The Complete Tolkien Companion (81 page)

Ranugad
– In the original (as opposed to translated) Hobbit-speech
Ranugad,
which meant ‘Stay-at-home', was the name of Samwise Gamgee's father; in translations from the Red Book it has been rendered as
Hamfast.

Ras Morthil
– Another name for the cape of
ANDRAST
.

Rath Celerdain
–
See
LAMPWRIGHTS' STREET
.

Rath Dínen
‘Street of Silence' (Sind.) – The central processional avenue of the Hallows of Minas Tirith, where the great men of Gondor were buried.

Rathlóriel
‘Goldenbed' (Sind.) – The name given to the river
ASCAR
in Ossiriand after the treasure looted from Doriath by Dwarves had been lost in its waters.

Rauros
‘Roaring-spray' (Sind.) – In the Third Age, the greatest waterfall of western Middle-earth, a giant cataract whose roar could be distinguished many leagues away. It was located just south of Nen Hithoel, the lake on the Great River which was surrounded by the hills of Emyn Muil. In peaceful periods of the Third Age, the Falls of Rauros and the hills of Amon Hen and Amon Lhâw were places for the nobles of Gondor to visit on summer days, when the sound of the Falls and the golden light on their spray would provide a pleasant setting.

Ravenhill
– A small south-western spur of the Lonely Mountain (Erebor), where the Dwarves of that realm had once built a guardhouse and installed a small garrison. For some unaccountable reason, a family of ravens (headed by the wise and famous Carc) chose this place as their nesting-ground, giving the hill its name.

Ravines of Teiglin
–
See
TEIGLIN
.

Ré (Q.)
– The Elvish ‘day', which, unlike our own, was measured from sunset to sunset. Thus each
ré
began with the period known as
Undómë,
‘Star-opening'.

Realms in Exile
–
See
illustration overleaf.

‘Reckoning of Years'
– One of the better known works of that prolific Shire-chronicler, Meriadoc ‘the Magnificent' Brandybuck, hero of the War of the Ring, Master of Buckland and Counsellor of the North-kingdom. In addition to an invaluable account of the Hobbit calendars employed in the Shire and Bree, the
Reckoning of Years
included a comparative study of the reckoning-systems used in Rivendell, Rohan and Gondor, lands in which this widely travelled Hobbit was personally able to conduct his research.

Note:
the
Reckoning of Years
was undoubtedly the primary source for the information which appears in Appendix D, to which readers are referred for a full analysis of the Elvish calendar and the other systems which sprang from it.

Red Arrow
– The traditional token used by Gondor when summoning urgent aid from her old allies, the Riders of Rohan. It was an ordinary black-feathered arrow except that it had a red-painted point. The summons it represented was of the most desperate kind, and the Red Arrow was not lightly dispatched.

Red Book of Westmarch
– The single most valuable surviving source of information concerning the War of the Ring, compiled during the late Third Age by the Hobbits of the Shire, in particular by the Ring-bearers, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, and Frodo's heir Samwise Gamgee. It deals with the heroic role the Hobbits played in the Tale of the Great Ring, and is further provided with a large number of addenda, appendices and annotations, all of which are extremely valuable sources of information concerning the Second and Third (and to some extent the First) Ages of Middle-earth long ago.

It is divided roughly into two main sections of unequal length, with supporting pages compiled by many different hands. The first section is in narrative form, and was written by Bilbo Baggins in the years between 2942–3001 Third Age (1342–1401 Shire Reckoning) at Bag End in Hobbiton, and was titled by him
There and Back Again.
2

It deals in the main with Bilbo's unexpected journey into the East in the year 2941, the adventures he underwent
en route,
and his ultimate success and later homecoming. Even more importantly (although Bilbo did not recognise it at the time), this first part of the Red Book details the discovery of the Ruling Ring of Sauron, which had been found long before by the creature Gollum and had been kept by him in his miserable solitude under the Misty Mountains for over five hundred years. Bilbo acquired the Ring from Gollum, and later brought it back to the Shire, thus initiating a series of events which led in the end to Mount Doom and the Passing of Sauron.

But of these events Bilbo had of course no foreknowledge, and it was left to his young cousin (and heir) Frodo Baggins to take the further steps on that road. Frodo, like Bilbo (and almost certainly to please him), wrote his own account of the War of the Ring, and it is this later (and much larger) section of narrative which forms the central part of the Red Book of Westmarch.
3

Frodo wrote this account with the aid of his friends' recollections, and in this form the combined narratives (written in two hands in a great red book with tall covers) were handed to Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's heir, when the Ring-bearers passed over Sea at the end of the Third Age. Samwise added his own contributions, and gave the Book in his turn to his eldest daughter Elanor the Fair when he too passed West. Elanor's descendants kept custody of the original volume ever after, although they made certain annotations and additions, based upon information acquired from other sources during the Fourth Age, such as chronological material from Yellowskin (the Year-book of Tuckborough) and from Gondor. There were also certain anonymous scribbles and rhymes added in later years, many of which have been published latterly as a separate volume, part of the cycle of tales contained in the Red Book but not part of the main Tale of the Ring.
4

During the earlier part of the reign of King Elessar (Aragorn II) the King requested the Shire-folk to supply him with a copy of the Red Book which was even then being annotated by the Fairbairns and the Tooks. Thain Peregrin I accordingly commissioned scribes to draft a copy, and this volume, called in Gondor the
Thain's Book,
was taken by Peregrin to the King when he retired to Gondor in Year 63 Fourth Age.

