The Complete Tolkien Companion (27 page)

At all events, while Elves were often unfriendly, it was the Dragons of Middle-earth who were traditionally the Dwarves' most deadly enemies. In this, the Dwarves' own fabulous wealth was their undoing: rumours of some Dwarf-hoard would, nigh and again, reach the ears of one of these avaricious beasts and he would rise up in wrath (and greed), coming against the Dwarf-settlement with fire and claw. Sometimes the Dragon would perish, pierced through by sharp spears and finally dispatched with axe-strokes; more frequently the Worm would conquer, destroying his foes with great gouts of flame and then systematically exterminating the survivors. That attended to, the Dragon would gather all the wealth and weapons into one vast bed, to lie there in watchful sleep till slain by adventurers or dead of old age. As Dragons were extremely difficult to slay (and hardly ever died of old age), a course of events such as this frequently meant permanent exile for the hapless Dwarves – unless some great warrior could be paid to slay the Worm. As exile usually meant penury, the treasure more often remained where it lay.

However, the prerequisite great warriors certainly existed even if their services could not often be employed. The emerging race of Men was a race of Heroes and some of them went in for Dragon-slaying on their own account. And here lie the origins of unfriendly relations between Dwarves and Men; for Dwarves were never slow to claim their own – and a warrior, having won a Dragon-hoard at great cost, was understandably reluctant to yield it up. Many early kingdoms of Men were founded on such hoards – and this did not improve relations between them and the dispossessed owners.

Whatever their relations with Men and Elves – and these were not always bad – Dwarves, like other races, regarded Orcs with unpitying hate. The Orcs, of course, coveted Dwarf-hoards as much as anyone else (not least for the matchless weaponry to be found there); and, as both races habitually dwelt underground, battle and cruel deeds between them were a common occurrence. The Dwarves defended their treasure with grim determination but, as the forces of evil grew in numbers and strength, many of their ancient mansions were taken from them. Even so, the Orcs never managed to enter Moria until the Dwarves were expelled by an enemy of far greater power, late in the Third Age. And even in those fading days, something of the old fire of the Naugrim of the First Age still lingered in the hearts of the Dwarves. But, like the Elves, they had long been a dwindling people, and ceaseless plundering of their ancient works had left them too long without secure dwellings. As a result, few of their records survived, and thus little further is known of their history or lore. For they were a secretive people and few of other race ever succeeded in learning their ancient tongue,
Khuzdul
(‘The-Speech-of-the-Khazâd'), apart from such words as the Dwarves themselves still used openly.

Dwarves were small, stout and bearded, wore heavy boots and great hoods over their leather jerkins and mail hauberks. They fought with axes and laid their dead under stone engraved with elf-runes, long adapted to their own language. They were grasping, industrious, fierce, jealous, brave, loyal – and unflinching in labour or adversity. With metal and stone and with all things of craft, they were wondrously skilled. But like the Elves, their days in Middle-earth are long past, and the proud race of the Khazâd is now little more – and often less – than a folk-memory to Men of later days.

Dwarvish
– Khuzdul, the secret language of the Dwarves.

Dwimmerlaik
– A name used in Rohan for a ghost or unclean spectre.

Dwimorberg
– The ‘Haunted Mountain' of the
Ered Nimrais
(the White Mountains). It rose above the ancient Hold of Dunharrow. Under it, a dark road ran from the Hold (in Rohan) to the Vale of Morthond (in Gondor).

Dwimordene
‘Haunted-valley' – The name used among Northern Men for the (to them) legendary land of Lothlórien.

Eä
‘Let it Be' (Q.) – According to High-elven tradition, the Word spoken by God (Ilúvatar) when He caused the material universe to come into Being at the Creation; afterwards the name of the Universe itself.

Eagles
– The greatest birds of Middle-earth; in origin a direct manifestation of the Thought of Manwë, Lord of the Valar (or so the Eldar believed) in the same way that all things that grow upon the earth were in origin a manifestation of the thought of Yavanna Kementári – and all evils traceable to Melkor.

