favourite lessons were those concerning languages, and his mother taught him the rudiments of Latin very early. He could read by the age of four, and could write fluently soon afterwards. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and, while a student there, helped "line the route" for the coronation parade of King George V, being posted just outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. He later attended St Phillip's School and Exeter College, Oxford. His mother converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900, despite vehement protests by her Baptist family. She died of diabetes in 1904, when Tolkien was twelve, at Fern Cottage, Rednal, which they were then renting. For the rest of his life, Tolkien felt that she had become a martyr for her faith; this had a profound effect on his own Catholic beliefs. Tolkien's devout faith was significant in the conversion of C. S. Lewis to Anglicanism. During his subsequent orphanhood he was brought up by Father Francis Xavier Morgan of the Birmingham Oratory, in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. He lived there in the shadow of Perrott's Folly and the Victorian tower of Edgbaston waterworks, which may have influenced the images of the dark towers within his works. Another strong influence was the romantic medievalist paintings of Edward Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has a large and world-renowned collection of works and had put it on free public display from around 1908. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Youth

Tolkien met and fell in love with Edith Mary Bratt, three years his senior, at the age of sixteen. Father Francis forbade him from meeting, talking, or even corresponding with her until he was twenty-one. He obeyed this prohibition to the letter. In 1911, while they were at King Edward's School, Birmingham, Tolkien and three friends, Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith and Christopher Wiseman, formed a semi-secret society which they called "the T.C.B.S.", the initials standing for "Tea Club and Barrovian Society", alluding to their fondness of drinking Tea in Barrow's Stores near the school and, illegally, in the school library. After leaving school, the members stayed in touch, and in December 1914, they held a "Council" in London, at Wiseman's home. For Tolkien, the result of this meeting was a strong dedication to writing poetry. In the summer of 1911, Tolkien went on holiday in Switzerland, a trip that he recollects vividly in a 1968 letter (Letters, no. 306), noting that Bilbo's journey across the Misty Mountains ("including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods") is directly based on his adventures as their party of twelve hiked from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, and on to camp in the moraines beyond Mürren. Fifty-seven years later, Tolkien remembers his regret at leaving the view of the eternal snows of Jungfrau and Silberhorn ("the Silvertine (Celebdil) of my dreams"). They went across the Kleine Scheidegg on to Grindelwald and across the Grosse Scheidegg to Meiringen. They continued across the Grimsel Pass and through the upper Valais to Brig, and on to the Aletsch glacier and Zermatt. Zermatt (from Carpenter's Biography)]] On the evening of his twenty-first birthday, Tolkien telephoned Edith and asked her to be his bride, and she converted to Catholicism for him. They were engaged in Birmingham, in January 1913, and married in Warwick, England, on March 22, 1916. With his childhood love of landscape, he visited Cornwall in 1914 and he was said to be deeply impressed by the singular Cornish coastline and sea. After graduating from the University of Oxford (Exeter College, Oxford) with a first-class degree in English language in 1915, Tolkien joined the British Army effort in World War I and served as a second lieutenant in the eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. His battalion was moved to France in 1916, where Tolkien served as a communications officer during the Battle of the Somme, until he came down with trench fever on October 27, and was moved back to England on November 8. Many of his fellow servicemen, as well as many of his closest friends, were killed in the war. During his recovery in a cottage in Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England, he began to work on what he called The Book of Lost Tales, beginning with The Fall of Gondolin. Throughout 1917 and 1918 his illness kept recurring, but he had recovered enough to do home service at various camps, and was promoted to lieutenant. When he was stationed at Kingston upon Hull, one day he and Edith went walking in the woods at nearby Roos, and Edith began to dance for him in a thick grove of hemlock. This incident inspired the account of the meeting of Beren and Lúthien, and Tolkien often referred to Edith as his Lúthien.

Oxford

Tolkien's first civilian job after World War I was at the Oxford English Dictionary (among others, he initiated the entries wasp and walrus). In 1920 he took up a post as Reader in English language at the University of Leeds, and in 1924 was made a professor there, but in 1925 he returned to Oxford as a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College. Tolkien and Edith had four children: John Francis Reuel (November 17, 1917), Michael Hilary Reuel (October 1920–1984), Christopher John Reuel (1924) and Priscilla Anne Reuel (1929). Tolkien assisted Sir Mortimer Wheeler in the unearthing of a Roman Asclepieion at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, in 1928. During his time at Pembroke, Tolkien wrote the The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings. Of Tolkien's academic publications, the 1936 lecture "Beowulf: the monsters and the critics" had a lasting influence on Beowulf research. In 1945, he moved to Merton College, Oxford, becoming the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, in which post he remained until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien completed the The Lord of the Rings in 1948, close to a decade after the first sketches. During the 1950s, Tolkien spent many of his long academic holidays at the home of his son John Francis in Stoke-on-Trent. Tolkien had an intense dislike for the side effects of industrialisation, which he considered a devouring of the English countryside. For most of his adult life he eschewed automobiles, preferring to ride a bicycle. This attitude is perceptible from some parts of his work, such as the forced industrialisation of The Shire in The Lord of the Rings. industrialisation, next to one of his favourite trees (a Pinus nigra) in the Botanic Garden, Oxford.]] W.H. Auden was a frequent correspondent and long-time friend of Tolkien's, initiated by Auden's fascination with The Lord of the Rings: Auden was among the most prominent early critics to praise the work. Tolkien wrote in a 1971 letter, "I am [...] very deeply in Auden's debt in recent years. His support of me and interest in my work has been one of my chief encouragements. He gave me very good reviews, notices and letters from the beginning when it was by no means a popular thing to do. He was, in fact, sneered at for it." (Letters, no. 327).

Retirement and old age

During his life in retirement, from 1959 up to his death in 1973, Tolkien increasingly turned into a figure of public attention and literary fame. The sale of his books was so profitable that Tolkien regretted he had not taken early retirement. While at first he wrote enthusiastic answers to reader inquiries, he became more and more suspicious of emerging Tolkien fandom, especially among the hippy movement in the USA. Already in 1944, he made a somewhat sarcastic comment about a fan letter by a twelve-year-old American reader (It's nice to find that little American boys do really still say 'Gee Whiz'., Letters no. 87). In a 1972 letter he deplores having become a cult-figure, but admits that :even the nose of a very modest idol (younger than Chu-Bu and not much older than Sheemish) [idols in a story by Lord Dunsany] cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense! (Letters, no. 336). Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone number out of the public directory, and eventually he and Edith moved to Bournemouth at the south coast. Tolkien was awarded a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on March 28, 1972. 1972 Edith Tolkien died on November 29 1971, at the age of eighty-two, and Tolkien had the name Lúthien engraved on the stone at Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. When Tolkien died 21 months later on September 2 1973, at the age of 81, he was buried in the same grave, with Beren added to his name, so that the engraving now reads: Edith Mary Tolkien, Lúthien, 1889–1971 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892–1973 Posthumously named after Tolkien are the Tolkien Road in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and the asteroid 2675 Tolkien. Tolkien Way in Stoke-On-Trent is named after J.R.R.'s son Father John Francis Tolkien, who used to be the priest in charge at the nearby Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Angels and St. Peter in Chains.