Over a century later, probably at the request of Eldarion, son of Elessar (who died in 120 Fourth Age), Findegil, a King's Writer of Gondor, again copied the Thain's Book, adding certain appendices and annotations (and corrections) of his own. This later volume was presented to the Hobbits, and it is this book which has survived until the present day.

Redhorn
– A translation of the Sindarin word
Caradhras,
being the name given in the Common Speech to that great peak of the central Misty Mountains which was known to the Dwarves as Barazinbar. It was so named because the mountain seemed to glow with a bloodlike tinge in the evening and morning sunlight. It had a cruel reputation and its high pass was fraught with peril.

Redhorn Gate
–
See
previous entry.

Red Ring
–
NARYA THE GREAT
.

Redwater
– A translation of the Sindarin word
Carnen.

Region
‘Holly' (Sind.) – The name given by the Elves of Doriath to the southern and larger of the two forests which comprised their silvan land. Region was indeed more than twice as large as its neighbour Neldoreth (being in places over fifty leagues long, and as much as fifteen leagues broad). In shape it was like a huge, reversed ‘L', with much of its northern and western border formed by the river Esgalduin. Beyond the Esgalduin the beech-forest of Neldoreth marched away into the north. The southern boundary of Region was the River Aros; an outlier, Nan Elmoth, lay beyond the Celon, a tributary of Aros.

During the Elder Days Region and Neldoreth were both accounted part of Doriath, and were encompassed by the protective fence of enchantment, the Girdle Of Melian.

Rerir
– A mountain of the northern Ered Luin. It was the tallest peak of a spur which thrust westward from the main range, enclosing Lake Helevorn on three sides. Due north of the lake stood Mount Rerir. The Greater Gelion arose on its western slopes. This peak was accounted the northern border of the land of Thargelion.

Rethe
– The third month of the year (roughly equivalent to our March) in the calendars of the Shire and Bree.

Reunited Kingdom
– The name given in the Fourth Age to the realm ruled by King Elessar (Aragorn II), being the former states of Arnor and Gondor reunited for the first time since Elendil's day under Elessar's kingship.

Rhîw
–
See
HRÍVË
.

Rhosgobel
– The dwelling-place of the Wizard Radagast the Brown, situated in the vales of Anduin near to the southern borders of Mirkwood.

Rhovanion
– This name has been translated on Third Age maps of western Middle-earth as ‘Wilderland', and in this sense it refers to all the lands stretching east of the Misty Mountains to the River Running (Celduin), including the vales of Anduin and the forest of Mirkwood. However, in the appendices to
The Lord of the Rings
the name is used to indicate the principality of Rhovanion, which lay between the eastern eaves of Greenwood (later known as Mirkwood) and the River Running.

It was peopled by a loosely governed, vigorous race of ‘Northmen', who were distantly related to the Dúnedain and were often allied with Gondor during the middle years of the Third Age. Sometime about the end of the first millennium, the kings of Gondor extended the boundaries of Rhovanion by ceding to the Northmen lands south of Greenwood – in the hope that these lands would act as a buffer state to protect Gondor from recurrent invasions by the fierce Easterling peoples. However, although this strategy was largely successful, eventually the favour shown by Gondor's nineteenth King, Rómendacil II, towards the Northmen caused great jealousy in the South-kingdom. And the marriage of Rómendacil's son Valacar to the daughter of Vidugavia, the self-styled King of Rhovanion, ultimately led to civil war (
see
KIN-STRIFE
). Valacar's son Eldacar was deposed and forced to seek refuge in his mother's land of Rhovanion; however, he was eventually able to regain his throne and restore peace, and during the remainder of his time he naturally showed great favour to the Northmen. At this time many of them settled in Gondor.

Nonetheless, contact between the peoples was not fully maintained; and, in the year 1856, the wide lands that had once been Vidugavia's were overrun by new hordes of invading Easterlings called Wainriders. The Northmen were driven out or enslaved, and it was not until forty years later that they were able to start a rebellion which enabled Gondor to win a victory over the Easterlings.

Nonetheless their former lands south of Greenwood were now contested and no longer viable. Accordingly under their new young King Marhwini they emigrated once again up the Anduin to the vales between the River and the Wood, and throughout the next years continued drifting in this dirction, until they emerge back into history as the Men of Éothéod, who came to the aid of Gondor in spectacular fashion at the end of the 26th century Third Age, destroying the Balchoth and winning themselves a new realm in what had been part of Gondor. The Northmen were at last in their natural place, but they had come there by a circuitous route.

See also
LINES OF DESCENT
.

Rhudaur
– The name given by the Dúnedain of the North-kingdom to the easternmost of the three separate states formed by the partition of Arnor in 861 Third Age, following the death of King Eärendur. Its boundaries were the Misty Mountains, the Weather Hills and the Ettenmoors. Rhudaur was the most junior of the three Dúnedain realms (of which the other two were named Arthedain and Cardolan), and its lands were the wildest and least fertile; moreover, none of the three
palantíri
of Arnor had come into its possession.

For these reasons Rhudaur's relations with the other two North-kingdoms were unfriendly from the first, and there was frequently strife between Rhudaur and Cardolan over possession of the strategically important Weather Hills and the chief Palantír of the North (which was kept in the tower of Amon Sûl, on the border of both realms).

By the thirteenth century the rivalry was intense, although the borders of the states still remained relatively unchanged. It was at this time that the evil Witch-realm of Angmar arose in the northeast, sharing a common frontier with Rhudaur; and from that moment the smaller state was doomed. In any case, the control of Rhudaur had already been seized from the remaining Dúnedain by a clan of renegades and wild men, and before many years these usurpers were themselves under the control of the Witch-king.