The Complete Tolkien Companion (91 page)

Stone of Erech
– An enormous black spherical stone, some ten feet or so in diameter, which was said to have been brought to Middle-earth from Númenor in 3320 Second Age by Isildur, eldest son of Elendil the Tall. It was set by Isildur atop the ancient Hill of Erech in Morthond Vale as a symbol of the royalty of Gondor (and its kinship with ancient Númenor), and the Men of the White Mountains were required to swear fealty to the Dúnedain upon it. When the mountain-people later broke their Oath, it was to the Stone of Erech that they were summoned, a full Age afterwards, in order to fulfil their vow and so achieve rest at last.

Stone of the Hapless
–
See
TOL MORWEN
.

‘The Stone Troll'
– A comic verse composed by Samwise Gamgee. It has been preserved as part of Frodo Baggins' narrative in the Red Book, and may also be found (No. 7) in the collection entitled
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

Stone-trolls
–
See
TROLLS
.

Stonewain Valley
– A deep, hidden valley between Druadan Forest and the northern White Mountains. During the late Second Age it was used by Men of newly founded Gondor as a route between the quarries at Min-Rimmon and the cities of the Pelennor. In later years the quarries and the wagon-road fell into disuse, and were afterwards forgotten; and the forest drew a veil across the entrance once more. By the time of the War of the Ring, a full Age after the building of Gondor, only the ancient Wild Men of Druadan Forest knew of the existence of the forgotten wain-road through the mountains; and when they revealed this secret to the Riders of Rohan, the Rohirrim were able to use the Valley to outflank an army of foes which stood between them and the relief of besieged Minas Tirith.

Stoningland
– A name given by the Riders of Rohan to the land of Gondor;
Mundburg
(‘Guardian-fortress') was their name for the city of Minas Tirith.

Stoors
– One of the three breeds or clans of Hobbits. The Stoors were larger and heavier in build than others of their race, and originated from the upper vales of Anduin, where they had once lived in close concord with the Men of that region of Wilderland. They were also the last Hobbit-tribe to leave those parts, eventually crossing the Misty Mountains westward in a great migration during the fourteenth century of the Third Age, after which they settled in Dunland or in the Angle between the rivers Hoarwell (Mitheithel) and Loudwater (Bruinen). But with the arising of the dread realm of Angmar the following century, a number of Stoors dwelling in the Angle re-crossed the Misty Mountains and went to dwell near the Gladden Fields. (A surviving family of this branch was still there a thousand years later;
see
SMÉAGOL-GOLLUM
.)

In the meantime the Dunland Stoors remained where they were until shortly after the founding of the Shire (1601 Third Age), when they duly emigrated north-west to join their kinfolk west of the Baranduin. These latecomers settled mostly in the Eastfarthing, near the banks of the river, and later some of them re-crossed the Baranduin to dwell in the area known as Buckland (
see
OLDBUCKS
). The Stoors brought to the Shire many traces of the Dunlending culture unconsciously absorbed during the years spent east of the Greyflood. In this way their cultural influences were closely akin to those of the Bree-men (themselves descended from ancestors of the Men of Dunland), who likewise migrated into central Eriador during the Third Age. Even by the time of the War of the Ring a certain ‘foreign' quality of the Eastfarthing- and Buckland-hobbits was easily remarked by other Shire-dwellers.

Straight Road
– The name given by Men, in the Third and later Ages, to the ancient route across the Sea into the Far West, by which Elves and those appointed could still make the journey to Valinor and Eressëa, even after the globing of the World.

(The) Strangers
–
MEN
.

Strider
– The nickname given by folk of Bree to the Ranger of Eriador known (to his own people) as
ARAGORN
II, sixteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North.
See also
TELCONTAR
.

Strongbow
– A translation of the Grey-elven name
Cúthalion.

Stybba
‘Stubby' – A pony of the Rohirrim, lent to Meriadoc Brandy-buck during the War of the Ring by King Théoden of Rohan.

Súle
‘Wind' (Q.) – An alternative title for the Fëanorian Tengwa number 9 (normally known as
thúle,
‘spirit'). The Sindarin equivalent was
Sûl.

Súlimë
‘Windy' (Q.) – The third month in both Kings' and Stewards' Reckoning, and the twelfth in the New Reckoning of the Fourth Age. Although this month-name was adopted by most of the folk in the Westron-speaking area during the Third Age, the Dúnedain, who had originally brought it to Middle-earth, used only the Sindarin equivalent
Gwaeron.
The Hobbit-name was
Rethe.

Súlimo
‘Lord of Winds' (Q.; literally ‘Lord of the Breath of Arda') –
See
MANWË SÚLIMO
.

Summerdays
– The Bree-name for the period of midsummer known in the Shire as
Lithe.

Sunday
– The later form of the word
Sunnendei,
the Shire-word for the second day of the week. (It was equivalent to – and in origin a translation of – the Quenya word
Anarya,
‘Sun's-day'.)