Writing

Stoke-On-Trent Beginning with The Book of Lost Tales, written while recuperating from illness during World War I, Tolkien devised several themes that were reused in successive drafts of his legendarium. The two most prominent stories, the tales of Beren and Lúthien and that of Túrin, were carried forward into long narrative poems (published in The Lays of Beleriand). Tolkien wrote a brief summary of the mythology these poems were intended to represent, and that summary eventually evolved into The Silmarillion, an epic history that Tolkien started three times but never published. The story of this continuous redrafting is told in the posthumous series The History of Middle-Earth. From around 1936, he began to extend this framework to include the tale of The Fall of Númenor, which was inspired by the legend of Atlantis. Tolkien was strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxon literature, Germanic and Norse mythologies, Finnish folklore, the Bible, and Greek mythology. The works most often cited as sources for Tolkien's stories include Beowulf, the Kalevala, the Poetic Edda, the Volsunga saga and the Hervarar saga. Tolkien himself acknowledged Homer, Oedipus, and the Kalevala as influences or sources for some of his stories and ideas. His borrowings also came from numerous Middle English works and poems. In addition to his mythological compositions, Tolkien enjoyed inventing fantasy stories to entertain his children. He wrote annual Christmas letters from Father Christmas for them, building up a series of short stories (later compiled and published as The Father Christmas Letters). Other stories included Mr. Bliss, Roverandom, and Smith of Wootton Major. Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major, like The Hobbit, borrowed ideas from his legendarium. Tolkien never expected his fictional stories to become popular, but he was persuaded by a former student to publish a book he had written for his own children called The Hobbit in 1937. However, the book attracted adult readers as well, and it became popular enough for the publisher, George Allen & Unwin, to ask Tolkien to work on a sequel. Even though he felt uninspired on the topic, this request prompted Tolkien to begin what would become his most famous work: the epic three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings (published 1954–55). Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative and appendices for Lord of the Rings, during which time he received the constant support of the Inklings, in particular his closest friend C. S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set against the background of The Silmarillion, but in a time long after it. Tolkien at first intended The Lord of the Rings as a children's tale like The Hobbit, but it quickly grew darker and more serious in the writing. Though a direct sequel to The Hobbit, it addressed an older audience, drawing on the immense back story of Beleriand that Tolkien had constructed in previous years, and which eventually saw posthumous publication in The Silmarillion and other volumes. Tolkien's influence weighs heavily on the fantasy genre that grew up after the success of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien continued to work on the history of Middle-earth until his death. His son Christopher, with some assistance from fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay, organised some of this material into one volume, published as The Silmarillion in 1977. In 1980 Christopher Tolkien followed this with a collection of more fragmentary material under the title Unfinished Tales, and in subsequent years he published a massive amount of background material on the creation of Middle-earth in the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth. All these posthumous works contain unfinished, abandoned, alternative and outright contradictory accounts, since they were always a work in progress, and Tolkien only rarely settled on a definitive version for any of the stories. There is not even complete consistency to be found between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the two most closely related works, because Tolkien was never able to fully integrate all their traditions into each other. He commented in 1965, while editing The Hobbit for a third edition, that he would have preferred to completely rewrite the entire book. The library of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, preserves many of Tolkien's original manuscripts, notes and letters; other original material survives at Oxford's Bodleian Library. Marquette has the manuscripts and proofs of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and other manuscripts, including Farmer Giles of Ham, while the Bodleian holds the Silmarillion papers and Tolkien's academic work. The Lord of the Rings became immensely popular in the 1960s and has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales and reader surveys. In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the "Nation's Best-loved Book". In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium". In 2002 Tolkien was voted the ninety-second "greatest Briton" in a poll conducted by the BBC, and in 2004 he was voted thirty-fifth in a list of the Greatest South Africans, the only person to appear in both lists. His popularity is not limited just to the English-speaking world: in a 2004 poll inspired by the UK’s "Big Read" survey, about 250,000 Germans found The Lord of the Rings (Der Herr der Ringe) to be their favourite work of literature.

Languages

See also Languages of Middle-earth. Both Tolkien's academic career and his literary production are inseparable from his love of language and philology. He specialised in Greek philology in college, and in 1915 graduated with Old Icelandic as special subject. He worked for the Oxford English Dictionary from 1918. In 1920, he went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, where he claimed credit for raising the number of students of linguistics from five to twenty. He gave courses in Old English heroic verse, history of English, various Old English and Middle English texts, Old and Middle English philology, introductory Germanic philology, Gothic, Old Icelandic, and Medieval Welsh. When in 1925, aged 33, Tolkien applied for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, he boasted that his students of Germanic philology in Leeds had even formed a "Viking Club". Privately, Tolkien was attracted to "things of racial and linguistic significance", and he entertained notions of an inherited taste of language, which he termed the "native tongue" as opposed to "cradle tongue" in his 1955 lecture English and Welsh, which is crucial to his understanding of race and language. He considered west-midland Middle English his own "native tongue", and, as he wrote to W. H. Auden in 1955 (Letters, no. 163), "I am a West-midlander by blood (and took to early west-midland Middle English as a known tongue as soon as I set eyes on it)". Parallel to Tolkien's professional work as a philologist, and sometimes overshadowing this work, to the effect that his academic output remained rather thin, was his affection for the construction of artificial languages. The best developed of these are Quenya and Sindarin, the etymological connection between which are at the core of much of Tolkien's legendarium. Language and grammar for Tolkien was a matter of aesthetics and euphony, and Quenya in particular was designed from "phonæsthetic" considerations. It was intended as an "Elvenlatin", and was phonologically based on Latin, with ingredients from Finnish and Greek (Letters, no. 144). A notable addition came in late 1945 with Numenorean, a language of a "faintly Semitic flavour", connected with Tolkien's Atlantis myth, which by The Notion Club Papers ties directly into his ideas about inheritability of language, and via the "Second Age" and the Earendil myth was grounded in the legendarium, thereby providing a link of Tolkien's 20th-century "real primary world" with the mythical past of his Middle-earth. Tolkien considered languages inseparable from the mythology associated with them, and he consequently took a dim view of auxiliary languages. In 1930 a congress of Esperantists were told as much by him, in his lecture A Secret Vice, "Your language construction will breed a mythology", but by 1956 he concluded that "Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, &c &c are dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends" (Letters, no. 180). The popularity of Tolkien's books has had a small but lasting effect on the use of language in fantasy literature in particular, and even on mainstream dictionaries, which today commonly accept Tolkien's spellings dwarves and elvish (instead of dwarfs and elfish). Other terms he has coined, like legendarium and eucatastrophe, are mainly used in connection with Tolkien's work.

