Other Minds Content - omzine.org MINDS MAGAZINE First and foremost: We are very late! Sever-al...

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Other Minds MagazineIssue 3

May 2008PublisherOther Minds Volunteers

Editors Assistant EditorsHawke Robinson Chris SeemanThomas Morwinsky Chris Wade

Proofreaders Art DirectorNeville Percy Hawke RobinsonOliver SchickThom Denholm Production StaffHawke Robinson Thomas Morwinsky

Hawke Robinson

ContentMain Features

2 Editorial – Third time is a charm5 Of Barrow-wights – Part Two

Neville Percy

9 J.R.R. Tolkien, Words, Phrases &Passages in The Lord of the Rings - AGame Designer’s Guide to ParmaEldalamberon 17

Chris Seeman

15 The Rings of Power – history andabilities

Thomas Morwinsky

31 The PalantíriChris Seeman

34 The Guild of Venturers and theNúmenórean colonies

Eric Dubourg

Other Features43 Fine print44 Creative Commons license

Supplement: Umbar-dalad (“UnderUmbar”)

Hawke Robinson

Next Issue’s featured theme will be

Dwarvessubmission deadline is:

July 1 st 2008

OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE

First and foremost: We are very late! Sever-al real-life reasons, technical problems andother responsibilities have delayed Other Minds#3 well beyond its original schedule. Despitethat, we are still here – and this is a goodthing.

Now what you see before you is the third is-sue of Other Minds! And that alone is a causefor celebration. By now we have a small butsteady stream of contributions, so that themagazine slowly works in the way we want itto be: A broad forum for various visions andinterpretations of Middle-earth.

Compared to Issue #2, this incarnation ofOther Minds may seem as a hodgepodge ofthemes, but this diversity is deliberate. Wewant to have a healthy mix of “themed” and“free” issues. For either of these, it’s mostlyyour active input that influences our decisions.If you want to see certain specific theme treat-ed of Middle-earth treated in our pages over awhole issue, please make workable suggestionshow to fill it. If we do not get specific sugges-tions backed up by fitting contributions (ordrafts that illustrate your point), we will make“thematic” issues according to what we deembest.

This is in no way a rant about missing con-tributions – quite the contrary! As said above,we do get fine submissions. We only want tomake clear that you as our readers and con-tributors may also shape the content of themagazine! Commit yourself and you might seeyour pet theme treated in great depth!

So far, for some general musings, what wehave in the pages of Other Minds this time is –in our opinion – a great mix of various topics:

ContentWe are glad to announce that we indeed

have a good range of contributions rangingfrom the very scholarly to the more gaming-and practically-related.

We start with Neville Percy’s second part ofhis treatment of the Barrow-wights. Thismakes a fine final chapter on this topic. Wethink that with the Barrow-wights completelydiscussed, few questions concerning Tolkien’sideas and inspirations for these creatures re-main unanswered. This comprehensive treat-ment is the perfect base for further – more

role-playing-oriented –elaborations on the is-sue.

Second comes a highly insightful review ofthe latest issue of the Parma Eldalamberon,dealing with Tolkien’s invented languages.Chris Seeman provides us with the most inter-esting parts that concern RPG issues. Thisbrings us much in the way of new first-handinformation on the Northwest of Middle-earth. Some of this conflicts with establishedRPG canons, while others shed light on somerarely touched topics. In either case, this ex-cellent read is a real jewel for every Tolkienenthusiast.

Our third contribution is an extensive essayabout the Rings of Power by co-editor ThomasMorwinsky – their purpose, history and even-tual fate. Many of this may seem obvious, buta lot of misconceptions – both by RPG andmovie sources suggest some interpretationsdistinctly different from Tolkien’s intentions.We hope you find this treatise as informativeas we do.

To make a good thing even better, ChrisSeeman is present with a second contribution– this time he provides us with a combined es-say on the academic aspects ofthe palantíri plus stats for theiruse in Decipher’s Lord of theRings Role-playing Game. Weare happy to have a contribu-tion that applies to both of ourtarget audiences – the moreacademically-minded as wellas the gamers.

Last but not least of the sub-missions for this essay comesEric Dubourg’s essay on theGuild of Venturers and theNúmenórean colonies in Mid-dle-earth. It should have beenpublished already in our previ-ous issue, but unfortunately, itcould not be made ready intime. Now we catch up withthat and hope that with all theessays on the Númenórean ac-tivities now available – includ-ing the present one – there isa sound basis for more workthat builds on these!

Last but not leastNot all has gone well in the past months,

and you might have noticed that not every-thing that was announced in the last issue hasmaterialized as promised. This applies both tothe Uswë Númenorello supplement as well as therating option for all Other Minds issues on thewebsite. Please accept our apologies for thesedelays. The rating form is now finished at last.Please log in on the Other Minds website. Theimage below shows the position of the link(green circle) on the website once you arelogged in. The more ratings that are given foreach issue and contribution, the better theoverall picture will be. All of you can help usto make Other Minds ever better by giving us agood picture of what you like best.

We will provide a comprehensive statistic inone of the next issues, once the number of rat-ings allow a reasonably resilient analysis of thedata. The more ratings we get, the better!

Thomas MorwinskyMay 2008

2

Editorial: Third time is a charm

ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008

AddendumAn additional number of notes. Many thanks

to Thomas for stepping up with so much hardwork and long hours dealing with technicaland content issues. He really was the key tothis issue actually getting completed.

As for the “Escape From Númenor” (UswëNúmenorello) module, a (nearly finished) re-lease is now available, basically an entire issuebehind. It still has some rough spots and is awork in progress, but you can download thelatest snapshot from http://www.numenor-project.com.

Eventually, with the help of feedback fromreaders, a fully polished and finished versionwill materialize and be integrated with theprinted version of Other Minds magazine Issue#2. Hopefully this will materialize beforeMerpCon IV.

We are really hoping to get a module sub-mission for OM4 in time, that fits the Dwar-ven theme coming up with the next issue. So ifyou have such a campaign or adventure, pleasesubmit it as soon as possible to your trustedpublishers!

In conjunction with Other Minds Magazine Is-sue 3, I have made available MerpCon II'scampaign Umbar-dalan (“Under Umbar”). Iwas tempted to submit the MerpCon III mod-ule “First Contact”, but it is a massive cam-paign, and needs some cleanup before release.Maybe it will come OM6. Of course, whatwe’d really like to see is modules submittedfrom everyone else, so please start sending inyour adventure modules, with any theme orsetting in Eä, so we can start lining them upfor upcoming issues.

There are many significant functionality im-provements coming soon to the website aswell. In addition to Thomas’ mentioning ofthe Survey forms (please send any bugs, sug-gestions or problem reports to [email protected]) , an additional feature com-ing up very soon includes forums that will linkwith email notification, and subscribing to anypiece of content to be notified of any changesor comments (this goes beyond typical RSSsubscription feeds, though that is already sup-ported on the website). Please watch the web-site for notifications.

There is also a dedicated chat room for peo-ple who like real time conversations, so pleaseswing by the website and click the “Chatroom” link on the left to join with any Java-en-abled web browser.

The upcoming issue #4 of OM is meant tocorrespond with being released at MerpConIV. In this spirit, we are attempting to havethe magazine theme correspond with the con-vention theme of “Dwarves” (seehttp://www.merpcon.org for more detailson the convention). So if you have ANY topicsrelated to Tolkien's Dwarves, please startsending in your submissions as soon as possi-ble. Send email to [email protected] if you only have a rough outline, lettingus know will help, so please don't be shy!

Finally, we could really use some moreartwork submissions to the magazine, soplease, if you have any content you thinkwould fit any issue, don't hesitate to contact usand send your works.

Many thanks to everyone for all their sup-port in making this magazine better with eachissue!

Hawke RobinsonMay 2008

3


4

Baruk Khazâd! Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai mênu!Khazâd ai mênu!MerpCon (Middle-earth Role Playing Convention) is the only annual non-commercial, non-profit, international

convention focused exclusively on role playing gaming in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth.

With guest speaker:

John D. Rateliffauthor of “The History of The Hobbit”.

Limited seating is available, so be sure to register today! Yes. It is what so many have been clamoring for: Dwarven adventure!

This year's convention theme is focused on the oft misunderstood race, Dwarves.Each year many of the participants at MerpCon have asked, nay, plead for Dwarven adventures. We have heard your

plea. And so it has finally come to pass. The theme for MerpCon IV, 2008 will be Dwarven adventure. Now, those of youwho are not quite so enthusiastic about Dwarves, need not fret. This does not mean everyone will be forced to play a Dwarfcharacter. It merely means the campaigns/adventures will have something of particular relevance to the Dwarves. We have

multiple Game Masters with specific campaigns in mind, chomping at the bit (or is that beard?).

MerpCon IV's theme also corresponds to the release of Other Minds Magazine Issue 4 (http://www.omzine.org ) beingDwarven themed as well. This year's event takes place on the last weekend of

July (25th, 26th &-27th), Friday, Saturday and Sunday.The online RSVP form is now available to register.

http://www.merpcon.org/rsvp/

This event is held each year in scenic Spokane, Washington, USA. This is a completely volunteer-run and free event open to the public.

Visit our website, join the forums and announcement lists, chat room or email us for any questions at:

www.merpcon.org


by Neville Percy © 2008per the terms of the CC license: b n a 1

In Other Minds, Issue 1 we published an excellentessay on the Barrow-wights. While being reallygood in itself (and especially in the applied sense),it was not wholly complete. This fact was also ad-dressed in the essay itself, expressing the hope toplace a follow-up later.

Now, here you see this follow-up before you. It ismuch more academic in style, dealing with thesources available to Tolkien, and that he – perhaps– used to create his Barrow-wights. It makes clearthat these creatures had some models but that theyare highly original too.

If you ever wanted to know how Tolkien came to“his” Barrow-wights, this one is for you!

Historical Sources andthe evolution of concepts

Tolkien disliked analysis of the influences ofhis own life on his work, but he found hissources in the things that interested him andwould surely have approved of other peoplefinding pleasure in the same things.

We know from his lectures in Beowulf: theMonsters and the Critics that Tolkien was famil-iar with the work of Andrew Lang, the gentle-man credited with coining the term "Bar-rowwight" (sic):

In Nomenclature Tolkien writesthat barrow-wights are ‘creaturesdwelling in a barrow “grave-mound”.... It is an inventedname....’2 But the Oxford EnglishDictionary attributes the first use ofthis word combination to AndrewLang, in Essays in Little (1891): ‘Inthe graves where treasures werehoarded the Barrowwights dwelt,ghosts that were sentinels over thegold’.– The Lord of the Rings: AReader’s Companion,Hammond and Scull

As a leading professor of Old and MiddleEnglish, Tolkien must have had at least as finea sensibility for the connotations of “barrow-wight” as Lang himself. The Oxford EnglishDictionary gives “wight” several glosses:

Wight ә (w it), sb. arch. [OE.wiht = OS., OHG., MHG. wiht,ON. véttr, vítr, Goth. waiht(ni...waiht nothing); ulteriorconnexions unc. Cf. AUGHT, NAUGHT,NOUGHT.] †1. A living being; acreature –1587. b. orig. and chieflywith (good or bad) epithet, applied tosupernatural, preternatural, orunearthly beings. Obs. or rare arch.OE. 2. A human being, man orwoman, person. Now arch. or dial.(often implying contempt orcommiseration). ME. †3. In advb.phrases, qualified by no, any, a littleor the like: (A certain) amount; for(any, a little etc.) time or distance. –1470.

Wight ә (w it), a. (adv.) arch. anddial. ME. [a. ON. vígt, neur. ofvígr of fighting age, skilled in arms,

īf. OTeut. *w g-, (waig-, wig-), as inOE. wíg battle, fight, wiga warrior.]1. Of persons, actions, etc.: Strongand courageous, esp. in warfare;having or showing prowess; valiant,doughty, bold. 2. Strong, vigorous,robust, stalwart; exercising strength,energetic. ME. 3. Moving briskly orrapidly; active, agile; swift, fleet.late ME.– Shorter Oxford EnglishDictionary, 1936 (myunderlined emphasis)

The emphasized entry broadly defines“wight” as a supernatural or unearthly being: aspirit, much as the Old Norse cognate vættr,seen in the Icelandic landvættir and sjóvættir,the spirits of land and sea, and direct counter-parts of the ëalar spirit beings of Tolkien’s ownearly writings. The overall impression createdby the term “wight”, then, takes in the generalundefined sense of a fellow, almost ‘the manin the mound’, but also implying a supernatu-ral aspect and further drawing on the seconddefinition to imply a potent foe.

If Lang coined the term “barrowwight”, it

5

Of Barrow-wightsPart Two

OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE must have been in reflection of the folkloretradition of ghostly, undead or supernaturalbeings in the burial mounds of north-westernEurope. Faeries are associated with the hol-low hills, i.e. burial mounds, and traditionsfrom Ireland to Scandinavia often show con-siderable overlap between the faerie folk orelves and the spirits of the dead.3 Butgrave-dwelling beings that stand in guardian-ship of the treasure in their mounds are moreof a Germanic than a Celtic tradition.

The word “barrow” comes to us from theOld English language spoken by the GermanicAngles and Saxons, in their OE word beorgthat meant a grave-mound or tumulus.4 Butthe Germanic peoples who arrived in Britainand found such mounds (in fact dating fromthe Neolithic period through to the lateBronze Age) framed them within their ownpagan tradition of raising grave-mounds fortheir chieftains, and the tradition that the deadin some way lived on within their barrows.

Details of the Anglo-Saxon tradition mustbe inferred from the broadly parallel OldNorse culture, of which far more has survivedto the present day, and in which the walkingdead are known as draugar5 and haugbúar (liter-ally: “howe-dwellers”).6 Such beings are usu-ally described in the sagas as having been dis-tasteful in life: ill-mannered, ugly andodorous, often pagan (the sagas having beenChristianized by the time they were writtendown), or even sorcerers such as the “witch-king” Thráinn. They remained recognisablythe same person in death, unchanged unlesstheir unpleasant qualities became more exag-gerated. The howe-dwellers remained in theirmounds, only attacking treasure-seekers whobroke into their barrows. The draugar, how-ever, might either be raised from the battle-slain by sorcery to carry on the fight as un-dauntable warriors of immense strength whocould not be stopped by normal wounds, ormight be the unquiet dead leaving the grave tomaraud over the countryside during the hoursof darkness. They seem particularly to fightby grappling with the saga-heroes (a bestial at-tribution or a device making for a more horrif-ic encounter; both are also equally true of Be-owulf’s foe, the sometimes draugr-likeGrendel), and are often slain by beheadingwith a sword from their own barrow and theirbodies subsequently burnt.

Perhaps a dozen such figures exist in theOld Norse corpus, and Tolkien may reason-ably be expected to have known them all. In

The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm’sSon (publ. 1953 but possibly written in the40’s) he made a passing mention of a fearful

man imagining “barrow-wights and bogies”7 inthe darkness. Since this was Tolkien's offeringof a ‘sequel’ to the Anglo-Saxons’ poem TheBattle of Maldon he clearly thought the term“barrow-wight” an appropriate one for the An-glo-Saxons to have used themselves.

But the Barrow-wights of The Lord of theRings are also Tolkien’s own creation. Theyare neither haugbúar sorcerers who went intothe grave on their own terms and somehowevaded the consequences of natural death, nordraugar who were caused to rise again as theunquiet dead.

In line with the consciously Catholic world-view informing the metaphysics of Middle-earth, Tolkien allows nothing to interfere withthe passage of the souls of the deceased to theHalls of Mandos, and has their blasphemousanimation as the work of other, intrusive spir-its sent by the Lord of the Nazgûl. This devicetherefore becomes a parallel of the medievalChurch’s explanations for the persistent folkbelief in the walking dead.

One of the Catholic Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon abbot Ælfric (d. circa 1020) stresses thefact that there is no true magical power ofnecromancy:

Witches still travel to where roads meetand to heathen graves with their illus-ory skill8 and call out to the devil andhe comes to them in the guise of theperson who lies buried there, as if hewould arise from the dead – but shecannot really make it happen, that thedead man should arise through herwizardry.– quoted in Leechcraft, S. Pol-lington (Anglo-Saxon Books)(my bold emphasis)

It was the belief in the Middle Ages thatbodies buried in unconsecrated ground mightbe possessed by fiends and demons and sub-jected to all the indignities that their cavortingwould cause (including any damage to theircorpses handicapping their new bodies whenthey arose at Judgement Day). Tolkien ap-pears either to have adopted or independentlyto have re-invented this explanation for thebelief that the dead can be made to walk again.

Beginning with this construct, Tolkienseems rather to have felt his way towards what'had to be' the nature of the Barrow-wights.The earliest notes for The Lord of the Rings hadthe intention to use Barrow-wights, whilst theBlack Riders were only introduced in "an un-premeditated turn" some way into its writing,but in the early stages of development the twowere sufficiently close in conception that

Tolkien made this note to himself:

Barrow-wights related to Black-riders. Are Black-riders actuallyhorsed Barrow-wights?– Tom Bombadil in HoME VIp. 118, dating from early 1938

He was initially undecided as to which ofthem were heard in the night outside thehouse of Tom Bombadil, and Elrond later says,“The Barrow-wights I knew of, for they areclosely akin to the Riders”.9 But the distinctnatures of the two subsequently emerged, andthe relationship between them came to be oneof allegiance rather than similarity, in that theLord of the Nazgûl was responsible for thewights’ infesting the Barrow-downs.

A later draft includes an interesting notionthat the Númenóreans’ desire for immortalityled them (presumably via sorcery or necro-mancy) to a mode of Barrow-wightish undeathperhaps similar to that of the haugbúar. ButTolkien subsequently rejected the passage thatincluded this:

“The world has changed muchsince I [Elrond speaking] was last inthe West. The Barrow-wights weknew of by many names” '17' [...]

'17' In a rejected draft of this passageElrond goes on: “There are others elsewhere,wherever the men of Númenor sought darkknowledge under the shadow of death inMiddle-earth, and they are akin to the[Ringwraiths].”– The Council of Elrond (2),The Treason of Isengard p.152 & 158 (my bold emphasis)

Another rejected note proposed a scene inwhich Barrow-wights pursued Bombadil andthe hobbits, but Bombadil turned and raisedhis right hand and they shrunk back. This isagain reminiscent of the later development ofthe Nazgûl shrinking back when Frodo raisedhis sword and invoked Elbereth (though thesword being one of the ones from the barrow-hoard,

“bound about with spellsfor the bane of Mordor”

must also have been significant in that). Thegesture of the raised right hand also survivedinto the final version, where Bombadil used itwhen he commanded the hobbits to awaken.

Nothing further is written of the nature ofthe Barrow-wights as it emerged from thiscreative process, except in the text of The Lordof the Rings itself.

6 ————————————————————————————————————


Notes

1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

2 The full quotation reads:Barrow-wights. Creatures

dwelling in a ‘barrow’ (grave-mound); see Barrow under Place-names. It is an invented name: anequivalent should be invented. TheDutch translation has grafgeest'grave-ghost'; the Swedish hasKummelgast 'gravemound-ghost'.– JRR Tolkien, A[Translator's] Guide to theNames in the Lord of theRings

3 The episode in which hole-dwelling hob-bits, destined to fade and survive only as amythical ‘little people’, are opposed by amound-dwelling barrow-wight justaposesthe two poles of this blurred tradition.

4 barrow (2) “mound,” O.E. beorg(W.Saxon), berg (Anglian) “hill,” fromP.Gmc. *bergaz (cf. O.S., O.Fris., O.H.G.berg “mountain,” O.N. bjarg “rock”), fromPIE base *bheregh- “high, elevated” (cf.O.C.S. bregu “mountain, height,” O.Ir.brigh “mountain,” Skt. b’rhant “high,”O.Pers. bard- “be high”). Obsolete exceptin place-names and southwest Englanddialect by 1400; revived by archaeology.Barrow-wight first recorded 1891.–http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=barrow

5 In origin the ON. word draugr (pl.-ar) wasrelated to the word for dream and meantghost or phantom, but the Norseconception of these dead is very much asphysical beings:

... it is clear that the haunting isdone by the actual dead body itself,which leaves its gravemound and ispossessed of superhuman strength andunlimited malice. When the body isdestroyed, the power of the draugr isat an end.– HR Ellis, The Road to Hel,p. 94

They are sometimes described as death-black or corpse-blue, which finds anoteworthy echo in Tolkien’s Sindarin‘Draugluin’, combining draug and -luin, orblue. (Noted by Michael Martinez.)

6 The O.N. word haugr survives in themodern “howe”, and is notably close toTolkien's Sindarin elvish “haudh” for burialmound.

7 Bombadil Goes Boating also has the line:

“We don’t let Forest-folk norbogies from the Barrows crossover Brandywine...” (my emphasis)

8 The word translated as “illusory skill” isgedwimore, familiar to us as the precursor ofTolkien’s dwimmerlaik.

9 In The House of Elrond, The Return of theShadow, HoME VI, p. 401

7


8 ————————————————————————————————————

Ambarquenta is a role-playing game specifically designed for J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary land of Middle-earth. In this effort, it is our goal to produce a game system that is all at once enjoyable, flexible, balanced, and playable, but we also strive to remain true to Tolkien’sshining literary examples. Ambarquenta (meaning ‘Tale of Fate’ in Quenya or High-elvish) aims at experienced roleplayers who desire a complex, yet intuitivelycomprehendible set of rules which provides hooks for the Turambar (i.e., the Gamemaster) to develop his stories, instead of distracting from them.At the time being, preview release 5.0 is available for download from our website, located at www.ambarquenta.com.It comes as a 214-page PDF-document, containing all chapters on character creation. To open and print this eBook and future preview releases, you’ll need totype the password, ‘ambarmeldor’ (meaning ‘Friends of Fate’ in Quenya). The current preview version of Ambarquenta features a brief Introduction to the game’s mechanics, and chapters on Your Character’s Tale (1), Attributes (2),Races and Cultures (3), Skills (4), Abilities and Flaws (5), Weapons and Gear (6), Finishing Touches (7), Character Improvement (8) and Adventuring (9). Inaddition, Appendix A introduces you to the optional concept of everyday Occupations.With a little creativity to fill in the gaps and the convenient Microsoft-Excel-based character sheet (also available for download from www.ambarquenta.com), anexperienced group of gamers should well be able to start a game of Ambarquenta; in any case you’ll get an excellent impression of the game’s mechanics andfeatures from the preview. Expect detailed chapters dealing with Combat (10), Magic (11), prominent (NPC) Lords of Middle-earth (12), a Bestiary (13), andappendices on various topics such as herbs and poisons and creature design in future versions of Ambarquenta.We’d greatly appreciate to learn what you think about the published material, and, of course, about your ideas for improving the game’s existing and completingits missing chapters. The best way to get in touch with us and our friends who are involved in the design process of Ambarquenta is to discuss your ideas andsuggestions in the Heren Turambarion’s forum, located at http://ambarquenta.tt.cx.

Design PrinciplesWhile downloading the rulebook, you might be interested to learn a little more about our design principles: First, Ambarquenta is a fairly ‘realistic’ game. Ofcourse there will be magic spells (as well as other forms of magic) and everything else a fair Middle-earth RPG requires, but certain conditions of real worldphysics are still represented by the system. Hence, it isn’t the kind of game in which you can create ridiculously overpowered starting characters, or ever hope tobecome a cinematic superhero.The second principle is playability, and this frequently overrules realism. The most accurate combat system isn’t worth a penny if it makes a simple encounterlast for hours, or (and this was even more important to us when we decided to write an RPG ourselves) if the Turambar has to keep too many details in mind.Thus, realism governs the character creation and improvement process, while playability dominates the actual game play. So prepare for fast-moving play-rulesthat are far more realistic and satisfying than those you may know from many other major roleplaying games.Another important element is flexibility. A character has the opportunity to learn or practise almost any skill or ability, without the usual limitations by abstractconcepts such as levels, character classes, or character points. Nevertheless, by the system’s inherent mechanics, your character will show a unique pattern fromthe beginning on, a personal aptitude towards being whatever you want him to be...THE HEREN TURAMBARIONCreators of AmbarquentaeMail [email protected] www.ambarquenta.comForum http://ambarquenta.tt.cx


by Chris Seeman © 2008([email protected])

per the terms under CC license: b n a 1

Tolkien’s linguistic writings contain a wealth ofdata concerning Middle-earth that can enrich virtu-ally every aspect of game design: history, topo-graphy, culture, nomenclature, magic and meta-physics. Much of the excitement (and frustration) ofthis largely untapped corpus is the fact that it isstill being published as we speak—years after thefinal volume of the History of Middle-earth serieshit the shelves. The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship(http://www.elvish.org/) has been responsible forthe vast majority of these publications, authorizedby the Tolkien Trust and prepared with the approv-al of Christopher Tolkien. The most recent labor, a220-page tome entitled Words, Phrases & Passagesin The Lord of the Rings (henceforth WPP), waspublished last year as issue 17 of Parma Eldalam-beron.

