Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth called Middle-earth, set in the remote past, they appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more in The Silmarillion. Tolkien had been writing about Elves; the modern English word elf derives from the Old English word ælf. Numerous types of elves appear in Germanic mythology, the West Germanic concept appears to have come to differ from the Scandinavian notion in the early Middle Ages, Anglo-Saxon concept diverged further under Celtic influence. Tolkien would make it clear in a letter that his Elves differ from those "of the better known lore", referring to Scandinavian mythology. By 1915 when Tolkien was writing his first elven poems, the words elf and gnome had many divergent and contradictory associations. Tolkien had been warned against using the term'fairy', which John Garth supposes may have been due to the word becoming used to indicate homosexuality, although despite this warning Tolkien continued to use it.
By the late 19th century, the term'fairy' had been taken up as a utopian theme, was used to critique social and religious values, a tradition which Tolkien along with T. H. White are seen to continue. One of the last of the Victorian Fairy-paintings, The Piper of Dreams by Estella Canziani, sold 250,000 copies and was well known within the trenches of World War I where Tolkien saw active service. Illustrated posters of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Land of Nod had been sent out by a philanthropist to brighten servicemen's quarters, Faery was used in other contexts as an image of "Old England" to inspire patriotism. According to Marjorie Burns, Tolkien chose the term elf over fairy, but still retained some doubts. In his 1939 essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien wrote that "English words such as elf have long been influenced by French. Traditional Victorian dancing fairies and elves appear in much of Tolkien's early poetry, have influence upon his works in part due to the influence of a production of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in Birmingham in 1910 and his familiarity with the work of Catholic mystic poet, Francis Thompson which Tolkien had acquired in 1914.
O! I hear the tiny horns Of enchanted leprechauns And the padded feet of many gnomes a-coming! As a philologist, Tolkien's interest in languages led him to invent several languages of his own as a pastime. In considering the nature of who might speak these languages, what stories they might tell, Tolkien again turned to the concept of elves. In his The Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien develops a theme that the diminutive fairy-like race of Elves had once been a great and mighty people, that as Men took over the world, these Elves had "diminished" themselves; this theme was influenced by the god-like and human-sized Ljósálfar of Norse mythology, medieval works such as Sir Orfeo, the Welsh Mabinogion, Arthurian romances and the legends of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Some of the stories Tolkien wrote as elven history have been seen to be directly influenced by Celtic mythology. For example, "Flight of The Noldoli" is based on the Tuatha Dé Danann and Lebor Gabála Érenn, their migratory nature comes from early Irish/Celtic history.
John Garth sees that with the underground enslavement of the Noldoli to Melkor, Tolkien was rewriting Irish myth regarding the Tuatha Dé Danann into a Christian eschatology. The name Inwe, given by Tolkien to the eldest of the elves and his clan, is similar to the name found in Norse mythology as that of the god Ingwi-Freyr, a god, gifted the elf world Álfheimr. Terry Gunnell claims that the relationship between beautiful ships and the Elves is reminiscent of the god Njörðr and the god Freyr's ship Skíðblaðnir, he retains the usage of the French derived term "fairy" for the same creatures. The larger Elves are inspired by Tolkien's personal Catholic theology—as representing the state of Men in Eden who have not yet "fallen", similar to humans but fairer and wiser, with greater spiritual powers, keener senses, a closer empathy with nature. Tolkien wrote of them: "They are made by man in his own likeness, they are immortal, their will is directly effective for the achievement of imagination and desire."In The Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien includes both the more serious "medieval" type of elves such as Fëanor and Turgon alongside the frivolous, Jacobean type of elves such as the Solosimpi and Tinúviel.
