The Complete Tolkien Companion (99 page)

Tûr Haretha
–
See
HAUDH-EN-ARWEN
.

Túrin Turambar
– The most tragic of all the heroes of the Edain of the First Age, whose life and deeds are the chief subject of
The Tale of the Children of Húrin,
longest surviving Mannish poem of the Elder Days. Túrin was perhaps the mightiest warrior of all the Edain (save only his father Húrin), and the last but one of the valiant House of Hador of Dor-lómin; but although he fought bravely all his life, and did deeds of prowess that won him the love and respect both of Elves and Men, he was of the Children of Húrin, and therefore accursed by Morgoth; and he brought only grief and disaster upon those whom he in turn loved, and in the end slew himself in despair.

Túrin was the son of Húrin of the Third House of the Edain and Morwen Eledhwen of the First House, born in Dor-lómin. When he was nearly eight years old his father and uncle and all the warriordom of their nation marched away to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and never returned. But Húrin had been taken prisoner, and had defied Morgoth; so Morgoth cursed Húrin and all his kin; and as the chief instrument of his will in this matter he chose the Fire-drake Glaurung. But first he sought Túrin – and at first he did not find him, for soon after the Nirnaeth the boy had been sent to Doriath, to be fostered in the care of Thingol; and Túrin came to early manhood in that secret, fenced land. And then he went to war, as the Heir of Dor-lómin, wearer of the Dragon-helm, and won renown on the north marches.

Slowly his ordained fate began to close in. A quarrel ended in tragedy (
see
SAEROS
) and Túrin fled from Doriath, to eke out a miserable rogue's existence in the wilds beyond. But Thingol sent one of his greatest warriors, Beleg Cúthalion, to find the boy and, if necessary, protect him – if he could not first persuade him to return to Doriath. Beleg was unable to persuade Túrin to return, but he uplifted his life, and set the young man's mind towards nobler occupations than mere banditry. Together they waged war upon Morgoth in the lands about Teiglin in West Beleriand.

But this campaign was to be short-lived. Túrin and Beleg and their band of guerrillas were betrayed, and Túrin was captured by Orcs, but afterwards freed by Beleg, whom he accidentally slew in the act. Crazed by grief for his dead friend, Túrin might then have fallen prey to the perils of the wild, but was befriended by Gwindor, an Elf, formerly of Nargothrond, who had escaped from Angband and was returning to his city. He brought Túrin to Nargothrond.

Túrin's first comrades in the wild, the outlaw band of Amon Rûdh, and his oldest friend, Beleg Strongbow, were all dead. Now it had become the turn of Gwindor and the Elves of Nargothrond; for by succouring him and giving him their love – and later their respect and obedience – they too fell, as was afterwards seen, under the curse laid on Húrin's kin. For though a Mortal Man, Túrin was a hardier and more skilful warrior than any Elf of Nargothrond; and by his valour and unbroken determination to wreak harm upon Morgoth was soon acknowledged – even by King Orodreth – as war-leader of Nargothrond. They called him
Mormegil
because of the Black Sword (once Beleg's) that he wielded with deadly effect. But Túrin scorned secret ambush, for long the practice of the Elves of Nargothrond. An understandable pride in being the only Man ever to command an Elven-host in the field perhaps affected his judgement. Disregarding an ancient tactical precept of Finrod's, he bridged the Narog – to permit, as he explained, the swift sortie of armies – but ignoring the fact that he also thereby laid bare the doors of Nargothrond. And later, when a great host came from the North, an army which included the Dragon Glaurung, Túrin would not await their onset but went boldly out to meet them in battle. But the host he led to Tumhalad was destroyed; Gwindor was mortally wounded and Orodreth the King was slain, and most of the warriors of Nargothrond besides. But Túrin, as was his doom, survived – only to reap the full horror when he learned that Nargothrond, left undefended, had been sacked by the Dragon – and this had only come about because of the bridge he, Túrin, had made; and that the King's daughter Finduilas (who loved Túrin) had been taken prisoner by Orcs.

At the gates of Nargothrond, Túrin for the first time encountered the Dragon Glaurung, who bewitched him. He fled north, crazed and anguished, seeking both Finduilas and his own mother and sister, for the words of Glaurung had put him in fear for their safety. Now the curse hastened to its fulfilment. For in the meantime Morwen and her daughter Nienor, who were also accursed of Morgoth, had left Dor-lómin and had gone, like Túrin years before, to Doriath, hoping to find him there. But he, having now learned of the death of Finduilas, was at the same time seeking them in Dor-lómin. And so their paths crossed, Morwen never again setting sight on her only son. She and her daughter came to Thingol's kingdom, and learning of Túrin's long departure determined separately to seek him in the wild; for they had also learned of the fall of Nargothrond, and of the Mormegil. So while Túrin dwelt in Brethil and made lonely war on the enemies of his kin, Morwen and Nienor were seeking him near Nargothrond. At this time Nienor also encountered Glaurung the Dragon, and was bewitched, and lost her memory. She was found, wandering witlessly in the wild, by Túrin – who did not recognise her, for she had been but an infant when he had left Dor-lómin. He comforted her, and took her with him to Brethil – where he was now dwelling, with the Haladin – and after three years he wedded her. And she conceived his child.