ApproachLike all of Tolkien’s linguistic output, WPP

is a complex document. It consists of a list ofinvented words appearing in the publishedLotR, annotated by extensive commentary.To this the editor, Christopher Gilson, has ap-pended an alphabetical index of Eldarin rootsTolkien composed around the same time asWPP proper (ca. 1957-1967). The result isdense and often highly technical. It is not forthe feint-hearted. The multiple layers ofchanging interpretation (sometimes left unre-solved) can be confusing, and isolated gems ofinformation are often buried beneath materialnot directly relevant to game design.

Given these and other formidable challengesto using WPP, I have undertaken to compilehere a preliminary “laundry-list” of what seemto me the most valuable items from a gamedesign perspective, along with some of myown suggestions as to their significance or im-plications. Consider what follows the “Read-er’s Digest” version for the uninitiated. Itshould be noted, however, that not all detailsfound in WPP can automatically be treated asTolkien’s “definitive” statement on the subjectwithout first undertaking a thorough study ofhis other late (post-LotR) writings. What I of-fer here should be regarded as an invitation tofurther research and creative application, sincethe length of the original text cannot be com-prehensively summarized in such a short trea-tise as this one

I organize the items below into five broadtopical categories: 1) place names (toponyms),2) personal names, 3) gentilic names (namesof peoples), 4) theology & metaphysics, and 5)miscellany. Beside each item I list the page(s)in WPP where this entry appears.

I. Place Names

Akallabêth (111)Because the tale bearing this title is about

the Downfall of Númenor, Akallabêth hassometimes been glossed as “Downfall.” This isan error. Here Tolkien supplies an explicitgloss: (she that has) Downfallen.Akallabêth is the name of the sunken island it-self, not the event that caused it to sink.

Arnor (28)Tolkien glosses Arnor as King’s Land (in-

terpreting it as a reduced, colloquial form ofQ. Arandóre, S. Arannor). The name reflectsthe fact that this was “the most important ofElendil’s realms,” and was intended to distin-guish that realm from the Blue Mountains andLindon, the parts of Eriador “which wereElvish” (i.e., under Elven rule).

What, then, was the zone of Númenóreansettlement in Eriador called prior to Elendil’sroyal claim to it in SA 3320? Tolkien reveals

9

J.R.R. Tolkien, Words, Phrases & Passages inThe Lord of the Rings

—A Game Designer’s Guide to

Parma Eldalamberon 17

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OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE that Arnor was also referred to by “[a]nothername that soon fell out of general colloquialuse:” (Realm of the) North-harbourage(Q. Turmen Follondiéva; for short: Forolondië(Follondië); S. (Arthor [artaure] na) Forlonnas)—in contrast to Gondor, “(Realm of the) South-harbourage.” (See Gondor entry below.)Tolkien does not specify when this colloquial-ism first emerged. The prefix, “Realm,” wouldseem to presuppose Elendil’s claim. However,one might speculate that the pre-DownfallNúmenórean settlement zones of Eriador andBelfalas Bay had, in fact, been called “North-harbourage” and “South-harbourage,” and thatElendil and his followers embraced thisnomenclature, adapting it to the new politicalsituation by simply prefacing these traditionaldesignations with “(Royal) Realm of…”

This hypothesis is favored by the fact thatNúmenórean settlement of the northwest ofMiddle-earth began on the coasts at port-towns like Lond Daer, Tharbad and Pelargir(however far inland it may eventually have ex-tended). In the absence of evidence to the con-trary, then, I propose the regions associatedwith these Númenórean havens would havebeen designated, respectively, Dor na For-lonnas and Dor na Challonnas.

The Sindarin forms are preferable, in keep-ing with the attested examples of Númenóreantoponyms in Middle-earth. Vinyalondë is, ofcourse, Quenya; but that was subsequentlychanged to Sindarin Lond Daer. (The Quenyaforms Tolkien offers here may be purely forthe sake of linguistic comparison, or they mayreflect the forms post-Downfall “learned”works, written in Quenya, would have usedwhen referring to these colloquialisms.)

Azanulbizar/Nanduhirion (37)Tolkien glosses these toponyms as Vale of

Dim Streams.

Dol Baran (86)This outlier of Methedras, bounding the

Vale of Angrenost on the southwest, has oftenbeen interpreted to mean “Brown Hill” (ana-lyzing the second element as the same baranfound in Baranduin; cf. HoMe V). Here, how-ever, Tolkien glosses it as Naked Hill orBare Hill (from paran, derived from the El-darin root PAR “peel”).

In another (unconnected) entry, Tolkienremarks that the element dol was typicallyapplied to hills that did not have a sharp apex.

Dol Guldur (36)The fact that Tolkien supplies Dol Guldur as

an illustration of the tendency for dol not to beused with reference to hills or mountains that

had a sharp apex (see above) would seemproblematic for ICE’s topographical interpre-tation of Amon Lanc as a volcano crowned bya steep cinder cone.

Dorwinion (54)Tolkien analyzes this toponym as Sindarin,

but offers two mutually exclusive glosses:Young-land Country or Land of Gwinion (thelatter presumably to be interpreted as a per-sonal name). Of this region, he comments:These statements belong to a much lengthierdiscussion of Sindarin impact upon the Nan-dorin populations of Rhovanion (See SilvanElves below.)

“It was probably far south downthe River Running, and its Sindarinname a testimony to the spread ofSindarin: in this case expectable sincethe cultivation of vines was notknown originally to the Nandor orAvari.”

Gondor (28)Tolkien reiterates here the origin of this to-

ponym (“Stone-land”) in the monumentalbuilding projects undertaken by Elendil’s sons(Osgiliath, Minas Anor, Minas Ithil, An-grenost/Orthanc, etc.). It is clear, then, thatthe lands adjoining the White Mountainswould not have been called Gondor prior to SA3320.

A solution is now possible. Paralleling hisremarks on Arnor (see above), Tolkien identi-fies the “older name” of this region as Realmof the South-harbourage (Q. Turmen Hyal-londiéva; short: Hyaralondië (Hyallondië); S.Arthor na Challonnas). In concert with my pro-posal regarding Arnor, then, I suggest the zoneof Númenórean habitation amidst the landswatered by the White Mountains would havebeen called Dor na Challonnas prior to SA3320.

This would not, of course, have been ap-plied to all regions that subsequently became“Gondor;” only to those core territories occu-pied prior to the expansionist conquests of theShip-kings (more or less Lebennin, centered onthe haven of Pelargir, possibly including por-tions of Lossarnach, and perhaps the northwest-ern extremities of what would later be desig-nated Harondor as well). Lands further westwould have been called Belfalas, Anfalas andAndrast during the Second Age.

Haudh-in-Gwanûr (116)No startling new revelations. Just a confir-

mation of the expected gloss: Mound (insward) of (pair of) Twins.

Helevorn (37)Tolkien interprets this Sindarin form as

hele(dh)vorn, black glass, as a translation ofKhuzdul Narag-zâram (*“black-lake;” cf. Mir-rormere and Mordor below).

Isengard/Angrenost (32-33)Tolkien remarks that the sense of “iron”

(isen/angen) in this toponym derives from the“great hardness of the stone” of the fortress’enclosing wall. It would seem to follow fromthis that the name of the river flowing past thefortress (and emptying into the Sea, dividingthe coasts of Andrast and Enedhwith) wouldprobably have had a different name prior toIsildur and Anarion’s construction of An-grenost sometime after SA 3320. The inter-pretation given by Tolkien here, in any case,would rule out the theory that the River An-gren (or its source, Methedras) was rich iniron.

Khazad-dûm (35)Prior to the Elves renaming Khazad-dûm

Moria in TA 1981, they had called it Hadho-drond (the Sindarin equivalent to “Dwar-rowdelf”). This version can be found in TheSilmarillion (ch. Of the Sindar and Of the Rings ofPower and the Third Age). Another renditionmight be Domhabar as another version (per-haps dialect). Real-life experiences with sever-al similar names for the same thing might be amodel here.

Lothlórien (48)Tolkien explains the Nandorin name,

Lóriand/Lórinand, as alluding to Galadriel’sintroduction of mallorn trees into that region(interpreting the lór element as “golden [incolor]”). From this he concludes that the re-gion must have been called something else pri-or to Galadriel’s arrival during the mid-Sec-ond Age. He identifies Lindóri(n)and, Valeof Land of the Singers, as its original name.

In identifying Galadriel as the individual re-sponsible for introducing mallorns into the re-gion, Tolkien notes that their seeds “came as agift from Gil-galad, who had the seed fromEressea (by way of Númenor).” See also Un-finished Tales for more discussion on the vari-ous names of this land.

Mirrormere (35, 37)Tolkien identifies Nen Cenedril, (literally,

Lake Looking-glass), as the Sindarin transla-tion of Kheled-zâram (which probably meansglass-pool or glass-lake). He goes on to saythat the actual Sindarin word for “glass,”heledh, was actually a loan from Khuzdulkheled. Thus, cenedril literally means “looking-

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008crystal,” since “[t]here was no common Eldarinword for ‘glass.’”

Mordor (37)In connection with his etymology for

Helevorn (see above), Tolkien indicates thatthe Khuzdul name for Mordor was Nargûn(NRG being the consonantal root for “black,”-ûn presumably contributing the meaning of“land”).

Narog (37)Tolkien regards this river-name as probably

of Dwarven origin, analyzing it as an Elvenadaptation of Khuzdul Narâg (*“black[-river]”). Presumably this would have been be-stowed upon the river by the Petty-dwarves.

Nûrnen (87)Tolkien glosses Nûrnen as death-water or

dead-water, based on the elements nguru andnenda. Tolkien does not say whether Nûrnenshould be analyzed as Sindarin. However, itseems clear from this and other linguisticnotes that the form is to be regarded as Eldarinin derivation. If the same may be inferred forNûrn itself, this calls into question ICE’s inter-pretation of this toponym as an indigenousself-designation of the Men of this land, the“Nûrniags.”

Pinnath Gelin (24, 97, 173)Initially, Tolkien glossed this toponym as

Green Slopes, “which is dialectical or lateGondor Sindarin for the pl[ural] pennath blend-ed with other pl[ural] form pinn, pind.” Subse-quently, he revised this to GreenCrests/Ridges, in which the meanings of pendand pinn are differentiated (the latter implyinga “long (low) hill with a sharp ridge againstskyline”).

Rhovanion (78)Tolkien identifies Wilderland as a Westron

translation of this Sindarin toponym. The“wildness” of the region alluding both to itsbeing “not tamed, domesticated” and “fierce,savage, hostile (to Elves & Men).” This raisesthe issue of when the region first received thisappellation, and from whom. Would it onlyhave taken root after the shadow began tospread from Dol Guldur?

Rhudaur (115, 170)Tolkien glosses this as Troll shaw, beneath

which he identifies the Sindarin element rhû as“evil, wicked.” It is unclear whether “Trollshaw” is to be understood as the literal rendi-tion of Rhudaur, or whether it should be un-derstood as “Evil Forest” (with the implication

that trolls are the source of its evil reputation).Either way, it begs the question of how farback into history the association of trolls withthis region (or the adjacent Ettenmoors/Et-tendales) goes.

If this etymology is taken as definitive, itcalls into question the geographical interpreta-tion of Rhudaur as rhûn + taur (“east-forest”).

Stonewain Valley (28)“So named because of the great road for

heavy drags (platforms on wheels) and wains,used in the quarries of Min-Rimmon that ranthrough it.” Tolkien provides the followingglosses: Q. Nand’ Ondolunkava/Ondolunka-nan(do); S. Nan Gondresgion; Rohirric: Stan-waegna Dael. The “wain” element is given as S.rasc (Q raxa): “a drag or any large, flat vehicleon wheels or rollers for hauling stone or otherweighty material.” Q. lunka is glossed as“heavy transport wain.”

Tarlang’s Neck (92, 98, 146)According to Tolkien, this name was “ap-

plied to the long narrow ‘col’ or passage overthe long spur of the mountains that separatedLamedon from the plain of Erech. It is not cer-tain whether this was named after some an-cient man with the Sindarin name Tarlang(‘stiff-neck’ sc. ‘proud’) or was due to the ob-solescence of Tarlang ‘the stiff, tough, passage’to which S. achad had been prefixed in expla-nation, so that Achad Tarlang ‘the crossingcalled Tarlang’ was interpreted as ‘Tarlang’sNeck’.”

To this Tolkien appends an alternative inter-pretation: “Achad is another word for ‘neck’,referring properly only to the vertebrae (thebony part of the neck not including thethroat): AKAS: Q. akas (later akse) pl. aksi, S.ach, geographically ached (<aks). This was alsoapplied geographically to rock ridges. TheNeck was not the name of the passage but ofthe lower, narrower ridge (crossed by theroad) between the main mountains, and themountainous region at the southern end of thespur.”

There seem, then, to be two incompatibleviews of what Tarlang’s Neck actually refersto: the pass itself, or the mountainous ridge tothe south of it. A variety of scenarios might beconcocted to harmonize them. For instance,Tarlang may have been a traditional designa-tion for the pass (‘the stiff, tough, passage’),whereas Achad Tarlang would refer to “themountainous region at the southern end of thespur” associated with the infamous pass. Alter-nately, the incompatibility of the two inter-pretations could be left to stand, each repre-

senting one (Gondorian) viewpoint—local us-age versus that of an official royal cartogra-pher, for instance.

Tharbad (34)According to Tolkien, Tharbad originally

means “the Stepping Stones”, “a ford overwhich one could walk.”

Tol Brandir (22, 61)Tolkien glosses this as Sindarin, Isle of the

Great Steeples “from brand, brann ‘towering’,“tall and massive” (or to noun brand, steeple).”Tolkien describes Tol Brandir as “a great up-standing mass ending in two major and twominor steeples.” A sketch of the island’s pro-file accompanies this note. Tolkien offers noanalysis of the -ir element in Brandir.

Tyrn Gorthad (116)Tolkien glosses torn as burial mound and

gorthad as wraith, spirit of Dead. Theetymology obviously has a bearing on the issueof when the region first acquired this name:after its infestation by Barrow-wights in TA1636? If so, what was it called before that?

Zirak-zigil/Kibil-nâla (36, 37)Tolkien observes that since both of these to-

ponyms were rendered into Sindarin with theelement, celeb, “silver” (Celeb-dil/Celeb-rant),they must contain two different Khuzdulterms meaning “silver.” Tolkien identifies theirconsonantal roots as ZGL and KBL (hence, zi-rak corresponds to Sindarin til, “spike, tine,”while nâla corresponds to rant, “path, course,river-course or bed”). Tolkien concludes thatKBL designates the metal itself, whereas ZGLrefers to the color silver. Hence, Zirak-zigilwas so-named because of its white-grey col-oration, not because it contained silver ores.By contrast, “[i]t is probable that Dwarves ac-tually found silver in the river,” Kibil-nâla/Celebrant.

In this same section of WPP, Tolkien dis-cusses the names of all three of the peaks overMoria, sketching profiles of Caradhras andCelebdil: “Caradhras seems to have been agreat mountain tapering upwards (like Matter-horn) while Celebdil was simply crowned by asmaller pinnacle.”

II. Personal Names

Aragorn (31, 113)In contrast to another etymology published

in HoMe XII (“Kingly Valour”), Tolkien hereglosses Aragorn as revered king.

11

OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE Arathorn (32, 113)Again, in contrast to an alternative etymolo-

gy, which sees thorn as deriving from Sindarinthoron, “eagle” (Letters, 427), Tolkien here in-terprets Arathorn as steadfast king.

Arwen (56)In an etymological discussion of Arwen’s

epithet, Vanimelda, Tolkien supplies Arwen’spatronym (“Daughter of Elrond”): Q.Elerondiel; S. Elrenniel.

Ghân buri Ghân (99)Tolkien glosses this as Ghân son of Ghân.

The use of a patronymic in our only attestedDrûg personal name (excepting Aghan in UT)might call into question the premise advancedby the ICE MERP series that the Drughu werea matriarchal people. It certainly counselsagainst the unrestrained replication of the X-y-X formula for naming every Drûg characterappearing in the modules, substituting buri forany random phoneme. At any rate, the pres-ence of Aghan testifies against the notion thatthis was a universal naming pattern.

Incánus (88, 155)Tolkien offered numerous interpretations of

this Latin look-alike (e.g. in the UT essay onthe Istari). Here he glosses it as Quenya: in-canus(se) mind mastership (cf. aranusse “king-ship,” tárisse “queenship”). He derives the in-element from Quenya indo (inmost heart,thought, mind).

Nimrodel (49)Tolkien expresses uncertainty as to the ety-

mology of this name, tentatively deriving nimfrom Telerin nimbi “white.” He analyzes rodelas either Sindarin “lofty star” or “[noble] lady.”

Roheryn (97)Tolkien explains that Aragorn’s horse bore

this name (“Steed of the Lady”) because Arwenhad given it to him. This detail is not revealedin LotR.

Sauron (163, 183)Tolkien reveals that “Sauron’s original

[Quenya] name was Mairon, but this was al-tered after he was suborned by Melkor. But hecontinued to call himself Mairon the Ad-mirable, or Tar-mairon ‘King Excellent’until after the downfall of Númenor.”

Tolkien derives this name from the Eldarinroot MAY “excellent, admirable” (from whichthe term Maia comes). Presumably the -ron inMairon should be understood as a superlative.

Thranduil (27, 187)Tolkien interprets th(a)randuil as Sin-

darin: vigorous spring (as in a vigorous springof water).

III. Gentilic Names

Drúadan (99)In contrast to UT, where Tolkien regards

drû as a Sindarizing of the indigenous gentilic,Drughu, here he analyzes it as a Sindarin ele-ment in its own right (savage, wild), related tothe hrova element in Sindarin Rhovanion.Hence, Drúadan really would mean “WildMan.”

Huorn (86)Tolkien interprets this as Sindarin, but ap-

pears to be uncertain as to how to analyze thefirst element: ? + tree. He experiments withdifferent etymologies for hu (e.g., spirit, shad-ow, heart), but without apparent resolution.

Lossoth (39)Tolkien notes that the element hoth in

Loss(h)oth was “nearly always used in evil or atleast unfriendly sense in Sindarin.” Hence, theLossoth are described as “the unfriendlyNorthern folk who lived in the snow.”

Rhovain (18)In a discussion of the distinction between

Dúnedain and other Men, Tolkien notes thatthe latter were called by the Eldar Q. Hró-natani; S. Rhúnedain “but more commonlyHrávani (S. Rhovain) Wild-men, Sav-ages.”

The Sindarin form is curious, because onewould expect the plural of Rhovan to be Rhe-vain, following the normal rules of vowel mu-tation.

Tark (101)Tolkien identifies this as “an Orkish word

for Númenórean. Etymology in any Elvishsense unknown; but possibly a mere abbrevia-tion or tarkil, an ancient name for the Atani orEdain. The Eldar sometimes called all Menhildi… tarkhildi ‘high-Men’ would phonetical-ly produce Q tarkildi (and S. *terchil (notused)).”

IV. Theology and metaphysics

Ambar/Umbar (105, 123-124, 163-164)Tolkien confirms that Q. Ambar means “‘this

Earth,’ the planet, as a whole, including Amanuntil its removal, but excluding other parts of‘the Kingdom of Arda’ under the guardianship

and headship of Manwë (Sun, moon, etc.).Tenna Ambar-metta ‘Until World’s-end’ thusmeant ‘until the end of the finite time duringwhich the Earth is appointed (by its umbar: seebelow) to endure, at least as a region inhabitedby the Children (Elves and Men).’”

In describing “the dispositions and will ofEru, with regard to Creation as a whole, to‘this World’ in particular, or to persons ofgreat importance in events,” Tolkien suggeststhat “Umbar could correspond to History, theknown or at least the already unfolded part,together with the Future, progressively real-ized. To the latter it most often referred, andis rendered Fate or Doom. But this is inaccu-rate, so far as genuine Elvish, especially High-elvish, is concerned, since it was not in thatuse applied only to evil events.

The word ‘umbar’ appears more than oncehowever – and in different meanings. First wehave the meaning as outlined above, then theTengwar letter umbar meaning ‘fate’ (see TheLord of the Rings. Appendix E). Last but not leastthere is the great city of Umbar which has aprominent rôle in the history of the Nú-menóreans. This name is of pre-Númenóreanorigin and the original meaning forgotten (TheLord of the Rings. Appendice F). Due to its multi-ple meanings in the elvish language(s) (seeabove), it might have been viewed as a fittingrendition/allusion or wordplay by the firstNúmenóreans who encountered it and subse-quently kept the – originally alien – name fortheir own use.

Arda Un/marred (150, 178)Tolkien renders these expressions with Q.

Arda Vanya and Q. Arda Úvanya respec-tively. Tolkien remarks that the Eldarin rootBAN “appears originally to have referred sim-ply to ‘beauty’ – but with implication that itwas due to lack of fault, or blemish.”

Tolkien remarks that one purpose of thecreation of Elves and Men “was to completethe Design by ‘healing’ the hurts which it hadsuffered, and so ultimately not to recover‘Arda Unmarred’ (that is the world as itwould have been if Evil had never appeared),but the far greater thing ‘Arda Healed’.”

Eru (177)In one of his more lucid expositions of the

respective roles of the Valar and the Childrenof Ilúvatar in the healing of Arda, Tolkien dis-cusses the degree to which each were capableof communicating with and/or perceiving thewill of Eru directly. The Valar, he states, “re-mained in direct contact with Eru, thoughthey, as far as the legends go, usually ‘ad-

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008dressed’ Him through Manwë the Elder King.No doubt these legends are somatomorphic(sc. Almost as anthropomorphic as are ourown legends or imagination), and most Elves,when speaking of Manwë appealing to Eru orhaving converse with Him, imagined him as afigure, even more majestic than one of theirown ancient kings, standing in attitude ofprayer or supplication to the Valar. [HereTolkien adds, “At this time there was no wayfor the Incarnate direct to Eru, and though theEldar knew well that the power of the Valar tocounsel or assist them was only delegated, itwas through them that they sought for enlight-enment or aid from Eru.”] By nature one of theValar, or of those of the prime order of creat-ed spirits to which they belonged, would be inthe presence of Eru only by presenting them-selves in thought. The Eldar, and still less theElves of Middle-earth (and again still less Men,especially those who had no contact with Elvesor shunned it), knew little of such things; butthey believed that direct resort to Eru was notallowed to them, or at least not expected ofthem, except in gravest emergency. The Valarwere themselves ‘on trial’ – an aspect of themystery of ‘free will’ in created intelligences.They had a sufficient knowledge of the will ofEru and his ‘design’ to undertake the responsi-bility of guiding its development by means ofthe great prowess given to them and accordingto their own reason and intelligence.”

Fana (26, 173-180)WPP contains by far the longest and most

comprehensive disquisition in Tolkien’s extantwritings on the etymology and nature of fanar.Much of what he says here he ascribes to aQuenya work of lore entitled Nasser ar Ken-ime Kantar Valaron ar Maiaron (“The Na-tures and Visible Shapes of the Valar and Ma-iar”), from which he reproduces the followingline: Valar ar Maiar fantaner nassentarfanainen ve quenderinwe koar al larmar:“The Valar and Maiar veiled their true-being infanar, like to Elvish bodies and raiment.”

As for the Sindarin cognate, fân, Tolkienwrites that “[i]t may be said to mean ‘shape’,but with the added notion of light and white-ness; it is thus often used where we might use‘a vision’ – of something beautiful or sublime.Yet being elvish, though it may be used ofthings remote, it has no implication either ofuncertainty or unreality.” The context ofTolkien’s discussion is the vision of Elberethupon Taniquetil in Galadriel’s lament (ve fanyamaryat elentári ortane), but also in the hymn toElbereth sung by Gildor’s wandering companyon its pilgrimage to the Tower Hills (fanuilos).

Tolkien views this “spiritualized” use of fân

as a development resulting from contact be-tween the Noldorin exiles and the Sindar ofMiddle-earth: “No doubt this use aroused inthe minds of the Sindar who had not seen theValar in their own sacred land of Aman a men-tal picture of a majestic figure robed as if in ashining cloud seen far away.” So the Eldar inMiddle-earth used fân to describe numinousvisions. Tolkien reinforces this point: “As anoun [fân] was used of vague shapes or fleetingglimpses, especially of ‘apparitions’ or figuresseen in dreams.”

