The Complete Tolkien Companion (43 page)

Glamhoth
‘Yelling-horde' (Sind.) – A name for
ORCS
.

Glanduin
– A river which flowed north of Dunland to find the Greyflood (Mitheithel) above Tharbad. Where it flowed through a region of fens and meres, peopled by many swans, it was called
Nîn-in-Eilph,
‘swan-fleet'.

Glanhir
– The name given in Gondor to the
MERING STREAM
.

Glaurung
– The greatest Dragon of the First Age, and the first, though perhaps not the largest, of those beasts specially to be bred for warfare by Morgoth. He was the forefather of the
Urulóki,
the Fire-dragons, but unlike some of his descendants did not possess the power of flight. Even so, throughout his long career Glaurung wrought great woe among Morgoth's enemies, and in so doing served his Master well.

Glaurung first went to war two hundred years before the Dagor Bragollach, when he was still (relatively) young, and therefore both inexperienced and over-confident. In that battle, the assault of the Fire-drake was ignominiously beaten off, by Fingon of the Elves. Morgoth is said to have been angered at this insubordination on the part of the Worm, for he had intended to hold this weapon in reserve until the time should become ripe – and yet forewarned as they now were, the Elves proved quite unable, in the two centuries which passed before Glaurung was next unleashed upon them, to contrive means to deal with beasts of this sort. And in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad the Worm of Morgoth (as they called him) wrought havoc, slaying many Men and Elves before (on the latter occasion) being driven off the battlefield by a gallant host of armoured Dwarves from Belegost. Because of their comprehensive body-armour the Dwarves were able to withstand the heat and flame, and attack Glaurung from close quarters; but their king, Azaghâl, was mortally wounded and the Dwarves fought no other foes that day.

But it was in the years which followed the Nirnaeth that Glaurung wrought his greatest evils. The creature played a leading part in the fulfilment of the grim destinies of the Children of Húrin: Túrin and Nienor. His bewitchments and machinations ensured that the family was never to be re-united; and he took away the power of memory from Nienor, so that she, unknowing, later came to wed her own brother: with terrible consequences for them both. The Dragon had already played the leading part in the sack of Nargothrond, and afterwards took what remained of the kingdom founded by Finrod as his share of the profits (Dragon-fashion, he turned upon his allies when the time came and seized the entire hoard for his own). Glaurung was later slain, by Túrin wielding the Black Sword Gurthang (Anglachel), at Cabed-en-Aras.

Glede
– A hot coal or burning ember.

Gléowine
‘Joy-lover' – The royal minstrel of King Théoden of Rohan. His last song was dedicated to the glorious death of the King upon the Fields of Pelennor.

Glingal
– The name given by King Turgon of Gondolin to the Image or replica of the Golden Tree of Valinor, Laurelin, that he wrought to grace his halls in exile. Its sister-tree (also an image, of the Silver Tree Telperion), was
Belthil.

Glirhuin
– One of the Edain of the Second House (the Haladin of Brethil); he is said to have made a song prophesying inviolability for the ‘Stone of the Hapless' – the name in Brethil for the grim monument above the Cabed Naeramarth, which marked the burial of Túrin Turambar, and of Morwen his mother; and the last known whereabouts of Nienor his sister.
See also
TOL MORWEN
.

Glithui
– One of the tributaries of the river Teiglin; it flowed down from the Ered Wethrin.

Glittering Caves
–
See
AGLAROND
.

Glóin
– From 2289–2385 Third Age, the King of the Dwarf-colony in the Grey Mountains. He was the son of Thorin I of Durin's Line.

Glóin son of Groin
– A Dwarf of Durin's Line and one of the members of Thorin Oakenshield's renowned expedition to Erebor. As a result of the success of that undertaking, Glóin became wealthy and important in his own right; and, together with his son Gimli, was sent as an emissary to Rivendell, where he represented the King under the Mountain at the Council of Elrond (3018 Third Age).

Gloredhel
– The daughter of Hador Lórindol, Lord of Dor-lómin, and sister of the brethren Húrin and Huor. She wedded Haldir of the Haladin – her eldest brother Galdor simultaneously wedded Hareth the sister of Haldir, thus doubling the link between the Second and Third Houses of the Edain. Gloredhel later bore Haldir a son: Handir, whose own son was Brandir the Lame (destined to be slain in Brethil by Túrin Turambar, a grand-nephew of Gloredhel of Dor-lómin and his own second cousin).