Alongside the idea of the greater Elves, Tolkien developed the idea of children visiting Valinor, the island-homeland of the Elves in their sleep. Elves would visit children at night and comfort them if they had been chided or were upset; this theme, linking elves with children's dreams and nocturnal travelling was abandoned in Tolkien's writing. Along with Book of Lost Tales, Douglas Anderson shows that in The Hobbit, Tolkien again includes both the more serious'medieval' type of elves, such as Elrond and the Wood-elf king, frivolous elves, such as those at Rivendell. In 1937, having had his manuscript for The Silmarillion rejected by a publisher who disparaged all the "eye-splitting Celtic names" that Tolkien had given his Elves, Tolkien denied the names had a Celtic origin: Needless t
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, as well as a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings. In Tolkien's narrative conceit, in which all the writings of Middle-earth are translations from the fictitious volume of The Red Book of Westmarch, Bilbo is the author of The Hobbit and translator of various "works from the elvish". In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit in comfortable middle age, was hired as a "burglar" –despite his initial objections– by the wizard Gandalf and 13 Dwarves led by their king, Thorin Oakenshield; the Dwarves were on a quest to reclaim its treasures from the dragon Smaug. The adventure took Bilbo and his companions through the wilderness, to the elf haven of Rivendell, across the Misty Mountains, through the black forest of Mirkwood, to Lake-town in the middle of Long Lake, to the Mountain itself. There, after the Mountain was reclaimed, the Battle of Five Armies took place. In that battle, a host of Elves and Dwarves--with the help of Eagles and Beorn the shapeshifter--defeated a host of Goblins and Warg.
At the end of the story, Bilbo returned to his home in the Shire to find that several of his relatives--believing him to be dead--were trying to claim his home and possessions. During his journey, Bilbo encountered other fantastic creatures, including Trolls, giant spiders, Goblins, Warg, a murderous creature named Gollum. Underground, near Gollum's lair under the Misty Mountains, Bilbo accidentally found a magic ring of invisibility that he used to escape from Gollum. By the end of the journey, Bilbo had become wiser and more confident, having saved the day in many precarious situations. Bilbo's journey has been compared to a pilgrimage of grace; the Hobbit can be characterized as a "Christian bildungsroman which equates progress to wisdom gained in the form of a rite of passage". He rescued the Dwarves from giant spiders with the magic ring and a short Elven-sword that he had acquired, he used the magic ring to sneak around in dangerous places, he used his wits to smuggle the 13 Dwarves out of the Wood-elves' prison.
When tensions arose over ownership of the treasures beneath the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo used the Arkenstone, a stolen heirloom jewel, as leverage in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a compromise between the Dwarves, the Wood-elves, the Men of Lake-town. In so doing, Bilbo strained his relationship with Thorin. In addition to becoming wealthy from his share of the Dwarves' treasure, Bilbo found that he had traded respectability for experience and wisdom. At the end of the book, Gandalf proclaimed; the Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, begins with Bilbo's "eleventy-first" birthday, 60 years after the beginning of The Hobbit. The main character of the novel is Frodo Baggins, Bilbo's cousin, who celebrates his 33rd birthday and comes of age on the same day. In T. A. 2989, Bilbo, a lifelong bachelor, adopted Frodo, the orphaned son of his first cousin Primula Brandybuck and his second cousin Drogo Baggins, made him his heir. Though Frodo was "his first and second cousin once removed either way", the two regarded each other as uncle and nephew.
All this time Bilbo had kept his magic ring, with no idea of its significance, using it to hide from his obnoxious cousins, the Sackville-Bagginses, when they came to visit. Gandalf's investigations revealed it to be the One Ring forged by the Dark Lord Sauron; the Ring had prolonged Bilbo's life beyond the normal hobbit span, at 111 he still looked 50. While the Ring did not corrupt him as it had its previous owners, it was beginning to affect him. On the night of his and Frodo's birthday, Bilbo invited all of the Shire, he signed his home, Bag End, estate over to Frodo. He gave a farewell address to his neighbours, at the end of which he put on the Ring and vanished from sight; as Bilbo prepared to leave the house, he reacted with panic and suspicion when Gandalf tried to persuade him to leave the Ring with Frodo. Bilbo refused to give up the Ring. Gandalf talked some sense into him. Bilbo admitted he would have liked to be rid of the Ring, he left it behind, becoming the first person to do so voluntarily.