By contrast, Quenya fana was applied onlyto the physical forms in which the Valar andMaiar presented themselves (when they sochose) to Incarnates. Tolkien is at pains to dis-tinguish this from the “visionary” mode of pre-sentation expressed by Sindarin fân: “The fanarof the Valar were not ‘phantoms’, but ‘physi-cal’: that is, they were not ‘visions’ arising tothe mind, or implanted there by the will of asuperior mind or spirit, and then projected[The latter, says Tolkien, “were called inQuenya indemmar ‘mind-pictures’.”], butreceived through the bodily eyes. Or mainlyso: the power of the presence of one of thesespirits no doubt affected the reception and wasresponsible, for instance, for the impressionsof ‘radiance’ with which the ‘vision’ was en-dowed.”

Tolkien expands upon the affective qualitiesof spiritual presence, stating that, even whenunclad, “the Valar were perceived by someamong [the Eldar of Valinor] as lights (of dif-ferent hues) which their eyes could not toler-ate; whereas the Maiar were usually invisibleunclad, but their presence was revealed bytheir fragrance. This applied only to those un-corrupted. Melkor, they said, was invisible,and his presence was revealed only by a greatdread and by a darkness that dimmed or blot-ted the light and hues of all things near him.The Maiar corrupted by him stank. For thisreason neither he nor any of the evil Maiarever approached one of the Eldar that theywished to persuade or deceive except clad intheir fanar. These they could still make to ap-pear beautiful to Elvish eyes, if they wished –until after the great treachery of Melkor andthe destruction of the Trees. After thatMelkor (Morgoth) and his servants were per-ceived as forms of evil and enemies undis-guised.”

Near the end of his discussion of PHAN andits derivatives, Tolkien returns to the matterof indemmar, which turns out to be an elabo-ration of many of the themes addressed in hisÓsanwe-Kenta essay: “The High Elves distin-guished clearly between fanar…and other

modes of communication between minds, thatmight take ‘visual’ forms. They held that a su-perior ‘mind’ by nature, or one exerting itselfto its full in some extremity of need, couldcommunicate a desired ‘vision’ direct to an-other mind. The receiving mind would trans-late this impulse into the terms familiar to itfrom its use of the physical organs of sight (andhearing) and project it, seeing it as somethingexternal. It thus much resembled a fana, ex-cept that in most cases, especially in thoseconcerned with minds of less power (either ascommunicators or receivers) it would fre-quently be less vivid, clear or detailed, andmight even be vague or dim or appear half-transparent. These ‘visions’ were in Quenyacalled indemmar ‘mind-pictures’. [Tolkien de-rives this form from Q. indo ‘mind’ and theEldarin root EM, depict, portray. “a quantaemma or quantemma was a ‘facsimile’, a com-plete detailed visual reproduction (by anymeans) of a visible thing”] Men were receptiveof them. According to the records of the time,mostly when presented to them by the Elves.To receive them from another human beingrequired a special urgency of occasion, and aclose connexion of kinship, anxiety or love be-tween the two minds. In any case indemmarwere by Men mostly received in sleep(dreams). If received when bodily awake theywere usually vague and phantom-like (and of-ten caused by fear); but if they were clear andvivid, as the indemmar induced by Elves mightbe, they were apt to mislead Men into takingthem as ‘real’ things beheld by normal sight.Though this deceit was never intentional onthe part of the Elves, it was often by them be-lieved to be.”

Tolkien concludes with a discussion of cor-rupted or malicious Elves who did seek to de-ceive Men by indemmar. “According to theElves these were mainly disembodied Elves,who had met with some mortal damage, butrebelled against the summons of their spirits togo to their place of Awaiting. Those who sorebelled were mostly those who had been slainin the course of some wrong-doing. Thus theywandered as ‘houseless’ elf-souls, invisible ex-cept in the form of indemmar that they couldinduce in others, and filled often with maliceand envy of the ‘living’, whether elvish or hu-man.”

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OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE Thule (124-125)Tolkien writes: “Q thúle (súle) ‘spirit’. Eldar

did not confound ordinary “breath” of thelungs with “spirit.” The particular spirit in-dwelling in a body they called fëa [<fáya]; spir-it in general as a kind of being they calledfairë. These terms were chiefly applied to thespirits or “souls” of Elves (and Men); sincethough these were held to be of a similar sortto those of the máyar (and Valar), they werenot identical in nature: it was part of the na-ture of a fëa to desire to dwell in a body (hron-do), and by that mediary or instrument to op-erate upon the physical world; and the fëa didnot & could not make its own body, accordingto its desire, or conception of itself, but couldonly modify its given or appointed hrondo byindwelling (as a living person may modify ahouse, filling it with a sense of its own person-ality, even if no visible physical alterations aremade in its shape).

“But the Eldar held that “spirits,”the more as they had the more nativeinherent power, could emit theirinfluence to make contact with or actupon things exterior to themselves:primarily upon other spirits, or otherincarnate persons (via their fear), butalso in the case of great spirits (suchas the Valar or greater máyar)directly upon physical things withoutthe mediacy of bodies normallynecessary in the case of “fairondi,” orincarnates. To describe this they used[but by deliberate symbolism – takene.g. from such cases as theirbreathing upon a cold or frostedsurface, which was then melted – ]the THU- [or NSU]. In additionManwë, the most powerful spirit inArda, in this respect was Lord of Air& Winds, and the winds were inprimitive Eldarin thought to beespecially his emission of power forhimself. Hence thúle “blowing forth”was used = “spirit” in this specialsense: the emission of power (of willor desire) from a spirit…”

“The Black Speech was notintentionally modelled on any style,but was meant to be self-consistent,very different from Elvish, yetorganized and expressive, as would beexpected of a device of Sauron beforehis complete corruption. It wasevidently an agglutinative language,and the verbal system must haveincluded pronominal suffixesexpressing the object, as well as those

indicating the subject…The debasedform of the B.S. which survived inthe Third Age only in the DarkTower is seen in a few names (Uruk-hai ‘Orc-folk’) and the fragment ofvituperation uttered by one ofGrishnakh’s companions, emissariesfrom Sauron.”

The distinction Tolkien draws in this pas-sage between fëa (a particular spirit) and fairë(spirit in general, something a fëa is capable of“emitting” as power or influence, symbolizedby the expression thúle) may well be the ter-minological key to developing a game mechan-ics of magic.

V. Miscellany

Black Speech (11-12)

Here Tolkien reiterates his highly restrictiveview of Black Speech during the Third Age,which ought to counsel against ICE’s tendencyto make every Third Age evil character fluentin it.

Brethil (23)Tolkien entertains a connection between

brethil ‘silver birch’ and bereth ‘queen’ “sincethis tree was an emblem of Elbereth.”

Crebain (37)“Sindarin plural of craban, a bird of the

crow-kind. (Not an ancient Sindarin word,and probably a loan from some Mannishtongue of NW or from some non-EldarinElvish of the same region.)”

Elven Settlement and Social Structure(105-110)

Fascinating sociological analysis of Elven set-tlement patterns centered around the Eldarinterm *ambar(a) (Q. ambar S. amar).

Fen/Marsh (165)Finally, an Eldarin form to name marshes

and wetlands! MOT- fen, marsh. Q. motto,mbotto; S. both, moth. amoth.

Hithlain (60)Tolkien glosses this Sindarin word as mist

thread, giving hísilanya as its Quenya cog-nate.

Hyacinth (62)Tolkien states that Q. lasse/S. las “is only

applied to certain kinds of leaves, especiallythose of trees, and would not e.g. be used ofleaf of a hyacinth (linque).” It’s unclear from

this brief note whether linque is to be taken asthe Quenya name for hyacinth itself, or mere-ly its leaves.

-ion/-ien/-ian(d) (42-43)Tolkien discusses the etymologies of these

common toponymic elements.

Ithildin (39, 66)Tolkien variously glosses this “magic alloy”

as moon-star(light) and starmoon.

Khuzdul (85)“It is Semitic in cast, leaning phonetically to

Hebrew (as suits Dwarvish character), but itevidently has some ‘broken’ plurals, more inArabic style: baruk being the plural of bark‘axe’, and Khazâd of Khuzd.” So Khuzd = “[asingle] Dwarf.” Does that mean –ul = “speech,tongue, language”?

Lebethron (89)Tolkien analyzes this form variously: lep-

eth-ron < Q. lepse [finger] + oron [tree]; orlepetta “probably because its leaves (likechestnut) [were] shaped like a fingered hand.”He also entertains the view that the tree itselfwas named lebethorn, “being altered to le-bethron by association with RUN-, rub, grind,smooth, polish, runda, smooth, polished.{ron} smoothed by polishing.” In one of hisnotes he suggests the tree was native toIthilien.

Miruvor (37-38, 64)In his etymologies, Tolkien speculates on

the ingredients of this drink. He also seems todistinguish the cordial of Imladris from itsValinorean namesake: “The word was thoughtof as precious drink (and largely of honey) butword was of Valarin origin. miruboze, a honeywine, mirub, wine.” “Name of a mead or nec-tar drunk in Valinor…a drink of which theElves did not know the ingredients ormaking…probably made basically of honey (of? scented flowers). The Elves said they thoughtthe miruvóre of the Valar was made of the hon-ey/nectar of certain flowers in the gardens ofValinor.”

Naur an edraith ammen! (38-39)Tolkien translates Gandalf’s spell thus: “Fire

[be] for rescue/saving for us! Fire [come?]down upon the [were-]wolf-horde!” Unfortu-nately, he neglects to explicitly link “were-wolf” to “warg” in the gloss for ngaur; thus thedebate over whether these are two distinctspecies or two names for the same creaturemust continue.

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008Palantír (86)In a brief etymological note, Tolkien identi-

fies this word as “a Numenorean formation.”

Silvan Elves (51-54)The complete discussion (excerpted in UT)

concerning Tolkien’s views on the relationshipof Sindarin to Silvan and the history underly-ing this relationship.

Notes1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-

nc-sa/3.0/

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008This influence of Morgoth’s dissipated pow-

er is reported by Finrod Felagund in his dia-logue with the wise-woman, Andreth. Thisfirst passage is from the introduction to the di-alogue, whereas the second one is from Finroddirectly:

Now the Eldar learned that,according to the lore of the Edain,Men believed that their hröar werenot by right nature short- lived, buthad been made so by the malice ofMelkor. It was not clear to the Eldarwhether Men meant: by the generalmarring of Arda (which theythemselves held to be the cause of thewaning of their own hröar);... – HoMe 10: Athrabeth Finrodah Andreth

“For know, it is not otherwisewith the Quendi themselves: theirhealth and stature is diminished.Already those of us [Finrod speaking]who dwell in Middle-earth, and evenwe who have returned to it, find thatthe change of their bodies is swifterthan in the beginning. And that, Ijudge, must forebode that they willprove less strong to last than theywere designed to be, though this maynot be clearly revealed for many longyears.”– HoMe 10: Athrabeth Finrodah Andreth

As we have seen, this tainting influence isnegligible for the Undying Lands. This differ-ence in exposure to the mordo might be onereason (though certainly not the sole or eventhe primary one) that the cycle of life anddeath in Middle-earth is much faster than inthe Undying Lands. Another factor might bethe fact that Eru wanted Middle-earth as thehome for mortal Men, for whom a “long” lifes-pan would be unnatural.

At first this feeling of accelerated aging waslittle felt, but with the passing of the swiftyears of Middle-earth it became quite notice-able. See Finrod’s quote above on this matter.

After the War of Wrath, the surviving ex-iles were pardoned by the Valar and given thechance to return to the West. Some, however,chose to remain in Middle-earth. This mayhave been for various reasons. Tolkien pointsout that their decision was partially fuelled bythe desire to stay at the top of the “social lad-der” in Middle-earth, while in Aman they (theElves) were the lowest “caste” after the Valarand Maiar. In Tolkien’s Letters, this motive isespecially mentioned twice:

In the first [theme of the SecondAge] we see a sort of second fall or atleast ‘error’ of the Elves. There wasnothing wrong essentially in theirlingering against counsel, still sadlywith3 the mortal lands of their oldheroic deeds. But they wanted tohave their cake without eating it.They wanted the peace and bliss andperfect memory of ‘The West’, andyet to remain on the ordinary earthwhere their prestige as the highestpeople, above wild Elves, Dwarves,and Men, was greater than at thebottom of the hierarchy of Valinor.They thus became obsessed with‘fading’, the mode in which thechanges of time (the law of the worldunder the sun) was perceived bythem. They became sad, and their art(shall we say) antiquarian, and theirefforts all really a kind of embalming– even though they also retained theold motive of their kind, theadornment of earth, and the healingof its hurts. Letters: #131, late1951

3 … it appears that here the typisthas omitted some words fromTolkien’s MS.

But the Elves are not wholly goodor in the right. Not so much becausethey had flirted with Sauron; asbecause with or without his assistancethey were 'embalmers'. They wantedto have their cake and eat it: to livein the mortal historical Middle-earthbecause they had become fond of it(and perhaps because they there hadthe advantages of a superior caste),and so tried to stop its change andhistory, stop its growth, keep it as apleasaunce, even largely a desert,where they could be 'artists' – andthey were overburdened with sadnessand nostalgic regret. – Letters: #154, Sept. 1954

Thus we can infer a good deal of selfish mo-tives beside the more “positive” love of Mid-dle-earth that moved these Eldar to stay be-hind when their comrades left for the Westagain. The following passage about Galadriel’smotives for staying in Middle-earth is interest-ing. It is not wholly unproblematic, sinceTolkien’s ideas about Galadriel, and whetherher stay in Middle-earth after the War ofWrath was voluntary or not, changed quite of-ten.

“Angrod is gone, and Aegnor isgone, and Felagund is no more. OfFinarfin’s children I [Galadrielspeaking] am the last. But my heartis still proud. What wrong did thegolden house of Finarfin do that Ishould ask the pardon of the Valar,or be content with an isle in the seawhose native land was Aman theBlessed? Here I am mightier.”– UT: The Elessar

The Noldor’s desire to rule realms of theirown was still great in this time (as we see,even for Galadriel). Eventually, some of theremaining Noldor founded the realm of Ere-gion near the western boundaries of Khazad-dûm. Here developed the greatest friendshipbetween the Naugrim and the Eldar that everwas in the West, even reaching cordial rela-tions.

The already mentioned effect of mortalMiddle-earth was quite noticeable among theNoldor, though. Tolkien tells us that it wasGaladriel’s desire to have everything aroundher stay unsullied and without death. Thequote continues:

“What would you then?” saidCelebrimbor.

“I would have trees and grassabout me that do not die – here inthe land that is mine,” she answered.“What has become of the skill of theEldar?” UT: The Elessar

Here we can clearly see the heartfelt desireof the Noldor to enjoy the bliss of the Westeven in Middle-earth, where they could rule.If we develop this reasoning to its end, Gal-adriel might have been one of those who firstformulated the idea of artificially altering thenatural “way of life” of Middle-earth for thebenefit of the Eldar, a scheme later masterfullyexecuted by the Gwaith-i-Mírdain in generalwith the Great Rings and Celebrimbor withthe Three in particular.

We should not judge the Eldar too harshly,though, since Sauron exploited this weak spotto its fullest. However, once they recognizedtheir folly and Sauron’s true intent, theyshowed responsibility and always worked to-wards the eventual defeat of Sauron – even ifthat meant the destruction of their own com-munity in Middle-earth:

Indeed the Elves destroyed theirown polity in pursuit of a ‘humane’duty. This did not happen merely asan unfortunate damage of War; itwas known by them to be an

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inevitable result of victory, whichcould in no way be advantageous toElves. Elrond cannot be said to havea political duty or purpose.– Letters: #183, 1956

The figure of “Annatar” is pivotal to thehistory of the Great Rings: Morgoth’s greatestservant, Sauron, hid for a long time after thedefeat of his master (as told in The Silmaril-lion), and eventually inherited his aim of rulingthe “outside world” beyond Aman.

Seeing the desolation of theworld, Sauron said in his heart thatthe Valar, having overthrownMorgoth, had again forgottenMiddle-earth; and his pride grewapace. He looked with hatred on theEldar, and he feared the Men ofNúmenor who came back at whiles intheir ships to the shores of Middle-earth; but for long he dissembled hismind and concealed the dark designsthat he shaped in his heart

Men he found the easiest tosway of all the peoples of the Earth;but long he sought to persuade theElves to his service, for he knew thatthe Firstborn had the greater power;and he went far and wide amongthem, and his hue was still that ofone both fair and wise.– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

For this, he took great care to survey the sit-uation and he determined to gather the Eldarto his cause because he understood that theywere by far the most powerful of the FreePeoples. Attracted to power, it was naturalthat Sauron sought to add them to his follow-ing. Therefore, he sent many emissaries intothe Northwest and finally came himself:

When he [Sauron] felt himself tobe secure he sent emissaries toEriador, and finally, in about theyear 1200 of the Second Age, camehimself, wearing the fairest form thathe could contrive.– UT: The History ofGaladriel and Celeborn andAmroth King of Lórien

In this context, it might be interesting tospeculate on the nature of these emissaries ofSauron. Since his mission was now to gain thetrust and friendship of the Eldar, they cannothave been Orcs or any other obviously “evil”creatures (e.g. Trolls). Men under his swayare also hard to imagine – especially whentheir task is to make a diplomatic mission tothe High-king of the Noldor in Exile. They

might have been Avari of a kind that was inSauron’s fold.3 Another option might havebeen other (lesser) Maiar left in Middle-earththat were able to clothe themselves in a fairshape. In my opinion, only the Avari or the(lesser) Maiar would be an option as envoys tothe Eldar of the West – especially when weconsider that he is pretending to be an emis-sary from the Valar! (see quote below)

He deceived the Eldar cleverly about his na-ture and so sufficiently explained the presenceof an obviously Maiarin presence in Middle-earth.

In Eregion Sauron posed as anemissary of the Valar, sent by them toMiddle-earth (“thus anticipating theIstari”) or ordered by them to remainthere to give aid to the Elves. – UT:Concerning Galadriel andCeleborn

This theme of an “emissary of the Valar”probably greatly helped Sauron’s cause: TheNoldor with their experience of disobedienceto the Valar (when they set out to wage waragainst Morgoth) were probably keen not tomake the same mistake again and accordinglypaid heed to the arguments of a – presumptive– emissary from Valinor. It is ironic that thelikely eagerness and goodwill of the Noldor toact in accordance with the – imagined – will ofthe Valar would turn out to be a clever trap toenslave them. Celebrimbor’s decision to admitAnnatar might thus have been of a twofold na-ture. Of course there was the vast knowledgethat “Annatar” was offering plus Celebrim-bor’s desire not to repeat the tragic rôle of hisfamily (see the chapter on his ancestry below)in the First Age, where Fëanor’s defiance ofthe Valar and his terrible Oath had caused somuch misery.

And he said to them: “Alas, forthe weakness of the great! For amighty king is Gil-galad, and wisein all lore is Master Elrond, and yetthey will not aid me in my labours.Can it be that they do not desire tosee other lands become as blissful astheir own? But wherefore shouldMiddle-earth remain for ever desolateand dark, whereas the Elves couldmake it as fair as Eressëa, nay evenas Valinor? And since you have notreturned thither, as you might, Iperceive that you love this Middle-earth, as do I. Is it not then our taskto labour together for its enrichment,and for the raising of all the Elven-kindreds that wander here untaughtto the height of that power and

knowledge which those have who arebeyond the Sea?”– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

Sauron even proposed to make these itemsin order to help all the Elves, not only the El-dar (e.g. including the wild Avari). It wouldbe interesting to know whether Celebrimborreally planned to take up this idea or not. Re-gardless of this, these guileful words of An-natar swayed the majority of the Noldor ofEregion and the plot to rule the Eldar and,with their help, make himself the undisputedruler of Middle-earth, took its course:

But Sauron guided their labours,and he was aware of all that theydid; for his desire was to set a bondupon the Elves and to bring themunder his vigilance.– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

With powerful Elven lords as his faithfulservants, few obstacles in Middle-earth wouldhave been beyond his power. He was wellaware of their desire for the West while stay-ing in Middle-earth. (See the next to lastquote for this.) Thus, he slowly began to earnthe trust of the Eldar of Ost-in-Edhil, thoughinterestingly Galadriel despised him from thebeginning:

He [Sauron] perceived at oncethat Galadriel would be his chiefadversary and obstacle, and heendeavoured therefore to placate her,bearing her scorn with outwardpatience and courtesy. [Noexplanation is offered in this rapidoutline of why Galadriel scornedSauron, unless she saw through hisdisguise, or of why, if she didperceive his true nature, shepermitted him to remain in Eregion.]– UT: Concerning Galadrieland Celeborn (C. Tolkien’snote in square brackets)

It is important to note that the cause for theenmity of Galadriel at this time is not fullyclear. She may have had a “gut feeling” aboutthis Annatar, but was probably unable to speci-fy her doubts.4

His words fell on fertile ground within theGwaith-i-Mírdain. He convinced them thatwith his help they would be able to achievetheir dream of “eating their cake while havingit”. (See the quote from Letter #131 and 154in the section about ‘Elvish Motivation’ abovefor this—especially the colourful compari-

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008son.) Tolkien clearly denotes this project ofthe Eldar as a “flirting with evil” (from the per-spective of the omniscient author) that,through their desire to dominate and shape theprimary world by their craft, brought them tothe brink of “machinery”.

But at Eregion great work began– and the Elves came their nearest tofalling to ‘magic’ and machinery. – Letters: #131, late 1951

So began the project which would enablethe Eldar to enjoy the blessings of the UndyingLands while remaining in Middle-earth. Forthis, Sauron instructed the Mírdain in tech-niques of his own knowledge. Since he origi-nally was a (great) Maia of Aulë, he is likely tohave had great skills in this department – in-cluding much that was unknown to the Chil-dren of Ilúvatar.

Among those of his servants thathave names the greatest was thatspirit whom the Eldar called Sauron,or Gorthaur the Cruel. In hisbeginning he was of the Maiar ofAulë, and he remained mighty in thelore of that people.– Sil: Of the Enemies

Therefore they [the Gwaith-i-Mírdain] hearkened to Sauron, andthey learned of him many things, forhis knowledge was great. In thosedays the smiths of Ost-in-Edhilsurpassed all that they had contrivedbefore; and they took thought, andthey made Rings of Power. ButSauron guided their labours, and hewas aware of all that they did; forhis desire was to set a bond upon theElves and to bring them under hisvigilance.– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

Please note again the specific goal of Sauron:To bind the Elves to his service! Nowhereis there any thought of Dwarves or Men –Sauron’s victims are the powerful Elves, nolesser people. Indeed, Tolkien explicitly statesthis goal of gaining their compliance:

For long he paid little heed toDwarves or Men and endeavoured towin the friendship and trust of theEldar.– HoMe 12: Of Dwarves andMen

Sauron left Eregion after the Mírdain hadbegun fashioning the Great Rings according tohis instructions:

Sauron himself departed fromEregion about the year 1500, afterthe Mírdain had begun the making ofthe Rings of Power. – UT: Concerning Galadrieland Celeborn

The date of Sauron’s departure is problem-atic, though. (See below for more details.) Af-ter Sauron departed, Celebrimbor aloneachieved his greatest work, the creation of theThree Rings, which Sauron never touched andthe crafting of which may even have been un-known to him at that time (because he leftEregion before this specific project was evenenvisioned). The creation of the Three is in-teresting: Sauron only knew of the Nine andSeven, and probably deemed his plot a fullsuccess. The existence of the Three mighthave caught him by surprise (probably at thevery moment he put on the One).

We have a timing problem in pinpointingthe forging of the Rings and Sauron’s depar-ture from Eregion. According to the LotR wehave:

c. 1500 The Elven-smithsinstructed by Sauron reach the heightof their skill. They begin the forgingof the Rings of Power.

c. 1590 The Three Rings arecompleted in Eregion.

c. 1600 Sauron forges the OneRing in Orodruin. He completes theBarad-dûr. Celebrimbor perceives thedesigns of Sauron.– LotR: Appendix B

This seems to settle the matter, especiallysince the quote before the last from UT sup-ports it. Further down in the same essay,Tolkien says something else, though:

This [the location of the SevenRings] Celebrimbor revealed, becauseneither the Seven nor the Nine did hevalue as he valued the Three; theSeven and the Nine were made withSauron’s aid, whereas the Three weremade by Celebrimbor alone, with adifferent power and purpose.– UT: Concerning Galadrieland Celeborn

Now, how could have Sauron had a part inthe creation of all the Seven and the NineRings, if he left Eregion when the Mírdain hadjust begun forging the Rings? One could arguethat he had only been involved in the begin-ning touches. But since it is likely that it tooksome time to make all the Rings – and we os-tensibly have two different “series” of Ringshere (Nine and Seven; see also the section be-

low for the question of these “series”), it is un-likely that “about the year 1500” could bestretched so far, that Sauron had a consider-able part in all of them. In addition, the pas-sage suggests that Sauron was involved in acentral role in the fashioning of the Seven andthe Nine. Unfortunately, we have not even ahint how long the making of any of these Rings(Nine, Seven, Three or One) or their respec-tive “series” actually took. This number mighthave been a help in making an educated guessabout the timescales involved.5

After the completion of the Nine and Seven,it is likely that a brief happy time in Eregionbegan. Tolkien does not describe the decadesafter Annatar’s departure. Since the Ringswere then probably already made (the Threehaving been finished in S.A. 1590) or in theirfinishing stages, it is likely that they were putto use already. Perhaps not all of the GreatRings were in use, but since they were specifi-cally made to ease the life of the Eldar, there isa high probability that in these few “happy”years, several Rings were at work in Eregion.