Works inspired by Tolkien

In a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman (Letters, no. 131), Tolkien writes about his intentions to create a "body of more or less connected legend", of which :The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. The hands and minds of many artists have indeed been inspired by Tolkien's legends. Personally known to him were Pauline Baynes (Tolkien's favourite illustrator of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham) and Donald Swann (who set the music to The Road Goes Ever On). Queen Margrethe II of Denmark created illustrations to the Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s. She sent them to Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity to the style of his own drawings. But Tolkien was not fond of all the artistic representation of his works that were produced in his lifetime, and was sometimes harshly disapproving. In 1946 (Letters, no. 107), he rejects suggestions for illustrations by Horus Engels for the German edition of the Hobbit as "too Disnified", :Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and Gandalf as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the Odinic wanderer that I think of. He was sceptical of the emerging fandom in the United States, and in 1954 he returned proposals for the dust jackets of the American edition of the Lord of the Rings (Letters, no. 144): :Thank you for sending me the projected 'blurbs', which I return. The Americans are not as a rule at all amenable to criticism or correction; but I think their effort is so poor that I feel constrained to make some effort to improve it. And in 1958, in an irritated reaction to a proposed movie adaptation of the Lord of the Rings by Morton Grady Zimmerman (Letters, no. 207) he writes, :I would ask them to make an effort of imagination sufficient to understand the irritation (and on occasion the resentment) of an author, who finds, increasingly as he proceeds, his work treated as it would seem carelessly in general, in places recklessly, and with no evident signs of any appreciation of what it is all about. He went on to criticise the script scene by scene ("yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings"). But Tolkien was in principle open to the idea of a movie adaptation. He sold the film, stage and merchandise rights of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in 1968, while, guided by scepticism towards future productions, he forbade that Disney should ever be involved (Letters, no. 13): :It might be advisable […] to let the Americans do what seems good to them – as long as it was possible […] to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing). United Artists never made a film, though at least John Boorman was planning a film in the early seventies. It would have been a live-action film, which apparently would have been much more to Tolkien's liking than an animated film. In 1976 the rights were sold to Tolkien Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz Company, and the first movie adaptation (an animated rotoscoping film) of The Lord of the Rings appeared only after Tolkien's death (in 1978, directed by Ralph Bakshi). This first adaptation, however, only contained the first half of the story that is The Lord of the Rings. In 1977 an animated TV production of The Hobbit was made by Rankin-Bass, and in 1980 they produced an animated film titled The Return of the King, which covered some of the portion of The Lord of the Rings that Bakshi was unable to complete. In 2001–3 The Lord of the Rings was filmed in full and as a live-action film as a trilogy of films by Peter Jackson.

Bibliography

Fiction and poetry

See also Poems by J. R. R. Tolkien.
- 1936 Songs for the Philologists, with E.V. Gordon et al.
- 1937 The Hobbit or There and Back Again, ISBN 0-618-00221-9 (HM).
- 1945 Leaf by Niggle (short story)
- 1945 The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, published in Welsh Review
- 1949 Farmer Giles of Ham (medieval fable)
- 1953 The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son published with the essay Ofermod
- The Lord of the Rings
  - 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring: being the first part of The Lord of the Rings, ISBN 0-618-00222-7 (HM).
  - 1954 The Two Towers: being the second part of The Lord of the Rings, ISBN 0-618-00223-5 (HM).
  - 1955 The Return of the King: being the third part of The Lord of the Rings, ISBN 0-618-00224-3 (HM).
- 1962 The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book
- 1967 The Road Goes Ever On, with Donald Swann
- 1964 Tree and Leaf (On Fairy-Stories and Leaf by Niggle in book form)
- 1966 The Tolkien Reader (The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorthelm's Son, On Fairy Stories, Leaf by Niggle, Farmer Giles of Ham' and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil)
- 1966 Tolkien on Tolkien (autobiographical)
- 1967 Smith of Wootton Major

Academic works


- 1922 A Middle English Vocabulary
- 1924 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (with E. V. Gordon)
- 1925 Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography
- 1925 The Devil's Coach Horses
- 1929 Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiohad
- 1932 The Name 'Nodens' (in: Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire.)
- 1932/1935 Sigelwara Land parts I and II
- 1934 The Reeve's Tale (rediscovery of dialect humour, introducing the Hengwrt manuscript into textual criticism of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales)
- 1936 Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (lecture on Beowulf criticism)
- 1939 On Fairy-Stories (Tolkien's philosophy on fantasy, given as the 1939 Andrew Lang lecture)
- 1944 Sir Orfeo (an edition of the medieval poem)
- 1947 On Fairy-Stories (essay, very central for understanding Tolkien's views on fastasy)
- 1953 Ofermod, published with the poem The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son
- 1953 Middle English "Losenger"
- 1962 Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle
- 1963 English and Welsh
- 1966 Jerusalem Bible (contributing translator and lexicographer)

Posthumous publications

See Tolkien research for essays and text fragments by Tolkien published in academic publications and forums.
- 1975 Translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl (poem) and Sir Orfeo
- 1976 The Father Christmas Letters
- 1977 The Silmarillion ISBN 0-618-12698-8 (HM).
- 1979 Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien
- 1980 Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth ISBN 0-618-15405-1 (HM).
- 1980 Poems and Stories (a compilation of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, On Fairy-Stories, Leaf by Niggle, Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major)
- 1981 The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (eds. Christopher Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter)
- 1981 The Old English Exodus Text
- 1982 Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode
- 1982 Mr. Bliss
- 1983 The Monsters and the Critics (an essay collection)
  - Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics (1936)
  - On Translating Beowulf (1940)
  - On Fairy-Stories (1947)
  - A Secret Vice (1930)
  - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  - English and Welsh (1955)
- 1983–1996 The History of Middle-Earth:
  1. The Book of Lost Tales 1 (1983)
  2. The Book of Lost Tales 2 (1984)
  3. The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
  4. The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
  5. The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
  6. The Return of the Shadow (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 1) (1988)
  7. The Treason of Isengard (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 2) (1989)
  8. The War of the Ring (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 3) (1990)
  9. Sauron Defeated (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 4, including an edition of The Notion Club Papers) (1992)
  10. Morgoth's Ring (The Later Silmarillion vol. 1) (1993)
  11. The War of the Jewels (The Later Silmarillion vol. 2) (1994)
  12. The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)

  - Index (2002)
- 1995 J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator (a compilation of Tolkien's art)
- 1998 Roverandom
- 2002 Beowulf and the Critics ed. Michael D.C. Drout (Beowulf: the monsters and the critics together with editions of two drafts of the longer essay from which it was condensed.