Glorfindel
‘Golden-haired' (Q.) – In the narrative of Frodo Baggins, written at the end of the Third Age, this name is borne by an Elf-lord of Rivendell, golden-haired, mighty among Elrond's counsellors, and leader of the host of Imladris. It is he who meets and assists the Ring-bearer and his companions on the East Road. Afterwards, this Elf is said (by Gandalf, who ought to have known) to come ‘of a house of princes'. Glorfindel of Imladris is clearly one of the mighty among the surviving Noldor of Middle-earth. It was he who was responsible for the defence of Rivendell during the years while Arthedain declined, and who led a force to the Battle of Fornost, when his timely appearance completed the rout of Angmar begun by the cavalry of Gondor.

Herein lies a puzzle. In records of the First Age, the name Glorfindel is also borne by a golden-haired prince of the Noldor, who is prominent throughout the last days of Gondolin and makes possible, by his own heroism, the escape, from the doomed city, of Tuor, Idril his wife, and Eärendil their son. This earlier Glorfindel is identified as a lieutenant of Turgon king of Gondolin, and said to have been the chief or leader of the House of the Golden Flower – presumably a noble family of the Gondolindrim. This great warrior fought at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and was a comrade of Ecthelion. Both were the chief servants of the king, Turgon.

Thus far the two identities, two full Ages apart though they be, can nevertheless be reconciled in one (long-lived) personality. It is therefore highly inconvenient to discover, as we do, that the earlier Glorfindel (of Gondolin) is quite definitely said to have perished in mortal combat with a Balrog, and to have been buried under a cairn in the Encircling Mountains.

One of two possible solutions to the riddle is that Glorfindel of Gondolin indeed perished in battle as reported, but was afterwards re-born in Middle-earth. If so, this is only the second instance when any of the Eldar are ever known to have done so, for the spirits of their dead pass West as far as the Halls of Mandos: later, and by the consent of Mandos, to be re-born – but in Valinor, not Middle-earth. Only Lúthien of Doriath lived out a second lifespan in mortal lands, so far as records tell. The other, which is supported by some authority,
8
is that Glorfindel, having perished in Gondolin, went to Mandos but was released early, since his sins – compared to those of the other Noldor – were trifling, and his redemption total. He dwelled in Valinor for half an Age before returning to Middle-earth with the leave of the Valar to help Gil-Galad and Elrond in their growing danger (the rise of Sauron to power). This matter may never be fully resolved.

Glornan
‘Valley of light' (Sind.) – An early Grey-elven name for the Golden Wood.

Goatleaf
– A Bree-family of ‘Big People'.

Goblins
– A translation of the Grey-elven
yrch
(sing.
orch
).
See
ORCS
.

Golasgil
– The lord of Anfalas (in Gondor) at the time of the War of the Ring.

Goldberry
– A naiad or Water-sprite of the Old Forest; the bride of Tom Bombadil and daughter of the ‘River-woman' of Withywindle.

The Golden Perch
– The chief inn of the village of Stock in the East-farthing of the Shire. Its beer was renowned.

Golden Wood
– The name given by Men to the forest of Lothlórien.

Goldilocks Took
– The sixth child and second daughter of Samwise Gamgee. She wedded Faramir, son of Peregrin Took, in 1463 Shire Reckoning (Year 42 Fourth Age), thus linking the two most important families in the Shire.

Goldwine
– From 3680–99 Third Age the sixth King of Rohan.

Golfimbul
– An Orc-chieftain, leader of the Goblins of Mount Gram (the location of which is not known, though it may have been near Gundabad in the Misty Mountains). Golfimbul led a raid deep into western Eriador in 2747 Third Age, during the course of which he was slain by the Hobbit Bandobras ‘Bullroarer' Took, in what later became known as the Battle of Greenfields.

Gollum
–
See
SMÉAGOL-GOLLUM
.

Golodhrim
‘The Wise' – The Sindarin equivalent of the Quenya word
Noldor;
the collective term in use among the Grey-elves for the High-elves of the West who came back to Middle-earth during the Elder Days. The singular form was
Golodh
(normal pl.
Gelydh
).

Golug
– An Orkish term for one of the Noldor.