These times were not to last, however.Sauron’s betrayal was approaching fast. Hewent on to make his Master Ring to control allthe others that had been made with the knowl-edge and techniques he had taught the Elves.Finally, in the year 1600 of the Second Age, itwas completed. Sauron thought himself at thefulfillment of his dreams. Unfortunately forhim, the moment he put on the One on hisfinger, Celebrimbor in Eregion became awarethat he had been cheated:

For in the day that Sauron firstput on the One, Celebrimbor, makerof the Three, was aware of him, andfrom afar he heard him speak thesewords [Ash nazg durbatulûk...], andso his evil purposes were revealed. – LotR: The Council of Elrond

The moment he [Sauron] assumedthe One, they were aware of it, andof his secret purpose, and wereafraid.– Letters: #131, late 1951

It is highly likely that Celebrimbor immedi-ately ordered the Rings (the Nine, Seven6 andThree) taken off and not used for the time be-ing. This is also supported by the followingquote.

But the Elves were not so lightlyto be caught. As soon as Sauron setthe One Ring upon his finger theywere aware of him; and they knewhim, and perceived that he would be

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master of them, and of all that theywrought. Then in anger and fearthey took off their rings.– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

It is important to note that Tolkien says allthe Rings were removed from use. Since thereis no distinction between “Elven”, “Dwarven”or “Mannish” Rings at this time (all of themwere Elven Rings, of course), it is not unrea-sonable to assume that Rings from all three“series” were already used. Consequently, thismeans that at least some of the Nine, Seven(or six of them) and the Three were already inuse by the Eldar of Eregion. Perhaps not allwere already used, because it is likely thatCelebrimbor and his peers would only havegiven them to great Eldarin lords. It might bethat not enough worthies, or willing, recipi-ents had yet been identified. In any case, thoseRings already in use were immediately takenoff.

Of course, Sauron was enraged at this last-minute failure of his delicate plot. The Onegave him power to see only the actions of theother Rings, and to govern their wearers onlyif they were actually worn. If taken off, his in-struments of control were worthless. Thisvery clear fact must have infuriated him, sothat he at first demanded the Rings’ surrenderto him immediately. Foreseeably, the Noldordeclined, and Sauron mustered for war. Sincethere are about ninety years between Cele-brimbor’s realization that he had been be-trayed (S.A. 1600) and the beginning of thewar (S.A. 1693),7 we can surmise that this de-velopment caught Sauron completely by sur-prise, compelling him to build up sufficientmilitary strength for the task at hand. Obvi-ously, he had planned to take over the Eldarthrough the Rings. This would have neededonly very little military power on his part.Now that the powerful Noldor were hisfiercest enemies, he had to gather more mili-tary strength before he could be sure of a vic-torious outcome.

In contrast to Morgoth, Sauron was a mas-terful schemer and planner who could slowlydevelop delicate plans and wait long years (oreven centuries) to see them bear fruit. Thefollowing two quotes shed light on Sauron’sway of thinking and judging a situation.

Though of immensely smallernative power than his Master, heremained less corrupt, cooler andmore capable of calculation.– HoMe 10: MythsTransformed (Orcs)

Well, let folly be our cloak, a veilbefore the eyes of the Enemy! For heis very wise, and weighs all things toa nicety in the scales of his malice.But the only measure that he knowsis desire, desire for power; and so hejudges all hearts. LotR: The Council of Elrond

The methodical planner Sauron took histime to build a military and logistic infrastruc-ture capable of beating the powerful Eldar ofEriador. His long stay in Eregion (and Eriadorin general) would have given him a good un-derstanding of the military strength of theElves there; accordingly, he planned for a hostpowerful enough to do the job. Due to hislikely neglect of the matter beforehand, ittook some decades to build up his force.

The above mentioned possibility, that someor all of the Rings had already been used (evenif only briefly according to the temporal per-ception of the Eldar) might have given Sauronsome intelligence of things in Eregion madewith the help of these Rings.

Destroying the Rings is the first idea thatcomes to mind once the Elves knew whatSauron was up to. So why did the Elven-smiths not simply unmake the Rings now, sothat no damage could be done through them?It is natural that now, after the Mírdain hadlearned the true purpose of their Rings, theywould take counsel for what to do next. Cele-brimbor visited Galadriel in Lórinand – proba-bly full of repentance – and asked for her ad-vice.

Now Celebrimbor was notcorrupted in heart or faith, but hadaccepted Sauron as what he posed tobe; and when at length he discoveredthe existence of the One Ring herevolted against Sauron, and went toLórinand to take counsel once morewith Galadriel. They should havedestroyed all the Rings of Power atthis time, “but they failed to find thestrength.” Galadriel counselled himthat the Three Rings of the Elvesshould be hidden, never used, anddispersed, far from Eregion whereSauron believed them to be. – UT: Concerning Galadrieland Celeborn

Of central importance here is, of course,the statement, “but they failed to find thestrength”. The Mírdain had made the Rings;thus, they had both the skill and the means(the forges where the nineteen Rings had beenmade) ready at hand. In addition, it was morethan ninety years later that the war against

Sauron began. Thus, there was more thanenough time to do it. In my opinion, “theyfailed to find the strength” means that the Mír-dain could not find the mental strength to doit. This is an often repeated theme in Tolkien’swritings, where a creator is so connected tohis – great – work that he is not able to dam-age it, or allow any possibility for it to bedamaged. Here a look on the effect of the Oneis interesting:

Also so great was the Ring’spower of lust, that anyone who usedit became mastered by it; it wasbeyond the strength of any will (evenhis [Sauron’s] own) to injure it, castit away, or neglect it. So he thought.It was in any case on his finger.Letters: #131, late 1951

Although the motives of the One and the El-ven Rings are different, they were made withthe same basic techniques and knowledge.Thus, basic effects should be similar. So thefact that the One would not allow any wearerto treat it carelessly or even attempt to dam-age it hints at a similar compulsion at work forthe Elven Rings, which were “Great Rings”too. Of course, the powers at work would beless powerful than in the case of the One.Here, a short definition of a “Great Ring” is inorder.

A mortal, Frodo [Gandalfspeaking], who keeps one of theGreat Rings, does not die, but hedoes not grow or obtain more life, hemerely continues, until at last everyminute is a weariness.– LotR: The Shadow of thePast

Only the Great Rings confer serial longevityto a mortal; even the Nine were able to dothis. This is also mentioned in another twopassages of the same chapter:

He knows that it is a Great Ring,for it gave long life.– LotR: The Shadow of thePast

In Eregion long ago many Elven-rings were made, magic rings as youcall them, and they were, of course,of various kinds: some more potentand some less. The lesser rings wereonly essays in the craft before it wasfull-grown, and to the Elven-smithsthey were but trifles – yet still to mymind dangerous for mortals. But theGreat Rings, the Rings of Power,they were perilous. – LotR: The Shadow of thePast

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008At last, Gandalf puts it in direct words,

plain to see. Please note that Gandalf does notspeak of “The One” but about a “Ring of Pow-er” (e.g. speaking generally).

‘A Ring of Power looks afteritself, Frodo. It may slip offtreacherously, but its keeper neverabandons it. At most he plays withthe idea of handing it on to someoneelse’s care - and that only at an earlystage, when it first begins to grip.’ – LotR: The Shadow of thePast

This last quote, coupled with those above,shows that all the Elven Rings were “GreatRings”, and that these had a will of their ownand a strong tendency to look after and pro-tect themselves. Thus, they make it hard foranyone (even their makers) to damage them.In the case of the One, it is even not possibleto intentionally damage or neglect it. For theElven Rings, the effect may not be so ex-treme, but still strong enough to prevent theirmakers from their intentional destruction.

In my opinion, this is the reason why theMírdain were not able to destroy the Rings:They had the skill, the means and the time,but could not muster enough strength of willto really do it. Thus robbed of the best way todeal with the pending threat, Galadriel coun-seled Celebrimbor the second-best option –hiding the Rings.

Now that the foreseeable war was coming,so was the danger of Sauron capturing theRings. As is told in UT, Sauron eventuallybreached the defenses of Eregion and caughtCelebrimbor alive at the great door of theHouse of the Mírdain. It is important to notethe value Celebrimbor assigned to the Rings.The Nine he deemed unimportant enough tokeep them openly in Eregion (even if probablyin the best-protected part of the realm) whereSauron eventually seized them.

Celebrimbor, desperate, himselfwithstood Sauron on the steps of thegreat door of the Mírdain; but he wasgrappled and taken captive, and theHouse was ransacked. There Saurontook the Nine Rings and other lesserworks of the Mírdain; but the Sevenand the Three he could not find.Then Celebrimbor was put totorment, and Sauron learned fromhim where the Seven were bestowed.This Celebrimbor revealed, becauseneither the Seven nor the Nine did hevalue as he valued the Three; theSeven and the Nine were made withSauron’s aid, whereas the Three were

made by Celebrimbor alone, with adifferent power and purpose. [It isnot actually said here that Sauron atthis time took possession of the SevenRings, though the implication seemsclear that he did so. In Appendix A(III) to The Lord of the Rings it issaid that there was a belief amongthe Dwarves of Durin's Folk that theRing of Durin III, King of Khazad-dûm, was given to him by the Elven-smiths themselves, and nothing issaid in the present text about the wayin which the Seven Rings came intopossession of the Dwarves.]– UT: Concerning Galadrieland Celeborn

It is commonly held that Sauron capturedthe Nine and Seven in Eregion. This is superfi-cially supported by the quote above: The Ninewere probably shelved in the House of theMírdain, while the Seven and Three were hid-den. Please note Christopher Tolkien’s com-ment (in square brackets). Though Sauronlearned where to find the Seven, it is not ex-plicitly stated that he immediately set out toget them once he was able to do so. It is likely,though, since the capture of the Elven Rings(and here all of the Mírdain’s Rings – Nine,Seven and Three – are meant) were his prima-ry motivation to invade Eregion.

That Sauron took possession of the Seven inrelatively quick temporal succession to thecapture of the Nine (at least before his defeatin Eriador) is found elsewhere, fitting to thetheory outlined above:

From that time war never ceasedbetween Sauron and the Elves; andEregion was laid waste, andCelebrimbor slain, and the doors ofMoria were shut. In that time thestronghold and refuge of Imladris,that Men called Rivendell, wasfounded by Elrond Half-elven; andlong it endured. But Sauron gatheredinto his hands all the remainingRings of Power; and he dealt themout to the other peoples of Middle-earth, hoping thus to bring under hissway all those that desired secretpower beyond the measure of theirkind. Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

The Seven8 and Three were regarded asmore precious, and Celebrimbor revealed thehiding place of the Seven only under said in-tense torture. The hiding of the Three he didnot reveal, probably because he loved thesecreations so much that they were almost a part

of himself. Failing to gain tidings of the Three,Sauron ordered Celebrimbor to be killed. Theadvice of Galadriel to give the Three to Elvenguardians and keep them far away from Ere-gion might give us an idea about the way Cele-brimbor tried to protect the Seven. Followingthe quote above, he clearly judged all the se-ries’ of Rings differently: The Nine were theleast powerful and dangerous in his eyes, theSeven already quite precious and the Threesupremely so. Accordingly, his attempts toprotect them were differentiated as well: theNine he deemed safe enough in the strongholdof the Mírdain, the Seven were entrusted tokeepers (thus giving the “bestowed” above amore literal meaning), but still in Eregion orits vicinity, while the Three were given thehighest secrecy and security possible. Ofcourse, all the guardians would have beenmade aware of the dangers of wearing a Ringwhile Sauron held the One. Following thisline, Sauron would have hunted down the El-ven guardians of the Seven, until he had col-lected these Rings as well.

At the latest, he must have captured theSeven before he was decisively defeated in Eri-ador. A look at Appendix B (LotR) may give avaluable hint here: in 1697 Eregion falls, Cele-brimbor is slain and the Nine are captured. Itis only two years later (1699) that Sauronoverruns Eriador. This is a bit strange; he hada strong army that had defeated Eregion’sElves plus Elrond’s detachment. The latter hadbarely escaped his annihilation and retreatednorthward. After Eregion’s fall, there was nosignificant realm in Eriador left east of theLhûn that might have put up serious resis-tance. The scattered and weak Mannish com-munities certainly never had the strength toeven delay Sauron’s advance. Logistic prob-lems might be an explanation for this extraor-dinarily long delay in a further advance, butare, in my opinion, unlikely. Since Sauron wason the hunt for the remaining ten rings, a swiftand powerful military victory against his re-maining enemies was not his priority. First, hewanted to secure the Rings he had knowledgeof. With the knowledge of the chronicler, weknow that these two years were decisive. HadSauron opted to attack earlier, he would havedefeated Lindon before Númenor’s expedi-tionary force arrived. Afterwards, it wouldhave only been a question of time until hecaught the keepers of the Three also. Thus,from a military point of view, this delay wasfatal.9 If we see it from Sauron’s point of view,however, it might not be so wrong. His maingoal was the Rings. For now, he had only theNine, but knew where (or on whom) he mightfind the Seven. It is thus not unreasonable to

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OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE assume that he, according to his priorities,10

spent a good part of these two years huntingdown the keepers of the Seven. The followingquote from UT confirms that he had his vastarmy scattered throughout Eriador – which isnecessary and logical when you want to huntdown small groups or individuals. It would bedisastrous against an organized and concentrat-ed enemy army, though. Note that Tolkienconfirms that Sauron’s dispersed army washunting Elves (thus meaning not automatic im-mediate killing, but more likelyapprehension), while he states that all Men(who had nothing to do with the Rings) wereindeed killed or drawn off! With the captureof the Seven achieved, Sauron turned to waragain, intent on securing the Three as wellfrom the most likely guardians – in Lindon:

But now Sauron attempted togain the mastery of Eriador:Lórinand could wait. But as heravaged the lands, slaying ordrawing off all the small groups ofMen and hunting the remainingElves, many fled to swell Elrond'shost to the northward. Now Sauron’simmediate purpose was to takeLindon, where he believed that hehad most chance of seizing one, ormore, of the Three Rings; and hecalled in therefore his scattered forcesand marched west towards the landof Gil-galad, ravaging as he went. – UT: Concerning Galadrieland Celeborn

As is told in UT in greater detail, Sauronwas eventually defeated and driven out of Eri-ador. He had achieved his main goal at leastpartially, that is possession of the Rings ofPower. His greatest goal (possession of theThree) had eluded him, however.

Having secured the Nine and the Seven, theredistribution of the Rings became an is-sue for Sauron. He developed a “Plan B” totake best advantage of his prizes. As had beendemonstrated, the Elves were too sensitive tothis trap and had to be discarded as potentialslaves.

It is often asked why he did not give some ofthese Rings to Avari in the East. These hadnever heard of the Eldar in the West, let alonethe matter of the Rings. To give a satisfactoryanswer, we have to put ourselves intoSauron’s shoes, so to speak. He could not besure of the effects of the Rings on Dwarves orMen, but their effect upon the Elves wasknown (even if only on the Eldar) – and thiswas surely not to Sauron’s liking. He couldnot be sure that the Avari were to be caught

more easily or were less sensitive. Had he giv-en Rings to them, he might risk the same trou-bles as with the Noldor, and then these ringswould be gone again. In addition, the Avariwere a secretive people, keeping themselvesapart from other folk and therefore unsuitableas tools of lordship or conquest. Dwarves, onthe other hand, were powerful. Men were onthe rise as well and multiplying fast. This gavethem high potential for worldwide dominationat least in the future (what they lacked in qual-ity, they could compensate by quantity); in ad-dition, as said above, Sauron had recognizedalready earlier that Men were the most easilybent to his service (of the Free Peoples).

These thoughts might have been factors inSauron’s considerations to target the otherFree Peoples of Middle-earth – Dwarves andMen – as potential victims. Conveniently, thesecond series of the Rings coincided with thenumber of Dwarven tribes. Since the Dwarveswere the second-most powerful people afterthe Eldar, it was natural that Sauron would be-stow11 the Seven upon them. This left theNine Rings for Men. The following centuriesprobably saw the covert distribution of theRings to their respective victims. Sauron verylikely took great care that the gift of theseRings appeared as exactly what the individualreceiver would view as the tool to fulfill hisgreatest desires – whatever these might be.Some might have been given as open gifts; forothers, Sauron might have arranged suitable“lucky coincidences”. Sauron was always fullof guile and the master of deception, so hewould make sure to act upon the desires andperceptions of his future servants individually.

The plot worked very well with Men, but asis told in The Silmarillion, the Naugrim werestubborn and resistant to being governed likethis or reduced to wraiths. The Rings fuelledtheir worst desires and, more often than not,embroiled the Dwarves in their own selfishbusiness while the other Free Peoples foughtagainst the Shadow:

They [the Dwarves] used theirrings only for the getting of wealth;but wrath and an over-masteringgreed of gold were kindled in theirhearts, of which evil enough aftercame to the profit of Sauron. Sil: Of the Rings of Power andthe Third Age

So, while indirectly serving Sauron, the Sev-en were only a partial success in his schemes.As long as he held the One, this indirect sup-port might have been sufficient for him, and sohe did not bother with re-taking the rings byforce. Since the Dwarves were not bent to his

will in the way he wanted, he couldn’t simplycommand them. Thus, a possible re-takingwould have been a long and exhausting task,considering the strength of the Dwarven man-sions. Since Sauron was pre-occupied dealingwith the growing empire and ambitions of Nú-menor, the Seven might have been not highenough on his agenda – at least as long as hisissue with the Númenóreans was not finallyresolved.

The only power over them thatthe Rings wielded was to inflametheir hearts with a greed of gold andprecious things, so that if they lackedthem all other good things seemedprofitless, and they were filled withwrath and desire for vengeance on allwho deprived them. LotR:Appendix A (Annals of theKings and Rulers; III –Durin’s Folk)

In this way, the Seven worked indirectly to-wards Sauron's benefit, depriving his enemiesof the Naugrim’s strength in their fight. TheDwarves grew ever richer, while Men andElves struggled to survive against the DarkLord.

Over the course of the remainder of theSecond Age, the Three were kept hidden andunused, while both the Dwarves and Menmade great use of their Rings. When the Warof the Last Alliance resulted in Sauron’s defeatand the loss of the One to Isildur, severalthings changed: since the mastermind thatcontrolled the One was for the time beingneutralized, the One posed no threat anymore – as long as Sauron (or another powerfulwearer) did not use its powers. The Eldar rec-ognized this, and began to use the Three topreserve their dwellings and conserve theirstrength for the eventual day when Sauronwould return and his enemies had to unite onelast time. Meanwhile, the Three worked ex-actly to that end for which they were made –preservation of those things the Eldar helddear and warding off the effects of time inmortal Middle-earth.

The Nazgûl fled into the East after Sauron’sdefeat, most likely taking their Rings withthem. This note that the Ringwraiths fled eastafter Sauron’s defeat can be found in the essayon the Disaster of the Gladden Fields:

If any few [survivors from thedefeat in the Last Alliance] hadescaped, they had fled far to the Eastwith the Ringwraiths.– UT: The Disaster of theGladden Fields

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008The Third Age began after the War of the

Last Alliance. The fates of the Rings in this pe-riod are quite diverse. As long as Sauron wasinactive, all Ring-wearers were to act withoutrestriction. The Dwarves guarded their trea-sures, probably even increasing them further.The Nazgûl stayed in hiding in the East. Per-haps they also influenced some realms, but ifso, not to any extent that made them knownin the West. The Three were used to heal thewounds after the Great War to the best oftheir abilities and preserve the Eldarin en-claves.

Much of this changed when Sauron becameactive again around the year 1000 of the ThirdAge. As we know, Sauron collected the Ninefrom the Nazgûl to control them while hehimself lacked the One.

At length therefore he [Sauron]resolved to use the Ringwraiths. Hehad been reluctant to do so, until heknew precisely where the Ring was,for several reasons. They were by farthe most powerful of his servants, andthe most suitable for such a mission,since they were entirely enslaved totheir Nine Rings, which henow himself held; they were quiteincapable of acting against his will,and if one of them, even the Witch-king their captain, had seized theOne Ring, he would have brought itback to his Master. – UT: The Hunt for the Ring(my emphasis)

How the Dark Lord got the Nine is specula-tive. It is not unreasonable to assume, howev-er, that he visited each Nazgûl personally andforced the surrender of its ring through histerrible presence. Though Sauron was greatlyweakened, his remaining strength was proba-bly enough to overpower a single Nazgûl inany case. Even lacking the One, the Nazgûlwere bound to Sauron’s spirit (in the Ring),and so their ability to resist any part of Sauron(either in the Ring or in his person) would beless than their power in any other contest.

Some time after Sauron had secured theNine, he probably established his abode in DolGuldur, plotting his return to power and theeventual defeat of his enemies. It was at someunspecified time – probably in the Third Age– that the misfortunes of the Dwarves began.Eventually their ancient hoards were plun-dered and their Rings either destroyed bydragon fire or collected by Sauron. Finally, hewas able to secure three of the Seven, the re-maining being destroyed. The two followingpassages confirm the fate of the Seven:

It is said that the foundation ofeach of the Seven Hoards of theDwarf-kings of old was a goldenring; but all those hoards long agowere plundered and the Dragonsdevoured them, and of the SevenRings some were consumed in fire andsome Sauron recovered.– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

‘Seven the Dwarf-kings possessed,but three he [Sauron] has recovered,and the others the dragons haveconsumed.’– LotR: The Shadow of thePast

We do not know for sure when this fallingof the Dwarven Rings began, only when itended: The Ring of Durin was the last of theSeven, and he was captured by Sauron in T.A.2845:12

2845 Thráin the Dwarf isimprisoned in Dol Guldur; the last ofthe Seven Rings is taken from him.– LotR: Appendix B

Only the Three were left unsullied and notdirectly affected by the machinations ofSauron. Since they were not sullied by him, hehad no power over them in the way that theybrought misfortune to their wearers:

And all those rings that hegoverned he perverted, the moreeasily since he had a part in theirmaking, and they were accursed, andthey betrayed in the end all thosethat used them.– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

The Nine and Seven were more subject toSauron’s will, so that even when he lacked theOne, he could indirectly influence them andeventually achieve his end. Not so with theThree – these he could only govern with theOne and nothing less. Galadriel puts it inwords in the Lord of the Rings:

‘I say to you, Frodo, that even asI speak to you, I perceive the DarkLord and know his mind, or all of hismind that concerns the Elves. And hegropes ever to see me and mythought. But still the door is closed!’– LotR: The Mirror ofGaladriel

Thus, even while being subject to the One,their power, and the fact that Sauron neverhad a part in their making or even touched

them, probably took them away from his in-fluence unless he wielded the One.

It is often speculated what became of thesurviving three of the Seven and the Nine afterthe One had been destroyed. Some speculatethat they survived, to be found later by adven-turers. This is especially often heard in con-nection with the Ring of the Witch-king, pre-sumed to be lying on the Pelennor Fields.Beside the lack of any hint in this direction(other items of the Nazgûl lord were de-scribed in detail), Tolkien is very clear thatSauron held the Nine Rings personally. Thusthere is no ring to be salvaged from the battle-field of the Pelennor. It is interesting,nonetheless, what happened with these items.Since they were items of such power and im-portance, it is highly likely that they were al-ways kept in the immediate vicinity of Sauron.For the Nine it is clear that he always keptthem close to his person and ready for use (ashis medium of controlling the Ringwraiths),and the survivors of the Seven are likely to bestored safely in a secure place in Barad-dûr –probably near Sauron as well.