Audio recordings


- 1967 Poems and Songs of Middle-Earth, Caedmon TC 1231
- 1975 JRR Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Caedmon TC 1477, TC 1478 (based on an August, 1952 recording by George Sayer)

References


- Biography:
- Letters:
- HoME: Tolkien, Christopher (ed.) (12 volumes, 1996-2002), The History of Middle-earth

Notes

# As described by Christopher Tolkien in Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks Konung (Oxford University, Trinity College). B. Litt. thesis. 1953/4. [Year uncertain], The Battle of the Goths and the Huns, in: Saga-Book (University College, London, for the Viking Society for Northern Research) 14, part 3 (1955-6) [http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/bibl4.html]

Further reading

A small selection of books about Tolkien and his works:
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See also


- The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings
- Middle-earth
- Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Inklings
- Tolkien research
- Tolkien fandom

External links

For story-internal references, see the links sections on Middle-earth and Lord of the Rings. Biographical:
- [http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html Tolkien Biography] (The Tolkien Society)
- [http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/tolkientour/index.html J. R. R. Tolkien's Oxford – 360º Photographic Tour]
- [http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/tolkien Tolkien in Birmingham]
- [http://www.virtualbrum.co.uk/tolkien.htm Tolkien Trail – In Birmingham]
- [http://www.nordals.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?detail=1004508&name=nordals_en_greinar_og_erindi Tolkien and Iceland: the Philology of Envy. Tom Shippey's lecture at the University of Iceland]. Last accessed 17 October 2005. Bibliographical:
- [http://www.tolkienbooks.net/ An Illustrated Tolkien Bibliography]
- [http://www.lotrlibrary.com/ The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Library] Tolkienian Information
- [http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/ The Tolkien Library] Tolkien literature essays, reviews, articles
- [http://archive.salon.com/audio/2000/10/05/tolkien_elvish/ 1952 Audio recording of Tolkien reciting a poem in Quenya]
- [http://donh.best.vwh.net/Languages/tolkien1.html A Philologist on Esperanto] by J. R. R. Tolkien Databases/Directories:
- [http://onering.virbius.com/ One Ring: The Complete Guide to Tolkien Online]
- [http://www.xenite.org/talk/tolkien.html J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth Articles and Links] (xenite.org)
- [http://tolkien.slimy.com/ The Tolkien Meta-FAQ] (slimy.com)
- [http://www.thetolkienwiki.org/ The Tolkien Wiki Community]
- [http://tolkiengateway.net Tolkien Gateway] Information on Tolkien, the books, the movies, the music, the languages, etc Societies:
- [http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/ The Tolkien Society] Derivative art (see also main article):
- [http://www.tolkien-music.com/ Music inspired by Tolkien]
- [http://www.henneth-annun.net/ Stories inspired by Tolkien]
- Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Category:Inventors of writing systems ko:존 로널드 류엘 톨킨 ja:J・R・R・トールキン simple:J. R. R. Tolkien th:เจ. อาร์. อาร์. โทลคีน

Men (Middle-earth)

The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender. They are distinct from the various humanoid races, though some, like Hobbits, are probably human in origin, and others are thought by some characters to be human, such as the Wizards. The Elves call the race of Men Atani in Quenya, literally meaning "Second People" (the Elves being the First), but also Hildor (Aftercomers), and Fírimar (Mortals) or Engwar (The Sickly). The name Atani becomes Edain in Sindarin, but this term is later only applied to those Men who are friendly to the Elves. In Tolkien's writings, Man with an initial capital letter refers to any human being and man with a lowercase m refers to an adult male of any race. Legolas, for example, may be correctly called a man, but never a Man.

Origins

The race of Men is the second race of beings created by the Supreme God, Ilúvatar. Because they awoke at the start of the First Age, while the Elves awoke three Ages before them, they are called the Afterborn (Quenya Atani, Sindarin: Edain) by the Elves. Men bear the so-called Gift of Men, mortality. Elves are immortal, in the sense that even if their bodies are slain, their spirits remain bound to the world, going to the Halls of Mandos to wait until they are released or the world ends. Elves are tied to the world for as long as it lasts. When Men die, they are released from Arda and the bounds of the world and have rest from its troubles.

Groups and alignments

Although all Men are related to one another, there are many different groups with different cultures. The most important group in the tales of the First Age were the Edain. Although the word Edain refers to all Men, the Elves use it to distinguish those Men who fought with them in the First Age against Morgoth in Beleriand. Those Men who fought against Morgoth in the First Age were divided into three Houses. The First House of the Edain was the House of Bëor, and entered Beleriand in 305 T.A. and were granted the fief of Ladros in Dorthonion by Finrod Felagund. The Second House of the Edain, the Haladin was led by Haldad and later by his daughter Haleth and settled in the Forest of Brethil. The Third House, which became the greatest, was led by Marach and later his descendant Hador, and they settled in Dor-lómin. This house was known both as the House of Marach and the House of Hador. Other Men didn't cross the Misty Mountains or fight against Morgoth. Some such as the Easterlings fought openly on his side. Later on the Haradrim would fight on Sauron's side against the descendants of the Edain. Here below follow the short descriptions of the most important groups of Men in the First, Second and Third Age.

Edain and Dúnedain

Through their services and assistance rendered to the Elves and the Valar in the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, the Edain were rewarded with a new land of their own between Middle-earth and the Undying Lands. This was the island of Númenor, an island in the form of a five-pointed star far away from the evil of Middle-earth. They were led to this island by Elros with the help of his father Eärendil, who sailed the heavens as the bright star of the same name. Once there Elros became the first king of Númenor as Tar-Minyatur and the Edain became known as the Dúnedain (Sindarin for Men of the West). The kingdom of Númenor grew steadily in power and the Dúnedain became the noblest and highest of all Men on Arda. Allied to the Elves, Númenor fought against Morgoth's lieutenant Sauron. Now that the Men of the West had become powerful they came to resent the Gift of Men, Death. They wanted to become immortal like the Elves, and enjoy their accumulated power for all time. The Númenóreans turned away from the Valar, began to call the Gift of Men the Doom of Men and cursed the Ban of the Valar which forbade them to sail west beyond sight of Númenor or to enter Valinor. In 2899 SA Ar-Adûnakhôr became the first king of Númenor who took his royal name in Adûnaic, the language of Men instead of Quenya, the language of the Elves. This led to civil war in Númenor. The people of Númenor were divided into two factions: the King's Men, who enjoyed the support of the King and the majority of the people. They favoured Adûnaic as language. The minority faction, the Faithful, were led by the lord of Andunië, the westernmost province of Númenor, and favoured Quenya. Sauron who by the second millennium of the Second Age was nearly defeated by the Elves took advantage of the division. He surrendered to the last Númenórean King, Ar-Pharazôn and worked his way into the King's counsels. Ultimately, Sauron advised him to attack Valinor and claim immortality. This he foolishly did, and as a punishment Númenor, the island of the Men of the West fell and only the Faithful escaped and founded the twin kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor.