Gondolin
‘Hidden Rock' (Sind.) – A punning mutation or rendering of the original Q.
Ondolindë,
‘Stone-song'. The most beautiful, most renowned and longest to endure of all the Noldorin city-kingdoms founded in Middle-earth during the First Age. Completed in the second century of the exile of the Noldor by Turgon son of Fingolfin the High King, it stood in splendour and secrecy for a further four hundred years, the last hope of the Noldor in mortal lands; but fell at last, through treachery, and was destroyed, never to rise again. The fall of Gondolin marked the final victory of Morgoth in the War of the Great Jewels; but its memory lived on, beyond that dark time, into the New Age.

Long before Elves awoke in Cuiviénen, in an age of the World forgotten by all save the Valar, a deep lake filled a valley in the Encircling Mountains in the north of Beleriand. The valley, which was circular, may originally have been formed by volcanic action, for there was a tall hill rising from its exact centre, an island in the enclosing lake, steep and precipitous. This valley afterwards became known as Tumladen, and the hill amidmost as Amon Gwareth – though by this time the lake had vanished, drained away through channels long dried up, and all that remained was the vale, green and fair, and the steep hill of Amon Gwareth. It was Turgon of the Noldor who gave them these names, for no Elf before him ever walked in Tumladen or climbed the precipitous sides of the hill. Indeed Turgon himself could not have come there had it not been for the assistance of outside agency; for there was only one entrance to Tumladen through the Encircling Mountains, and that remained long hidden. For precisely this reason Turgon, who was utterly convinced of the need to prepare a well-thought-out ‘last refuge' against foretold disaster, determined to build such a refuge in this hidden valley; yet as he also wished to dwell in a fair place, as much like faraway Tirion as he could contrive, he planned carefully and built with love. Fifty years after the first stone had been laid, at the beginning of his second century of exile, Turgon and his people secretly quitted Nevrast, where they had been living since the return to Middle-earth, and vanished into the mountains. From that day forward few Elves ever passed the outer doors (until the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, which then lay more than three and a half centuries in the future). Gondolin became the ‘Hidden City', its whereabouts unknown even by its allies. But within the impassable mountain-perimeter all that was fair in Elven-culture was preserved, consciously, and with reverence.

In time the city was made stronger and fairer than any other city that has ever been in Middle-earth, for Turgon never ceased to add to its strength, and its beauty. High towers were built, and mighty walls; yet the towers were slender pinnacles of grace and proportion; and the walls shone in the sunlight.
9

Centuries passed, the years of the Siege of Angband, by which Morgoth's movements were to some extent proscribed – although little else could be done, in all that time, to discomfit or damage him. Meanwhile the two most powerful Eldarin city-kingdoms – Nargothrond and Gondolin – lay far behind the Siege lines, enjoying an era of peace and splendour. But no one had foreseen the appalling speed with which the Siege would eventually be overthrown, nor the permanent confusion this defeat would wreak among the Eldar and their allies. Kingdom became sundered from kingdom during that perilous time, and though the north-west held out for a further fifteen years, the tide had now turned irrevocably against the Eldar. The last of all offensives to be mounted by them against Morgoth – to which Turgon brought the host of Gondolin, thus appearing among his allies and kin for the first time in over three hundred and fifty years – led only to the catastrophe of the Nirnaeth, in which the Eldar were overthrown for ever. Only the Gondolindrim held together as a body; they cut their way to safety, aided by the self-sacrificing heroism of the Men of Dor-lómin, led by Húrin and Huor. This was the first and only time the host of Gondolin went to war; henceforward war would come to them.

In the case of Nargothrond, it was pride which led to the Elves' undoing; but with Gondolin, it was treachery. Yet for some time Morgoth had guessed that Gondolin lay somewhere in the mountains to the west of Dorthonion, for this had been (unwittingly) revealed to him by Húrin of the Edain.

The sack of Gondolin came on the eve of the festival known as the Gates of Summer (the last day of
tuilë
); and it was brutal and annihilating, for Morgoth had long desired to strike this blow, and as he had no other foes left in Middle-earth was as a result able to use as much force as he wished. No fortress could have withstood such an onslaught. Turgon fell, and Ecthelion was slain by, and himself slew, the mightiest of the Balrogs. But Tuor of the Edain killed Maeglin the Traitor, and then fled the city, together with his wife Idril, the daughter of Turgon, and their son Eärendil. Behind them, Dragons set the city aflame, so that the sky over Tumladen was filled with the greatest burning it had known since the far-off days of the valley's making.