The Complete Tolkien Companion (106 page)

Westlands
– The name given (in a general sense) to all the lands west of the Misty Mountains and the river Anduin.

Westmansweed
– The name given in the Common Speech (Westron) to the herb Sweet Galenas.

Westmarch
– A translation of the Grey-elven name
Nivrim,
being the western part of the Forest of Region in Doriath, the area of wood which lay beyond the Sirion.

Also (Third Age), the name of a sparsely peopled region lying between the West-farthing and the Tower Hills, properly speaking part of the West-farthing itself. It was granted to the Shire-dwellers in perpetuity by King Elessar (Aragorn II) in 1453 Shire Reckoning (Year 32 Fourth Age), and was settled by many Hobbits from the other Farthings. Three years after its founding Fastred of Green-holm and his bride Elanor the Fair (daughter of Samwise) removed to Undertowers, on the eastern slopes of the Tower Hills, and Fastred was named Warden of Westmarch by the King. It was in Undertowers that the famous
RED BOOK OF WESTMARCH
was afterwards kept.

West Road
– The Great West Road. It joined Minas Tirith with Edoras.

Westron
– The
COMMON SPEECH
.

Wetwang
–
See
NINDALF
.

White Company
– The personal guard of Faramir Prince of Ithilien, inaugurated after the War of the Ring by King Elessar (Aragorn II). Its first Captain was Beregond son of Baranor, formerly of the Citadel Guard of Minas Tirith.

White Council
– The Council of the Wise (two Wizards and the chief Eldar) formed in the late Third Age to co-ordinate policy against Evil in Middle-earth. It was summoned by the Lady Galadriel of Lothlórien and its first chief was Saruman the White.

At the time of its founding (2463 Third Age), the chief enemy of the Free Peoples was the ‘Necromancer' of Dol Guldur, and the overriding aim of the Wise was the discovery of his true identity; for even at that time there were some who believed that the Necromancer was Sauron himself. Nonetheless, this was not easy to ascertain. Sauron had, in his turn, perceived the Council from a distance, and had retired into the East to avoid a confrontation with his chief foes, for at that time he was not yet strong enough to challenge their combined might. And so the White Council abandoned their fruitless vigil, hoping that the more optimistic assessment of events was accurate.

The second meeting was in the year 2851 – but this, too, was a fruitless experience, for the Council's titular head, Saruman the White, was then already falling into evil ways; he governed the doings of the Council with a firm hand and overrode a projected assault upon Dol Guldur (which had been proposed by Gandalf the Grey) for reasons of his own. Ninety years later the Council met again. This time Saruman agreed to the attack (again for reasons of his own) and the assault of the Wise upon Sauron was made that same year. Too late. Sauron had meanwhile prepared contingency plans and when the attack came he merely withdrew from Mirk-wood and re-entered Mordor.

And so the years drew on to the War of the Ring. In 2953 the White Council met for the last time, and once more Saruman lied to the assembled Wise, misleading most of them concerning the fate of the Ruling Ring. Yet by that time there were some among the Council who were beginning to cherish deep suspicions concerning Saruman himself – and so when the War of the Ring broke out in 3018 Third Age, they were not entirely unprepared for the rapid succession of events which followed, not the least of which was the open treachery of Saruman the White, for over five hundred years the leader of the White Council and during all that time the main reason for its singular lack of success.

White Crown
–
See
SILVER CROWN
.

White Downs
– An area of downland in the Westfarthing of the Shire which sheltered the chief township of the region, Michel Delving.

‘White-fiends'
– A name for the Elves, given in fear and hatred by the Easterlings in Morgoth's service who occupied Hithlum and Dor-lómin after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

White Hand
– The heraldic emblem chosen by the renegade Wizard Saruman the White after his renunciation of the White Council in 2953 Third Age and his subsequent fortifying of Isengard. It was borne by all his servants, including Orcs, as a device emblazoned on shield and helmet.

White Lady (of the Noldor)
–
See
AREDHEL
.

White Mountain
–
OIOLOSSË
.

White Mountains
– A translation of the Sindarin name
Ered Nimrais.

White Rider
– The name given in Rohan and Gondor to the Wizard Gandalf, formerly the Grey, reincarnated as the White.

White Tower
– An alternative name, used especially in Minas Tirith, for the
TOWER OF ECTHELION
.