In this context we might take a look at howSauron was destroyed. The melting of the Onewas of course the ultimate cause, but what re-ally happened immediately thereafter? WasSauron’s form itself destroyed by it as well? Inmy opinion, this is not automatically the case.The destruction of the One would have beenan immense shock to Sauron, when a greatpart of himself was forcibly released from itsform and dissipated into Arda. But since thispart of Sauron was already outside of Sauronhimself, its destruction would probably not belethal to him. Compare this to Morgoth, whowas not affected by the destruction of his min-ions, whose creation had required a good partof himself to be spent (e.g. the Dragons).There might be some kind of “shock” toSauron, but not necessarily automatic death.Another effect I deem more important: Therelease of the One’s power “pulled the plug”on all devices that were created with the One.Among these were the foundations of theDark Tower. Now, with the foundations fail-ing, the tower collapsed, taking Sauron withit. It is likely that the collapse of the tower wasresponsible for the destruction of the physicalform of Sauron. Note the order of events inthe LotR:

And even as he [Gandalf] spokethe earth rocked beneath their feet.Then rising swiftly up, far above theTowers of the Black Gate, high abovethe mountains, a vast soaringdarkness sprang into the sky,

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flickering with fire. The earthgroaned and quaked. The Towers ofthe Teeth swayed, tottered, and felldown; the mighty rampart crumbled;the Black Gate was hurled in ruin;and from far away, now dim, nowgrowing, now mounting to theclouds, there came a drummingrumble, a roar, a long echoing roll ofruinous noise.

‘The realm of Sauron isended!’ said Gandalf. ‘The Ring-bearer has fulfilled his Quest.’ Andas the Captains gazed south to theLand of Mordor, it seemed to themthat, black against the pall of cloud,there rose a huge shape of shadow,impenetrable, lightning-crowned,filling all the sky. Enormous it rearedabove the world, and stretched outtowards them a vast threateninghand, terrible but impotent: for evenas it leaned over them, a great windtook it, and it was all blown away,and passed; and then a hush fell.– LotR: The Field of Cormallen

First comes the trembling of the earth –probably from the tremors following the de-struction of the One and the beginning erup-tion of Orodruin – and then later the shadowyfigure of Sauron’s malice appears. This isprobably a semi-corporeal body, held togetherby the remnants of his power. It is too weak toresist even a wind (even if this wind had a “su-pernatural” cause) and is dissipated. Due tothe small – but, in my opinion, important –temporal gap, we might see some validationfor the theory developed above: Sauron’s bodysurvived the destruction of the One initially,but was destroyed by the after-effects of thecollapse of his mighty Barad-dûr.

In a way, the unmaking of the One madeSauron vulnerable to physical attack, since henow lacked any device to act as an anchor, hisbodily form destroyed.13 It may be an academ-ic question, but for me it is important that thedestruction of the Ring was probably not theimmediate cause of the destruction of Sauron’sphysical form.

The fate of the Rings of Power is an im-portant question. No discussion of the Rings’history would be complete without a look atthe eventual fate of all the Rings. For the One,this is easy, since its melting is a key elementof the whole plot of the book. The fate of theThree is not in doubt either, as they departover the Sea with their wearers. The Sevenhave already been mentioned, but only partial-ly for this purpose. Since Sauron had regainedthree of them, the only logical place to keep

them was Barad-dûr. Thus these three Ringswere most likely destroyed when Sauron’sfortress collapsed after the destruction of theOne.

For the Nine, we have no clear reference asto what happened to them. Using evidence al-ready quoted above, their most likely fate isclear as well, though: since Sauron used themto control the Ringwraiths, he probably hadthem on his fingers, and so they were de-stroyed when the Dark Lord’s body wascaught in the destruction of his tower. Thering that had belonged to the Witch-king hemight have taken off (since the chief Nazgûlwas at least incapacitated for a long time), butmost probably stored it together with thethree surviving Rings of the Seven.

The Ring-verseFor us as the readers of The Lord of the Rings,

several key elements become quite clear: theRings of Power, and the threat posed by theOne Ring, already loom over our heads evenbefore we read the book – we read the versecited at the beginning of this essay before thestory in the book even begins. As Tolkien putit, the verse is the leit-motif14 of the book.Thus, for a reader the background story isquite trivial and often taken for commonknowledge.

Already at the beginning of the book we aregiven a great deal of knowledge when Gandalffirst tells Frodo about the One and the associ-ated matters in general:

The letters [on the One] areElvish, of an ancient mode, but thelanguage is that of Mordor, which Iwill not utter here. But this in theCommon Tongue is what is said,close enough:

One Ring to rule them all,One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them alland in the darkness bind them.

It is only two lines of a verselong known in Elven-lore.– FotR: The Shadow of thePast

Please note that Gandalf says, these are linesfrom a verse long known in Elven-lore. Thusit is likely that all scholars naturally associatedthe Rings with the Elves; a matter that will be-come important when I later discuss the timeof the likely creation of this famous verse.

For the inhabitants of Middle-earth, thingsare quite different though. As already stated,the matter of the Rings of Power was kept as atop-secret matter both by the Eldar and

Sauron.

No tortures would have satisfiedhis [Sauron’s] anger with thebungling fools who had let slip thegreatest prize in Middle-earth [theOrcs who killed Isildur; which led tothe loss of the One]; even thoughthey could know nothing of the OneRing, which save to Sauron himselfwas known only to the NineRingwraiths, its slaves.– UT: The Disaster of theGladden Fields

This makes it clear that, from Sauron’s side,the Rings were kept a secret known only tothe individual wearers and Sauron himself.The Eldar were also very secretive:

I do not think Ar-Pharazôn knewanything about the One Ring. TheElves kept the matter of the Ringsvery secret, as long as they could. Inany case Ar-Pharazôn was not incommunication with them.– Letters: #211, 1958

Neither were the Dwarven kings verytalkative about the causes for their ever-grow-ing riches. This is also reported by Tolkien:

But the possessors of the Ring[Durin’s Ring] did not display it orspeak of it, and they seldomsurrendered it until near death, sothat others did not know for certainwhere it was bestowed. – LotR: Appendix A (Annals ofthe Kings and Rulers; III –Durin’s Folk)

Thus, it is very unlikely that any knowledgeof the Rings of Power slipped into the lore ofeven the royal Númenóreans before the LastAlliance. It is likely that the Eldar only cameout with the whole story when the Nú-menóreans were surprised that Sauron had es-caped the wrath of Eru out of the Downfall.

For this good at least theybelieved had come out of ruin, thatSauron also had perished.– LotR: Appendix A

So it was probably only now that the Nú-menóreans understood the general lines of thewhole matter – including the deeper reasonfor the war in Eriador seventeen hundredyears earlier.

After the War of the Last Alliance was suc-cessful, it is not unlikely that the matter of theGreat Rings, their existence, distribution andpurpose (in relation to the One) becameknown to a wider audience of scholars who

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008had interest in such things. The careful studyof the Ring-verse shows that only the purposeof the One is defined clearly – the function ofthe others are left ambiguous in this verse.This is another hint that the verse was com-posed after the plot of Sauron had been re-vealed to an audience more numerous than theEldarin leaders. Afterwards, there was nomore reason to keep the entire matter secret,although the details of the Ring-making andthe original purposes still remained unknowneven to Númenórean scholars.

As already stated, the rhyme was longknown in Elven-lore (speaking from the van-tage point of the late Third Age). This alsoraises the question: who actually composedit. We cannot, however, even make an edu-cated guess on his (or her) identity, though wemay extrapolate the race of the composer.Since Gandalf reports that Celebrimbor heardSauron say the two key lines (“One Ring torule them all...”) when the latter put on theOne for the first time, only these would havebeen known to the Eldarin leaders (at least ini-tially). Due to the secrecy of the whole matter(see above), they are unlikely to have sharedthis information with anyone else before theWar of the Last Alliance. Thus, the rhymemay have been created by an Elven scholar toput the whole problem of the Rings in oneshort and condensed form once Sauron hadbeen defeated. Even if he (the author/com-poser) was not Elven, he must have been in-formed by an Elf.

Thus the early Third Age is the most likelytime the verse became common knowledgeamong scholars. Due to the lack of preciseknowledge on the intricacies, it was more adescriptive and evocative way to describe thegeneral and obvious key facts about theseRings. That they were not made with this in-tention is another matter, it simply describesthe state of things as was known at this time:That the Dark Lord had the One, the Elves theThree etc. and that the purpose of the Onewas to rule the others.

Ironically, the only ones who probably qual-ify as real kings that got Rings of Power werethe kings of the seven Dwarven houses – andthese are only called “lords” in the verse. Thuswe can safely assume, that the composer of theverse was not trying to make a correct depic-tion of the distribution of the Rings. (Seeabove for more details on the verse.)

Two or three ‘Batches’ of Elven Rings?We know that the Elven rings were – at

least in after times – separated into three dis-tinct “series”: the Nine, Seven, and Three. It isnot entirely clear whether this was true fromthe beginning; e.g. first a series of nine rings,then a later series of seven and at last a thirdseries of three. Neither in The Silmarillion norin The Lord of the Rings is there any direct evi-dence on this matter. The only hint in this di-rection is Tolkien’s report of the events inEregion found in Unfinished Tales and alreadyquoted in full above:

There Sauron took the NineRings and other lesser works of theMírdain; but the Seven and theThree he [Sauron] could not find.– UT: Concerning Galadrieland Celeborn

This has been partly discussed above in thesection about Sauron’s capture of the rings inEregion: the Nine, Seven and Three are dis-cussed (and stored/bestowed) separately,which favors three distinct ‘batches’ of ringswith – probably – ever increasing power.

The mere fact that there were probablythree ‘batches’ from the beginning does nottell us directly something about the propertiesof the Rings, but indirectly it offers plenty ofinformation to make some educated guesses.First, it is striking that the number of Ringswithin each series decreases. It is also interest-ing that the number for the first two series dif-fers only marginally, while the third one isclearly set apart.15 Additionally, we know thatthe Three were the most powerful of the El-ven Rings (see quotes above), and that theOne was even more powerful, since it had torule all the other – mighty – Rings. So gener-ally speaking, an increasing amount of powerwas concentrated in an ever-decreasing num-ber of items. It seems reasonable to use theterm “Sixteen Rings” for the Nine and Seven,as they were more closely connected togethercompared to the Three.

Here we may have a look at the likely orderof events: The Nine were probably the first(and least powerful) series; see also the valuegiven to them by Celebrimbor above. TheSeven were already better and accordinglymore valued by Celebrimbor. Last came theThree, made by the Master-smith alone. Thenumber of Rings might be an indicator for rel-ative power: The same (or even greater)amount of power might have been squeezedinto the Seven compared to the Nine; eventhough the former were already two piecesless (77.8% in number compared to theNine). Now, perhaps an even greater amount

was put into the Three (33% in number com-pared to the Nine; 42.9% in number com-pared to the Seven).

I can imagine that this came to pass in thefollowing way: Sauron took part in forging allof the Sixteen Rings, and the first series ofGreat Rings (the Nine) was already good.Here the Mírdain worked more or less exactlyalong the lines as taught (and understood andmastered after trials with the Lesser Rings) tothem by Annatar. Afterwards, they honedtheir skill further (again together with An-natar) and made an even better series (the Sev-en). Here Sauron might have thought “OK,that’s enough for them, my purpose is ful-filled”.16 Accordingly, he left Eregion to fash-ion his master-ring that would rule all the Six-teen. After his departure, Celebrimbormustered all his skill and developed the tech-niques taught by his mentor even further, re-fining the art to an extent that was the epito-me of Elven craft developed out of and basedon Maiarin knowledge. Thus he made theThree, which showed an even greater powercompared to the Sixteen and that symbolizedmore pure and “Elven” ideals. They were thetrue masterpieces of Elven Ring-craft. It isimaginable that Sauron was really surprised bytheir existence (see above), but probably posi-tively, giving him three more tools – and evenmore powerful ones than he had imaginedpossible for the Noldor. The effects of theirpower is vividly described in The Lord of theRings:

[Sam speaking] ‘Whether they’vemade the land, or the land’s madethem, it’s hard to say, if you take mymeaning. It’s wonderfully quiet here.Nothing seems to be going on, andnobody seems to want it to. If there’sany magic about, it’s right downdeep, where I can’t lay my hands onit, in a manner of speaking.’

‘You can see and feel iteverywhere,’ said Frodo.– LotR: The Mirror ofGaladriel

This subtle and yet strong power to affectthe land and make it feel “magical” (withoutvisible flashy effects) is exactly what the Mír-dain intended to achieve.

25


Powers of the RingsThis section is deliberately not titled as deal-

ing with the Great Rings alone, but aims at abroader target. As we have seen previously,the primary goal of this whole project (as faras the Elves were concerned – Sauron had oth-er motives of course), was preservation.Tolkien’s Letters provide us with first-hand in-formation on specific powers:

The chief power (of all the ringsalike) was the prevention or slowingof decay (i.e. ‘change’ viewed as aregrettable thing), the preservation ofwhat is desired or loved, or itssemblance – this is more or less anElvish motive. But also theyenhanced the natural powers of apossessor – thus approaching‘magic’, a motive easily corruptibleinto evil, a lust for domination. Andfinally they had other powers, moredirectly derived from Sauron (‘theNecromancer’: so he is called as hecasts a fleeting shadow and presageon the pages of The Hobbit): such asrendering invisible the material body,and making things of the invisibleworld visible.

The Elves of Eregion made Threesupremely beautiful and powerfulrings, almost solely of their ownimagination, and directed to thepreservation of beauty: they did notconfer invisibility.– Letters: #131, late 1951

This gives us the information about the keypowers of the Great Rings – not surprisingwhen considering the motives of their makers.Thus we can make a number of assertions withsome certainty:

• Great Rings preserve what isloved or its semblance, and slowdecay (or completely halt it –according to power)

• They enhance the natural powersof the wearer; thus a greatgeneral will become evengreater, a powerful magician willstill rise in lore and power and awise and skilled king will becomean even better one

• The Sixteen’s and the One’sability to make the wearerinvisible was derived fromSauron/Annatar

Please note the wording in the first of thesebullets: the Rings may only preserve the sem-blance of what is loved.

This preservation motive is what the Elves

wanted to achieve, of course, so it’s no won-der that this is the chief power. We are alsotold however, that Sauron added powers aswell, like the ability to make oneself invisibleor see invisible things. He is likely to have ma-nipulated the general purpose a bit. This istold in The Silmarillion:


It is understandable that Sauron may havetinkered with the Rings after their capture, sothat they would be all the more suitable forthe corruption of their future wearers. Per-haps he also tried to mask the effects of theOne somehow, so that a failure similar tothose he experienced with the Noldor of Ere-gion (detection of the One) became less prob-able. The most important point is that Sauronmodified the Rings he had captured to an un-known degree, so that they would serve hispurpose even better.

It seems obvious that the less powerful abili-ties (e.g. only slowing decay instead of com-pletely halting it) would be associated morewith the Nine or Seven rather than the muchmore powerful Three.

The “Lesser Rings” that had also been craftedare an endless matter of debate. The onlyreliable information we have about them is thealready mentioned comment by Gandalf,which I will repeat here because of itsrelevance:

In Eregion long ago many Elven-rings were made, magic rings as youcall them, and they were, of course,of various kinds: some more potentand some less. The lesser rings wereonly essays in the craft before it wasfull-grown, and to the Elven-smithsthey were but trifles – yet still to mymind dangerous for mortals. But theGreat Rings, the Rings of Power,they were perilous. – LotR: The Shadow of thePast

It sounds logical to us that the Mírdain firsthad to develop their craft, and that accordinglythey created lesser rings that constituted trialsin the various powers of the Great Rings thatwere planned.

The rôle and relationship of the ElvenRings to the One and Sauron is of coursethe best-known part of their whole history:Sauron had the One, the Three the Elves re-tained, while the others were distributed toDwarves and Men by Sauron. For the SecondAge it is clear, that Sauron with the help of theOne governed the Nine and at least influencedthe wearers of the Seven.

As we have seen above, The Elves immedi-ately noticed Sauron and his purpose once theOne was first worn. As outlined above, theElves were much more sensitive to such “mag-ic emanations” and thus detected Sauron andavoided his trap. How this connection came tobe is not known in detail, but since all theRings were based on the same basic technicalprinciples, some kind of magic link betweenthe – worn – Elven Rings and the One is high-ly likely.17 This is needed of course to effectthe government of the Elven Rings throughthe One. Unfortunately for Sauron this link isnot one-way (e.g. from the One down to theother Rings), but in both directions. Throughthis feature the Elves were able to detect himand his plot.

Other entities of similar (or greater) staturein fëa (or Ainu ëalar) are likely to be at least asperceptive. As long as Sauron held the One,he is likely to have been able to block any at-tempt to penetrate his own mind while domi-nating the Nine (and Three – if they had beenworn), but he certainly could not wholly pre-vent this “connection” back to him. Since theMen who accepted the Nine Rings were soeasily ensnared and fooled, it is likely that thestrength of their fëar was not sufficient to de-tect the two-way connection and learn any-thing from it like Celebrimbor or Galadriel.18

For the Third Age when Sauron lacked theOne, the situation is trickier. The Silmarillioncontains one quote that gives a pointer:


It seems that Sauron’s participation in thecrafting of the Rings plus a possible manipula-tion after their capture gives them a uniquequality: while still providing enormous power,they were more closely linked to Sauron thanthe Three. Thus even while he lacked theOne, Sauron still had some indirect malevo-lent influence over the Nine19 and Seven Ringswhich led to the eventual falling of the Dwar-

26 ————————————————————————————————————

ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008ven Rings (and probably the recovery of theNine from the Nazgûl).The Three’s only linkto Sauron was by the One and while he lackedit, the Three and their wearers were not ac-cessible for his probings. Galadriel puts it inwords in The Lord of the Rings:

In the black abyss there appeareda single Eye that slowly grew until itfilled nearly all the Mirror. ...

‘Do not touch the water!’ said theLady Galadriel softly. The visionfaded, and Frodo found that he waslooking at the cool stars twinkling inthe silver basin. He stepped backshaking all over and looked at theLady.

‘I know what it was that you lastsaw,’ she said; ‘for that is also in mymind. ... I say to you, Frodo, thateven as I speak to you, I perceivethe Dark Lord and know hismind, or all of his mind thatconcerns the Elves. And hegropes ever to see me and mythought. But still the door isclosed!’ ...

Its [Eärendil’s] rays glanced upona ring about her finger; ...– LotR: The Mirror ofGaladriel (my emphasis)

Galadriel is fully able to use this two-waylink between the One and her Ring: even ifSauron lacked the One, he was in some way“linked in spirit” since part of himself waswithin the One. Due to her innate abilities,Galadriel should have been capable of some“mental surveillance” of Sauron’s mind, butthis was probably enhanced by Nenya and theabove-mentioned effect.

The way Galadriel perceives Sauron is cer-tainly related to the way Celebrimbor noticedhim when the Dark Lord first put the One onhis finger. That she says that she perceives onlyhis thoughts that concern the Elves might betypical for the way of this link: An elven Ring-wearer perceives only those designs aimed atthe elven wearers of a Ring of Power – andtheir whole folk. According to this theory, aman would perceive those thoughts that con-cern men.20

The effects of the Great Rings on mor-tals are well-documented. Powerful menwere turned into Ringwraiths, while thesmaller and mean became a ‘Gollum’. The de-velopment of Sméagol (long-lived but not be-coming a wraith) can be attributed to his hob-bitish nature though. Tolkien mentions thedistinction and importance of original statureand power in his Letters:

To attempt by device or ‘magic’to recover longevity is thus a supremefolly and wickedness of ‘mortals’.Longevity or counterfeit‘immortality’ (true immortality isbeyond Eä) is the chief bait of Sauron– it leads the small to a Gollum, andthe great to a Ringwraith.– Letters: #212, Oct. 1958

Using the knowledge from above, that theRings were made by the Elves to preserve and“embalm” that which is loved and whose fad-ing would bring sorrow21; and coupled withSauron’s manipulations, the effects of theGreat Rings on mortals were fatal.22 Theywere exposed to something that was never in-tended for them by the makers of the Ringsand therefore they meddled with powers thatwere too great for them. Human mortality,the wish to avoid it and to live forever is oneof the great themes in Tolkien’s Arda, fromwhich sorrow23 often comes and sometimeseven great danger. So the Sixteen Rings mightbe viewed as a means to preserve and slow de-cay, but not with a more specific “built in”purpose. Thus what exactly is preserved de-pends on the wearer and his specific, oftenrace-specific, desires. For Elves and Men thishas been discussed. For Dwarves, materialwealth is the thing that is most loved andworth preserving.

The Three Rings might be viewed as a re-finement of the preservation theme. Not onlywere they more powerful overall, but theywere also directed specifically towards pre-serving beauty (see quote above). Thus it is atleast speculative, whether they would havehad the same effects upon Men as had theNine.

The effects of the Seven on the Nau-grim are quite different than the ones onMen:

Seven Rings he gave to theDwarves; but to Men he gave nine,for Men proved in this matter as inothers the readiest to his will. Andall those rings that he governed heperverted, the more easily since hehad a part in their making, and theywere accursed, and they betrayed inthe end all those that used them. TheDwarves indeed proved tough andhard to tame; they ill endure thedomination of others, and thethoughts of their hearts are hard tofathom, nor can they be turned toshadows. They used their rings onlyfor the getting of wealth; but wrathand an over-mastering greed of gold

were kindled in their hearts, of whichevil enough after came to the profitof Sauron. It is said that thefoundation of each of the SevenHoards of the Dwarf-kings of old wasa golden ring; but all those hoardslong ago were plundered and theDragons devoured them, and of theSeven Rings some were consumed infire and some Sauron recovered.– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

The powers of the Rings in RPGs is atricky issue. ICE gave game stats to the Ringsof Power, and in general this technical dataseems acceptable as a basis for further refine-ment.24 What these lack, however, is a goodimplementation of their chief powers – theslowing of decay and preservation. I am awarethat this is a tough task in a fast-paced RPGwhich does not count in decades or centuries,but months or years at best. In this scale, theprimary preservation power of the Rings isnegligible of course.25

Apart from the well-known Great Rings,the Lesser Rings are a favourite in RPGs whenthe adventure author or the specific GM wantsto introduce powerful items of the past. ICEdid this extensively, but in my opinion, theylacked some understanding of the key factsabout these “Lesser Rings”. In the ICE mod-ules such rings regularly conferred either (un-dead) immortality or at least magically pro-longed life (or better, physical existence). Aswe have learned from the LotR quote above,this is impossible. The power to prolong hu-man life was a power possessed only by theGreat Rings; in my opinion, there is absolutelyno room for interpretation here. The mostlikely – primary – power of these Lesser Ringswould lie in the first essays of the preservationtheme. Here the passage from the quote be-fore the last is of great help: It speaks of the“semblance” that could be preserved by theRings. Such a preliminary stage in the devel-opment of the major powers is the best candi-date for a Lesser Rings’ powers, due to his na-ture as an essay in the craft. Thus, speaking insuch terms, I would propose the followingmajor stages in the development of the LesserRings in respect to the preservation power. Idescribe their effects on mortals, since herethe powers of the Rings manifest themselvesvery graphically in my opinion.

• The first version would only preservethe facade of the state from the lovedthing when the ring was first worn. Inno way does it delay or influence the

27

OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE progress of aging or change.

• The second stage would act as the first,but would also mitigate some effects ofageing (e.g., better vigour in old age,but not wholly preserved).

• The third stage would act as thepreceding ones, with the differencethat this ring also mitigate the agingand its detrimental effects of a mortal,but only until his appointed timeapproached. Then he would age veryfast and die like any other of his race.This accelerated aging of postponeddecades might take place in only a fewweeks or even days.26

Please note that the ‘Lesser Rings’ did notconfer unnatural longevity. This is the onepower which they definitely do not possess (inwhatever form it may be constructed), butwhich are often ascribed to them.

Excursus: Ring-distribution among MenICE is often criticized for its decision of giv-

ing the Nazgûl individual biographies as laidout in the Lords of Middle-earth, Vol. 2 – TheMannish Races. The invention of a female (Nú-menórean) Nazgûl is especially a matter ofcriticism, on the grounds that she was aqueen at most and not a king as it is sup-posed was the norm for the Ringwraiths. Ifyou have a closer look, the decision is not un-reasonable, though:

• There were three queens in Númenor,thus making a powerful femalecharacter of Númenórean raceabsolutely possible

• The Ring Verse does not specifygender, profession or social status

• The Ring Verse speaks of Elven kings –but Galadriel is not a king (male)either. Neither do Círdan, Elrond orGandalf qualify as Elven kings. Theonly one who did was Gil-galad, and hewas dead before the Ring-verse wasprobably made

• The most important passage that tellsus something about the Nazgûl is foundin The Silmarillion (see quote below).Again, there is no mention that being aking (male) is a prerequisite for beingchosen as a wearer of one of the Nine

• The same passage from The Silmarillionthat deals with the matter of theRingwraiths also makes kingship not aprerequisite for being chosen as afuture slave by Sauron. Indeed, it evensays that some of them became kings

after receiving a Ring (and were notsuch already when given it).

