The Complete Tolkien Companion (34 page)

Ered Lómin
– The
ECHOING MOUNTAINS
.

Ered Luin
– The
BLUE MOUNTAINS
.

Ered Mithrin
– The ‘Grey Mountains', which ran eastwards from Gundabad (in the Misty Mountains) to the Withered Heath.

Ered Nimrais
– The ‘White Mountains' of Gondor. Unlike other mountain-chains of Middle-earth, the Ered Nimrais did not form a single range; instead, from a central massif or knot, great spurs projected north, south, east and west, as far as Cape Andrast and the Sea. Upon the knees of the most easterly of these mountains, Mindolluin, the Men of Númenor built the white city of Minas Anor (later Minas Tirith).

Ered Wethrin
– The ‘Shadowy Mountains' which formed the eastern boundary-wall of the lands of Hithlum, Mithrim and Dor-lómin, in the north of Beleriand.

Eregion
‘Land-of-Holly' (Sind.) – The land of the Noldorin Elvensmiths, in Eriador, west of the Misty Mountains, whose chief city was Ost-in-Edhil. It was settled by the Noldor in 750 Second Age and destroyed by Sauron less than nine hundred years later. The Elves of Eregion were master craftsmen of the House of Fëanor, led by Celebrimbor, Fëanor's descendant. They migrated to eastern Eriador after hearing of the discovery of a great mithril-lode under the Dwarf-realm of Moria, and founded their colony at Moria's western gate to trade with the Dwarves for this metal. The Dwarves were happy enough with this arrangement, and both races worked together for many years in friendship and prosperity. In time the skill of the High-Elves of Eregion grew, and under the tutelage of Sauron of Mordor, it reached a pinnacle with the forging of the Rings of Power, the greatest work of Elven-craft since the creation of the Silmarils. But Sauron betrayed the Elven-smiths and himself forged the Ruling Ring in Secret. Learning of this, the Noldor then hid the Three Elven-rings – the others had by now been distributed – but war was launched upon them by Sauron, and in the year 1697 Eregion was overrun and ravaged. The Dwarves of Moria were safe behind their impregnable mountain-walls but the Noldor were driven out or destroyed. So ended the brief flowering of Eregion.

The token of the Noldorin smiths was holly, which they planted freely and used to indicate the borders of their realm. Many of these ancient trees survived in Eregion when all other living things had passed away, and still stood in later Ages. For this reason Eregion was known simply as Hollin to Men of Eriador during the Third Age.

Ereinion
‘Scion-of-Kings' (Sind.) –
See
GIL-GALAD
.

Erelas
– A beacon-hill which stood on the north wall of the White Mountains, overlooking the vale of Anórien, fourth in the chain of beacons stretching between Gondor and Rohan.

Erellont
– The name of one of the three valiant mariners who were companions of Eärendil on his last voyage.
See also
AERANDIR
.

Erendis
– The wife of King Tar-Aldarion of Númenor. She was descended from the First House of the Edain and was of great beauty; but her marriage to Aldarion was unhappy, since his real devotion was to the sea and his fleets of ships. She felt otherwise and there was conflict between them. She bore him only one child, a daughter (later Queen Tar-Ancalimë) and withdrew from his life entirely. In old age she wished once more to become reconciled to her husband – who was then, as ever, at sea – and in the year 985 Second Age journeyed to Rómenna in the east of Númenor to greet his return, but is reported to have ‘perished in water'.

Note: see
‘Aldarion and Erendis' in
Unfinished Tales,
223–80.

Eressëa
‘Lonely' (Q.) – Shortened form of
Tol Eressëa,
‘the Lonely Isle'; the name given by the Calaquendi to the great ship-shaped isle which had once been rooted in the waters of Middle-earth, but was set adrift by the agency of the Valar and used to enable the Three Kindreds of the Eldar to complete the Great Journey and so come to the far West.

