The Complete Tolkien Companion (68 page)

Mountains of Valinor
– The
Pelóri.

Mount Dolmed
–
See
DOLMED
.

Mount Doom
– A translation of the Sindarin
Amon Amarth,
the name given in Gondor to the volcano Orodruin, when it burst into flame to herald Sauron's first assault upon the survivors of Númenor (in 3429 Second Age).

Mount Everwhite
– A translation of the Quenya name
Oiolossë
(also
Taniquetil
), highest of the Mountains of Valinor (the
Pelóri
).

Mount Fang
– A rendering of the Sindarin word
Orthanc
into the Common Speech or Westron. Orthanc was, of course, the great tower of Angrenost (Isengard), built by Gondor late in the Second Age.

Mount Gram
– A northerly peak of the Misty Mountains whose precise location has not been recorded. It was reportedly the dwelling place of the Goblins who, led by Golfimbul, attacked the Shire in 2747 Third Age (1147 Shire Reckoning) and were decisively defeated by Bandobras ‘the Bullroarer' Took at the Battle of Greenfields that same year.

Mount Gundabad
–
See
GUNDABAD
.

Mount Rerir
–
See
RERIR
.

Mount Taras
–
See
TARAS
.

Mouth of Sauron
– This was the self-awarded title of the Lieutenant of the Dark Tower, who conducted all his dark Master's embassies. In origin he was said to have been one of those renegades who settled the coastlands of Middle-earth during the Second Age. Whether or not he actually was of such great age cannot be told, for ‘his name is remembered in no tale…'
16

Mouths of Anduin
– The Great River reached the Sea at Belfalas via a large and complex delta known as the
Ethir Anduin,
the ‘Mouths of Anduin'.

Mouths of Entwash
– After passing through the flat, low-lying country south of the Emyn Muil, the river Entwash meandered into a wide marshy delta, actually greater in size than the Mouths of Anduin. It was a sad country with tall reeds and many birds, but no inhabitants. There were seven Mouths of Entwash, as much as thirty leagues apart, and all flowed into the Great River between the Emyn Muil and Cair Andros.

Mouths of Sirion
– The Sirion delta, in the Bay of Balar. (Possibly a translation of
Ethir Sirion.
)

Mugwort
– A family of Bree-hobbits.

Mûmak
– The origin of this word is not known although it may be in the language of the Men of Harad. The
mûmakil
were pachyderms, giant war-beasts known to the Hobbits (in tales only) as ‘Oliphaunts'.

Mundburg
‘Guardian-fortress' – The name used in Rohan for Minas Tirith, the great fortified city of Gondor.

Mungo Baggins
– The eldest son of Balbo Baggins of Hobbiton, the father of Bungo and the grandfather of Bilbo the Renowned.

Muzgash
– An Orc-soldier of the Tower of Cirith Ungol, a member of Shagrat's company. Like his comrade Lagduf, Muzgash was shot by one of his own race, one of the Orcs of Minas Morgul, who were in hot dispute with the Ungol-orcs over the possession of certain items of booty.
17

Nahald
– In the original (as opposed to translated) Mannish tongues of Northern Wilderland, the personal name
Nahald
meant ‘secret'. In translations from the Red Book this name is rendered
Déagol.

Nahar
– The (onomatopoeically derived) name given in Eldarin tradition to the Horse of the Huntsman of the Valar Oromë.

Náin I
– From 1980–81 Third Age, the last King of Khazâd-dûm (Moria), the great Dwarf-city under the Misty Mountains. His father was Durin VI. In this time the Dwarves were again delving deep in their northern mines, seeking the mother-lode of the mithril-vein which had been the foundation of their wealth. Thus they released (or awakened) an evil spirit of the First Age, still slumbering far beneath the earth. This was the Balrog, who slew Durin, and drove many of the Dwarves far away from Moria.

Nonetheless, under Náin I, their new King, the Dwarves held on to the upper levels of their ancient mansions – but only a year later Náin himself was slain by the Terror that emerged from the Deeps. Following his death the Dwarves abandoned Moria and fled into the North.