Men proved easier to ensnare.Those who used the Nine Ringsbecame mighty in their day, kings,sorcerers, and warriors of old. Theyobtained glory and great wealth, yetit turned to their undoing. They had,as it seemed, unending life, yet lifebecame unendurable to them. Theycould walk, if they would, unseen byall eyes in this world beneath thesun, and they could see things inworlds invisible to mortal men; buttoo often they beheld only thephantoms and delusions of Sauron.And one by one, sooner or later,according to their native strengthand to the good or evil of their willsin the beginning, they fell under thethralldom of the ring that they boreand under the domination of theOne, which was Sauron’s. And theybecame for ever invisible save to himthat wore the Ruling Ring, and theyentered into the realm of shadows.The Nazgûl were they, theRingwraiths, the Enemy’s mostterrible servants; darkness went withthem, and they cried with the voicesof death.– Sil: Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age

Excursus: Celebrimbor’s ancestryThe person of Celebrimbor is interesting.

Naturally, he is the central figure in the mak-ing of the Rings, Sauron’s unsuspecting ser-vant in the creation of a deadly peril for all ofMiddle-earth. Superficially, everything is clearas glass. He was a descendant of Fëanor andtherefore a Noldo:

Celebrimbor was lord of Eregionand the greatest of their craftsmen;he was descended from Fëanor.– LotR: Appendix B

It seems, however, that his identity was farfrom firm. In UT, where we find a lot of piv-otal information about the Rings and the Warof the Elves and Sauron, we find passages thathe was a Noldo, as above, but originated fromGondolin – with no relationship to the familyof Fëanor:

[Like Gil-galad, Celebrimbor wasa figure first appearing in The Lordof the Rings whose origin my fatherchanged again and again. The

earliest statement on the subject isfound in the post-Lord of the Ringstext Concerning Galadriel andCeleborn, where it is said (cf.Unfinished Tales p. 235):Galadriel and Celeborn had in theircompany a Noldorin craftsman calledCelebrimbor. He was of Noldorinorigin, and one of the survivors ofGondolin, where he had been one ofTurgon's greatest artificers - but hehad thus acquired some taint of prideand an almost ‘dwarvish’ obsessionwith crafts.

He reappears as a jewel-smith ofGondolin in the text The Elessar (seeUnfinished Tales pp. 248 ff.); butagainst the passage in ConcerningGaladriel and Celeborn just cited myfather noted that it would be betterto ‘make him a descendant ofFëanor’. ...]– HoMe 12: The Atani andtheir languages (Note 7)

This last sentence already shows that theidea of Celebrimbor as a descendant of Fëanorhad begun to develop.

In the HoMe 12, there is an extensive foot-note where he is even made a Sinda:

The famous Celebrimbor, heroicdefender of Eregion in the SecondAge war against Sauron, was a Teler,one of the three Teleri whoaccompanied Celeborn into exile.– HoMe 12: The Atani andtheir languages (Note 7)

This last seems to be a very late develop-ment where Tolkien possibly had forgottenthat he already had made Celebrimbor a rela-tive of Fëanor in the published LotR.27

Christopher Tolkien comments on this in thefollowing way:

When my father wrote this [1968or later] he ignored the addition toAppendix B in the Second Edition,stating that Celebrimbor ‘wasdescended from Fëanor’; no doubt hehad forgotten that that theory hadappeared in print, for had heremembered it he would undoubtedlyhave felt bound by it. – On thestatement that Celebrimbor was ‘oneof the three Teleri who accompaniedCeleborn into exile’ see UnfinishedTales, pp. 231-3.– HoMe 12: The Atani andtheir languages (Note 7)

So, summarizing all the issues, it is in myopinion indeed the best solution to keep the

28 ————————————————————————————————————

ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008LotR version, since it is the one best devel-oped. Conveniently, the passage already citedabove gives us also some information on thefamily matters in this “Fëanorian descent” ver-sion:

How could he be? Fëanor’s onlydescendants were his seven sons, six ofwhom reached Beleriand. So farnothing has been said of their wivesand children. It seems probable thatCelebrinbaur (silverfisted, >Celebrimbor) was son of Curufin, butthough inheriting his skills he was anElf of wholly different temper (hismother had refused to take part inthe rebellion of Fëanor and remainedin Aman with the people ofFinarphin).– HoMe 12: The Atani andtheir languages (Note 7)

This passage also tells that Celebrimbor wasa person who went into exile (and thus proba-bly was born during the bliss of Aman):28

But Curufin, dearest to his fatherand chief inheritor of his father’sskills, was wedded, and had a sonwho came with him into exile,though his wife (unnamed) did not.– HoMe 12:The Atani andtheir languages (Note 7)

The matter may seem academic (and it is toa large extent), but shows the problems anddelicate decisions that are sometimes neces-sary in textual research. In this case we arefortunate that the decision for the Fëanoriandescent was an easy one.

Notes

1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

2 http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fan-modules/

3 Though probably tricked about his motiveslike the Eldar later; it would be interestingto know their reaction once Sauron’smotives had become clear

4 This is indeed the explanation broughtforth in ICE’s Lórien and the Halls of theElven-smiths.

5 ICE indeed gave numbers: ten years forthe Three, as well as for the One. SeeICE’s Lórien and the Halls of the Elven-smithsfor more details. These are secondarysources though and their value is thereforequite limited. Indeed, though they areconvincing, ICE did not produce anytextual backup for their claims.

6 The First of the Seven may have been

given to Durin of Khazad-dûm by theMírdain themselves:

It was believed by the Dwarves ofDurin's Folk to be the first of theSeven that was forged; and they saythat it was given to the King ofKhazad-dûm, Durin III, by theElven-smiths themselves and not bySauron, though doubtless his evilpower was on it, since he had aidedin the forging of all the Seven.– LotR: Appendix A (Annals ofthe Kings and Rulers; III –Durin’s Folk)

It is conceivable that the Noldor deemedthe friendship of a powerful neighbour(with the only known source of mithril athis disposal) was worth the gift of one ofthe Rings that the Elves had made forthemselves.

7 Both dates according to Appendix B of theLord of the Rings.

8 Again, perhaps only the remaining six ofthe Seven.

9 For his primary goal as well in the end.Had he first destroyed all organizedresistance, he might have hunted down hisprey later. Since he chose to get the Sevenfirst (perhaps not to lose the relatively freshtrail), he made – in the long run – thewrong decision.

10 The war was only a tool to achieve thegoal of getting the Rings.

11 Note the wording in comparison to theone describing the likely elven keepers ofthe Seven above!

12 In the online essay ‘The Fall of Carn Dûm’(complementary to Other Hands, Issue #25:‘Dwarves of the Blue Mountains’) it isspeculated that the beginning of the fall ofthe Seven began with the capture of Carn-dûm in the 13th century (then a Dwarvenstronghold) by the Witch-king, and thecapture of one of the Seven in the process.Though speculative, this is notunreasonable.

13 Please note the interesting parallel to thepopular Harry Potter novel series (thoughnot limited to this example): The mainvillain could only be finally destroyed afterhis ‘magical’ anchor to the physical world(for Sauron the One, for Voldemort hishorcruxes) were unmade. In addition, bothwere defeated previously (e.g. before therespective books begin) and now return asa final threat.

14 See Letters: #13115 If we use a bit of numerology, we could

speculate the following: all the series havean uneven number of pieces – first nine,

then seven, three and one. Logically, wewould expect five after seven – which isleft out – and it continues with three. Thusthe gap is greater which emphasizes thespecial status (in intention and power) andsets the Three more distinctly apart fromthe other Elven Rings. Then we continuewith one ring – here the gap is again similarto that between nine and seven. All thismight indicate at the relative strength and“status” in the “ring hierarchy”: We mightthink that the Nine and Seven form a“group” of similar power levels, as does theThree and the One (though of course not inintent with respect to the Three and theOne of course!).

16 Thanks to David Keogh for this nicewording (mail to fan-sourcebooks onFebruary, 6th 2008)

17 But only in this way – like a star-shapewith the One in the middle: There are onlyconnections between the One and eachlesser Ring, but not between the otherRings, thus bypassing the One.

18 And very likely – Elrond and Gandalf.19 Unless he did not wear or use them

himself of course after re-capturing themfrom the Nazgûl. [This means that thisindirect influence makes only sense as longas he has them not in his possession forcontrol purposes].

20 If he had been sensitive enough for this.Since this is not the case, this conclusion istheoretical of course.

21 Compared to the perceived swift change ofMiddle-earth, the Eldar remain largelyunchanged.

22 In contrast with the Elves, in Men’s viewMiddle-earth is largely static while theychange swiftly. This might be the motivefor their desire to preserve their ownphysical existence.

23 See the LotR: Appendix A – (V) Here follows apart of the tale of Aragorn and Arwen for theeffect even on Elrond’s daughter whopresumed to be aware of her fatebeforehand. See Arwen’s speech and pleaswhen Aragorn lies on his deathbed.

24 When using ICE’s MERP or Rolemaster.For other systems the data has to beadapted of course.

25 Most players are naturally more interestedin bonuses to skills, extra magic, extrabonuses overall, special powers etc. Inother words; everything that directlyenhances the tactical power of the wearer ismost interesting.

26 Compare the Vampire movie „TheHunger“ with Catherine Deneuve, SusanSarandon and David Bowie for a nice

29


adaptation of a similar theme. Here thecharacter played by Bowie ages decadeswithin a few hours.

27 As a sidenote, this also takes up one ideafrom UT that Celeborn was not a Sindafrom Doriath, but a Teler from Aman whowent with Galadriel when she left fromthere.

28 This is in stark contrast to the ICE version,which made him an Elf born in Middle-earth. At the time of the writing of thisinformation (1986), the texts quoted abovewere not available to the respective authorsof Lórien and the Halls of the Elven-smiths andLords of Middle-earth, Vol. 1 – The Immortals.Thus the discrepancy is excusable

30 ————————————————————————————————————


by Chris Seeman© 2006-2007 Chris Seeman

per the terms under CC license: b n a 1

Among the most interesting items of Tolkien’slegendarium are the palantíri, the mysterious see-ing stones Elendil brought with him from Númenorwhen it fell. There have been many – especiallyacademic – discussions on the nature and powers ofthese stones. What is needed for an RPG campaignhowever, is a guideline how to use these items in agame situation.

ICE’s treatment of the topic has been extremelymeagre and the LotR RPG wasn’t much better. Herewe present you with Chris Seeman’s vision of howthe palantíri may be used in a LotR RPG game set-ting.

Nature and historyThe word palantír means ‘far-seer’ in the

High-elven speech. Such indeed is the virtueof the dark crystal globes which bear thatname: the seven seeing-stones of Númenor.One who gazes into a palantír may behold im-ages of things far distant, or hold conversewith the thought of someone using anotherstone. To a ruler, the palantíri enhance theability to govern and defend a realm. To theloremaster, they expand the boundaries ofknowledge. To the more mystically-inclined,they hold forth the prospect of transcendingTime itself.

The palantíri are a jealously guarded secretknown only to a few. Brought to Middle-earthby Elendil, the stones were quietly se-questered within the key strongholds of histwo realms: three in the North (at Amon Sûl,Annúminas, and the Tower Hills), four in theSouth (at Osgiliath, Minas Anor, Minas Ithiland Orthanc). Treasured heirlooms of hishouse, the existence of the palantíri was re-vealed to none save Elendil’s heirs and theirclosest counselors.

By the time of The Hobbit (TA 2941-2), fourof the palantíri have been lost to the vicissi-tudes of war. The only three that remain invi-olate are that of Minas Tirith (the Anor stone),that of Orthanc, and that of the Tower Hills.

With the extinction of the kings, knowledgeof the palantíri and the art of their use passedto others. In Gondor, the Ruling Stewards be-came custodians of the Anor-stone (that ofOrthanc having been entrusted to the care ofSaruman in TA 2759). Among the Dúnedainof the North, memory of the palantíri was pre-served only in obscure rhymes of lore. But theStone of Elendil in the Tower Hills is longmaintained (and will continue to be so untilthe end of the Third Age) by Círdan and theElves of Lindon.

With the exception of the Elendil-stone,knowledge and usage of the surviving palantíriare extremely rare during the late Third Age,due to the (well-founded) fear that the Ithil-stone has come into the possession of Sauron.By this misfortune, the palantíri have become agrave danger to any of the Free Peoples whomight use them. To make use of a seeing-stoneis now to risk a direct encounter with the Lid-less Eye. Because of this, the Stewards of Gon-

dor wisely refrained from using the Anor-stone. In the days of his wisdom, Saruman tooresisted the desire to test himself against thewill of Sauron. When he eventually suc-cumbed to temptation, Saruman become atraitor to the Free Peoples, and Denethor wasdriven to death and despair. Knowledge canbe perilous.

PowersThe palantíri are not identical in their pow-

ers, but are of three kinds. The Stone ofElendil is not ‘in accord’ with the other six. Itcannot communicate with them, nor be usedto gaze in any direction except westward, to-ward Eressëa and the shores of Valinor. Thelack of accord between this palantír and therest renders it immune to the dangers involvedwith using the others while Sauron holds theIthil-stone.

Of the other six, two (those of Amon Sûl andOsgiliath) were ‘master-stones.’ Not only

were these physically larger than the others,but their range was also greater. The master-

stones were further distinguished by their abil-ity to ‘eavesdrop’ on conversations held be-

tween lesser stones. Normally, if two palantíriare ‘linked’ in communication, a seer gazinginto a third stone cannot ‘listen in’ on what

the other two seers are saying. By contrast, amaster-stone could do this. Fortunately,

Sauron never got hold of either master-stone.

In game terms, a palantír produces effectsanalogous to the spells Farseeing and Mind-speech, but with some significant differences.

FarseeingCASTING TIME: 1 minute

RANGE: 500 miles (except in the case of theElendil-stone). If a seeing-stone is used by acharacter with a spell/ability range greaterthan that of the palantír, his range of vision willstill not exceed 500 miles. However, havingan independent spell/ability in this maynonetheless enhance palantír-use in other ways(see ‘Specialty’ below). A palantír can pene-trate solid barriers (e.g., mountains, build-ings) but for dark locations reveals only dark-ness.

DURATION: So long as the seer is able tomake a Stamina test at TN 10, she may contin-

31

The Palantíri

OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE ue to use the stone uninterrupted as long asshe wishes. The TN will increase by 1 point atregular intervals determined by the degree ofinitial success or failure in activating the stone.

WEARINESS: The TN for determining Weari-ness Level for palantír-use is 10.

COST: As Pippin’s run-in with the Orthanc-stone shows, it is possible to activate a palantírwithout any expenditure of ‘spell picks’ onprior knowledge of its nature or usage.

REQUISITE: Although the effectiveness of apalantír depends upon many factors, its use re-quires no minimum Perception level.

METHOD: Being a tool of the mind, palantír-use involves no verbal component and onlyminimal physical mobility. Even a bound pris-oner can activate a seeing-stone so long as he ispositioned at the proper distance and orienta-tion (about 3’ away from the palantír, oppositethe direction to be surveyed).

SPECIALTY: In spite of their range limitations,the palantíri outdo the Farseeing spell in twoimportant respects. The first of these is calledFocusing (see table below for game stats).Mere use of a stone will not assist in findingsomething or someone whose current locationis unknown to the seer. However, unlikeFarseeing, which reveals only known locations,a palantír may concentrate the user’s visionupon specific persons or objects once theyhave been sighted. This process of magnifica-tion can be effected only by someone whopossesses the proper Lore specialization. Forevery 3 skill ranks, the seer may enhance the

scale of the image viewed by performing aPerception test (2d6 + Per + Skill Rank).

The second specialization available with thepalantíri Lore skill is Time-wandering(lúmeránë in the High-elven speech; see tableon next page for game stats). Being works ofimmeasurable antiquity, it is no wonder theseeing-stones are capable of transcendingboundaries of time as well as space. TheNoldor ascribe this to carmolor, ‘artefact-mem-ory,’ the capacity of an object to ‘remember’its past environment, including the circum-stances of its making. According to the Elvenloremasters, this metaphysical property iscommon to all things; but because it is the na-ture of a palantír to make visible its surround-ings, it is possible for a seer of sufficient skilland power to ‘time-wander,’ to view thosesurroundings as they were in the past as well.

The memory of a palantír may be more easi-ly attuned to significant events in its history,or times when the seer using it experiencedoverwhelming emotion. The Anor-stone in-deed became permanently fixed on the sceneof Denethor’s fiery suicide during the Battle ofthe Pelennor Fields.

The attraction of lúmeránë should be obvi-ous. Imagine the possibilities—a Dúnadanloremaster who travels back in time to beholdthe ancient glories of Númenor; a Noldorincraftsman who witnesses the ‘hand and mindof Fëanor at their work’ or a minstrel wholooks upon the very matter of her minstrelsyas the Two Trees of Valinor set forth theirfirst blossoms; a mariner who retraces

Elendil’s voyage back to the site where West-ernesse once rose above the waves; a servantof the Winged Crown who revisits the sceneof a crime or penetrates the mask of a conspir-acy hatched by the Enemy. (Fortunately forthe Free Peoples, the effective range ofSauron’s palantír falls short of the GladdenFields by about a hundred miles. If not, BilboBaggins might never have lived to see hiseleventy-first birthday!)

A third and final enhancement of the Farsee-ing power exists uniquely for users of theElendil-stone. This pertains to the loremasterorder ability Vala Virtue (Core Rules, p.87;see table on next page for game stats). Thepalantír of the Tower Hills is an object of pil-grimage to those High Elves who still linger inMiddle-earth. (The Wandering Company thatmet Frodo on his departure from the Shirewas probably returning from such a pilgrim-age.)

Because this stone alone affords visions ofValinor, it is a medium of nostalgia for theNoldorin exiles—but also of religious devo-tion, since it may grant the seer a rare glimpseof Elbereth, poised upon the summit ofOiolossë, Mount Everwhite, looking eastacross the Sundering Sea to Middle-earth,watching over all Elves and Elf-friends whocall upon her in their distress. A loremasterpossessing Vala Virtue (Elbereth) who success-fully uses the Elendil-stone gains an increase tohis existing +2 bonus to resist sorcery and dis-pel fear. Alternatively, a character withoutVala Virtue who rolls an Extraordinary Suc-cess in her use of the stone might well gain this

ability as a result.

Mind-SpeechCASTING TIME: 1 minute

RANGE: Normally, Mind-speechcan only be conducted betweenparticipants who are within eye-sight of one another (1’/point ofBearing). The palantíri enablecommunication over hundredsof miles. However, contact canonly be established through an-other stone—a palantír cannotbe used to contact anyone withMind-speech who happens to bewithin 500 miles of the stone.The seeing and communicativefunctions of the palantíri are en-tirely separate in their opera-tion.

DURATION: concentration

32 ————————————————————————————————————

Focusing Table

Skill Ranks TN Scale† Effect††

+1-3 10 6’ = 1” Individuals and small objects are barely discernible, and only in theirvaguest outlines.

+4-6 15 6’ = 3” Though still minuscule, persons/objects already known to the seer may berecognized and distinguished from their background (e.g., a movingindividual will not be lost in a crowd).

+7-9 20 6’ = 6” Major contours of the target become differentiated as background dissipatesinto a neutral blur. The seer can spot a sheathed sword being worn ordetermine whether a person is speaking.

+10-12 25 6’ = 1’ The background vanishes completely, leaving only the target of focus. Facialexpressions become identifiable. A seer with a high Insight skill may evenbe able to guess at the general purport of what is being said (TN 20) or whatemotions are animating the speaker (TN 25). Large lettering (such as on asignpost or monumental inscription) might also be made out (TN 20).

† 6’ = the approximate height of a person. With a basic skill in palantír-use (Ranks 1-3), a human-sizedfigure would appear as only one inch in height.†† A Narrator who wishes to introduce variability into the scale of images viewed, with correspondingenhancement or reduction of effect, may convert the Time Modifier from the Degree of Success Table(Core Rules, p. 220) as a Scale Modifier in reverse (i.e., an Extraordinary Success amplifies theappropriate scale ×1.5, whereas a Disastrous Failure would further reduce the scale to ×.25


WEARINESS: TN 10 (but with cumulativestrain on both parties; +1 TN/5 minutes)

COST: none

REQUISITE: Only the sender must have palan-tíri Lore in order for communication to be ini-tiated, whereas the receiver need have no spe-cial competence to ‘hear’ and respond. (RecallPippin’s encounter with Sauron through theOrthanc-stone.) However, a character with-out any knowledge of palantír-usage may stillattempt to initiate communication, providedshe has Spoken Thoughts, Mind-speech, or Read-ing the Heart as spells or magical abilities.(Most Elves fall into this category.)

METHOD: See Farseeing above.

SPECIALTY: Those learned in the lore of thestones may specialize in Will-path (níratië),the use of the mental link created by thepalantíri to support spell-casting or contests ofwill. The potential of níratië was most fully ex-ploited by Sauron and Saruman in their effortsto dominate others; but it can also be used de-fensively, as may be seen from Aragorn’s abili-ty to challenge Sauron via the Orthanc-stone.(Face to face, Aragorn would never have beenable to withstand the Dark Lord’s will.)

Every level of níratië reduces the TN forStamina tests resulting from the strain of mul-tiple spell-casting or Willpower-related ac-tions by 1 point. Will-path also enables one toeliminate the –3 result penalty for a numberof action rounds equivalent its level. Throughníratië, any spell involving a contest of will

whose range is neither ‘Self’ nor ‘Touch’(such as Command) may be directed against aperson engaged in palantír-communicationwith the caster.

Narrator adviceRemember that the existence of the palan-

tíri is unknown to nearly everyone in Middle-earth, including (probably) the PCs. To makeuse of them, therefore, they must first be dis-covered. Ancient scrolls of lore might providesome clues, but remember that secrecy con-cerning the stones has been maintained pri-marily through restricting that lore to oral

transmission: it’s not what you know, but whoyou know—or rather who you are—that mat-ters.

As custodians of the Dúnadan legacy in theNorth, the Rangers most likely possess someknowledge of the ancient connection betweenElendil and the ‘Elf-towers’ of Emyn Beraid.Because it is unconnected with the perils of itscounterparts, the Noldor are less guarded con-cerning the Elendil-stone (at least to otherElves and Elf-friends). In Gondor, only a char-acter directly connected to the house of theStewards (such as Prince Imrahil) would haveany inkling about the Anor-stone.

The vast potential of palantír-use for PCs iscurtailed by the stones’ inaccessibility. Theirjealous guardians—Saruman, Denethor, andSauron—suffer none but themselves to utilizethese mighty artefacts. With some incredibleluck, a PC might succeed in penetrating theformidable defenses of the White Tower or ofOrthanc to get a brief peak (hopefully withoutbeing detected), but this is out of keeping withthe heroic values of Tolkienesque fantasy.

The Elendil-stone holds more promisingpossibilities for role-playing. As a general rule,non-Elves neither seek nor are admitted to thepalantír of the Tower Hills. However, an Elf-friend whose devotion to Elbereth is genuine

might be granted access, provided he under-takes and completes a pilgrimage. This kind ofscenario focuses attention on the need for cul-tivating relationships of trust and integrity as ameans of reaching an objective.

Notes1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-

nc-sa/3.0/

33

Time-wandering Table

Skill Rank TN Range†

1 5 1 day

2 5 1 week

3 10 1 month

4 10 1 year

5 15 10 years

6 15 50 years

7 20 100 years

8 20 500 years

9 20 1,000 years

10 25 5,000 years (Second Age)

11 25 10,000 years (Elder Days)

12 25 ab initio††

† Denotes how far back in time from the present a seer may wander.†† i.e., as far back as that particular palantír was in existence. The precise age of the seeing-stones is unknown (perhaps 12,500 years). But this applies only to the six stones that are inaccord with one another. Most loremasters believe that the Elendil-stone was crafted much later,perhaps by one of the Noldorin exiles upon Eressëa during the Second Age (ca. 6,500-3,500years ago).

Vala Virtue Table

Test Result Degree of Success or Failure Effect on Virtue

11+ below TN Disastrous Failure: An evil shadowobscures your vision.

Temporary estrangement (loss ofbonus for 2d6 weeks)

6-10 below TN Complete Failure: The stone is blank. None

1-5 below TN Failure: The stone is blank, but you maymake another attempt at -2 without firsthaving to undergo another pilgrimage.

None

Result = TN Marginal Success: You behold Eressëafor a fleeting instant.

Temporary enhancement (+1bonus for 2d6 weeks)

1-5 above TN Complete Success: You behold theshores of Valinor.