He left the Shire that night, was never seen in Hobbiton again. His earlier adventure, his eccentric habits as a hobbit, his sudden disappearance led to the enduring figure of "Mad Baggins" in hobbit folklore, who disappeared with a flash and a bang and returned with gold and jewels. Freed of the Ring's power over his senses, Bilbo travelled first to Rivendell, on to visit the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain. After he returned to Rivendell he spent much of the next 17 years living a pleasant life of retirement: eating, writing poetry, working on his memoirs and Back Again, known as The Hobbit, he became a scholar of Elven lore, leaving behind the Translations from the Elvish, which forms the basis of what is known to us as The Silmarillion. When Frodo and his friends Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took stopped in Rivendell on their quest to destroy the Ring, Bilbo was still alive but now visibly aged, the years having caught up with him after h
Middle-earth objects
J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy legendarium includes several noteworthy objects; the following list includes weapons, ships, musical instruments and other items. A wondrous large white gem, the royal jewel of the Dwarf-kingdom of Erebor, it was sought by the claimant to the kingdom, in The Hobbit. The Arkenstone had been discovered at the heart of the Mountain by Thorin's ancestor, King Thráin I the Old, shaped by the Dwarves. Thráin ruled from T. A. 1981 to 2190, the Arkenstone became the royal heirloom of his successors, Durin's line. However the great jewel was lost when the dragon Smaug captured the Lonely Mountain from the Dwarves in T. A. 2770. The Arkenstone shone of its own inner light, but having been cut and fashioned by the Dwarves, it reflected and multiplied any light glancing upon its surface with marvellous beauty, it was called the Heart of the Mountain, as Thorin describes to Bilbo Baggins: "It shone like silver in the firelight, like water in the sun, like snow under the stars, like rain upon the moon..."
Thorin, the heir of Thráin, arrived at the Lonely Mountain with Bilbo in T. A. 2941. When Bilbo found the Arkenstone on Smaug's golden bed deep inside the Lonely Mountain he pocketed it, having learned how much Thorin valued it. While his Dwarf companions sorted the treasure, Thorin sought only the Arkenstone, unaware that Bilbo was hiding it in his pillow; when the Dwarves refused to share any of the treasure with Bard and King Thranduil, Bilbo crept out of the Dwarves' fort inside the Mountain, gave them the Arkenstone. Bard and Gandalf tried to trade it for Bilbo's fourteenth share of Smaug's hoard; the dispute was interrupted by goblins and wargs from the Misty Mountains, the Battle of Five Armies ensued, Thorin was killed. When Thorin was buried deep under Erebor, Bard placed the Arkenstone on Thorin's breast. Tolkien took the name from Old English earcanstān or Old Norse jarknasteinn, meaning "precious stone"; the word appears in several Old English poems. The Arkenstone is compared with the Silmarils, the great jewels at the centre of The Silmarillion.
Though the Arkenstone is not a Silmaril, it is an import from Tolkien's writings of the "mythology" into his children's story which were, at the time of The Hobbit's composition, unrelated writings. In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the Arkenstone is portrayed as a round glowing gem, similar to a luminous white opal; the gem was inserted into Thrór's throne, the king viewed it as a symbol of his rule by divine grace. He attempted to take it with him when Smaug invaded Erebor, but dropped it into a pile of gold where it was lost. In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, it is revealed that the entire purpose of the dwarves' quest was to retrieve the Arkenstone, since possessing it would have given Thorin the authority required to unite all the dwarven clans and launch an assault to liberate Erebor; the chief token of royalty of Gondor. It is referred as the Winged Crown, the Silver or White Crown, the Crown of Elendil. Tolkien describes the crown in The Lord of the Rings thus: It was shaped like the helms of the Guards of the Citadel, save that it was loftier, it was all white, the wings at either side were wrought of pearl and silver in the likeness of the wings of a sea-bird, for it was the emblem of kings who came over the Sea.