The Eagles of Manwë were not evil, nor was any other race ever able to dominate them. In the youth of the world, before evil stirred, they dwelt in the treetops; but after the rebellion of the Noldor and the Darkening of Valinor, Manwë desired through his messengers to learn what was passing in Mortal Lands, and commanded the children of his thought to leave their arboreal dwellings, and henceforth live among the crags and peaks of the mountains, the loftiest of all dwellings of Middle-earth. So the Eagles came for the first time to their eyries.

In those far-off days they were far greater in size than their descendants: Thorondor, their first King, who dwelt with his people in the Crissaegrim and the Encircling Mountains, is said to have had a wing span of thirty fathoms, or 180 feet. On many occasions the power, speed and courage of the Eagles led by Thorondor were of help to the Eldar in the turmoils of the First Age; but after the drowning of Beleriand, the Eagles removed further east, to the Misty Mountains, where they afterwards dwelt among the high peaks. Among them was a House of princes, descendants of old Thorondor, who were greater in size than Eagles of other families, having prodigious wingbreadth and powerful talons. These, when not used for hunting, were employed against Orcs: for there was a great feud between the Eagles and the Goblins of the Misty Mountains in the later Third Age, especially after the Orcs attempted to re-establish themselves in the high passes during the years which followed the Battle of Azanulbizar (2799).

By the time of Thorin Oakenshield's 2941 expedition across the Mountains, the Orcs of the Misty Mountains were firmly in control of the passes and, in alliance with the wolves of Wilderland, were already beginning to trouble the lands of the upper vales of Anduin. Thorin's party was assailed by a host of these Goblins, and was in great danger when the Eagles, observing the commotion from afar, swept down to rescue the members of the expedition from a fiery fate. In this way an alliance was formed with the great birds, resulting in the Eagles' crucial assistance at the Battle of Five Armies later that same year.

The Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains continued to preserve their friendship with Gandalf the Grey, who had accompanied the Dwarves' expedition, though it was many years before they were again called upon to lend their strength and speed to the common cause against Sauron. Gwaihir the Windlord, King of the Eagles, himself rescued Gandalf from imprisonment in Saruman's Tower of Orthanc in the year 3018 and, the following year, from the peak of the mountain Celebdil after the Wizard's epic struggle with the Balrog. For the final battle with Sauron at the Black Gate, the Eagles sent all their host; and Gwaihir, together with his brother Landroval and kinsman Meneldor, rescued Frodo and Samwise from imminent death at the feet of Orodruin, after the Ring had been destroyed and Sauron cast down.

The Great Eagles were noble birds, fleet and swift, proud and independent – and often cruel and merciless to their foes. Yet they were true allies, and on many occasions their aid staved off certain defeat for the armies of Elves and Men. For these services they were richly rewarded by their friends. They afterwards returned to their high fastness among the peaks of the Misty Mountains.

Eämbar
‘Sea-dwelling' (Q.) – The name given to the great ship built by Aldarion of Númenor to serve as a floating house and command centre combined. It was generally moored against Tol Uinen, an island in the Bay of Rómenna: the ship also served as the meeting-halls of the
GUILD OF VENTURERS
.

Eärendil
‘Sea-lover' (Q.) – The son of Tuor of the Second House of the Edain and Idril, daughter of Turgon, King of High-elven Gondolin in the First Age. Their child was born in Gondolin before its fall and, escaping the sack, was brought to manhood on the shores of Beleriand, which for a while remained free of the Shadow. He later wedded the Elf-maiden Elwing the White, daughter of Dior, son of Lúthien Tinúviel, thus uniting the remnants of the peoples of Gondolin and Doriath. He dwelt for a while in Arvernien, on the shores of the Bay of Balar. On the death (or departure) of his father and mother, he became lord of this last Elven-people; it was at this time that he wedded Elwing.

Eärendil had long harboured a twofold purpose in his heart: to sail the Sea, seeking for his beloved parents, and to come to the Undying Lands and there beseech the aid of the Valar against Morgoth. From his boyhood a love of the Sea had filled him, and so, in his manhood, he determined at last to implement these desires. With the aid of Círdan the Shipwright he built the ship Vingilot, from birchen planks of the wood of Nimbrethil. Then he set sail. Three times he attempted to pass the Shadows which barred the way West – and three times a wind of wrath arose and drove his ship away. In the end, defeated, he turned back.