White Tree
– The chief symbol of the royalty of Gondor. It was a direct descendant of Telperion, Eldest of Trees, through Galathilion (the Tree of the High-elves in Tirion), Celeborn (the Tree of Eressëa), and Nimloth of Númenor. When disaster overwhelmed Númenor in 3319 Second Age, Elendil brought a fruit of Nimloth to Middle-earth, and planted it in Minas Ithil, where it grew and flourished for a while, being jealously guarded: for it was the token from afar of the Edain of Númenor and of their ancient kinship with the High-elves, and through the High-elves with the Valar themselves.

The White Tree of Gondor blossomed often, but only occasionally put forth fruit; each time it did so, the seed was planted elsewhere, in fear lest the Line of Telperion die from the world. In this way the Tree was preserved when Sauron attacked and captured Minas Ithil in 3429 Second Age; he burned the original Tree but a sapling had already been planted in Minas Anor, where it afterwards grew.

For over a thousand years this White Tree flourished in the Court of the Fountain in Minas Anor, until the Great Plague of 1636 Third Age, when it died. A further sapling was then planted (by King Tarondor) which survived until 2852; as no seedling could then be found, the dead Tree was left standing by the fountain. But after the successful conclusion of the War of the Ring the newly crowned King Elessar (Aragorn II) discovered a sapling growing wild in a high place above the city of Minas Tirith, and this he planted in place of the dead Tree. It blossomed almost immediately and grew to grace and beauty during the Age which followed.

See also
TWO TREES
.

Whitfoot
– A family of Shire-hobbits.
See
WILL WHITFOOT
.

Whitfurrows
– A village in the Eastfarthing of the Shire, near the junction of the Quarry road and the Great East Road.

Whitwell
– A village in the Green Hill Country of the Shire, not far from Tuckborough.

Widfara
(‘Wide-farer') – A man of Rohan, one of the scouts employed by King Théoden to reconnoitre the way through Anórien during the War of the Ring.

Wilderland
– An alternative name for the region of Middle-earth more usually known as Rhovanion. Its boundaries were approximate, but included the Misty Mountains, the river Celduin-Carnen, and the Grey Mountains.

Wildman of the Woods
– A war-name assumed by
TÚRIN TURAMBAR
, after his escape from the wreck of Nargothrond.

Wild Men
–
See
WOSES
.

Willie Banks
– One of the Little Folk (Hobbits) of the Bree-land, unfortunately killed in 3019 Third Age in a skirmish between the Bree-dwellers and the robber band led by Bill Ferny and Harry Goatleaf.

Willowbottom
– A village in the Eastfarthing, near the southernmost reach of the Woody End.

Will Whitfoot
– The Mayor of Michel Delving during the closing years of the Third Age and (apart from a brief convalescence) the first seven years of the Fourth. He was reportedly a Hobbit of remarkable girth and great respectability, much liked by the Shire-dwellers; and he had a strong sense of responsibility. During the occupation of the Shire by agents of Saruman in 3019 (1419 Shire Reckoning), he bravely set out from Michel Delving to Bag End to protest against the unwarranted liberties taken by the invaders, but never arrived, being abducted while on the road and afterwards incarcerated in the Lockholes. He was released by the returning Travellers later that same year and, after an interim of several months, he was re-elected at the Free Fair in 3020 (1420). He retired in Year 7 Fourth Age (1428) and was succeeded as Mayor by Samwise Gamgee.

‘The Willow-meads of Tasarinan'
– A lament or chant sung by Treebeard the Ent (to the Hobbits Meriadoc and Peregrin), in which the old Tree-herd mourned the passing of the Elder Days, and the drowning of many wide lands that he had known and loved in those distant times.

Wilwarin
‘Butterfly' (Q.) – The constellation Cassiopeia, created by Varda (Elbereth) at the time of the awakening of the Quendi in Cuiviénen.

Wilya
– An older spelling for
VILYA
.

Windfola
– A noble horse of Rohan, the steed of the Lady Éowyn (and Meriadoc the Hobbit) for the great ride from Edoras to Minas Tirith during the War of the Ring.

Windle-reach
– A long, clear reach of the lower Withywindle (between Grindwall and the weir).

Window of the Eye
– The topmost turret-room in Barad-dûr, so called because Sauron was accustomed to stand there, gazing out with his single Yellow Eye over the lands of his claimed realm.

