The Complete Tolkien Companion (88 page)

The King's conditions for the freehold of the Shire were not exacting, and the Shire-hobbits soon settled down to a quiet, peaceful and prosperous existence. Many of their kin joined them in the years that followed the Founding of the Shire (1601 Third Age, or Year One of the Shire Reckoning), and all went well until thirty-six years later, when the Great Plague came into Eriador from the East and South. The Shire-folk suffered loss, but soon recovered in the years that followed and afterwards passed altogether out of the knowledge of other folk.

The long years of peace stretching from those days to the time of The War of the Ring brought about an understandable state of insularity among the Shire-hobbits. Their heroes tended to be selected from among those who had lived to particularly old ages, or who had sired the greatest numbers of children. It is true that Bandobras ‘Bullroarer' Took was lauded for military prowess, but in general, warlike activities (like all ‘adventurous' tendencies) were not much appreciated in the Shire. The countryside was fruitful and Hobbits grew steadily fatter – and echoes of growing danger from Outside did not cross the Baranduin.

Shirebourn
– A river of the Shire. It arose in the Green Hill Country in the Eastfarthing and flowed south and east to join the Baranduin (Brandywine) north of the Overbourn Marshes.

Shire-moot
– An emergency meeting of all landed Hobbits, summoned at times of doubt or danger by the Thain of the Shire. Such meetings were not a frequent occurrence.

Shire-muster
– An assembly of arms in the Shire, which was an even rarer occasion than the Moot (
see
previous entry). The only Hobbit with authority to summon the Muster was the Thain of the Shire.

Shire Reckoning
– The calendar system adopted by the Hobbits of the Shire after the founding of their land. Though basically similar to the venerable
KINGS' RECKONING
of the Dúnedain, the Shire system differed in one important respect: all years were reckoned from the Hobbits' first Crossing of the Baranduin (1601 Third Age, Year One of the Shire), and the observance of Ages was not recognised in the Shire following that date. But although the Hobbits also had their own ancient names for the days and months, the system they observed was still easily recognised as a variant of the same venerable Númenorean calendar, brought to Middle-earth by the Dúnedain. Months were all of equal length – 30 days – and there were five ‘extra' days (outside the month) which made up the chief feast days. Three of these formed a midsummer festival, known in the Shire as
Lithe,
the chief holiday of the year, the other (two-day) festival being at Yule. Leap Years were allowed for by adding an extra Lithe-day between Mid-year's day and 2 Lithe. Late in the Third Age (
c.
1100 Shire Reckoning) the Hobbits made a further modification to the calendar. This was called
Shire-reform,
and its purpose was to stabilise the names of the days and the dates on which these might fall from year to year. This was achieved, and the same date in any one year had the same weekday name in all other years, so that Shire-folk no longer bothered to put the weekday in their letters and diaries. They found this quite convenient at home, but not so convenient if they ever travelled further than Bree.

Shire-reform
–
See
previous entry.

Shirriffs
– The Shirriffs (or ‘Shire-reeves') were the chief law-enforcement officials of the Shire. As most laws were observed to the letter, being after all based upon common sense and ancient tradition, the Shirriffs' task was easy, and the job was far more concerned with trespass and matters of property than with actual crime (which was almost unknown in the Shire). The office of First Shirriff was normally held by the Mayor of Michel Delving, while the main body was more commonly known as the Watch. There were twelve all told, three in each Farthing, and they were distinguished from other Hobbits by a feather worn in the cap. The Shire also possessed a ‘Special Constabulary' – whose size varied at need – for the purpose of patrolling the borders. These were known as ‘Bounders'.

Sickle (of the Valar)
– A translation of the Quenya word
Valacirca:
the name given by dwellers in Middle-earth to the constellation of seven stars set in the sky by Varda (Elbereth) as a sign of the eventual fall of Morgoth; it is of course the same constellation known to later Men as ‘The Plough' (or ‘Great Bear', or ‘Big Dipper').

Siege of Angband
– The name given by the Eldar to the period of four centuries, between the Dagor Aglareb (the Third Battle of Beleriand) and the Dagor Bragollach (the Fourth Battle), when Morgoth was hemmed into the North by the chain of Elf-kingdoms reaching from Hithlum in the West to Mount Rerir in the East. Strictly speaking, it was not a true Siege, for Morgoth was untrammelled in the North and North-east, and was always able to move his armies to and from Angband by these routes; the Siege only bore upon the south of his land. Therefore no real pressure could ever be inflicted upon him, and his real capacity for waging war remained largely unaffected: as was afterwards realised by the Eldar, in calamitous fashion.

Silent Watchers
– Two great stone statues, three-headed, with vulture faces and claws, which guarded the gate of the Tower of Cirith Ungol in Mordor. ‘Each had three joined bodies, and three heads facing outward, and inward, and across the gateway … They seemed to be carved out of huge blocks of stone, immovable, and yet they were aware: some dreadful spirit of evil vigilance abode in them. They knew an enemy. Visible or invisible none could pass unheeded.'
10

It seems unlikely that these monstrous guardians were set in place by the original builders of the Tower, for the fortress had been raised in the early years of the Third Age by Men of Gondor, and its purpose had been the guarding of the route across the Pass behind. But the Tower was later abandoned, and Sauron returned to Mordor, and the fortress was strengthened by his slaves and filled with Orcs.