Temporary enhancement (+2bonus for 2d6 weeks; +2 bonus toInspire for same duration)

6-10 above TN Superior Success: You behold Oiolossë. Temporary enhancement (asabove, but +4)

11+ above TN Extraordinary Success: You are gracedto behold Elbereth upon Oiolossë.

Permanent enhancement (asabove, but one of the bonuspoints remains permanently)


by Eric Dubourgper the terms under CC license: b n a 1

This essay presents a short history of Númenorand its colonies, from the starting point of the foun-dation of the Guild of Venturers. The colonies arepresented during the Second Age, with some limitedinformation on what happens in the Third Age.

You may note that some issues and topics di-verge from the ones given in the essay “Númenóreansin Endor” in Issue #2 of Other Minds. This is nota mistake on someone’s side, but Other Minds’philosophy to encourage a forum to present severalinterpretations of a given topic.

History

He formed the Guild of Venturers,that was afterwards renowned; tothat brotherhood were joined all thehardiest and most eager, and evenyoung men from the inland asked foradmission, and Aldarion they calledthe Great Captain. Upon Eambarwas the guildhouse of the Venturers,and there they kept records of theirgreat voyages.– Unfinished Tales

The Second AgeThe ancient order of the Guild of Venturers

was founded by the Númenórean crownprince, Anardil, who was known by the nameAldarion (S. “Lover of Trees”) long before hebecame Tar-Aldarion, the sixth King of Nú-menor. The Venturers grew in esteem andwere called by the people Uinendili (S.“Lovers of Uinen”), after the wife of Ossë andthe protector of the Númenórean ships. Be-tween S.A. 750 and S.A. 800, Aldarion setout on many expeditions towards Eriador,where in SA 777 he founded the first Nú-menórean outpost in Endor, Vinyalondë (S.“New Haven”) at the mouth of the Gwathló.Relationships were also established with thetribes of Men living nearby. The Númenóre-ans called them, simply, the Gwathlódain (S.“Men of Gwathló”). But soon the Men of theGwathló came to consider the Númenóreansas invaders, and as a threat to their lands.

Similar expeditions were made farthersouth, around and beyond Belfalas, establish-ing friendly relations with the Men of Belfalasand the Men living in the great river valleyssouth of Belfalas, the Malcelebrim (S. “Lordsof Gold and Silver”), that would later be calledHaradrim (S. “Southrons”) by the later Gondo-rians, as they lived south of Gondor. Sum-moned by the Venturers, Aldarion set sailagain to Middle-earth in S.A. 806, to repairVinyalondë, damaged by sea storms, and tofight against the Gwathlódain that hated the

Men with Ships. In 813, the Venturers, com-manded by Aldarion, came back to Númenorwith a great bounty of silver and gold. Thiswas the starting point of the Venturers’ prof-itable trade with Endor, which made the Guildable to sustain itself without the support of thecrown in later years.

Great expeditions were undertaken in thefollowing years, and peaceful contacts weremade with the Men of the Seven Lands (theMajitu, the ancestors of the Adena and theSederi), where a second (but temporary)haven was built, Taurlondë (S. “ForestHaven”) in S.A. 829. From Taurlondë, Aldari-on found other lands by sailing upriver in thewide and muddy waters of the Balduin (S.“Mighty River”) which connected the Belegaerto a great freshwater lake surrounded by lushand impenetrable forests. The Venturersnamed that lake Mirror-waters (S. “NenCeledril”), and established contacts with Tat-yarin Avari Elves that call themselves Kinn-lai,and with some Black Men tribes, called Koroby the Elves, who were probably the ancestorsof the Mûmakani. The Númenóreans alsotaught these peoples the ways of their civilisa-tion.

Aldarion pushed further along the coastsduring his next voyage (S.A. 829-843), to dis-cover the land that was later known as “Haren-dor”, “Dark Harad”, “Morendor” or BlackMiddle-earth. Because of the fierce stormsnear the Southern Cape of Dark Harad, Aldar-ion did not advance into the Inner Sea, whichwas once the Sea of Ringil.

While Aldarion remained in Númenor, thecaptains of the Venturers, lacking his courageand his resources, limited their explorations toMithlond, Vinyalondë and Belfalas. The havenof Taurlondë was even dismantled in 845. Itwould take several decades before the returnof the Venturers to the Seven Lands and be-yond.

In S.A. 877, probably convinced by the El-ven-king Gil-galad of a rising threat inland, heresumed his explorations, to attempt thenorthern route to the East. This was a great

34 ————————————————————————————————————

The Venturers and thecolonies of Númenor

ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008venture, carried out by both Númenórean andelven ships, manned by the greatest navigatorsof their times. After a long voyage, they dis-covered the Northern Sea, which they namedNimceledril (S. “Sea of White Mirrors”).Along its coasts, they made contact with theAvari Elves of Thûrlornar, who confirmed therumours about Shadows rising in the East.They were also introduced by the Avari to theUlshyans, a proud people whose religion wassimilar to that of the Númenóreans. They,too, spoke of the threat of the Shadow in theEast.

When Aldarion became King in S.A. 883,he devoted some of the resources of the Realmto continuing the Venturers’ project. Apartfrom the temporary settlement of Taurlondë,the Venturers’ interest remained in the West,with the building of Tharbad upstream alongthe Gwathló, not far from the boundaries ofEregion (S.A. 890). In the following century,several petty wars happened with tribes of theGwathló, for the defense of Vinyalondë andTharbad.

It was around S.A. 1000 that Tar-Aldarionmade Soronto his successor as the Lord ofShips and Havens. Historians surmise that thiswas probably done to send away Soronto as aCaptain to keep him far from Armenelos.Soronto at first carried on his policy of diplo-macy and close relationships with the Eldarand the Men of Middle-earth, building an al-liance against the rising Shadow in the East.

He then progressed the exploration of thecoasts further. Taking as his base the nowfirmly established harbour of Taurlondë, hewent beyond Dark Harad. How he managedto journey into the Inner Seas is not known,but his visit to their peoples is attested by nu-merous Lynerian and Chyan records (S.A.1004-1014). It is likely that he either managedto go beyond the Cape, or more probablyfound another river beyond the Nen Celedrilwhich connected to the former Sea of Ringil.

Later (S.A. 1046), a Númenórean expedi-tion travelled eastwards along the Harnen riv-er, establishing contact with the ancient mar-ket towns of that region, and uncovering moresigns of the influence of the Shadow over theEndorians.

Deprived of the financial support of theCrown (S.A. 1096), the Venturers stoppedthe exploration of lands even further away. In-stead, Soronto remodelled the organisationand activities of the Venturers to allow themto survive without the support of the Crown.Improving relations with the peoples alreadyknown was now more important than moreexploration.

Under the leadership of Soronto, the firstpermanent havens were built at the mouths ofthe rivers, serving as markets, harbours andfortresses. This policy was followed and inten-sified by his son Cyriandur, who himself builtseveral havens along the coasts: Emyndôr(S.A. 1288) in what would later become Bel-lakar, Taurlondë as a permanent haven (S.A.1294) and Habadôr (S.A. 1300) in DarkHarad. The Venturers rose in power and builtmany other outposts in Middle-Earth. Othercaptains of the Venturers followed, like Ar-dulion, sailing in the rich delta known as theEthir Aronyar, founding the haven of LondAnarion (S. “Anarion’s Haven”) or CarasHyarn (S.A. 1251).

By S.A. 1450, the Guild had become a richorganisation, and could start to look beyondits traditional harbours. With the blessing ofGil-galad, they resumed the explorations ofAldarion and Soronto, and braved the straits ofHyarmentil and went into the Inner Seas,where they established contacts with othertribes of Black Men, some of them worship-pers of Shadow and slaves to others of Mor-goth’s ancient minions. Further north, theymet with the Múranians, who had already de-veloped a kingdom of their own, the Chyans, aproud people and traditional enemy of theMúranians, the Lynerians, loyal mariners andbrave merchants who still resisted the lure ofShadow, and the Vulmaw, fierce sailors andwarriors who saw the Men of the West ascompetitors over the rule of the seas. Thisopened ways to new havens in the Inner Seas,and to important conflicts with the Vulmaw inlater times.

Following the victory of the Númenóreansand Eldar against Sauron’s forces in S.A. 1701,the Númenóreans took renewed interest inMiddle-earth. The Venturers greatly im-proved their numbers and resources, withmore and more volunteers willing to sail toEndor. But others emulated the successes ofthe Venturers, and they were led by thecrown prince, Ciryatan, who himself built thehaven of Sarûl (S.A. 1792) in what was later tobecome Tantûrak:

[…] he built a great fleet ofroyal ships, and his servants broughtback great store of metals and gems,and oppressed the men of Middle-earth. He scorned the yearnings ofhis father, and eased the restlessnessof his heart by voyaging, east, andnorth, and south, until he took thesceptre.– The Line of Elros, UT

The new King, Tar-Ciryatan, encouragedhis Royal Captains——not only the Venturers——to explore and found more havens on thecontinent. Havens intended as trading posts orstations became fortresses as tensions grew be-tween the Men of the Sea and the locals.Whereas the Venturers came as allies andteachers, the Royal Captains made local lordstheir subjects, thus taking the right to receivetribute and at the same time keeping theirpower in check.

For the first time, some Númenórean out-posts were organised as colonies of Númenor,and not strictly as havens. Several royal mem-bers of the line of Elros became governors ofthe first colonies established: Cyriatir in Ciry-atanórë (S.A. 1904), a cousin of Tar-Ciryatanin Tantûrak (S.A. 1887) and Lômithâni (S.A.1901) and Barvegil in Harfalas (S.A. 1879).For a time, though Bellakar (S.A. 2022) andHyarnúmentë (S.A. 1972) instituted them-selves as colonies, the Venturers still pre-vailed. Though the Guild of Venturers did notrule the cities in Bellakar and Hyarnúmentë,but only traded there, they were still econom-ically more powerful there than the RoyalFleet.

With the advent of Tar-Atanamir, all thischanged. Greedy for wealth and power, heimmediately saw the Venturers as a rival.First, concerned by the colonies, he exactedtribute from the existing havens. Then heturned against the Venturers, beginning by ex-acting harsh tributes from their explorations.Seeing that this was not enough to reduce theirpower, around S.A. 2120 he confiscated mostof their resources, including their Guildhouse,which was removed to the western haven ofAndunië, thus ending all eastward travels forthe Guild.

With the Guild of Venturers effectivelyabolished, the remaining colonies dependedentirely on those factions who would later beknown as the King’s Men. At the same time,Sauron seduced the nine Lords of Men thatwould become the Ringwraiths. Three ofthem were Númenóreans, and one was thegovernor of Ciryatanórë, Herundil. He creat-ed for himself, but none of his descendants, agreat empire, still officially subordinated toNúmenor, and at the same time acting as a spyinside the Númenórean Empire. His treason tothe line of Elros in S.A. 2250 horrified manyin Númenor.

The War of the Renegades followed, andthe nearest colonies (Hyarnúmentë and Bel-lakar) contributed to the efforts of the waragainst Herundil, following Tar-Ancalimon’sorders. The victory was achieved in S.A.

35

OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE 2280, but the corpse of Herundil was neverfound. Herundil’s son Lôkhuzôr was deniedthe right to rule in the stead of his hated fa-ther, and instead a Confederacy was created inthe realm of Ciryatanórë. Then Tar-Atanamirissued a decree that Eldarin names be aban-doned in favour of names in the Adûnaictongue. Ciryatanórë was renamed An-balukkhôr, Hyarnúmentë became Khâradûnê,Mírenórë became Zimrathâni, and Harfalasbecame Sakal an-Khâr.

As the threat from Sauron and his allies wasstill serious, the Númenóreans set aboutstrengthening their havens and colonies.Around the Bay of Belfalas, the King’s Menfortified Umbar in S.A. 2280 (the haven hadexisted since S.A. 1800), and the last of theVenturers (or the first of the Faithful) builtPelargir near the mouth of the river Anduin.And in the south, Lôkhuzôr, deprived of therule over Anbalukkhôr, chased his hated fa-ther’s allies in the Chyan lands. From alreadyestablished havens in Olyas Kriis, he estab-lished the new colony of Anarikê (S.A. 2289),named in honor of Soronto and the Venturers,and successfully led a war against Evil. Later,Anbalukkhôr was reunified as a colony underthe rule of a governor directly nominated bythe King (S.A. 2637).

With the impulse given by Tar-Telemmaitë,the Númenóreans started to explore Endorfurther inland when before they had been in-terested only in the coastlands. This led themto establish good relations with Dwarves allover Middle-earth, to obtain mithril and otherprecious things. Local wars like the petty warled by the governor of Khâradûnê against theDwarves of the Yellow Mountains in S.A.2450 caused a open conflict with Sauron’s em-pire, as Sauron saw the explorers as spies.

Another threat to Númenórean rule wascaused by those colonies that desired to havemore autonomy. Different reasons accountedfor related conflicts: the opposition betweenthe Faithful and the King’s Men, harsh tributelevied as a consequence of local revolts, or acolony’s increasing greed for power. In re-sponse, the Kings of Númenor pronouncedseveral edicts to limit the influence of thecolonies and preserve the natural leadership ofNúmenór: for instance, the Ormal Edict ofTar-Telemmaitë in S.A. 2459, or the Edict onColonies of Tar-Anducal in S.A. 2614.

The following centuries saw the escalationof a mighty and enduring war for control ofMiddle-earth between the Númenóreans andthe forces of Sauron. This war was furthercomplicated by the open rebellion of somecolonies—or intense conflicts between the

Númenóreans and the locals, who suffered un-der the harsh rule of Númenor. Sometimes,these conflicts were caused by Sauron’s spies.Others were caused by the greed of thecolonists, such as in Tantûrak with the Magi-cian or in Sakal an-Khâr, with the rule of theDark Ordainers. The war ended with Ar-Pharazôn’s final victory against Sauron in Um-bar in S.A. 3262. Sauron was brought to Nú-menor in chains. He soon began to forge liesand earned the trust of the King.

Ageing and afraid of death, Ar-Pharazôn re-solved to conquer the Immortal Lands, aproject suggested by his councillor Sauron.According to Sauron’s teachings, the ImmortalLands held the secret of endless life and youth.In S.A. 3310, the King therefore orderedpreparations for the Great Armament. Thiswas seen with great interest in many colonies,and they sent many men and tribute to Nú-menor. The Faithful, naturally, were horrifiedby the news. The few colonies in the far East(e.g, Anarikê and Sakal an-Khâr) took no in-terest at all in conflict played out in the farWest.

The departure of the Great Fleet spelled theend of Númenor. The Faithful of Númenor,commanded by Elendil, fled Númenor andfounded the realms in Exile of Arnor and Gon-dor. The cataclysm that punished the pride ofthe Númenóreans also affected the westerncolonies—the waves and earthquakes follow-ing the downfall fell heavily all over the west-ern coast, drowning vast lands. The shape ofthe continent of Endor was changed.

The great port of Umbar survived the cata-clysm thanks to its protected harbour, but itsruling class remained Black Númenórean.Some other former colonies of Númenor like-wise survived the downfall. While some of theBlack Númenóreans, for example in Sakal an-Khâr or the colonies of southern Dark Harad,followed the ways of their fathers, othersfought Evil successfully, for example in Bel-lakar and Anarikê. not in

The War of the Last Alliance was the lastconflict of the Second Age. It rallied the Faith-ful, the Elves and some Dwarven tribes againstthe forces of Sauron. Among the latter werethe surviving elite of the Black Númenóreans,from places as diverse as Umbar and An-balukkhôr, Khâradûnê, or Zimrathâni. Sur-prisingly, the Númenóreans of Bellakarchanged their allegiance to the Faithfulat thelast moment. Anarikê and Sakal an-Khâr,far tothe east were wrapped up in a bitter waragainst one another for control of the Bay andtook no active part in the War of the Last Al-liance.

The Third AgeIn the Third Age, some protected havens

have survived along the coasts, and greatercolonies in more remote lands, such as the In-ner Seas or the East, have suffered little or nodamage. Those realms who survived, such asBellakar or Anarikê, were greatly changed ow-ing to a mingling of the populations. Others,like Umbar or Sakal an-Khâr, maintained forlong the legacy of the Black Númenóreans,and in some cases, of the Mulkherites. Someother colonies of the Far South did not survivethe first millennium of the Third Age.

A short Númenórean time line32 The Edain reach Númenor.

600 The first ships of the Númenóreans appearoff the coasts of Endor. The Entulessë, cap-tained by Vëantur, sails to Mithlond and es-tablishes relations with Gil-galad and theMen of Eriador.

750 Aldarion establishes the Guild of the Ven-turers and builds the Eämbar.

c.750-775 First explorations of the westerncoasts (Eriador) by the Venturers.

777 Foundation of Vinyalondë (S. “The NewPort”). The Venturers establish relationswith the tribes of the Gwathlódain livingnearby.

806-813 Anardil returns to Vinyalondë wherehe fights the Gwathlódain. He increasesfriendly relations with the Men of Eriador,and travels farther South, around and be-yond Belfalas, where he meets with theMalcelebrim, later more commonly knownas Haradrim. He comes back to Númenorwith a great bounty of silver and gold.

824-829 First exploration of the Seven Lands.Foundation of the temporary settlement ofTaurlondë. First contacts with the Majitu(ancestors of the Adena and the Sederi).

829-843 First exploration of Dark Harad, tak-ing as base the haven of Taurlondë. Firstcontacts with the Kinn-lai and the Koro,ancestors of the Mûmakani.

877-882 Joint expedition of the Eldar and theVenturers, led by Aldarion, to the North-ern Sea—the Sea of White Mirrors. Firstcontacts with the Avari Elves of Thûrlornarand the Ulshyans, uncovering the threat ofthe Shadows in the East.

890 Foundation of Tharbad.901-1000 Tar-Aldarion travels to Middle-

earth several times to promote cooperationwith the Kings of the Eldar. His travels be-come less and less frequent. Exploration ofthe valley of Harnen.

1000 Soronto replaces Aldarion as Master of

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008the Guild.

c.1000 Sauron, alarmed by the growing pow-er of the Númenóreans, chooses Mordor asa land to make into a stronghold.

1004-1014 Soronto pushes further the explo-ration of the coasts, to reach the former Seaof Ringil, and visit the Múranian, Lynerianand Chyan peoples.

1075 Tar-Aldarion abdicates to his daughter,Tar-Ancalimë. He travels to Middle-earthto meet Gil-galad again.

1098 Death of Aldarion. The Guild of theVenturers is denied support from the Nú-menórean crown.

1200 The Númenóreans begin to make perma-nent havens on the coasts of Middle Earth,and to develop close relations with their al-lies. At about this time Sauron seduces theElven smiths of Eregion as Annatar.

1251 Ardulion, Captain of the Venturers, es-tablishes the city of Lond Anarion, alongthe river Aronyar, to the north of Taur-londë.

1251-1300 Colonists from Lond Anarion set-tle in Araden, the grassy region to thenorth of the Aronyar. They dominate thedisparate and often-quarrelling Aden andSeder tribes who are indigenous to thisarea. Araden is known thereafter as Hyarnand much later as Khâradûnê.

1288 Emyndôr (later Hazaj Tollin of Bellakar)is built by Cyriandur, Master of the Guildand successor of Soronto. Other havens arelater built or made permanent.

c.1300 The Guild develops sustainable tradebetween Middle-earth and Númenor.Thanks to their income, they are able tocomplete the defences and the shipyards ofVinyalondë, which is renamed Lond Daer.

c.1450 The Venturers resume explorationaround the Inner Seas, with greater rev-enues for the Guild.

c.1550 The Venturers drive inland and causedevastations to the forests around theGwathló, displacing the local Mannish pop-ulation. Tharbad grows in size.

1600-1995 The Númenóreans swayed manyof the Womaw’s southern neighbors andbuilt fortified colonies in SoutheasternMiddle-earth). Among these colonies,Khûruthâni, founded by the Venturers in1940.

1693-1701 War of the Elves and Sauron inEriador. Sauron is defeated with the sup-port of a great fleet of the Númenóreanssent by Tar-Minastir.

1731-1869 The crown prince Ciryatan foundsthe Royal Fleet and travels to Middle-earth

looking for her riches. The Inner Seas aremore thoroughly explored and relations areestablished with local Men. First competi-tion between the Guild of the Venturersand the Royal Fleet. The Númenóreans de-velop a yearning for the Immortal Landsand suffer from their mortal condition.

1792 Despite Ûsakani resistance, the Nú-menórean port of Lond Hallacar is foundedalong the jungle-infested northeastern coastof the Bay of Ûsakan.

1833-1875 The Great Naval War, betweenthe naval major power of the Ormal Bay(Lynerian, Vulmaw, Númenóreans). TheVulmaw, who started the war, faced theunion of the Lynerians and the Númenóre-ans, who won the conflict. The Númenóre-ans benefit from the conflict to increasetheir presence in the Bay.

1869 Tar-Ciryatan takes the sceptre. He in-creases the Royal Fleet.

1869-2029 The Royal Fleet founds dominionsin Middle-earth, as permanent havens orprotectorates over Endorian Men, receiv-ing tribute in return. The Númenóreansstart to resent the Ban of the Valar andopenly speak against it. They reach theeastern coast of Middle-earth. Sauron ex-tends his power eastwards.

1879 Foundation of Harfalas, the easternmostcolony of Númenor.

1904 Foundation of Ciryatanórë by Ciryamir.He is forced in 1918 by Herundil his son (alater Ringwraith) to take his own life, whoreplaces him.

1995 Signing of the Trade Agreement be-tween Númenórean and Womaw. Nú-menóreans accept limiting their influenceto economic issues.

2022 Foundation of the Bâitha’n-Kadîr (Coun-cil of the Free Cities) in Bellakar.

c2120 Tar-Atanamir shuts the Guild of theVenturers. Division of Númenor begins be-tween Faithful and King’s Men. Emergenceof the Black Númenóreans. The Nú-menóreans circumnavigate Middle-earth.

2250 Ciryatanórë stops sending tributes toNúmenor and openly allies with Sauron ofMordor. Many Númenóreans leave thekingdom. Herundil, grand nephew of TarCiryatan, lord of Anbalukkhôr, takes the ti-tle of Tar-Raumoher, the Storm King, anepithet derived from his conquests. TarAncalimon summons Umbar and Bellakarto field armies on their king’s behalf, butonly Bellakar answered the sumons.

2265-2280 War against Ciryatanórë. Thebody of Herundil cannot be found, to the

great dispair of his son Lôkhuzôr who hatedhis father.

2280 The Decree of Tar-Ancalimon. All landswhere the Ârûwanâi held sway have toabandon their Eldarin names in exchangefor names of the Adûnaic tongue.

2280 Umbar is made into a great fortress ofNúmenor.

2289 Creation of Soronórë (later Anarikê) bythe alliance of the free cities of Olyas Kriis,under the leadership of Lôkhuzôr,Herundil’s son and envoy of the King of Nú-menor.

2350 Pelargir is built. It becomes the chiefhaven of the Faithful Númenóreans.

c.2400 Tar-Telemmaitë establishes relationswith Dwarves, though not always friendly.His explorers make maps of inland territo-ries.

2459 The Ormal Edict of Tar-Telemmaitë,made to curb the growing influence ofSakal an-Khâr on the Inner Sea. Sakal an-Khâr is disallowed any extension to thewest, after several attempts led by someKhanîm families to control the other Nú-menórean colonies of the Inner Sea (includ-ing Lômithâni).

2614 Tar-Anducal’s “Edict on Colonies”, tolimit the influence and power of thecolonies. Independence of Azrathâni(Ad.“The Sea Lands”) from Sakal an-Khâr.

3010-3017 Delegates from Tantûrak and Sakalan-Khâr go to Númenor to plead for morelocal autonomy, which is accepted afterlong discussions by the King Ar-Zimrathonaccepts. This is seen as a real abdication ofroyal power by hard liners (favourable to ahighly centralised empire) and a great vic-tory by other colonies who see an opportu-nity to ask for the same rights. After thisvictory, some people in Tantûrak and Sakalan-Khâr start thinking of a true indepen-dence.

3103 Proclamation of the Golden Rule ofSakal an-Khâr all over the Bay of Ormal.Sakal an-Khâr proclaims its independencefrom Númenor.

3160 The Magician convinces the governorthat the might of Tantûrak is great enoughand counsels the governor to declare Tan-tûrak independant.

3165-3172 Ar-Sakalthôr of Númenor fails tocrush the rebellion in Tantûrak, so the sun-dering succeeds.

3224 A Númenórean fleet ends the Nú-menórean rebellion in the Sea of Ormaland in Tantûrak.

3255 Ar-Pharazôn the Golden seizes the

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OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE scepter of Númenor. Sauron claims to bethe King of Men.