Window of the Sunset
– A translation of the Sindarin name
Henneth Annûn.

Winterfilth
– The tenth month of the year in the Shire Reckoning, equivalent to
Narquelië
in Kings' Reckoning (although the Hobbits believed that the name dated from the years before they had adopted the Númenorean calendar, when this month was the last of the year). Its Bree-equivalent was
Wintring.

Wintring
–
See
preceding entry.

Wiseman Gamwich
– The son of Hamfast of Gamwich; he left the village of his family's origins and removed to Tighfield in the Northfarthing.

Witch-king
– The Lord of the Ringwraiths, chief servant of Sauron the Great throughout the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth and for much of the latter Age a great and evil Power in his own right, second only to his Black Master as a symbol of terror and despair. His were the policies and schemes which led to the founding of Angmar and the collapse of the North-kingdom of the Dúnedain; his were the armies which came from Mordor in 2000 Third Age to capture Minas Ithil from Gondor; his was the hand which slew the last King of the Line of Anárion; and his was the black host which emerged from the Tower of Sorcery during the War of the Ring to crush the Dúnedain for ever. He was a King and a Sorcerer, and he wielded great fear, and no warrior or army could withstand him; yet in the end he was slain, and his age-old power was brought to nothing, in fulfilment of a prophecy made long before.

Of his origins little has been recorded. He was the mightiest of those renegades called Black Númenoreans, and in the later years of the Second Age he left Númenor and came to Middle-earth, where he became a lord of great power, working in league with Sauron of Mordor but not at that time one of Sauron's servants. But Sauron, being treacherous even to his allies, determined to bring the Númenorean renegades directly under his control, and to that end he forged the Nine Rings of Power for Mortal Men. These he gave to nine powerful lords, of whom the Sorcerer King was the greatest; and they fell into his power for ever, becoming undead wraiths (
Úlairi
) under the control of the Ruling Ring and its Master. The Ringwraiths served Sauron with pitiless fealty throughout the remainder of the Second Age, and when the Dark Lord was overthrown by Gil-galad and Elendil they passed ‘into the Shadows' to await his second arising.

After the first thousand years of the Third Age had passed both they and their Master were stirring once more, and in the fourteenth century the Ringwraiths openly declared themselves. Their Chief came north, to the lands between the Ettenmoors and the Northern Waste, and there established a realm, whose chief purpose was the destruction of the North-kingdom of Arthedain, last survivor of old Arnor. This evil realm was named
ANGMAR
, and throughout the second millennium the Witch-king (as he was known to the Dúnedain of the North) worked unceasingly for the downfall of his enemies. In the end he accomplished his chosen task, but at the cost of his own realm, and he was driven from the North by the combined forces of Gondor and Lindon.

He returned to Mordor and there gathered the other
Úlairi;
and in 2002 they issued from the Pass of Cirith Ungol and captured Minas Ithil, which thereafter became a place of great fear. In 2050 the Witch-king sent an insolent challenge to King Eärnur of Gondor (whose army had destroyed Angmar). Eärnur had indeed been challenged by the Lord of Minas Morgul seven years earlier, on the day of his coronation, but at that time had been restrained from accepting. But on this second occasion he furiously rejected all wise counsels and rode away to give combat to the Lord of the Ringwraiths. He never returned. In this way the Witch-king, having destroyed the Northern Kingdom, now extinguished the ruling Line of the South-kingdom.

Having wrought all these strokes against his foes, the Lord of Morgul seemed content for many centuries to lie quiescent in Minas Morgul, for the time was not yet come when he would ride openly to battle against the most ancient foes of his Master. But by the end of the Age Sauron was again returned to power; and with the Dark Lord's reappearance in Mordor the power of the Nine waxed accordingly. On learning of the whereabouts of the Ruling Ring (from the prisoner Gollum), Sauron instantly despatched his trustiest servants to seek the Shire; and (as has been recorded elsewhere) one of these
2
came to Hobbiton on the very evening of Frodo's departure. Led by their Sorcerer King, the Ringwraiths pursued Frodo and his companions across Eriador, yet failed to catch them, being foiled, not only in the Shire, but in Bree, on Weather-top and at the Ford of Bruinen. Defeated, they returned to Mordor and to Dol Guldur – and to Minas Morgul: for the hour was approaching when Sauron would launch open war upon Gondor.