Náin II
– From 2488–2585 Third Age, King of the Dwarf-realm which had been established in the Grey Mountains (Ered Mithrin) shortly after the founding of Erebor. Náin was the last King of this once-thriving colony to die peacefully.

Náin (of the Iron Hills)
– The son of Grór, first Lord of the Dwarves of the Iron Hills. In the year 2799 Third Age Náin led an army of his father's people to aid their kinfolk at the Battle of Azanulbizar, the final battle in the six-year War of the Dwarves and Orcs. The host of the Iron Hills did not arrive at the field of conflict until comparatively late in the day, when the Dwarves had already begun to give way in the face of great odds. But the grim warriors of the Iron Hills turned the tide, and soon reached the very gates of Moria, where Náin challenged Azog, the orc-leader, to single combat. Azog, who had avoided all battle up to this point, was much the fresher and stronger and killed the Dwarf, although he was himself slain by Dáin Ironfoot, son of Náin.

Naith
– That part of Lothlórien lying between the rivers Silverlode (Celebrant) and Anduin. The Elves of that land saw the Naith in the shape of a broad spearhead (or gore) whose tip was at Egladil, where they themselves dwelt, near the confluence of the rivers.

Náli
– A Dwarf from the Lonely Mountain and a member of the gallant but ill-fated expedition to Moria led by Balin son of Fundin in 2989 Third Age. The colony failed five years later when overwhelmed by Orcs attacking from the east; together with his comrades Frár and Lóni, Náli fell while holding Durin's Bridge and the Second Hall.

Namárië
‘Farewell' (Q.) – A word of parting used among the High-elves; more specifically, a name for the Lament of Galadriel in Lórien (called Altariello
nainië Lóriendesse
in the Quenya tongue). The verse (or hymn) was recorded and set down in the Red Book of Westmarch by Frodo Baggins, to whom it was originally sung, as a valedictory and parting benison. It is in fact the longest single passage of High-elven speech to be recorded in surviving Annals of the Third Age.

Galadriel, exiled from her ancient home in Eldamar long Ages before the War of the Ring, addresses her song to Frodo the Ring-bearer, bidding him a fair journey and peace at the end of it. Simultaneously, she includes a plea to Elbereth – who hears all words spoken in Middle-earth – asking her blessing on Frodo's Quest and the acceptance of Frodo himself in the Undying Lands after its completion. For Galadriel was the wisest of Elven women then living in Mortal Lands, and her foresight told her that if the Quest succeeded it would be at great personal cost to the Ring-bearer. The verse also speaks indirectly of Galadriel's sorrow at her own long exile from the Undying Lands.

In the event, Galadriel's prayer (for such it was) was heard and answered, and the Ring-bearer was granted the grace she sought for him; and for her own great acts of wisdom and unselfishness – and not least for her rejection of the Ring when it came within her power – Galadriel was herself finally forgiven by the Valar and permitted to return to the West.

Nameless Land
– An epithet used in Gondor for Mordor. During the latter years of the Third Age, after Sauron once again declared himself openly in Mordor, Men of Gondor and the Westlands frequently spoke of ‘the Unnamed' and ‘the Nameless Land', in order to avoid giving substance to what was a very real horror and ever-present threat on the borders of their lives.

Nameless Pass
– Because of the heavy omens associated with it, the Pass of
CIRITH UNGOL
, which lay above Minas Morgul, was spoken of with dread in Gondor – and therefore circumlocution was often employed to avoid naming it (
see
previous entry). ‘If Cirith Ungol is named, old men and masters of lore will blanch and fall silent,' reported Faramir when warning the Ring-bearer to avoid the place.
1

The inhibiting horror attached to this Pass was based on old tales dating from the days when Gondor kept a foothold in Mordor, when the Tower of Cirith Ungol, which guarded the Pass, was garrisoned by the Dúnedain. Their stories spoke of a living ghastliness which had long made its den in the highest peak of the Pass.

Námo
‘The Judge' (Q.) –
See
MANDOS
.