Sunlending
– The name given in Rohan to the province of Anórien in Gondor.

Sunless Year
– The name given in traditions of the Eldar to the period of time between the death of the Two Trees and the raising of the Sun and Moon.

Sunnendei
–
See
SUNDAY
.

Súrion (Tar-Súrion)
– From 1394–1556, ninth King of Númenor.

Súthburg
‘South-fortress' – The first name given by the Rohirrim to the tower known, after the death of Helm Hammerhand, as the
HORNBURG
. It had originally been called Aglarond.

Sutherland
– A translation of the Sindarin word
Haradwaith.

Sûza
– In the original (as opposed to translated) Hobbit-speech, the name given by Hobbits to the lands between the river Baranduin and the Tower Hills, the region of authority of their Thain, granted to them in perpetuity in 1600 Third Age (by King Argeleb II of Arthedain) and settled the following year. It has been translated from the Red Book as ‘the Shire'.

Swanfleet
–
See
GLANDUIN
.

Sweet Galenas
–
See
PIPE-WEED
.

Sword of Elendil
–
NARSIL
.

Sword-that-was-broken
–
ANDÚRIL
.

Talan
(pl.
Telain
) – The name given by the Galadhrim (Tree-elves) of Lothlórien to the dwelling-platforms (or
flets
) which they were accustomed to build amid the branches of the Mallorn-trees in their land. It is Sindarin in form.

Talath Dirnen
‘Guarded Plain' (Sind.) – The name given by the Elves of Nargothrond – and later by the Men of Brethil – to the region of empty moorland which lay between the rivers Narog and Teiglin, in West Beleriand. It was so-called because it was accounted the north march of the Realm of Nargothrond, and was accordingly frequently patrolled by Elves of that kingdom, in peace and war.

Talath Rhûnen
‘East Vale' (Sind.) – The oldest Elven-name for the land of
THARGELION
.

‘The Tale of Adanel'
– The legend of the Fall of Man, in the days before the Edain crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand; as repeated by
ANDRETH
of the First House to Finrod of the Eldar in the debate remembered as the
ATHRABETH FINROD AH ANDRETH
. The tale, attributed to
ADANEL
of the Third House, deals with Men's slow emergence from ignorance, the way in which Melkor corrupted and enslaved them, and the revolt and flight of some of them (the Edain) from his domain. But unlike the Elves, when they reached the coasts of the Sea, they could go no further.
1

‘The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen'
– A manuscript written in Gondor during the later second century of the Fourth Age by Steward Barahir of Emyn Arnen, who was the grandson of Faramir, Prince of Ithilien and Steward to King Elessar (Aragorn II). As its title indicates, the text deals chiefly with the life, hopes and eventual triumphs of Aragorn II, Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North who, in his eighty-eighth year, became the first King of both Gondor and Arnor since Elendil himself; and with his long betrothal to the Lady who later became his Queen: Arwen Undómiel, Evenstar of her people and only daughter of Elrond of Rivendell. The union of Aragorn and Arwen was of deep historical significance to both the Eldar of Middle-earth and their heirs, the Dúnedain of Arnor and Gondor. For by this means the two branches of the Peredhil (Half-elven) were reunited at last after more than five thousand years of separation (
see
LINES OF DESCENT
). Moreover Aragorn, who at his birth was accounted merely sixteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain, was later to become Elessar Telcontar, the Renewer, first King of the Reunited Kingdom. But the granting of Arwen's hand in marriage was made conditional on the securing of the High-kingship for his House, for reasons which are revealed in the
Tale
itself. He succeeded in this task and reigned in great glory and splendour until the Year 120 Fourth Age; and his dynasty was firmly established in the kingdom of Arnor and Gondor.

The much-abbreviated section of
The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen
which appears in Appendix A was in origin added to the Thain's Book by scribes of Gondor after the Passing of the King, and was afterwards incorporated into the later copy of that famous volume made by Findegil, King's Writer, in the year 172 Fourth Age. The Thain's Book was a copy of the Red Book of Westmarch, made by the Tooks at the request of the King and presented to him by Peregrin Took in Year 63; and Findegil's copy (complete with authoritative correction and annotations) was presented to the Hobbits in return. In this way the
Tale,
in which Hobbits had played some part, came to the attention of Shire-scholars, and was afterwards incorporated in their Annals.

‘The Tale of Grief'
– An alternative name among Men for the
NARN I HIN HÚRIN
(Tale of the Children of Húrin).

The Tale of Years
– A Chronology of the Third and early Fourth Ages, together with a much-abbreviated approximate chronology of the Second Age, which may be found in most translations from the Red Book of Westmarch in somewhat reduced form (
see
Appendix B). It was compiled at the request of Peregrin Took, thirty-second Thain of the Shire, by his descendants (who maintained links with Gondor, from which most of the material contained in the chronologies was derived).