Now the doom was complete; but Túrin who now called himself
Turambar
(‘Master of Doom'), still did not know of the evil he had unwittingly committed. And he gained no small revenge for his sufferings, by slaying the Dragon. But Glaurung spoke before he died, and lifted the bewitchment from Nienor and then she knew what was done, and slew herself. And when Túrin at last also learned the full truth, and realised the nature of the doom which had mastered him, he too now slew himself in despair, and was buried at Cabed Naeramarth, the place of his greatest victory and his greatest anguish.
7

Note:
during his life Túrin assumed many
noms-de-guerre.
He was, after all, always aware of his mighty inheritance, and also that Morgoth was seeking for him, the last heir of Dor-lómin; and so he cloaked his identity under a series of titles. These, in chronological order, were:
Neithian
(‘the Wronged');
Gorthol
(‘the Dreaded Helm');
Agarwaen Úmarth
(‘the Bloodstained, Ill-fortune's child');
Adanedhel
(‘Elf-man');
Mormegil
(‘the Black Sword'), and finally
Turambar
(‘Master-of-Doom'). The only name awarded to him by others was ‘Wildman of the Woods'. The circumstances surrounding these titles are more fully detailed under the corresponding entries.

Túrin I
– From 2244–78 Third Age, the sixth Ruling Steward of Gondor.

Túrin II
– From 2882–2914 Third Age, the twenty-third Ruling Steward of Gondor, and a farsighted strategian of his day. Early in his rule he received warning that the Haradrim, traditional foes of the Dúnedain, were again planning an invasion of South Ithilien; accordingly Túrin invoked the alliance between his people and the Riders of Rohan, sending the Red Arrow, most urgent token of war, to King Folcwine in Edoras. The aid sent by Folcwine enabled Túrin to defeat the invaders at the
BATTLE OF THE CROSSINGS OF POROS
.

Some years afterwards Túrin perceived that Ithilien was becoming untenable, due to the growing strength of Mordor; he therefore ordered built the secret refuges of that province (
see
HENNETH ANNUN
). At the same time he fortified the west bank of the Anduin, including the isle of Cair Andros which guarded the province of Anórien. These farsighted fortifications were of great value to the Dúnedain a century later during the War of the Ring.

Twofoot
– A family of rustic Hobbits of Bywater and district.

Two Trees
– The Two Trees of Valinor, made at the Beginning of Days by Yavanna Kementári of the Valar. They grew on the mound of Ezellohar, near the western gate of the city of the Valar, and brought the first Light into the world since the extinguishing of the still more ancient Light of the Lamps Illuin and Ormal.

The Trees were named
Telperion
(the elder) and
Laurelin;
and the one bore flowers which gave a silver Light, while the other had leaves of gold. They were the most beautiful trees that have ever been in the World, and they grew and flourished for Ages in the holiest place of Arda; but in the end Evil touched them, and they were poisoned, and died, and their Light was taken from the world – but not for ever, for some of it lingered in the three Silmarils which Fëanor of the Noldor had made.

Moreover, a scion of Telperion still grew in Tirion, a gift from the Valar to the Noldor; and a descendant of this Tree of the High-elves (Galathilion, as it was called), grew in Eressëa. This was Celeborn. In time a sapling of Celeborn's line (Nimloth) found its way to Númenor, and a fruit of this Tree of Westernesse was taken to Middle-earth by Elendil and his sons, and in later days grew in Gondor. A last descendant of this exceedingly ancient Line still lived at the beginning of the Fourth Age.

But Laurelin had no linear descendants in Middle-earth; and thereafter the Golden Light was to be perceived only in the mingled Light of the Evening Star. Yet it is said by the Eldar that the Sun is itself the last leaf of the Tree of Gold, borne eternally aloft on fixed paths; and that the Moon is the last Flower of Silver, similarly piloted through the heavens by untiring agency.

Tyelle
‘Grade' (Q.) – The name given by the High-elves to each of the six subdivisions of the Fëanorian Alphabet, all of which measured a certain mode of articulation and were further modified by the four
temar
(‘series') which indicated the point of articulation. This cross-division was the basis on which the Tengwar were originally devised to function as a wholly phonetic writing-system.

Tyelpetéma
‘
Ty
-series' (Q.) – The name given by the High-elves to the
téma
(‘series') in the Tengwar (the Fëanorian Alphabet) which indicated a palatal point of articulation in the Quenya tongue. This series was not normally part of the Fëanorian regulating-system, and was written, where necessary, by using Series IV together with a Fëanorian diacritic mark (
tehta
) for ‘following y' (actually a pair of full points placed under the consonant in question).

Tyrn Gorthad
‘Dreaded Mounds' (Sind.) – The
BARROW-DOWNS
.

Udûn
‘The Pit' or ‘the Underworld' (Sind., from Q.
Utumno
) – The name given in the language of the Grey-elves to the first Realm of Morgoth, in the Far North of Middle-earth, destroyed in the Battle of the Powers when the world was young.