Black Númenóreans and Haradrim

The Faithful weren't the only Númenóreans left on Middle-earth when Númenor sank. When Númenor grew in naval power many Númenóreans founded colonies in Middle-earth. In the second millennium of the Second Age there was an exodus of Men from overcrowded Númenor. The King's Men because they wanted to conquer more lands, and the Faithful because they were persecuted by the Kings. The Faithful settled in Pelargir and the King's Men settled in Umbar. When Númenor was destroyed the King's Men became known as the Black Númenóreans and remained hostile against the Faithful of Gondor. From their ranks Sauron recruited men who would become some the nine Ringwraiths in the second millennium of the Second Age. Umbar was conquered by Gondor in 933 Third Age. Among the Black Númenórean race was the wicked Queen Berúthiel, wife of Tarannon Falastur, King of Gondor. Further east of Umbar another group of Men lived, the Haradrim. They were dark skinned Men and waged war on great Oliphaunts or Mûmakil. Hostile to Gondor they were subdued in 1050 TA by Hyarmendacil I. Both Umbar and the Harad were left unchecked by Gondor's waning power by the time of the War of the Ring, and presented grave threats from the south. Many Haradrim fought with Sauron's forces in Gondor in that War. See also: Southrons

Easterlings

Most Men who fought in the armies of Morgoth and Sauron were Easterlings, who came from the region around the Sea of Rhûn. Some Easterlings offered their services to the Elvish kingdoms in Beleriand, among them were Bor and his sons and Ulfang the Black and his sons. This proved to be disastrous for the Elves in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad when Ulfang and his clan switched sides and defected to Morgoth, while Bor and his sons died bravely fighting on the side of the Eldar. After Morgoth's defeat Sauron extended his influence over the Easterlings and although Sauron was defeated by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men at the end of the Second Age, the Easterlings were the first enemies to attack Gondor again in 492 TA. They were soundly defeated by King Rómendacil I, but invaded again in 541 TA and took revenge by slaying King Rómendacil. Rómendacil's son Turambar took large portions of land from them. In the next centuries Gondor held sway over the Easterlings. When Gondor's power began to decrease in the twelfth century Third Age, the Easterlings took the complete eastern bank of the Anduin except Ithilien crushing Gondor's allies, the Northmen. The Easterlings of the Third Age were divided in different tribes, such as the Wainriders and the Balchoth. The Wainriders were a confederation of Easterlings which were very active between 1856 and 1944 TA. They were a serious threat to Gondor for many years, but were utterly defeaten by Eärnil II in 1944. When Gondor lost its royal dynasty in 2050 TA the Easterlings started to reorganize themselves and a fierce tribe called the Balchoth became the most important tribe. In 2510 TA they invaded Gondor again and conquered much of Calenardhon, until they were defeated by the Éothéod, coming to Gondor's aid. Until the War of the Ring the Easterlings didn't launch any invasion. In the War of the Ring they were amongst the fiercest warriors deployed at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields by Sauron.

Northmen

The Northmen were composed of two principle groups. First, not all the Men who remained east of the Blue Mountains and Misty Mountains were tempted by Morgoth or Sauron. They were joined after the War of Wrath by those of the Edain who did not wish to travel to Númenór (similar to how, at the end of the first age, various eldar remained and went east, becoming lords of the silvan elves). The Northmen who dwellt in Greenwood the Great and other parts of Rhovanion were friendly to the Dúnedain, being for the most part their kin, and many of them became Gondorian subjects. The Men of Dale and Esgaroth were Northmen, as were the Woodsmen of Mirkwood, and the Éothéod, who became the Rohirrim.

Dunlendings and Drúedain

When Elendil founded the Kingdom of Arnor its borders were quickly extended towards the river Greyflood (Sind:Gwathló), and Gondor likewise extended up through Enedwaith. In Enedwaith (Middle-land) and Minhiriath (Sindarin for Land between the Rivers) lived a group of Men related to those Men that became the House of Haleth, and they were known as the Dunlendings. They had lived in the great woods that covered most of Eriador, and when the Númenóreans started to chop these woods down to build their ships in the Second Age, the Dúnedain of Númenor earned the hostility of the Dunlendings. The Dunlendings later became bitter enemies of Rohan. The Dunlendings served Saruman in the War of the Ring and participated in the Battle of the Hornburg. Another group of Men were the Woses. They were small and bent compared to other Men. They lived among the House of Haleth in the First Age, and were held as Edain by the Elves, who called them Drúedain (from Drûg, their own name for themselves, plus Edain). At the end of the Third Age some Woses lived in the Drúadan forest, small in number but experienced in wood life. They held off Orcs with poisoned arrows and were vital in securing the aid of the Rohirrim in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. King Elessar granted the Drúadan Forest "forever" to them in the Fourth Age.

Hobbits

Hobbits were strictly a race of Men; rather than a separate species. The origin of Hobbits is obscure; they first appeared in the records of other Men in the Third Age.

Notable Men

First Age


- Beren son of Barahir
- Túrin Turambar son of Húrin
- Tuor son of Huor

Second Age


- Isildur son of Elendil
- Ar-Pharazôn the Golden

Third Age


- Aragorn son of Arathorn
- Boromir and Faramir sons of Denethor
- Éomer, nephew and heir of Théoden, and his sister Éowyn
- Men

Woodwose

The Woodwose or hairy wildman of the woods was the Sasquatch figure of pre-Christian Gaul, in Anglo-Saxon a wuduwasa. Woodwoses appear in the carved and painted bosses where intersecting ogee vaults meet in the cathedral of Canterbury, in positions where one is also likely to encounter the vegetal Green Man. The Woodwose was a link between civilized humans and the dangerous elf-like spirits of natural woodland, such as Puck. The wildman, pilosus or hairy all over, often armed with a rough club, survived to appear as supporter for heraldic coats-of-arms, especially in Germany (Wilder Mann), well into the 16th century (illustration, right). A British example can be found on the coat-of-arms used as the pub sign for the Woodhouse Arms in Corby Glen, Lincolnshire. As this illustrates, various spellings of the word have been used over the centuries, for example woodhouse and wodehouse (pronounced 'wood-house', with the accent on the first syllable, as in the surname of the author P.G. Wodehouse); wodwo, the Middle English version, appears (as 'wodwos', the plural) in the 14th-century poem Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyght; it was used by poet Ted Hughes as the title of a poem and, in 1967, a volume of his collected works. King Charles VI of France and five of his courtiers were dressed as woodwoses and chained together for a mascarade at the tragic Bal des Sauvages at the Queen Mother's Paris hotel, January 28, 1393. In the midst of the festivities, a stray spark from a torch set their hairy costumes ablaze, burning several courtiers alive; the king's own life was saved through quick action by his aunt, the duchesse de Berry, who smothered the flames in her cloak. The woodwose was unsettling to Christian writers, needless to say. Augustine reports the Gaulish name of "Dusii" in City of God XV, ch. 23: "Et quosdam daemones, quos Dusios Galli nuncupant, adsidue hanc immunditiam et efficere, plures talesque adseuerant, ut hoc negare impudentiae uideatur." ...and perhaps the early 7th century encyclopedist Isidore of Seville has picked up Augustine's reference, for his Etymologies book viii: :Pilosi, qui Graece 'panitae', Latine 'incubi' appellantur - hos daemones Galli 'Dusios' nuncupant. Quem autem vulgo 'Incu-bonem' vocant, hunc Romani 'Faunum' dicunt "Satyrs are they who are called Pans in Greek, Incubi in Latin, these daemons the Galls call Dusi. What vulgarly are called "Incu-bonem", these the Romans name "Fauns" Another variant of the Gaulish Dusi may lurk in the misunderstanding of fauni ficarii "fig Fauns" in Jerome's Vulgate translation of Jeremiah 50:39, describing the coming desolation of Babylon: "Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig fauns." Fig fauns exist nowhere except in dictionaries mentioning this passage. Is this a slip of the copyists for Jerome's fauni Sicarii ("fauns of the Sicarii", the ancient tribe of Gauls in Sicily?) Apparently, the King James' Version committee thought so, rendering the passage "Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation." (See http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Def.show/RTD/ISBE/Topic/Wild%20Beast ) Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Life of Merlin (ca 1150), describes the agonized mourning of Merlin after a bloody battle, when :"a strange madness came upon him. He crept away and fled to the woods, unwilling that any should see his going. Into the forest he went, glad to lie hidden beneath the ash trees. He watched the wild creatures grazing on the pasture of the glades. Sometimes he would follow them, sometimes pass them in his course. He made use of the roots of plants and of grasses, of fruit from trees and of the blackberries in the thicket. He became a Man of the Woods, as if dedicated to the woods. So for a whole summer he stayed hidden in the woods, discovered by none, forgetful of himself and of his own, lurking like a wild thing."