In a letter Tolkien describes the crown as "very tall, like that of Egypt, but with wings attached, not set straight back but at an angle". The Hedjet of Upper Egypt was, like Gondor's crown known as the White Crown. Tolkien made a sketch of the crown of Gondor, reproduced in J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator; the first Crown of Gondor was the helmet. His brother Anárion's helmet had been crushed by the stone that killed him during the Siege of Barad-dûr. During the reign of King Atanatar II Alcarin, a new crown was made of silver and jewels; this Crown was worn by all the subsequent Kings of Gondor. Traditionally, a father passed the Crown to his heir. If the heir was not present when the King died, the Crown was set in the King's tomb in the Hallows, where his heir would go alone to retrieve it. In 2050, the Lord of the Nazgûl challenged King Eärnur to single-combat. Eärnur left the Crown on the tomb of his father Eärnil II and he went to Minas Morgul and was never seen again. From that time on, the Stewards ruled Gondor in the absence of a King.
The Crown remained in the Hallows, the Stewards bore a white rod as the token of their office. To prepare for the coronation of Aragorn as King Elessar, the Steward Faramir went to the Hallows and retrieved the Crown from Eärnil's tomb; the Crown was placed in a casket of black lebethron wood bound with silver. On the day of the coronation, 1st'May' T. A. 3019, the casket was carried to the Great Gate of Minas Tirith by four Guards of the Citadel. Aragorn lifted the Crown and, quoting his ancestor Elendil as he arrived in Middle-earth, said: "Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien. Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta!" At Aragorn's request, Frodo Baggins brought the Crown forward and gave it to Gandalf, who set it upon Aragorn's head. As King, Aragorn bore both the Crown of Gondor and the Sceptre of Annúminas, the chief token of royalty of Arnor, an
Money bag
A money bag is a bag of money used to hold and transport coins and banknotes from/to a mint, bank, ATM, vending machine, business, or other institution. Money bags are transported in an armored car or a money train and, in the past, via stagecoach, it is a type of Currency packaging. Crumillospongia is a genus of middle Cambrian sponge named after its similarity to a small leathery money purse, or crumilla. According to the account given in the Bible's Gospel of John, Judas Iscariot carried the disciples' money bag. During the Roman era, the Legio IV Scythica was camped in an ancient city of Commagen. Excavations carried out in the city revealed 65,000 seal imprints found in a place, believed to serve as the archives for the customs of ancient Zeugma; the seal imprints used in sealing papyrus, parchment and customs bales are good indication of volume of the trade and the density of transportation and communication network once established in the region. Charon's obol, a death custom originating in ancient Greece whereby a coin is placed with a corpse, in the 3rd-4th century AD in Western Europe, were found in pouches, making them money pouches.
From the Middle Ages to around 1900, Rottweiler dogs were used by travelling butchers at markets to guard money pouches tied around their necks. Beginning in the 14th century, purses of money were awarded to scholars during the Revathi Pattathanam, an annual assembly of scholars held in Kerala, India. In 16th century feudal Japan, samurai wore uchi-bukuro around the neck. In 1620, pediatric tracheotomy was unheard of until a boy tried to hide a bag of gold by swallowing it, it blocked his trachea. The tracheotomy allowed the surgeon to manipulate it to pass through his system. In September 1864, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a Confederate agent, drowned with a bag of gold around her neck after leaving the Condor in a boat. A wealthy person can have the nickname "moneybag". Marcus Licinius Crassus, a leading Roman politician in his day, was known in Rome as Dives, meaning "The Rich" or "Moneybags". Ivan I of Moscow was a Russian Grand Duke of Moscow from 1328-1341, famous for being generous with his wealth.