Nan Curunír
‘Valley of the Man of Skill' (Sind.) – Situated between the south-westerly and south-easterly spurs of Methedras, the ‘Last peak' of the Misty Mountains, the ‘Wizard's Vale' was a large, well-guarded valley, in the centre of which rose the mighty Ring of Isengard, originally called
Angrenost
when the natural fortifications there were smoothed and strengthened by Men of Gondor late in the Second Age.

The Vale of Angrenost (as it was known before Saruman came to dwell there, late in the Third Age) overlooked the plain of Isen and the Gap of Rohan, thus commanding an important strategic position.

Nandor
‘Those-who-turn-back' (Q.) – The name given in the lore of the Eldar to those of the Telerin kindred, hindmost on the Great Journey, who quitted the march while still east of the Misty Mountains, being overawed by the size of the range and moreover enamoured of the woods and falling waters of Wilderland. They were led by Lenwë. This was the first sundering of the Eldar. Lenwë led his people southward, out of the knowledge of the other Teleri, and little is known of what befell the Nandor afterwards. For they did not remain a united people, but scattered this way and that, wandering freely where the mood took them; and though they were of nobler origin than the wild and rustic Avari, in after years their lives were passed in similar fashion. Many remained in Greenwood; some passed south, to the Golden Wood, and so became the ancestors of the Galadhrim. More still followed the Great River into the southlands, and came to its delta. And after many centuries and millennia, an adventurous vanguard circumvented the Misty Mountains, by way of the Ered Nimrais and Fangorn, and so came into the vast woods of Eriador. (In all probability these were those archaic Elves spoken of by Treebeard, for the Nandor were the first of the Eldar to encounter the Onodrim; at all events they seem to have left a lasting – and favourable – impression on the old Ent.)

This vanguard of the Nandor was led, not by Lenwë (whose fate is not recorded), but by his son Denethor; and it chanced that their arrival in Eriador coincided with the release of Melkor from prison – and of the quickening of evil once more in northern Middle-earth. Eriador was fast becoming perilous. Therefore Denethor, hearing tales of Beleriand (possibly from Dwarves) and of its mighty King and Queen, decided to renounce the choice of his father Lenwë, and so, gathering his people together, he crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand, last of all the Eldar to do so, and was reunited with a Telerin people – the Sindar – after more than two ages of separation.

They were welcomed by Thingol, who gave them the Land of the Seven Rivers (Ossiriand) to dwell in. They still called themselves (and were called by the Sindar)
Nandor,
but the returning Noldor called them ‘Green-elves' (
Laiquendi
). Denethor was afterwards slain in the First Battle of Beleriand; and the green-clad Nandor came never again across Gelion, nor took any part in the affairs of the time, save when compelled to do so. Of the separate fates of the Nandor who remained in the east nothing more can be said.

Note:
in the nomenclature of the Eldar, the Nandor are accounted Moriquendi and Úmanyar, together with the ‘Western Nandor' (the Green-elves of Ossiriand) and the Avari.

Nanduhirion
‘Vale-of-dim-streams' (Sind.) – A name for that ancient place in the Misty Mountains known to Dwarves as
AZAN-ULBIZAR
and to Northern Men as the Dimrill Dale.

Nan Dungortheb
‘Valley of Dreadful Death' (Sind.) – The sinister vale which lay between Doriath and Dorthonion, bordered in the east by the river Esgalduin and in the west by the Mindeb.

Nan Elmoth
– A wood of East Beleriand, an outlier of the greater forest of Region, though separated from it by the valley of the Celon. It was shaped like the sickle moon, being three leagues broad and seven long. Its trees were the loftiest in East Beleriand. Here the Maia Melian came and sang alone under the stars; and was found by Elwë Thingol, Lord of the Telerin Elves. Here they plighted their troth. They afterwards made a realm in nearby Doriath; but Nan Elmoth was then taken as a dwelling-place by the great smith of the Grey-elves, Eöl. In this wood he met Aredhel Ar-feiniel of the Noldor (in a strange echo of the earlier and less ill-starred meeting).