It is said in the traditions of the Elves that it was the Sea-Maia Ossë who begged the Teleri – the last of the Kindreds to travel by this marvellous means – to stay their voyage while they were still some distance from the strands of Aman; for he loved the Teleri, and did not wish to be parted from them; and they, loving him, did as he asked; the Isle was grounded in the Bay of Eldamar and stood there ever after. Tol Eressëa then became its name. For an age or more the Teleri continued to dwell there, but many still yearned to complete the Journey and so come to the source of the Light which lit the western horizon; and so, at their request, Ossë sadly taught them how to build ships, and the Teleri sailed away from Eressëa, to Aman. But, after years the lonely Isle was re-peopled with Grey-elves and returning Noldorin Exiles, who built anew the city of Avallónë; nearest of all cities to the Blessed Realm, and visible (to the Farsighted) from the summit of Meneltarma in Númenor. From Eressëa these Elves would, from time to time, sail to Númenor, there to enrich the culture of the High Men who then dwelled in that now-vanished country. But at the Drowning of Númenor, the shape and nature of the World were altered, and both Eressëa and Aman were removed for ever from the seas of the earth.

Erestor
– One of the Noldor of Rivendell: Chief of the Counsellors of Elrond's house.

Eriador
– ‘Eriador was of old the name of all the lands between the Misty Mountains and the Blue; in the South it was bounded by the Greyflood and the Glanduin that flows into it above Tharbad.'
9
In the North lay the great ice-waste of Forochel and the bitter colds of the realm of Morgoth. But after centuries of war, famine and plague had depopulated the region, the various settlements of Men, Elves and Hobbits became increasingly isolated from each other, and eventually only the great ruins of Eriador were left to testify to its former glories.

Erkenbrand
– A Lord of Rohan and, at the time of the War of the Ring, the Master of Westfold Vale. He took command of the West-fold forces after Théodred, Théoden's son, fell in battle with the armies of Saruman, early in the year 3019 Third Age. Though it was at first feared that Erkenbrand, too, had fallen, he organised a well-ordered retreat and was able to bring the battered but unbroken Westfold Riders to the aid of the King at the Battle of the Hornburg.

Erma
‘[Physical] matter' (Q.).

Ernil i Periannath
‘Prince of the Halflings' (Sind.) – An honorific title awarded to Peregrin Took by the people of Gondor, who believed he bore the rank with which their natural courtesy endowed him.

‘Errantry'
– A lengthy Hobbit-poem found in the Red Book of Westmarch; almost certainly composed by Bilbo, since it shows kinship with the later work (‘Eärendil Was A Mariner') recited by him in the Hall of Fire in Rivendell prior to the Council of Elrond.
10
With his head full of Elvish influence – though not, at that time, Elvish skill – Bilbo probably wrote ‘Errantry' shortly after his return from Erebor, long before he came to know the Elves better. The references to Elvish ‘lore' and ‘names' (such as
Aerie, Belmarie
) would seem to show that the Hobbit was not at the time fully conversant with Elvish tongues or history. As has been remarked, these words are ‘mere inventions in the Elvish style, and are not in fact Elvish at all.'

The poem is cyclical, and may be recited therefore endlessly. Its subject, though whimsically treated, is obviously influenced by various older tales that Bilbo may have unconsciously absorbed during his earlier stay in Rivendell. Later in his life, of course, the worthy Hobbit returned to Elrond's house and studied Elven-legends in greater detail. In a desire to make use of the metrical devices he had invented years before, Bilbo then rewrote ‘Errantry' in the form in which it appears in the Red Book.

Eru
‘The One' (Sind., from Q.
Ilúvatar,
‘Father-of-All') – God.

Eruhantalë
‘Thanksgiving to Eru' (Q.) – The autumn Festival in Númenor.

Erui
– One of the Seven Rivers of Gondor, flowing from its source high in the vale of Lossarnach to its confluence with the Anduin thirty leagues above Pelargir.

Erukyermë
‘Prayer to Eru' (Q.) – The Spring Festival in Númenor.

Erulaitalë
‘Praise of Eru' (Q.) – The Midsummer Festival in Númenor.

Erusen
– This ancient word translates as ‘Children-of-God', and refers to Men and Elves, for whom the world (Arda) was created.
Eruhíni Ilúvataro
(Q.) carries the same meaning.

Eryn Galen
–
GREENWOOD THE GREAT
.