Other uses

The term wood-woses or simply Woses is used by J.R.R. Tolkien to describe a fictional race of wild men in his stories, called also Drúedain. According to his legendarium, other men, including the Rohirrim, mistook the Druedain for goblins or other wood-creatures and referred to them as Pukel-men (Goblin-men). His fiction might imply that (in his fictional timeline) the 'actual' Druedain of ancient Middle-earth, were the origin of the legendary Woodwoses of more recent folklore. Tolkien was, of course, an expert in Old and Middle English literature, who translated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (see above).

References


- Richard Bernheimer, Wild men in the Middle Ages, Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1952; New York : Octagon books, 1979, ISBN 0-374-90616-5
- Timothy Husband, The wild man : medieval myth and symbolism, Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980, ISBN 0870992546, ISBN 0870992554
- Rebecca Martin, Wild Men and Moors in the Castle of Love: The Castle-Siege Tapestries in Nuremburg, Vienna, and Boston, Thesis (Ph.D.), Chapel Hill/N. C., 1983

External links


- [http://www.geocities.com/branwaedd/merlini.html Geoffrey of Monmouth, Vita Merlini]
- [http://www.eaudrey.com/myth/woodwose.htm Woodwose]: from the Speculum Regale ("the King's Mirror"), written in Norway around 1250: "It once happened in that country (and this seems indeed strange) that a living creature was caught in the forest as to which no one could say definitely whether it was a man or some other animal; for no one could get a word from it or be sure that it understood human speech. It had the human shape, however, in every detail, both as to hands and face and feet; but the entire body was covered with hair as the beasts are, and down the back it had a long coarse mane like that of a horse, which fell to both sides and trailed along the ground when the creature stooped in walking."
- [http://www.sagen.at/texte/maerchen/maerchen_irland/elfenmaerchen/zeugnisse.html Drusi and woodwoses in Latin literature from the 5th century onwards (in German)]
- [http://www.bigfootencounters.com/creatures/wudewasa.htm Blending medieval bestiaries and modern "wildman" myth] Category:Legendary creatures Category:Medieval legends Category:Hominid cryptids

Haladin

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the House of Haleth or the Haladin were the second of the Three Houses of Men. They were the descendants of Haldad, but the house was named after Haldad's daughter Haleth, who led her people from East Beleriand to Brethil. They were a reclusive folk, dark-haired but smaller in stature than the Bëorians. They kept separate from the other Men. Their language was different from that used by the other Edain. The Haladin first had settled in Thargelion after arriving in Beleriand, since they were unwilling to settle in Estolad with the Bëorians and Marachians. They were caught off-guard by an Orc-raid there, and a great part of their people was wiped out. The remnant, fighting under Haleth and her kin, held out for days in a stockade until the Ñoldor rescued them. Impressed by their virtue Caranthir offered them his lands to live in protected, but Haleth refused, and later got permission to settle in the forest of Brethil, part of Doriath but outside the Girdle of Melian. They mostly kept out of the wars. The Haladin were ruled by a Haldad, a descendant of Haldar brother of Haleth, but they formed a lose alliance of clans rather than a strong nation as the other Edain. The Haldad was in charge of a council of elders, which took decisions for the entire people. The last Haldad of Haldar's line was Brandir the Lame, who was killed by Túrin Turambar. Húrin Thalion wrought the final ruin of the Haladin when he came to Brethil. He caused a civil war which killed the last descendants of Haldad, and led a great part of the Haladin away south to Nargothrond. He abandoned them after delivering the treasure to Thingol of Doriath, and it seems this people returned home them. After the fall of Doriath the Haladin were nearly completely wiped out, or at least they had disappeared as a separate people. The last Drúedain of Beleriand did go to Númenor, suggesting at least a few Haladin survived as well, as the Drûg formed a part of their people. They must have held out in Brethil forest or fled to the Mouths of Sirion with the other survivors. Some of the Second and Third Age nations of Men, such as Dunlendings, were related to the Haladin, but were not recognised as Middle Men by the Númenoreans because their speech was too different, and they were hostile.

Family tree of the House of Haleth and its descendants

Haldad | ------------------- | | Haleth Haldar | Haldan | Halmir | ---------------------------------------------- | | | | Galdor = Hareth Haldir = Glóredhel Hundar Hiril = Enthor | | | --------------------- Handir Meleth | | | Rían = Huor Morwen = Húrin Brandir | | | ---------------- | | | | Idril = Tuor Túrin Lalaith Nienor Dior = Nimloth | | Eärendil = Elwing | ------------------------------------------- | | Elros Elrond = Celebrian | Vardamir | | | Tar-Amandil | | | Tar-Elendil | | | ------------------------- ------------------------- | | | | | Kings of Númenor Lords of Andúnië | | | | | | | Elendil | | | | | | | -------------------- | | | | | | | | Kings of Gondor Kings of Arnor | | | | | | | Kings of Arthedain | | | | | | | Chieftains of the Dúnedain | | | | | | | Aragorn = Arwen Elladan Elrohir | -------------------- | | Eldarion Numerous daughters | Kings of the Reunited Kingdom Category:Middle-earth Edain

Brethil

In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, the Forest of Brethil was a cluster of woods bordering Dorthonion, which was probably originally part of Doriath. It was to Brethil that the House of Haleth removed after dwelling east of the river Gelion. Some Drúedain also dwelt there. The main feature of the forest was the hill of Amon Obel, upon which stood Ephel Brandir, the main settlement of the Haladin. The river Taeglin crossed the forest. Category:Realms of Middle-earth

Elves (Middle-earth)

