The Complete Tolkien Companion (14 page)

Fifteen years after the Dagor Bragollach came the fifth and last Battle of Beleriand, which the Elves called
Nirnaeth Arnoediad,
‘Unnumbered Tears', or the Day of Lamentation. It is not called a battle. Morgoth was utterly victorious and the Elf-kingdoms and the realms of Men were extinguished. And yet it had been intended to be a victory for the Eldar; indeed, the day was planned to begin with the enemies of Morgoth manoeuvring on the plains of Anfauglith (Ard-galen), in order to decoy Morgoth into a trap. But Morgoth was fully informed of their intentions (by
ULDOR THE ACCURSED
), and himself sprang his enemies' snare, before they were ready. Treachery within the ranks of the allies nullified their abundant heroism; and Fingon, High King, was slain. Only the host of Gondolin made a successful retreat from that field. The last military hope of the Elves and the Edain was destroyed for ever. Henceforward Morgoth was Lord of Middle-earth. The War of the Great Jewels had been fought – and lost.

Battles of the Fords of Isen
(3019 Third Age) – Two fierce clashes, only days apart, which took place during the War of the Ring between the Rohirrim of Westfold and the armies of Saruman the White, lord of Isengard. Both battles were fought at the strategic Fords of Isen, chief crossing-point into Rohan from the north. The first occurred on February 25th, when Théodred, son of King Théoden and Second Marshal of the Mark, was slain – although the Rohirrim were rallied by Erkenbrand, lord of Westfold, and the Isengarders were held at the river. Nevertheless, the Orcs and Wild Men attacked again, on March 2nd, and in the torrent Erkenbrand was swept away. The Army of Isengard poured into Rohan, but was afterwards crushed before the walls of Helm's Deep.
5

Battle-Under-Stars
– A translation of
Dagor-nuin-Giliath; see
BATTLES OF BELERIAND
.

Bauglir
‘The Gaoler' (Sind.) – One of the names given to Morgoth by the Elves of Middle-earth.

Bay of Belfalas
– ‘The Windy Bay of Bel', greatest bay in western Middle-earth, lying between Cape Andrast and Umbar.

Bay of Eldanna
– The westernmost and most beautiful bay in Númenor, directly facing Tol Eressëa in the West. It lay between the cape-provinces of Andustar and Hyarnustar, and its chief port was
ELDALONDË THE GREEN
.

Beacon-hills
– From time immemorial Gondor used every means of communication available to her in order to safeguard and unite the realm. The most useful aids were, of course, the
palantíri,
the Seeing-stones of Númenor. But with the waning of the Third Age, many of these Stones were lost, and Gondor was forced to revive older, more primitive means of swift communication with her provinces and allies. The chain of seven hills in the eastern range of the White Mountains, running through the province of Anórien from Minas Tirith to the Firienwood on the borders of Rohan, might have been placed there specifically for Gondor's purposes. A beacon lit on one summit could be made out from the next, and so on; in this way a warning – of invasion or any other sudden peril – might be passed between Rohan and Gondor in the time it took to kindle seven baskets of pitch-soaked firewood.

The seven beacon-hills of Anórien were: Halifirien (the most northerly), Calenhad, Min-Rimmon, Erelas, Nardol, Eilenach, and Amon Dîn (the southernmost).
Eilenach
and
Rimmon
were in a forgotten tongue, the language of the Men of the White Mountains during the Dark Years.

‘Beater' and ‘Biter'
– Translations of Orc-epithets given in antiquity to the famous Elf-swords
Glamdring
(‘Foe-hammer') and
Orcrist
(‘Goblin-cleaver'). The weapons were discovered by members of Thorin Oakenshield's expedition to Erebor (2941 Third Age), in a Trolls' lair.

Beechbone
– An Ent of Fangorn; sadly, a fatality in the Ents' assault upon Isengard during the War of the Ring.

Belecthor I
– From 2628–55 Third Age, the fifteenth Ruling Steward of Gondor.

Belecthor II
– From 2811–72 Third Age, the twenty-first Ruling Steward of Gondor. The last White Tree of Minas Tirith died with him and, ominously, no sapling could then be found to replace it. The dead Tree was left standing.

Beleg
– From 946–1029 Third Age, the second King of Arthedain.

Belegaer
‘Great-Sea [of the West]' (Sind.) – The name given in Beleriand to the ocean which separated the shores of Valinor from the coastlands of Middle-earth.