3261 The Númenórean invasion of Endor. Ar-Pharazôn's armada lands at Umbar. This in-vasion precludes the completion ofSauron's armament. The Evil One journeysout of the Black Land to avert the destruc-tion of his kingdom at the hands of the Nú-menórean invaders, enabling the Nazgûl toflee into hiding. Sauron is forced to surren-der in the face of superior Númenóreanarms and is taken as a captive to Númenor.While Sauron goes to Westernesse inbondage, the Ringwraiths patiently awaithis return.

3265 Sauron, now the counsellor of the King,creates the Cult of Mulkhêr Lord of Darkin Númenor.

3310 Ar-Pharazôn begins the building of theGreat Armament.

3314 The indirect war between Anarikê andSakal an-Khâr in non-Númenórean lands, a“pretext” used by the two colonies to avoidsending forces for the Great Armament.

3319 Ar-Pharazôn assails Valinor. Downfall ofNúmenor. Elendil and his sons escape.

3430 The Last Alliance of Elves and Men isformed. The men of Bellakar come in sup-port of the Last Alliance, proving that notall the Númenóreans in the South have notfall to the Shadows

3441 Sauron overthrown in the field of Dagor-lad. Sauron passes away and the Ring-wraiths go into the shadows. Several for-mer Númenórean colonies survive.

Havens of NúmenorAll havens described here, except for Umbarand Balkûloni, are Faithful havens.Achrond: a small haven built by Cyriandur in

S.A. 1270 from an early base built by Al-darion, to be closer to Lindon. The havennever achieved much importance, with aNúmenórean population of no more than100 throughout its history. It mainly servedas a trading outpost with the people of theNorthern Waste. As a staging point toreach Hithlond, Achrond is merely a spareand rustic shelter off the wild and wind-blown Cape of Forochel, but still shows theskill and knowledge of Númenor at itsheight in the architecture of its magnificentsubterranean hall, with its vaulted ceilingand carved stone pillars.

Balkûloni: Balkûloni (Ad. “Haven of theShips”) began in S.A. 1879 as the Nú-menórean quarters inside the Lynerian cityof Sheshnor, following the peace treaty thatconcluded the Naval War (S.A.1833-1875), a great war between the ma-jor powers of the Bay . Later, it became anindependent twin city to Sheshnor.. Fol-lowing formal authorisation by the Lyneri-an Council of Sheshnor, it is established inthe southernmost cape of Codya. It mainlyserves as a staging-post for ships and as atrading center for peoples further inland.Owing to its strategic importance, manywars were later fought for control ofBalkulôni, by Anarikê, Codya, Sakal an-Khâr and the Lynerian League. The city wsdestroyed by fire by the Vulmaw army(with the assistance of the army of Anarikê)at the beginning of Third Age, for manyMulkherites took residence here. In itsplace, a new Vulmaw city is built in thethird century of Third Age.

Hithlond: Founded in 1472 after several ex-peditions to explore the Northern Sea, theinhabitants of the small Hithlond (S. “FogHaven”) try to keep peace in the bay.When they were not successful, theyturned to a ‘divide and rule’ policy, to bet-ter keep in check Vothrig and Ulshy powerin the Bay. Unfortunately, Ar-Zimrathôn,in need of troops to send to Tantûrak, or-dered a heavy withdrawal of forces fromHithlond.Hithlond falls some decades later to thejoint forces of Rasedâkh and Razeral (twolocal warlords native of Desdursyton thatare servants of the Shadows), and is liberat-ed some decades later, thanks to the North-ern Alliance (Elves of Thûrlornar, Ulshyansand Vothrig people). The refoundation ofHithlond under Ulshyan leadership happens

at the beginning of Third Age.Pelargir: The great haven of the South is lo-

cated at the junction of the Rivers Sirithand Anduin, Built in 2350, it became themain haven of the Faithful in Middle-Earth.It is also called the City of Royal Ships.Pelargir means “Garth of Royal Ships” inSindarin.

Tharbad: a fortified town and port, builtabout 250 miles up the river Greyflood,with great quays capable to receive seago-ing vessels, built by the Númenóreans in890.

Umbar: Umbar is the greatest coastal portand largest natural harbour of the Nú-menóreans in Middle Earth. The name Um-bar refers to the city, port, fortress, capeand surrounding coastal lands. Strength-ened in 2280, it is the bastion of Nú-menórean presence and strength in the re-gion. Known as a stronghold of the King'sMen, it is large and well populated.

Vinyalondë: A harbour founded by Aldarionand the Venturers at the mouth of theGwathló in 777. It was primarily used fortransportation of the wood from the greatforests there for building and maintainingthe great navy of Númenor. The haven wasnever finished by Aldarion during his life-time, but towards the end of the time ofTar-Anárion (1280—1394), Vinyalondë(S. “New Haven”) was completed as afortress and many ships were built there,and its name changed to Lond Daer (S. “theGreat Harbour”).

Colonies of NúmenorBy the middle of the Second Age,Númenóreans started to found permanentcolonies. It all started earlier, with thefoundation of the Venturers Guild, whosethree important masters were Aldarion,Soronto and Cyriandur. Some short historiesof a few of these colonies follow. When aSindarin name for the colony exists, it is givenin brackets:Anarikê [Sóronorë]: Named in honor of

Soronto who explored the southern part ofMiddle-Earth and made contact with theChyan and Lynerian people of the Bay, thecolony owes much to Lôkhuzôr, son ofCyriamir (the founder of Ciryatanórë/An-balukkhôr). Denied the rule of An-balukkhôr in succession to his father, hewas allowed to engage in conflict againstthe evils spread by his father and his alliesin Chyan and Olyas Kriis lands. He effec-tively scourged the evils of the land, andwas allowed by the King of Númenor to

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008become governor of Anarikê (S.A. 2300).After him, the Kings of Númenor gentlygave to his descendants the right to governAnarikê (Ad. “Land of the Eagle”).Anarikanî, though proud of their ancestry,dealt with their neighbours gently and nev-er tried to submit them, except for the pe-riod when the colony submitted to theharsh rule of the Dark Ordainers of Sakalan-Khâr. Freed from that evil influence,the colony returned to the safe hands of thedescendants of Lôkhuzôr, and afterwardsalways remained opposed to the greed ofpower and evil represented by Sakal an-Khâr. In the late years of the Second Age,the colony avoided sending support to themad war of Ar-Pharazôn by using the pre-text of a local conflict waged by Sakal an-Khâr against the allies of Anarikê.

Anbalukkhôr [Ciryatanórë]: Located northof the Ered Laranor and east of Tulwang,Anbalukkhôr was originally founded inS.A. 1904 by Ciryamir, the cousin ofMûrazôr (the future Witch-king) and thefather of his successor, Herundil (anotherfuture Úlair). Bewitched by his vile son, hecommitted suicide in S.A. 1918, andHerundil ascended the throne on the firstday of the next year. He subsequently con-quered a vast portion of southern Endor. InS.A. 2250, when he renounced his alle-giance to the line of Elros, the colony namewas changed to Dor Alagothrim, the Realmof the Storm-host. Númenor ordered thewar, but practically only Bellakar andHyarnúmentë entered the conflict, Umbarbeing besieged by the Haradrim of theWarlord Ard the Vain (a Ringwraith in dis-guise). When the conflict was won in S.A.2280, Anbalukkhôr became ruled by aCouncil of five regents. Later, An-balukkhôr was reunified as a colony underrule of a governor directly named by theKing (S.A. 2637). As with many colonies,Anbalukkhôr followed the policies of theBlack Númenóreans until the end of Sec-ond Age, and well beyond the Third Age.

Azrathâni: located near Shay, Azrathanî (Ad.“the Land of the Sea”) is considered fromthe beginning as an offshot of Sakal an-Khâr. It was founded in S.A. 2594. It firstcomprised the four most important Shaycities (Zelón, Niali, Panjo, Saragisha) andWaw. But Tar-Anducal expressly forbadeany influence of Sakal an-Khâr in the East,and so the colony had to be entirely inde-pendent from Sakal an-Khâr. This was bad-ly resented in Sakal an-Khâr. The Khanîmsubtly begin manoevres to unofficially con-trol the colony, in total disobedience to the

Edict on Colonies. The colony is disman-tled in the early years of Third Age.

Bellakar: Early referenced as Narûthâni (Ad.“Land of High Men”), Bellakar (a name ofMalcelebrim origin meaning “Land of Val-ourous Men”) is the nearest colony, savefor Umbar. Númenórean colonizationstarted with the explorations of Ciryandur,Captain of the Venturers and cousin of Tar-Súrion, and with the foundation of HazajTollin (S.A. 1288). Other significant foun-dations, like Korlea (1975) or Nîlûlôni(1487)—the later capital of the Tumakvehrealm - occurred in the following cen-turies, until the institution of the Councilof the Free Cities (2022). Due to an insur-rection against Númenor, the Council wasrevoked (2240), which enforced the powerof Korlea—who sided with the King. Bel-lakar towards the end of Second Age clear-ly represents the opposition between Faith-ful (or at least those opposed to the evils ofthe Mulkherites) and Mulkherites―King’sMen (Korlea). In the War of the Last Al-liance, Tumakveh Zagarthôr Seaborne, an-cestor of the Kings of Bellakar, committedhis navy and army to support of Gondorand the Elves, and placed himself under thedirect command of Elendil. In the ThirdAge, Bellakar was stormed by nomads andraiders, until the founding of the Tu-makveh realm (T.A. 340) by ZimrêbalIronhand.

Khâradûnê [Hyarnúmentë]: the colony ofKhâradûnê (Ad. “Southern End”) was es-tablished in S.A. 1972 but remained forlong centuries an important area for theVenturers and the first Faithful. Inzillôni(Ad. “Haven of the Flowers”) is the capital,and the name never changed, though it lat-er came to be known, when Tar-Telem-maitë accessed to power (S.A. 2400) asInzillôni Pharazkadar or Inzilpharaz (Ad.“Haven of the Golden Flowers”). At thattime, the colony was Black Númenórean,with still some Faithful communities. Thegovernor at the time, obeying the wishes ofthe King, opened important trade routeswith the Dwarves living in the YellowMountains, to obtain some golden trea-sures. This worked for a time, until a Nú-menórean spy discovered that precious andrare stones were kept by the Dwarves, orsold at very high prices. In S.A. 2476, thissituation degenerated into a local war withthe Dwarves, that lasted for four years.Several Adena revolts occurred in the fol-lowing centuries. As a consequence, thecolony was weakened compared to its twopowerful neighbours—Anbalukkhôr and

Zimrathâni. With the downfall of Zim-rathanî at the hands of the Adena Valdaclilords in S.A. 3215, Khâradûnê came to beallied or submitted to the powerful colonyof Anbalukkhôr. From S.A. 3215 to theend of Second Age, Khâradûnê openly sup-ported the Black Númenórean cause, fromthe Great Armament to the War of the LastAlliance, in support of Umbar. With thecoming of Third Age (T.A. 225),Khâradûnê regained its independence, andsevered all links with Anbalukkhôr, but lostmost of its prestige. The former colony re-covered it in later times, establishing trad-ing partners with the North (Bellakar andGondor) and the South (the Seven Landsand Dark Harad).

Khûruthâni [Aenorthîr]: Khûruthâni(Ad.“Land of the twin rivers”) is perhapsone of the fartheast colony of Númenor,and probably not the only one (as, fromS.A. 1600 to S.A. 1995, the Númenóreansswayed many of the Womaw’s southernneighbours and built fortified colonies inSoutheastern Middle-earth). Khûruthâniwas founded by Númenórean settlers (pre-sumably by the Venturers) in S.A. 1940 inthe lands which would later be known asAegan and Karn Ord. The settlement wasan ideal location: trade routes along therivers, numerous well-protected harbours,and immense forests to build ships. In S.A.1995, the First Trade Agreement betweenNúmenóreans and Womaw was signed.This Trade Agreement prevented any out-right conquest and limited Númenórean in-terests to centres of commercial ratherthan strategic importance. But some ofthese eastern colonies remained in Nú-menórean hands. New flows of Númenóre-an migration happened when Tar-Atanamirshut down the Guild of Venturers (c. S.A.2120), and later again with the numerouspersecutions of the Faithful by the King’sMen.After this Trade Agreement, which is certi-fied by numerous records, nothing clear isknown about the history of the colony (nu-merous records on the colonies were lostin the downfall). There may have been an-other great war between Númenóreans andWomaw, as there are indications that theSecond Trade Agreement was signed inKhûruthâni just after a conflict (S.A.2356). As a consequence of the war, someeastern colonies were dismantled—the ter-ritory being administered being given backto locals or Womaw officials. Some othercolonies were regrouped—the first ofthem being Khûruthâni. From 2356, many

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OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE commercial relationships with the neigh-bors realms and the other Númenóreancolonies (notably Anarikê) prove the exis-tence of the colony.The inhabitants of Khûruthâni call them-selves the Adunali. They are unaffected bythe dispute between the King’s Men andthe Faithful. They decided that only theoriginal Númenórean ways (those of Elrosthe First King) were to be followed. Ar-Pharazôn’s invasion of Valinor was frownedupon and seen with great concern inKhûruthâni, and no emissary of Saurondared promote this western war to theAdunali, as it was already a difficult and un-popular task in two other Númenóreancolonies: Anarikê and Sakal an-Khâr. Whenthe downfall of Númenor was attested(3023), Khûruthâni severed all political andcommercial ties with their southern andwestern kin.Regularly, rumours of a great eastern Nú-menórean empire surfaces in Anarikê andSakal an-Khâr. But this great Empire maywell be the Womaw Empire, which hadconquered most of the Númenórean bas-tions built before the First Trade Agree-ment. In Anarikê or Sakal an-Khâr, the ul-timate destiny of the former colony ofKhûruthâni is not known.

Lômithâni [Dorondôr]: Habadôr (S. “ShoreLand”), built in S.A. 1300 by the Venturerswas the first settlement in the lake of Mir-ror-waters, Nen Celedril. It was aban-doned in the following century because ofthe very hostile Black nomads (probably re-lated to the later Mûmakanril), and also be-cause the later Dorondôr (S. “Land of theOaks”) was too far inland. A new expedi-tion led by Prince Ciryatan in S.A. 1851mapped the entirety of the river Niss val-ley, and for the first time made contactwith the warlike Idurâk tribes living in thesouthern Niss valley. The Idurâk nativeswere related to the Chyan and Ulshyanpeoples. Relations with the Idurâk wereuneasy. However, the Men of the Sea andthe Men of the Warlike Mountains (as theIdurâk called themselves) had one interestin common: the overall defeat of the fero-cious Sanâr tribes, who were probably akinto the later Mûmakanril. The Númenóre-ans helped the Idurâk by defeating theSanâr, pushing them back far to the east inthe savanna, and built an impressive line ofdefence. In the following decades, attractedby the promises of gold and precious stonesin the mountains, Númenóreans progres-sively resettled the southern coasts of theNen Celedril. Habadôr was re-established

in 1889. Other settlements followed:Aglabar, Falathost (at Niss mouth) andGimil.The colony of Dorondôr was formally es-tablished in the presence of Tar-Ciryatan inS.A. 1901. For a time, the Númenóreanpresence was well-accepted, at least untilthe Great Idurâk Revolt (S.A. 2544)against the Númenóreans. The revolt wascrushed, and the Númenóreans securedmuch more land for their colony, in co-op-eration with Tantûrak. It is possible but notproved that the Magician of Tantûrak influ-enced Lômithâni, and took refuge inLômithâni in S.A. 3220. Shortly after thedownfall of Númenor, an inconclusive warwas waged between Lômithâni and Tan-tûrak (S.A. 3325). Another war followed,and this time Tantûrak annexed Lômithâni(S.A. 3390). All entries about Lômithânidisappear after S.A. 3390, and even afterthe end of domination by Tantûrak whichlasted for seven centuries.

Sakal an-Khâr [Harfalas]: Probably one ofthe greatest Númenórean colonies of Mid-dle-Earth and the most famous after Um-bar. Many great deeds and evils are re-membered, for this is the colony where theKing's Men are supreme in power. Trulyfounded in S.A. 1879, the colony soon be-came powerful with the subjugation of thelocals, after several wars fought against itsneighbours. In S.A. 3010-3017, Sakal an-Khâr (Ad.“Southern Coast Land”) claimedmore autonomy from Númenor and ob-tained it. This favoured the rise of the DarkOrdainers, a secret religious and militaryorganization whose objectives were to in-crease the strength of Sakal an-Khâr andconquer all the lands of the Bay. Warswere then launched for the conquest of theentire Bay, including the subversion of thecolony of Anarikê and the haven ofBalkûloni in Codya. In S.A. 3103, the gov-ernor of Sakal an-Khâr instituted the Gold-en Rule and effectively rebelled against Nú-menor. This new Empire was crushed inS.A. 3224, and Númenor exacted a harshtribute for the liberation of Middle Menrealms. The Dark Ordainers sect was thendismantled.With the coronation of Ar-Pharazôn, thecolony governor avoided being involved inthe Ar-Pharazôn war against Aman, usingthe excuse of a local conflict againstAnarikê's allies and for Khanîm leadership.With the fall of Númenor, Sakal an-Khârwas able to attract the son of Ar-Pharazônto Sakal an-Khâr, so that he could consti-tute a true Númenor in exile. With him

started a golden dynasty that lasted for sev-en centuries in the Third Age.

Tantûrak: Tantûrak (presumably a localÛsakani name meaning “Jungle Realm”) isone of the most powerful Númenóreanrealms in the South. The capital city isSarûl, and was founded as a Númenóreantrading outpost in S.A. 1792 by the futureTar-Ciryatan. The colony itself was found-ed in S.A. 1887. It was relatively cut offfrom the more northerly realms, with theexception of some trading contacts.Concerning the government of the realm,there is a story of an interesting, if perhapspredictable transformation. At first therewas, as is true of most of the colonies, aroyal governor, who at least in theory an-swered to the King in Númenor. This sys-tem worked quite well for some seventeenhundred years, the governorship turningover twenty-six times until, around S.A.2600, the "Magician" (the disguised Val-morgul, one of the Lords of the Court ofArdor) arrived in Tantûrak. The date is un-certain for he came with little fanfare androse quietly, albeit swiftly, through theranks of the governor's advisors. He builtup his position and bided his time. In thelate Second Age he saw his chance tostrengthen his position even further. InS.A. 3017, the colony obtained more au-tonomy from Númenor. In S.A. 3160, theMagician was able to convince Tantûrakthat its power was great enough to declareindependence. The governor, taking thename Ar-Kinjaarn, severed all political tieswith Númenor. This move was greetedwith great enthusiasm by the populace, asthe taxes imposed by the mother countryhad increased greatly over the last fewdecades. The coming of the 'Magician' sig-nalled the beginning of Tantûraki imperial-ism. The independence was ended in S.A.3220. With the conquest by Númenor, theformer governor took his own life to avoidbeing judged for high treason, and the Ma-gician was forced to flee. A friend of Tar-Palantir’s, perhaps sympathetic to theFaithful, took charge of the colony. Thiswas less the case for his descendants, asthey would be counted with the King’sMen. After the fall of Númenor, the gover-nor declared himself an emperor and madeTantûrak an empire to emphasise his claimas the political leader of the Southern Nú-menórean realms. Unfortunately for him,all these other states did recognise Tan-tûrak's empire but denied his supremacy.

Zimrathâni [Mírenórë]: Taurlondë was thefirst Númenórean permanent haven to be

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ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008built in the Seven Lands (S.A. 1294). It islocated on the Bay of Drel, on the road be-tween Ostelor (another Númenórean city,built in S.A. 2222 by Cameär, one of Tar-Ancalimon’s captains) and Mispír. It natu-rally became the capital of the dominion ofZimrathâni in S.A. 2386. Unlike othercolonies, as it was one of the most presti-gious and wealthiest, Zimrathâni was givennot to a hereditary line of governors, butusually to a succession of theyounger chil-dren of different Kings. When a governordied, the colony reverted back to the King,who bestows it on one of his younger chil-dren. But if the governor was well-regard-ed in Númenor and performed faithful ser-vice to the crown, his children could berewarded with important rewards in Nú-menor or by taking chargeof the colonythemselves. As a consequence, the King’sMen are the most powerful faction of Zim-rathâni.All this changed with the death of Er-Im-razôr, the descendant of the second son ofAr-Sakalthôr of Númenor (S.A.3033-3102). It was told that he was a bitterman who hated his own heirs. When hedied in S.A. 3355, by his will he dividedthe colony in equal portions between hischildren and their cousins, in hopes of fo-menting strife among his greedy heirs. Hisheirs warred upon one another for severalyears. Fortunately, the youngest heirs andthe most powerful Adena and warlikeSederi nobles formed a union called theValdacli. In S.A. 3360, they crushed thelast of their sibling rivals in a great land andsea battle at Onpu Mispír, and Taurlondëwas destroyed, never to be rebuilt. Theirvictory ended Er-Imrazôr’s spiteful dreamand cemented the oligarchic union that stillrules the Seven Lands.In truth, the war between the heirs of Er-Murazôr was caused by an unknown andmalevolent entity. The malevolent entity—probably a wereworm caught beneaththe Emyn Angwi (S. “Snake Hills”) (whichis a name that may come from the legendsabout the hissing and whispering voice car-ried by the wind) corrupted the weak mindof Er-Murazôr and those of most of hischildren so that that they engagedin abloody conflict that would help it to regainits long-lost power.

The wereworm had slept since the First Ageand the great Wars of Spirits, and was ableto gain its freedom in the late years of Sec-ond Age, thanks to the dreams sent to itssurviving followers and allies of the greatWars of Spirits—one vampire who acted as

his bodyguard and messenger, and somerulers of the Orc races, the boldogs (lesserMaiar in orc form).Since the wereworm was physically weak,it lived hidden in a secret cave and neededpawns to meddle in Men’s affairs, as itwanted to enslave and control the sur-rounding lands. Thus it was with the helpof its first followers that it was able to en-slave and corrupt a small tribe of the Cha-ialla, who became known and feared as theOracle of the Fire, a group of tribalshamans devoted to the adoration of theirmighty God, the Earth Voice―the shamanshad never seen their god, but only his mes-sengers: the Vampire, and a few selectedboldogs.Most of these shamans were hunted downby the first Númenórean settlers. But someof them survived, and their traditions con-tinued in the Shadows until the Lone Wan-derer came and contacted the last of them,and then the bodyguard of the wereworm,as a final steep of its discovery of themighty power under the mountains. Thetrue identity of the Wanderer, who calledhimself the true Master of the Seven Landswas a real secret—he was one of the hu-man followers of the Court of Ardor (per-haps as a Sauronic spy), and Sauron’sMouth sent here to control the SevenLands in coordination with the RingwraithIndûr Dawndeath.At first, the Wanderer was a Black Nú-menórean scholar from a Númenóreancolony of Dark Harad or Mórenorë, a loverof ancient mysteries who came to be cor-rupted by the dreams he received fromwhat he believed to be the One (in truththe dreams were sent by the old evil Maiaspirit—the wereworm―in its hiddenprison) and by the tainted and dark secretshe discovered in the East. He ultimatelybecame a powerful sorcerer, capable of ex-tending his own life through the use of sor-cery. For decades, he travelled in the SevenLands to find allies to release what hecalled as the Master of the Seven Lands.Through his lies, he corrupted a small bandof men among the Chaialla, and then Er-Murazôr and his children. His plan was ul-timate war, and to appear later as the Onewho unifies the Lands while releasing thewereworm.Some weeks after Er-Murazôr death, somemysterious earthquakes and murders oc-curred in the most important cities of theSeven Lands. It was not long before a warerupted that was planned to be endless. Butthe Valdacli unexpectedly united them-

selves, and ended forever the dreams ofwar of the Wanderer. The colony of Zim-rathâni survived only in name until thedownfall of Númenor. At the end of theSecond Age, no inhabitants refer to Zim-rathâni, but instead to the Seven Lands ofthe Valdacli. The wereworm survived (butperhaps not the Wanderer, who mysteri-ously disappeared after the end of the war).It would take him many decades or evencenturies to find another powerful man tocorrupt and seduce, or create powerful se-cret evil organisations.

The other coloniesThere existed many more Númenórean

colonies like Ahârathâni (Ad.“Southern HeatLands”) near the Southern Cape (Hyarmentil)or Môrathâni (Ad.“Black Lands”) in DarkHarad, not counting the unknown lostcolonies of Mórenorë. It is probable that manyof these colonies did not survive into the ThirdAge. Who can say what spawn of Ar-Pharazôn’s blood might even now be rulingover forgotten realms in the unknown depthsof the South or Utter East?1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-

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