The Elves (always pluralised as such, never "Elfs") are one of the races that appear in the work of J. R. R. Tolkien. Their complex history is described in full only in The Silmarillion, and it is mentioned tangentially in The Lord of the Rings. Elves were the first inhabitants of Middle-earth who were able to speak. They are sometimes called the Firstborn or the Elder Kindred (as opposed to Men, the Second Ones). The Elves named themselves Quendi ("the Speakers"), in honour of the fact that, when they were created, they were the only living things able to speak. (This name is no accident — Tolkien was a linguist.) Oromë was the first who called them the Eldar ("Star People") because they were born under the stars, but the name is generally considered to exclude the Avari. Elves are described as the fairest and wisest of all creatures in Middle-earth, lovers of art (particularly songs, which they sing in beautiful voices). Many Elves are also stronger than Men and have far sharper senses. The Ñoldorin Elves in particular possess skills and knowledge which to Men appear to be "magic." Their memories and dreams are as vivid as real life. Their most notable feature is that they are immortal and do not age nor catch disease. However, they can be slain. If this happens their spirits go to the Halls of Mandos in Valinor. After a certain period of time (probably inspired by the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory), they are re-embodied, and stay in Valinor forevermore. An exception to this was Glorfindel. Other than being slain, Elves can also die of a broken heart or grief. Tolkien's Elves were a representation of what human beings might have become, had they not committed the original sin. They were mostly morally just, as no Elves willingly joined Morgoth or Sauron, the Enemies, although they could be deceived. But exceptions exist like that of Maeglin, who betrayed Gondolin to save his life and for the love of Idril, his cousin. Further, the invulnerability to diseases were granted to them and that they could recover from wounds which would normally kill a mortal Man. However this also made the Elves less flexible in terms of adjusting to an otherwise fallen, ever-changing world. It should be noted that Tolkien's Elves differ greatly from elves of older folklore, as well as most modern fantasy elves. His Elves were very much human, if Unfallen. (A reference to the Fall of Man.) Aside from being equal or greater in stature to Men, the now clichéd special affinity with forests and bows is largely an accident, resulting from the fact that the most prominent Elven character in The Lord of the Rings, Legolas, is a Wood-elven archer. The trip to Lórien furthers the perception that most Elves live in trees and carry bows, while we learn from Tolkien's other writings that his Elves were just as likely to live in caves (Nargothrond) or mountain fortresses (Gondolin), and the Ñoldor are more often known for their mighty swords. In addition, there are no explicit references to "pointy ears" in The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion. We know that Tolkien's Elves did, in fact, have pointed ears only because of Tolkien's letters and a passage in the Etymologies (published in The Lost Road and Other Writings, corrected in Vinyar Tengwar issue 45), where Tolkien states that, "the Quendian [Elvish] ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped than Human." However, practical considerations, including a number of occasions where Men are mistaken for Elves, suggest that the points must have been subtle, quite different from the large ears of Elfquest or the extremely long, narrow elf-ears in some anime such as Record of Lodoss War. Another oversimplification is the notion that all Elves were blonde: in fact most of the Elves in Middle-earth during the period of The Lord of the Rings were probably dark-haired. Lúthien Tinúviel and her remote descendant Arwen Undómiel, described as the most fair of all Elves, were both dark haired. In general the Vanyar Elves were blonde, and the other Elves (including Ñoldor, Sindar, and Avari) had dark or even black hair. This is however a great oversimplification: the younger Ñoldorin princes and their descendants (such as Galadriel) had blonde hair on account of Finwë's second wife Indis of the Vanyar. Even the sons of Fëanor, the eldest Ñoldorin prince, were not all dark-haired: at least Maedhros and the twins Amrod and Amras had red hair, from their mother Nerdanel. Additionally a silver hair colour existed in the royal house of the Sindar, with Thingol, Círdan, and Celeborn all described as having silver hair. Galadriel displayed an extremely rare hair colour nowhere else observed: "silver-golden" hair, said to be dazzlingly beautiful ("blending the light of the Two Trees, Telperion and Laurelin"), which may have been a result of her unusual mixed Noldor-Vanyar-Teleri heritage. The stories of the First Age deal mostly with the Elves, especially those who did not heed the call of the Valar and stayed behind in the various kingdoms of Beleriand, and those who later returned, as Men only appear in the later stories. Elves are here in their youth, and are powerful enough to actually challenge Melkor, a being of angelic might. After the end of the First Age, the Elves of Middle-earth are still powerful enough to hold off Sauron, and create Rings of Power which can actually slow the effects of time. However, by the Third Age (the time of The Lord of the Rings), their importance in affairs of the world is diminishing, and only a few of them are left in the refuges of Rivendell, Lothlórien, and Mirkwood. Many of them can be seen walking west, towards the Grey Havens, to leave Middle-earth forever. Therefore few of them are to remain in Middle-earth after the end of the Third Age, when the One Ring was destroyed. Some important Elves:
- Imin, Tata, and Enel - the first Elves that awoke in Cuiviénen
- Iminyë, Tatië, and Enelyë - the wives of Imin, Tata, and Enel respectively
- Ingwë (High King of the Vanyar and High King of all the Elves)
- Elwë (called Elu Thingol, King of Doriath and High King of the Sindar)
- Olwë (Brother of Thingol, King of Alqualondë and High King of the Teleri)
- Finwë (First High King of the Ñoldor)
- Fëanor (Crafter of the Silmarils, second High King of the Ñoldor, greatest of the Elves)
- Finrod Felagund (King of Nargothrond, elder brother of Galadriel, Anrod, and Aegnor)
- Galadriel (Lady of Lórien, greatest Lady of the Ñoldor)
- Celeborn (Lord of Lórien)
- Celebrimbor (forger of the Rings of Power)
- Gil-galad (High King of the Ñoldor during the Last Alliance of Elves and Men)
- Círdan (wisest of the Sindar)
- Legolas (also called Greenleaf, one of the Nine Walkers)
- Lúthien (daughter of Thingol, wife of the Man Beren, fairest of all Children of Ilúvatar) Half-elven:
- Dior Eluchil (son of Beren and Lúthien, Thingol's heir)
- Elros (first High King of Númenor)
- Elrond (Master of Rivendell)
- Arwen (Queen to King Elessar)
- Elladan and Elrohir (The sons of Elrond and brothers of Arwen) :See also: Awakening of the Elves, Sundering of the Elves, Elvish language
- Category:Middle-earth races

Númenor

Númenor is a fictional location from J. R. R. Tolkien's universe of Middle-earth and is intended to be his version of Atlantis. From the Quenya Númenórë: "West-land", which Tolkien translated as Westernesse (it was Anadûnê in the Númenórean language).

Geography

Númenórean language Númenor was a rather large island in the middle of the Western Sea. The island itself was in the shape of a 5-point star, each point having its own geological and physical features. It was considered to be made up of six distinct regions, the five points plus a central area.
- Forostar (Northlands)
- Andustar (Westlands)
- Hyarnustar (Southwestlands)
- Hyarrostar (Southeastlands)
- Orrostar (Eastlands)
- Mittalmar (Inlands) The island had a mountain in the center known as Meneltarma (Pillar of the Heavens); it is suggested that the island itself is of volcanic origin. Meneltarma is the highest location on the entire island and was considered sacred by the Númenóreans as a shrine of God, Eru Ilúvatar. Only the Kings of Númenor were allowed to speak on the summit. It was said that on a clear day the 'far-sighted' might see Tol Eressëa, the island east of Valinor proper which along with it comprised the Undying Lands. The lower slopes of the mountain were gentle grass-covered, however, near the summit the slopes became more vertical and could not be ascended easily. The kings later built a spiraling road to the peak, beginning at the southern tip of the mountain and winding up to the lip of the summit in the north. The summit, however, was unique in that it was flattened and somewhat depressed, and was said to be able to "contain a great multitude". It was considered the most sacred spot of Númenor; no one ever set foot there and nothing was ever built throughout the entire history of the island. The island itself was tilted southward and a little westward; the northern coasts were all steep sea cliffs.