American Cardinal Francis Spellman was sometimes called "Cardinal Moneybags" in his life, while Chicago mobster and racketeer Murray Humphreys was referred to as "Mr. Moneybags" by his friends. Miss Moneybags is a fictional character in the 1915 Charlie Chaplin silent comedy film The Count. James Edward "Baron of Edgerton" Hanson's billion-dollar empire earned him the nickname "Lord Moneybags". Another fictional character, Victor Newman of The Young and the Restless soap opera, has been called "Moneybags". Money bags have been represented in art and culture throughout human history, including paintings, film, television and food. A leno, a theatre of ancient Rome stock character, is depicted carrying a money bag. Jainism sculpture shows various Jain gods and/or their attendants/servants, holding money bags, purses, or "purse-like objects" Buddhist and Hindu deities/gods/goddesses have money bags as part of their iconography. Lugus, another god worshipped by Celtic people and identified with Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, is depicted carrying a money bag.
Around 1130, Hugh of St. Victor's Chronica's preface refers to a money bag, with its compartments, as a memory training analogy. In the 16th century, The Conjurer, a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, features a child stealing a money purse from a bespectacled character. Around 1791, James Gillray published a cartoon about reaction to the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery labelled "Boydell sacrificing the Works of Shakespeare to the Devil of Money-Bags"; the Apotheosis of Washington, a fresco in the dome in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building that contains a commerce scene with the Roman god Mercury holding a bag of gold. The obverse 1896 US Educational Series $2 bill shows an allegorical figure of Commerce who has a bag of money next to her, making it a picture of a bag of money on real money. A Bag of Gold, film starring Sidney Ainsworth In 1974, Herb Block produced Herblock Special Report, a book of political cartoons and text about Richard Nixon with some cartoons featuring money bags.
Money for Nothing, comedy/crime film about Joey Coyle who finds $1.2 million dollars in a bag in the middle of the street after it falls out of the back of an armored car The Black Book, crime novel by Ian Rankin about "Operation Moneybags", a police investigation aimed at putting a money-lender out of business 29 Palms, direct-to-video film about a bag of money that affects the characters who possess it Thai money bag, a small, deep-fried pastry purse with various filling In the South Park in episode "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow", a typically-antisemitic Cartman tries to stop Kyle at gunpoint, demanding the latter give up his bag of "Jew gold". It turns out that Kyle not only has a bag of gold, but
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a 2013 epic high fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson and produced by WingNut Films in collaboration with New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and is the second installment in the three-part film series based on the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien; the film was followed by The Battle of the Five Armies. The film follows the titular character Bilbo Baggins as he accompanies Thorin Oakenshield and his fellow dwarves on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug; the film features the vengeful pursuit of Azog the Defiler and Bolg, while Gandalf the Grey investigates a growing evil in the ruins of Dol Guldur. The ensemble cast includes Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Orlando Bloom. Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro wrote the screenplay; the films were shot in 3D at a projection rate of 48 frames per second, with principal photography taking place around New Zealand and at Pinewood Studios.
Additional filming took place throughout May 2013. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug premiered on 2 December 2013 in Los Angeles and was released internationally on 11 December 2013 in both conventional and IMAX theatres; the film received positive reviews and grossed over $958 million at the worldwide box office, surpassing both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2013 and the 45th highest-grossing film of all time. At the 86th Academy Awards, the film received nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing. Thorin and his company are being pursued by Azog and his Orc party following the events of the previous film, they are ushered along by Gandalf to the nearby home of Beorn, a skin-changer who can take the form of the bear. That night, Azog is summoned to Dol Guldur by the Necromancer, who commands him to marshal his forces for war, so Azog delegates the hunt for Thorin to his son Bolg; the following day, Beorn escorts the company to the borders of Mirkwood, where Gandalf discovers Black Speech imprinted on an old ruin.