The oldest form of Eärendil's legendarium states that he was now joined by his wife Elwing, who had taken on the likeness of a sea-bird; she brought with her the Silmaril of Doriath; and its holy radiance enabled them at last to pass the Shadows and so come to the shores of Eldamar. There he was received by Eonwë, Herald of the Valar, and prepared for his further journey into the hidden land beyond the Pelóri, highest mountains in the world. Eärendil duly passed through the Calacirya, the ‘Light-cleft', now dark and forlorn, into Valimar. His embassy was heard by the Valar, who were at last persuaded to send a force to the aid of Elves and Men of Middle-earth oppressed by Morgoth and his servants.

Eärendil's fate is not known for sure, though it is certain he never again came to Middle-earth. The most hallowed tales maintain that he was bidden to sail the evening sky for ever, in a ship made of mithril and elven-glass, with the Silmaril affixed to his prow, shining as a beacon-star and a symbol of Hope to all dwellers in Middle-earth.

The seed of Eärendil lived on in mortal lands. His sons Elros and Elrond, the
Peredhil
or Half-elven, each founded great dynasties of Men and Elves. Elros became first King of Númenor, and Elrond was the mightiest Chief of Elves and Men during the Third Age.

Also the name of the fifth King of Gondor, who ruled from 238–324 Third Age.

Eärendil's Star
– The Evening Star.

Eärendur
‘Sea-lover' (Q.) – The younger brother of King Tar-Elendil of Númenor, born in 361 Second Age; also the name of one of the Lords of Andúnië, a descendant (through the Lady Silmariën) of Elros Tar-Minyatur, and a forefather of Elendil the Tall. The name was used a third time for the tenth and last King of Arnor, who ruled from 777–861 Third Age.

Eärenya
‘Sea-day' (Q.) – The sixth day of the Númenorean week. The Númenoreans, who were great mariners, desired to add a further day to the ancient Elvish
enquië
they had previously used; Eärenya was inserted between the former fifth and sixth days to produce a seven-day week – which was eventually adopted by almost all the Westron-speaking peoples of Middle-earth. This day was known to the Dúnedain of Middle-earth in its Grey-elven form,
Oraearon;
the Hobbits called it
Meresdei
(later
Mersday
).

Eärnil I
‘Sea-lover' (Q.) – From 913–36 Third Age, the thirteenth King of Gondor and second of the four ‘Ship-kings' who expanded the realm during the first millennium of the Age. Eärnil was the nephew of Tarannon Falastur, ‘Lord-of-the-Coasts', who had died childless; and he came to the throne with Falastur's great victories to consolidate. In particular, Eärnil purposed to extend Gondor's sway further south, as far as the Cape of Umbar, which was then occupied by a colony of Black Númenoreans, old enemies of the Dúnedain of Gondor. To this end, he rebuilt the ancient Númenorean haven of Pelargir on the lower reaches of Anduin, where he amassed a great fleet; and he took Umbar, which then became a fortress of Gondor. He was later lost at sea.

Eärnil II
– From 1945–2043 Third Age, the thirty-second King of Gondor and one of the greatest warriors in her history. Though he came to the throne by merit rather than royalty, Eärnil proved sure of hand, true of word and a mighty ruler. He was Captain of Gondor's Southern Army at the time (1944) when the Wainriders' Confederacy made their last and greatest assault upon Gondor. King Ondoher and both his sons were slain in battle with these Easterlings, and the Wainriders poured into North Ithilien. There they camped and prepared to march across the Anduin – where Minas Anor lay defenceless. But in the meantime Eärnil had defeated the southern army of the invaders in a bloody affray at the Crossings of Poros. Wheeling about, he force-marched north and came against the camp of the Wainriders with great strength. His army utterly defeated the Easterlings and drove them northwards out of Ithilien in confusion and terror.