Culture

The population of Númenor chiefly consisted of Men (the Edain); although before the Shadow fell on the island the westernmost cities such as Andunie contained a small population of Elves because of the frequent visits from Tol Eressëa. They were known as the Númenóreans, or rather, Kings among Men. The Númenóreans were extremely skilled in arts and craft, with the forging of weapons and armour; but the Númenóreans were not warmongers, hence the chief art on the island became that of ship-building and sea-craft. The Númenóreans became great mariners, exploring the world in all directions save for the westward, where the Ban of the Valar was in force. They oft travelled to the shores of Middle-earth, teaching the men there the art and craft, and introduced farming as to improve their everyday lives. The Númenóreans, too, became skilled in the art of husbandry, breeding great horses that roamed across the open plains in Mittalmar. Although the Númenóreans were a peaceful people, their weapons, armour, and horse-riding skills could not be contested anywhere else in Arda, save for the Valar.

Plant life

Númenor contained many species of plants that could be found nowhere in Middle-earth, for many of them were given to the Númenóreans from the Valar in Aman. Most important of these was the White Tree that dwelt in the King's Palace at Armenelos; it was the symbol of Men thereafter, in both Númenor, Arnor, and Gondor. The other parts of Númenor contained many types of plants, many unique to each of the promontories of the island. Andustar contained great forests of beech and birch at the higher ground, and oak and elm forests are lower altitudes. The greatest delight of the Númenóreans, however, were the flowers given to them by the Eldar. They grew mostly in the Western portion (Andustar). They are oft remembered in song and lore, and few have flowered east of Númenor.
- Ololairë
- Lairelossë
- Nessamelda
- Vardarianna
- Taniquelassë
- Yavannamíre Because of the diversity of wildlife in Andustar, it was soon called Nisimaldar, or the Fragrant Trees. Also only in Andustar could the Golden Tree be found, Malinornë. In Hyarrostar grew the tree Laurinquë, which the Númenorans loved because of their flowers. They believed that it came from the Great Tree of Valinor, Laurelin.

History

Númenor was the kingdom of the Dúnedain, located on an island in the Great Sea, between Middle-earth and Aman. The land was brought up from the sea as a gift to Men. It was also called Elenna ("Starwards") because the Dúnedain were led to it by the star of Eärendil, and because the island was in the shape of a five-pointed star. At the center of the island was a mountain named Meneltarma, which the Dúnedain used as a temple to Ilúvatar. The largest city and capital of Númenor was Armenelos. Númenor had only two rivers: Siril which began at Meneltarma and ended in a small delta near the city of Nindamos, and the Nunduinë, which reached the sea in the Bay of Eldanna near the haven Eldalondë. Elros son of Eärendil was the first King of Númenor, taking the name of Tar-Minyatur ("First King"). Under his rule (year 32 to 442 of the Second Age), and those of his descendants, Men rose to become a powerful race. The first ships sailed from Númenor to Middle-earth in the year 600 of the Second Age. The Númenóreans were forbidden by the Valar from sailing so far westward that Númenor was no longer visible, for fear that they would come upon the Undying Lands, to which Men could not come. Over time the Númenóreans came to resent the Ban of the Valar and to rebel against their authority, seeking the everlasting life that they believed was begrudged them. They tried to compensate this by going eastward and colonizing large parts of Middle-earth, first in a friendly way, but later as tyrants. Soon the Númenóreans came to rule a great but terrorizing maritime empire that had no rival. Few (the "Faithful") remained loyal to the Valar and friendly to the Elves. In the year 3255 of the Second Age, the 25th king, Ar-Pharazôn, sailed to Middle-earth. Seeing the might of Númenor, Sauron agreed to be the king's captive, and he was brought back to Númenor. Sauron soon became an advisor to the King and promised the Númenóreans eternal life if they worshipped Melkor. With Sauron as his advisor, Ar-Pharazôn had a 500 foot tall temple to Melkor erected, in which he offered human sacrifices to Melkor. During this time, the white tree Nimloth the Fair, whose fate was said to be tied to the line of kings, was chopped down and burned as a sacrifice to Melkor. Isildur rescued a fruit of the tree which became the White Tree of Gondor, preserving the ancient line of trees. Prompted by Sauron and fearing death and old age, Ar-Pharazôn built a great armada and set sail into the west to make war upon the Valar and seize the Undying Lands. Sauron remained behind. In the year 3319 of the Second Age, Ar-Pharazôn landed on Aman and marched to the city of Valimar. Manwë, chief of the angelic Valar, called upon Ilúvatar, who broke and changed the world, taking Aman and Tol Eressëa from the world forever, changing the world's shape from flat to round, sinking Númenor and killing its inhabitants, including the body of Sauron who was thereby robbed of his ability to assume fair and charming forms. Elendil, son of the leader of the Faithful during the reign of Ar-Pharazôn, his sons and his followers had foreseen the disaster that was to befall Númenor, and they had set sail in nine ships before the island fell. They landed in Middle-earth, and founded the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. After its fall Númenor was called Atalantë, meaning "the Downfallen", in the Quenya language. (The similarity with Atlantis is obvious, although Tolkien described his invention of the name as a happy accident when he realised that the Quenya root meaning "fallen" could be incorporated into a name referring to Númenor.) Other names after the Downfall include Mar-nu-Falmar ("Land under the Waves") and Akallabêth ("the Downfallen" in Adûnaic). The story of the rise and downfall of Númenor is told in the Akallabêth. Notes:
- The cartoon series Ulysses 31 includes a character called Numinor, whose name may be derivative of Númenor.
- C. S. Lewis's novel That Hideous Strength makes reference to "Numinor [sic] and the True West", which Lewis credits as a then-unpublished creation of J. R. R. Tolkien. This is one of many examples of cross-overs between the novels of Lewis and Tolkien, both of whom were members of The Inklings, a literary discussion group at Oxford University. See also: List of rulers of Númenor

External links


- [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~sdgeard/hccnum.html A History and Complete Chronology of Númenor] - A detailed chronology of Númenor, its successor states and their rulers.
- [http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/num-intro.htm The Optimal LotR Prequel Movie] - a suggestion to the effect that the story of the Downfall of Númenor could be adapted as a "prequel" to Peter Jackson's Tolkien trilogy. A partial "treatment" for such a movie is included. Category:Realms of Middle-earth ja:ヌーメノール

Akallabêth

Akallabêth is the fourth part of the fictional work The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is relatively short, consisting of about thirty pages.

Synopsis

Akallabêth (The Downfallen in Adûnaic; Quenya is Atalantë) is the story of the destruction of the Kingdom of Númenor, written by Elendil. At the end of the First Age (described in detail in the Quenta Silmarillion), those of Men who had been helping Elves in their fight against Melkor were given a new small continent of their ow