Eryn Lasgalen
– For most of the Third Age this mighty forest east of the Misty Mountains was known as Mirkwood, although its original name had been Greenwood the Great. This change of name was gradual, and was largely due to the evil influence of Dol Guldur in the south of the Forest. But after the end of the Third Age, the Elves of Lórien crossed the Great River and destroyed Dol Guldur; Celeborn of Lórien and Thranduil of Northern Mirkwood then met in the midst of the Forest and renamed it
Eryn Lasgalen
‘The Wood of Greenleaves' (Sind.).

Eryn Vorn
‘Black Woods' (Sind.) – The wooded Cape of Minhiriath, south of the Baranduin estuary.

Esgalduin
‘Veiled-river' (Sind.) – The Enchanted River of Doriath. It rose from two sources in the Mountains of Terror, and flowed south, then west; in the north dividing Nan Dungortheb from Dor Dînen, and in the south forming a boundary between the forests of Neldoreth and Region.

Esgaroth
– The Lake-town of the River Running, built upon stilts in the shallows of the Long Lake. When the nearby town of Dale was destroyed by Smaug the Dragon in 2770 Third Age, many of the Men who had dwelt there went south and swelled the numbers of the lake colony. Most of the trade (in wine and food) between Dorwinion (near the Inland Sea of Rhûn) and the kingdom of the Wood-elves in Mirkwood then passed through the lake-dwellers' ken. Esgaroth, therefore, in addition to its fishermen, had merchants and riverboatmen, who charged modest fees for speeding this commercial traffic.

As such, the town prospered under its burgesses, until the arousal of the Dragon almost two hundred years later. Smaug flew south to raze the Lake-town, but though he caused great damage, the Dragon was himself slain by Bard of Esgaroth, heir of the Kings of Dale. A great part of the Lake-town's inhabitants then returned to the mountains and rebuilt Dale, and Bard became their king. Esgaroth continued to prosper.

Esmeralda Brandybuck
– The wife of Saradoc Brandybuck and the mother of Meriadoc, later Master of Buckland and a Counsellor of the North-kingdom.

Essë
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘name'; also the title of the Tengwa (or ‘letter') number 31, one of the ‘additional' Tengwar. It represented the sound z.
See also
ÁRE
.

Estë
‘Rest' (Q.) – A Queen of the Valar, the spouse of Irmo (Lórien). She is the Healer, dressed in grey, who brings peace to the wounded and afflicted. She wakes only at nightfall, and sleeps by day on an island in the Lake of Lorellin, in her spouse's domain of Lórien, in Valimar. In the hierarchy of the seven Valier (Valar Queens), Estë is named fourth, after Nienna and before Vairë. Her spouse Irmo is one of the two
Fëantúri
(Mandos is his brother), and is the Master of Dreams and Visions.

Estel
– The Sindarin name for ‘Hope', by which Aragorn II was known in his youth, before Elrond revealed to him his true name and lineage.

Estelmo
– The Esquire of Elendur the son of Isildur, and one of only three Dúnedain to survive the disaster of the Gladden Fields (Year 2 Third Age). He was clubbed on the head and left for dead.

Estolad
‘The Camp' (Sind.) – The name given by Men (in the newly learned tongue of the Grey-elves) to the region of East Beleriand where the Edain first settled. It lay east of the river Celon, and south of the wood of Nan Elmoth, and was chosen on the advice of Finrod Felagund of the Noldor. For at that time the Edain, new-come in the West, were dwelling in an encampment on Ossiriand, the land of the Green-elves – who did not at all desire their presence. The first tribe of the Edain to settle in Estolad were the house led by Bëor the Old (though Bëor himself afterwards went away to Nargothrond); a year or so afterwards, the encampment was swelled by the arrival of the most numerous of the Adûnaic peoples: the Third House, led by Marach Aradan.

The conjoined Houses of Men were not to dwell long in this remote region. Hearing of their (long-foretold) presence in western Middle-earth, some of the princes of the Noldor (notably those Elves of the houses of Fingolfin and Finarfin) invited the newcomers to leave Estolad and hold lands further north, as allies and friends of the High-elves. This they did. The First House went to Dorthonion, and the Third, the People of Marach, to Dor-lómin. However, Estolad was not deserted, for many remnants of kindreds remained. This mongrelised clan of Men lingered in Estolad for another century, but were finally driven out in the years of Morgoth's triumph.