Silima
– The name given by Fëanor of the Noldor to the mysterious crystalline substance devised by him in Eldamar during the First Age, when the Two Trees still flowered and the craftsmanship of the Noldorin Kindred had not yet brought grief to the Valar and the High-elves. Silima was exceedingly hard, and possessed the gift of capturing light – and only Fëanor ever knew the secrets of its making. He wrought the three
silmarilli
(‘Jewels-of-
silima
') from this material.

Silmariën
– The eldest of the three children of King Tar-Elendil of Númenor. She was born in the year 548 Second Age, while Númenor was still young and its people uncorrupted. Although she was the eldest child of the King, after her father's death she was prohibited from receiving the Sceptre, for the laws of that time allowed only male heirs to rule in Númenor (this law was soon afterwards changed). Her younger brother became King in her place, as Tar-Meneldur. Nonetheless, it was through the Lady Silmariën that the House of Elendil traced its lineage back to Elros Tar-Minyatur and the still more ancient High-elven ancestry. She wedded Elatan, a Lord of Andúnië – a fair western province of Númenor – and from Valandil their son were descended Amandil and his son Elendil. From Elendil the Tall were descended all the Kings of Arnor and Gondor.

Silmarilli
‘Jewels-of-
silima
' (Q.) – The name given by Fëanor of the Noldor to the three Great Jewels wrought by him during the Elder Days, the mightiest works of craft ever made. So great was their beauty that none could behold it and be unmoved; so terrible was its effect that, because of the Jewels, grief and dissent, followed by rebellion, came to the Undying Lands, where the Silmarils had been wrought, and war and untold suffering to Middle-earth, where they were taken perforce. In the end they were lost for ever, in the Heavens, under the Earth, and in the deeps of the Sea.

The tale of the Silmarils is the story of the rebellion and fall of Fëanor, and the exile of those Noldorin Elves whom he led to Middle-earth. The Jewels were made from a mysterious crystalline substance, exceedingly hard, which was somehow able to capture light and store it within its depths. The light was the ancient Light of the Two Trees of Valinor. But the glory of the Great Jewels overwhelmed one of the Valar, afterwards called Morgoth, who stole them from the Noldor and fled with them to Middle-earth, first poisoning the Two Trees so that their Light was dimmed for ever. This action grieved the Valar – whose land was plunged into eternal twilight – but it enraged the Noldor, who now regarded the Silmarils as symbols of the pride of their race. Fëanor led a great host of the Noldor back to Middle-earth against the wishes of the Valar, and so exiled himself and his people from the Undying Lands. The war which the Noldor and their allies then fought against Morgoth in Middle-earth lasted for centuries, and at the end of it great destruction had taken place and many hitherto immortal lives had been lost – but the Silmarils were still in the possession of Morgoth (save one only, recovered by Beren of the Edain and Lúthien daughter of Thingol Greycloak of the Elves). In the end the Valar, taking pity on the innocent, themselves came to Middle-earth and crushed Morgoth in a titanic battle, in which his fortress of Thangorodrim was obliterated and Beleriand of the Grey-elves drowned under the Sea. The single Jewel recovered by the Eldar, which came back to the Undying Lands with Eärendil the Mariner, had already been set in the sky by Elbereth herself as a sign of hope to dwellers in Middle-earth. But the other two Silmarils were taken by force from Morgoth by the Valar – and were then stolen, at the very end of the Age, by the two surviving sons of Fëanor, Maedhros and Maglor. Indeed they were still constrained to attempt this deed, by the Oath they and their father had sworn on the eve of the rebellion long before in Eldamar. Yet by now their touch had become defiled, and they could not bear to keep or hold the Jewels; and Maedhros cast his into a chasm of the earth, and Maglor threw his into the Sea.

The Silmarillion
– The title given to the large and exceedingly ancient collection of songs and tales of the First Age assembled in Riven-dell during the latter part of the Third Age by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (under the title
Translations from the Elvish
).
The Silmarillion
proper is made up of five separately originated works: the
Ainulindalë
or Music of the Ainur (composed by Rúmil of Tirion); the
Valaquenta
or History of the Valar and Maiar (authorship unknown); the
Quenta Silmarillion
or History of the Silmarils (derived from many sources); the
Akallabêth
or Downfall of Númenor (composed in Gondor during the early part of the Third Age); and
Of the Rings of Power,
written by the renowned Hobbit Frodo Baggins.

Silmarils
–
See
SILMARILLI
.

Silme
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘starlight'; also the title of Tengwa number 29, which was used in almost all cases for the value of the sound
s.

Silme Nuquerna
– A reversed form of the Tengwa number 29 (
see
previous entry), incorporated into the Fëanorian writing-system as letter number 30. Reversed letters of this type carried exactly the same phonetic value but were inverted for convenience of writing, i.e., when accompanied by one of the diacritic
tehtar
or ‘signs'. The example shown above has an
a
tehta incorporated in order to illustrate this usage.

Silpion
–
See
TELPERION
.

Silvan Elves
– A translation of
Tawarwaith
(Sind.); the Wood-elves.

Silver Crown
– The Crown of Gondor. It was made in the shape of an ancient Númenorean war-helm, with a high crown and long cheek-guards which fitted closely to the face. The original Silver Crown was said to be the actual war-helm of Isildur, but in the days of Atanatar (II) Alcarin (‘the Glorious') this was replaced by a far more flamboyant crown, though still of the same shape. The Crown of Alcarin was made of pure silver, and was wrought with wings like sea-birds', and was embellished with seven diamonds studded at intervals in the Circlet. Above all was set a single great white jewel.