Beleg Cúthalion
– One of the mightiest of the Grey-elves of Beleriand in the Elder Days, chief of the Marchwardens of Thingol's Hidden Kingdom of Doriath and friend and companion of Túrin Turambar. Beleg, named
Cúthalion
(‘the Strong Bow'), was Thingol's chief captain, fought at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and took a part in many of the deeds of those times. Among these was the Hunting of Carcharoth, in company with Beren and Thingol himself. In later years Beleg was bidden by Thingol to seek out and safeguard Túrin Húrin's son, who was Thingol's ward. Beleg indeed found Túrin, and afterwards fought at his side in a little-known campaign in the lands of the upper Teiglin, during the years following the Nirnaeth. At the onset of this quest, Thingol had given to Beleg an ancient sword from his armoury, named
ANGLACHEL
. Now Beleg wielded the weapon more often than his great bow, for this war was at close quarters. But the refuge of the outlaws (for such they were) was betrayed. Beleg was badly wounded and left for dead in the attack which followed: Túrin was taken alive by the Orcs, who bore him away northward towards Angband. But Beleg recovered, and, with the aid of a refugee Elf named Gwindor, hunted down the Orcs who had captured Túrin. Then Beleg went stealthily to release the unconscious Túrin, but in severing his friend's bonds the black sword Anglachel slipped, and its point struck Túrin's foot – he awakened, and slew Beleg in the dark, thinking him an Orc. Túrin grieved greatly for his friend, and made a song afterwards, named
Laer Cu Beleg,
the Song of the Great Bow. Beleg's sword, Anglachel, he took for himself, and bore it until his life's end.

Belegorn
– From 2148–2204 Third Age, the fourth Ruling Steward of Gondor.

Belegost
‘Mighty-fortress' (Sind.) – The name given by the Elves to the Dwarf-city of Gabilgathol, built by the Dwarves early in the First Age in the east of the Blue Mountains, north of Mount Dolmed. It was known to Men as
Mickleburg.
From here, and from their other great city of Nogrod (
Tumunzahar,
the ‘Hollow-Peak'), the Dwarves mounted journeys and trading expeditions into Thingol's Beleriand. They were thus the first new ‘speaking-peoples' encountered by the Sindar.
6
Soon afterwards Thingol sought the counsel of the Dwarves of Belegost, and they aided him in the planning and building of Menegroth, the ‘Thousand Caves' of Doriath; for this service they were paid in pearls. Intercourse between the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains and the High-elves, however, was less happy. The Noldor for the most part despised the ‘Stunted People', as they called them, and Caranthir the son of Fëanor, who held the easternmost regions of Beleriand, nearest to the Dwarf-kingdoms, was haughty in his dealing with them. But mounting danger drew the Dwarves and the Eldar closer together, and a satisfactory trading partnership was eventually arranged, to the mutual profit of both parties.

The first name of any King of Belegost to be recorded by the Eldar is that of Azaghâl, who brought his people to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and fought faithfully in alliance with the Sons of Fëanor. It was the Dwarves of Belegost, armoured and masked against dragon-fire, who defeated the Dragon Glaurung, though Azaghâl himself was killed in the fight. But the defeat of the Eldar in the War against Morgoth brought about a further sundering of Elves and Dwarves. Dwarves from Nogrod slew King Thingol in his own hall, and tried to steal the Nauglamir, which had been made long before by their forefathers for Finrod of Nargothrond. The Dwarves of Belegost, however, did not side with their kinsmen in this deed, or in the grievous deeds which followed. Like all peoples, the Dwarves were caught in the ruin of Beleriand: the Sea flowed in to cover Beleriand, and a great gulf was carved into the Blue Mountains, casting down Mount Dolmed and drowning the cities of Nogrod and Belegost, though they had lain on the eastern side of the mountains. But the survivors went to Moria in after years, swelling its numbers, and true to the tradition of their forefathers, soon struck up another agreeable relationship with the Noldor – which came to nothing, or nearly nothing, in the end.

Belegund
– One of the Edain of the First House, the son of Bregolas brother of Barahir, and elder brother of Baragund; Belegund was also the father of Rían wife of Huor (of the Third House) and thus the grandfather of Tuor and great-grandsire of Eärendil the Mariner. (His younger brother Baragund was the grandsire of Túrin Turambar.) Belegund and his brother were among the twelve companions of Barahir on Dorthonion, outlaws who waged guerrilla warfare against the forces of Morgoth in the years following the Dagor Bragollach; both were among those of their band slain by Orcs after their betrayal by Gorlim the Unhappy.