Heeding a promise he made to Galadriel, he warns the company to remain on the path and leaves to investigate the tombs of the Nazgûl. Upon entering the forest, the dwarves are ensnared by giant spiders. Bilbo sets about freeing them with the help of his acquired invisibility ring, he subsequently drops the ring and first begins to understand its dark influence after he brutally kills a creature to retrieve it. The remaining spiders are fended off by the Wood-elves led by Legolas, they capture the Dwarves and bring Thorin before their king Thranduil. Thorin confronts Thranduil about his neglect of the Dwarves of Erebor following Smaug's attack 60 years earlier, is imprisoned with the other Dwarves. Bilbo, having avoided capture, arranges an escape using empty wine barrels. While being pursued by the Wood-elves, they are ambushed by Bolg and his Orc party, Kíli is wounded with a Morgul shaft, they engage in a running three-way battle down the river, but the Dwarves are able to escape both groups of pursuers.
Thranduil seals off his kingdom when an Orc captive reveals an evil entity has returned and is amassing an army in the south, but Tauriel decides to leave and assist the Dwarves, Legolas goes after her. Meanwhile and Radagast go to investigate the tombs of the Nazgûl, which they find to be empty; the company are smuggled into Esgaroth by a bargeman called Bard, but are discovered raiding the town armory for new weapons. Thorin promises the Master, his councilor Alfrid, the people of Laketown a share of the mountain's treasure, it is revealed that Bard is a descendant of the last ruler of Dale, possesses the last black arrow capable of killing Smaug. Kíli is forced to remain behind, tended to by Fíli, Óin, Bofur, as the remaining company receive a grand farewell. Meanwhile, Gandalf travels south to the ruins of Dol Guldur, while Radagast leaves to warn Galadriel of their discovery at the tombs of the Nazgûl. Gandalf is ambushed by Azog; the Necromancer reveals himself as Sauron. Thorin and his remaining company reach the Lonely Mountain, where Bilbo discovers the hidden entrance.
He is sent in to retrieve the Arkenstone, while doing so, he accidentally awakens Smaug. While trying to find Bilbo, Smaug reveals his knowledge of Sauron's return. Back in Laketown, Bard attempts to bring the black arrow to the town's launcher, as he fears what may happen when the Dwarves enter the mountain. However, he is arrested by the Master and Alfrid in the process and leaves his son to hide the arrow. Bolg and his Orc party infiltrate the town and attack the four Dwarves, but are dispatched by Tauriel and Legolas. Tauriel tends to Kíli, while Legolas leaves in pursuit of Bolg. Meanwhile, Gandalf watches helplessly as Azog and an Orc army march from Dol Guldur towards the Lonely Mountain. Back inside the mountain, during a long chase and the Dwarves rekindle the mountain's forge using Smaug's flames to create and melt a large golden statue of Thrór, hoping to bury Smaug alive in the molten gold, they do so, but Smaug emerges from the gold, storms out of the mountain and flies off to destroy Laketown as Bilbo watches in horror.
Some characters in the film are not in the novel. Legolas appears in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, but not in the nove
Minor places in Middle-earth
The stories of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium contain references to numerous places; some of these fictional places are described below. Aldburg is a hill fort and settlement in Rohan, in the region known as the Folde, some miles to the southeast of Edoras. Aldburg was the capital of the realm, where Eorl the Young, the first King of Rohan, founded his hall in T. A. 2510. Though his son, King Brego, moved to Edoras early in Rohan's history, Aldburg remained the residence of the descendants of Éofor, Brego's third son. One of these descendants was Éomer, a nephew of King Théoden. At the time of the War of the Ring, Éomer was the Third Marshal of the Mark and became heir to the king; the All-welcome Inn was an inn located at the junction of the Northway and the East Road on the Hobbiton side of Frogmorton. It was much used by travellers Dwarves from the Ered Luin. Amon Hen is a hill located on the western bank of the river Anduin, at the southern end of Nen Hithoel, the lake above the Falls of Rauros.
It was one of the three peaks at the Falls of Rauros at the southern end of the Emyn Muil, the others being Amon Lhaw, the Hill of the Ear, Tol Brandir, an island located between the two hills. The Seat of Seeing was built at the summit of Amon Hen, serving as a watchtower for the northern borders of Gondor, it was constructed in the early days of Gondor. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the Fellowship travelled down the Anduin from Lothlórien to Parth Galen, the lake-side lawn at the feet of Amon Hen, but here the Fellowship was broken: Boromir attempted to take the One Ring by force from Frodo Baggins, who fled. After Frodo escaped from Boromir, he sat upon the Seat of Seeing while still wearing the Ring, was able to see events hundreds of miles distant. From Amon Hen and Samwise Gamgee crossed the Anduin on their way east to Mordor, while Merry and Pippin were carried by Saruman's Orcs in the direction of his hold at Isengard, the rest of the Fellowship set out in pursuit of the Orcs. Tolkien's aerial view of the Emyn Muil shows Tol Brandir to be much taller than Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw.
The sketch is published in J. R. R. Tolkien: Illustrator; the bulletin of The Tolkien Society has been named Amon Hen since December 1972. Amon Lhaw is one of the three peaks above the Falls of Rauros which drained the lake known as Nen Hithoel, it towered amongst the Emyn Muil on the eastern banks of the Anduin, its twin, Amon Hen, lay upon the western bank. Between them, at the centre of the stream above Rauros, was the island peak Tol Brandir upon which none had set foot. Although at one time Amon Lhaw had been on the northern boundary of Gondor and a high seat was built there, this was no longer the case at the time of the War of the Ring. Called the Hill of Hearing and Hill of the Ear in Westron. Tolkien's aerial view of the Emyn Muil shows Tol Brandir to be much taller than Amon Lhaw and Amon Hen; the sketch is published in J. R. R. Tolkien: Illustrator. See: Hill of Guard Andrath is a narrow pass through which the North-South Road passed between the Barrow-downs on the west and the South Downs on the east.
To the north of Andrath the road met the Great East Road, just west of the gates of Bree. When the Nazgûl came north from Mordor to seek the Ring in the Shire at the end of the Third Age, their leader, the Witch-king of Angmar, camped in Andrath, it is mentioned in the appendices of The Return of the King that it is that the Witch-king aroused the Barrow-wights in the nearby Barrow-downs while camped at Andrath. Two separate areas in Middle-earth were known as the Angle, each defined by the angle between two converging rivers; the Angle in Lothlórien lay between the Silverlode. It was more referred to as Egladil; the Angle in Eriador was a much larger area. It lay between the Mitheithel on the Bruinen on the east; this Angle was part of the province of Rhudaur in the kingdom of Arnor. Many Stoors, a tribe of Hobbits, settled in the Angle circa T. A. 1150, but left about T. A. 1356. Tom Shippey notes a number of similarities between the migration history of Hobbits and that of the Anglo-Saxons; the Argonath is a monument comprising two enormous pillars carved in the likenesses of Isildur and Anárion, standing upon either side of the River Anduin at the northern approach to Nen Hithoel.
The figures were constructed about T. A. 1240 at the order of King Rómendacil II to mark the northern border of Gondor. However the effective border had receded southwards by the time of the War of the Ring. A. 3019. Each of the two figures was shown wearing a crown and a helm, with an axe in its right hand and its left hand raised in a gesture of defiance to the enemies of Gondor. It's that the figure on the east bank, which technically stood in the province of Ithilien, represented Isildur, while the western figure, standing in the province of Anórien, represented Anárion. Known as the Pillars of the Kings or the Gate of Kings. See Ered Lithui see Dimrill Dale Bamfurlong is the farmland of Farmer Maggot, located in the Marish of the eastern part of the Shire; the boggy nature of the land makes fo
Leadership
Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual or organization to "lead" or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints, contrasting Eastern and Western approaches to leadership, United States versus European approaches. U. S. academic environments define leadership as "a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Studies of leadership have produced theories involving traits, situational interaction, behavior, power and values, intelligence, among others. Sanskrit literature identifies ten types of leaders. Defining characteristics of the ten types of leaders are explained with examples from history and mythology. Aristocratic thinkers have postulated that leadership depends on genes. Monarchy takes an extreme view of the same idea, may prop up its assertions against the claims of mere aristocrats by invoking divine sanction.