Belemir
– One of the Chieftains of the Edain of the First Age; the grandson of Bëor the Old of the First House, descended from Bëor's second son Belen. He wedded Adanel of the Third House, and their granddaughter was Emeldir ‘the Manhearted', mother of
BEREN ERCHAMION
.

Belen
– The second son of Bëor the Old of the First House of the Edain. He was the direct forefather of
BEREN ERCHAMION
.

Beleriand
‘Country of Balar' (Sind.) – The land of the Grey-elves during the Elder Days, and the most westerly Elven-realm anywhere in Middle-earth, until its sudden destruction at the end of the First Age.

Its discovery by the Elves came at the end of their ‘Great Journey'; for generations they had been moving ever West into the wide and beautiful lands that lay beyond, following the call of the Valar, who had summoned all of Elvenkind across the Sea to Valinor in order to guard them from the evil of Melkor. Two of the Kindreds completed the Journey, passing through Beleriand and taking ship into the Uttermost West, where ever after they dwelt in bliss. However, most of the third Kindred, afterwards called
Sindar
(Grey-elves), fell so deeply in love with the lands west of the Ered Luin (Blue Mountains) that they lingered on the coasts and in the forests, unmoved as yet by the Sea-longing and taking instead a keen delight in the forests, rivers, meads and mountains of their new country. Thingol Greycloak, father of Lúthien Tinúviel, was their King. Later, many of the Grey-elves' long-sundered Noldorin Kindred – ‘High-elves' of Eldamar – rebelled against the Valar and came back to Middle-earth in exile. In their attempts to recover the stolen Silmarils by force from the renegade Vala Morgoth, these High-elves received some aid from their Grey-elven kin and (later) from Men. All were, in the end, completely defeated, and Beleriand became infested by evil things from Angband. But in the end Morgoth the Enemy was overthrown; his evil realm in the North was destroyed, and Beleriand itself was overwhelmed in the same cataclysm and cast under the waves. At the beginning of the Second Age, all that remained was Lindon (the former country of Ossiriand), divided into the two capes of Forlindon and Harlindon. Havens were established there. Throughout the Second Age this last remnant of ancient Beleriand was ruled by Gil-galad son of Fingon, last High-elven king in Middle-earth.

Belfalas
– The name given to both the greatest bay in western Middle-earth and an adjacent coastal province of Gondor, a cape which thrust into the Bay of Belfalas from north of the Anduin delta. The chief city of the province was the sea-washed tower of Dol Amroth, with its ancient Elf-havens on the shores below.

Belladonna Baggins
– The well-to-do and reputedly eccentric wife of Bungo and mother of Bilbo Baggins. She was a child of Gerontius, ‘the Old Took'.

Bell Gamgee
– Wife of Hamfast Gamgee (‘the Gaffer'), and the mother of Samwise.

Belmarie
– A poetic invention in the Hobbit style, supposedly a name of Elvish origin. It occurs in the poem ‘Errantry',
7
and refers to a fanciful Elf-kingdom.

Belthil
‘Holy-light' (Sind.) – The name given by King Turgon of Gondolin to the Image he wrought of the Tree Telperion; it stood in the Tower of the King, together with its sister-tree, Glingal, the Image of Laurelin the Golden. Both were destroyed in the sack of Gondolin.

Belthronding
– The name given by Beleg the Elf to his great bow.

Béma
– The name given in the Northern Mannish tongue to the Vala Araw (Sind.), whose High-elven name was
Oromë.

Bent World
– A term for Earth, in its later (and current) ‘marred' aspect as a spherical body; as opposed to the ‘Straight World' of remote antiquity.

Bëor (the Old)
– The name given by his people to Balan, chieftain of the First House of the Edain, after he had abdicated his chieftainship (in favour of his son Baran) in order to go to Nargothrond and serve the Elven-king Finrod. He was the first of the Edain to take service with one of the Noldor. (
Bëor
means ‘vassal' in the Mannish tongue of that time.) Bëor, or Balan, had been the leader of the first Mannish people ever to enter Beleriand; and from the moment he first spoke with Finrod, his allegiance to the Eldar seems never to have been in doubt. For this reason members of his House were afterwards treated with great honour by the Eldar. He was a forefather of all the heroes and Elf-friends among the Edain. Bëor died in his 84th year.