On the other hand, more democratically inclined theorists have pointed to examples of meritocratic leaders, such as the Napoleonic marshals profiting from careers open to talent. In the autocratic/paternalistic strain of thought, traditionalists recall the role of leadership of the Roman pater familias. Feminist thinking, on the other hand, may object to such models as patriarchal and posit against them attuned and consensual empathetic guidance, sometimes associated with matriarchies. Comparable to the Roman tradition, the views of Confucianism on "right living" relate much to the ideal of the scholar-leader and his benevolent rule, buttressed by a tradition of filial piety. Leadership is a matter of intelligence, humaneness and discipline... Reliance on intelligence alone results in rebelliousness. Exercise of humaneness alone results in weakness. Fixation on trust results in folly. Dependence on the strength of courage results in violence. Excessive discipline and sternness in command result in cruelty.
When one has all five virtues together, each appropriate to its function one can be a leader. — Sun Tzu Machiavelli's The Prince, written in the early 16th century, provided a manual for rulers to gain and keep power. In the 19th century the elaboration of anarchist thought called the whole concept of leadership into question. One response to this denial of élitism came with Leninism, which demanded an élite group of disciplined cadres to act as the vanguard of a socialist revolution, bringing into existence the dictatorship of the proletariat. Other historical views of leadership have addressed the seeming contrasts between secular and religious leadership; the doctrines of Caesaro-papism had their detractors over several centuries. Christian thinking on leadership has emphasized stewardship of divinely provided resources—human and material—and their deployment in accordance with a Divine plan. Compare servant leadership. For a more general take on leadership in politics, compare the concept of the statesperson.
The search for the characteristics or traits of leaders has continued for centuries. Philosophical writings from Plato's Republic to Plutarch's Lives have explored the question "What qualities distinguish an individual as a leader?" Underlying this search was the early recognition of the importance of leadership and the assumption that leadership is rooted in the characteristics that certain individuals possess. This idea that leadership is based on individual attributes is known as the "trait theory of leadership". A number of works in the 19th century – when the traditional authority of monarchs and bishops had begun to wane – explored the trait theory at length: note the writings of Thomas Carlyle and of Francis Galton, whose works have prompted decades of research. In Heroes and Hero Worship, Carlyle identified the talents and physical characteristics of men who rose to power. Galton's Hereditary Genius examined leadership qualities in the families of powerful men. After showing that the numbers of eminent relatives dropped off when his focus moved from first-degree to second-degree relatives, Galton concluded that leadership was inherited.
In other words, leaders were born, not developed. Both of these notable works lent great initial support for the notion that leadership is rooted in characteristics of a leader. Cecil Rhodes believed that public-spirited leadership could be nurtured by identifying young people with "moral force of character and instincts to lead", educating them in contexts which further developed such characteristics. International networks of such leaders could help to promote international understanding and help "render war impossible"; this vision of leadership underlay the creation of the Rhodes Scholarships, which have helped to shape notions of leadership since their creation in 1903. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a series of qualitative reviews of these studies prompted researchers to take a drastically different view of the driving forces behind leadership. In reviewing the extant literature and Mann found that while some traits were common across a number of studies, the overall evidence suggested that people who are leaders in one situation may not be leaders in other situations.
Subsequently, leadership was no longer characterized as an enduring indivi
