Elrond
Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, he is introduced in The Hobbit, plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Elrond was Lord of Rivendell, one of the elven leaders that remained in Middle-earth in its Third Age, his name was explained by Tolkien in a letter from 1958 to Rhona Beare as "Elf of the Cave", as he was found as an infant abandoned in a cave. Notes, reflected in The Silmarillion and The War of the Jewels, interpret the name instead as "Star-dome" or "Vault of Stars". Elrond was the son of Eärendil and Elwing, a great-grandson of Lúthien, born in Beleriand in the First Age, making him well over 6,000 years old by the time of the events described in The Lord of the Rings. Elrond's twin brother was the first High King of Númenor. Although Elrond was considered half-elven, not meant to be an exact percentage value. Through Lúthien, daughter of Melian the Maia, he and his brother Elros were descended from the Maiar, angelic beings who had come to Middle-earth thousands of years before.
Both his mother and his father had mixed human-elf ancestry, as a result Elrond himself was 6/16 human, 9/16 elf and 1/16 Maia. Elrond, along with his parents, his brother, his children, were granted a choice between Elven or human fates by the Valar. Elrond chose to live as an immortal Elf; as documented in The Silmarillion, Elrond was born in the First Age at the refuge of the Mouths of Sirion in Beleriand. Not long afterwards the havens were destroyed by the sons of Fëanor, who captured Elrond and his brother Elros, their parents feared that they would be killed, but instead they were befriended by Fëanor's sons Maedhros and Maglor. Like his parents but unlike his brother, Elrond chose to be counted among the Elves when the choice of kindreds was given to him; when Beleriand was destroyed at the end of the First Age, Elrond went to Lindon with the household of Gil-galad, the last High King of the Noldor. During the War of the Elves and Sauron in the Second Age, Gil-galad sent Elrond to the defence of Eregion against Sauron.
Sauron destroyed Eregion and surrounded Elrond's army, but Durin and Amroth attacked Sauron's rearguard, causing the Dark Lord to turn and drive them back to Moria. Elrond was able to retreat north to a secluded valley, where he established the refuge of Imladris called Rivendell. Elrond founded Rivendell in S. A. 1697 and was its lord for thousands of years, including the events of The Hobbit and the War of the Ring. Near the end of the Second Age, the Last Alliance of Elves and Men was formed, the army departed from Imladris to Mordor, led by Elendil and Gil-galad, who were both killed in the Siege of Barad-dûr. Elrond served as Gil-galad's herald, Elrond and Círdan were entrusted with the two Elven Rings that Gil-galad held. Elrond and Círdan were the only ones to stand with Gil-galad. In the early years of the Third Age, Elrond married daughter of Celeborn and Galadriel; the union produced twin brothers Elladan and Elrohir, a daughter, Arwen Undómiel. During the Third Age Elrond was an ally of Arnor.
Following its fall, Elrond harboured the Chieftains of the Dúnedain and sheltered the Sceptre of Annúminas, Arnor's symbol of royal authority. Celebrían was captured and tortured by Orcs in the Redhorn Gate and thereafter left Elrond and sailed to the West to seek healing. After Aragorn's father Arathorn was killed a few years after Aragorn's birth, Elrond raised Aragorn in his own household and became a surrogate father to him. Aware of his daughter Arwen's feelings for Aragorn, Elrond would permit their marriage only if Aragorn could unite Arnor and Gondor as High King. In The Hobbit, Elrond gave shelter to Thorin's company, after which Elrond and Bilbo Baggins became friends, he received Bilbo as a permanent guest. In The Fellowship of the Ring, he headed the Council of Elrond, at which it was decided that the One Ring should be destroyed where it was forged at Mount Doom in Mordor. Elrond reluctantly accepted his personal loss for the greater good of Man, as she would help to renew the declining lineage of the Dúnedain.
In The Return of the King, when the Grey Company found Aragorn and the Rohirrim during their journey to Gondor, Elrond's son Elrohir told Aragorn, "I bring word to you from my father: The days are short. If thou art in haste, remember the Paths of the Dead." Aragorn took Elrond's advice, using the Paths of the Dead to reach Gondor in time to come to its aid. Elrond remained in Rivendell until the destruction of both the Ring and Sauron in the War of the Ring, he travelled to Minas Tirith for the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn, now King of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor. Three years at the approximate age of 6,520, Elrond left Middle-earth to go over the Sea with the Ring-bearers, never to return. Cyril Ritchard voiced Elrond in the 1977 Rankin/Bass animated film adaptation of The Hobbit. In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Elrond was voiced by André Morell; when Rankin/Bass attempted to finish the story with The Return of the King in 1980, actor Paul Frees voiced Elrond in the same style as Ritchard, who had since died.
In the Rankin/Bass version, Elrond was depicted with a pointed beard and a crown of stars floating around his head. Matthew Locricchio portrayed Elrond in National Public Radio's 1979 radio production of The Lord of the Rings. Hugh Dickson portrayed Elrond in BBC Radio's 1981 serialisation of The Lord of the Rings. In the 1993 Finnish televis
One Ring
The One Ring is an artefact that appears as the central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, it is described in The Hobbit, as a magic ring of invisibility. In the sequel, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien ascribes to the Ring a darker character, with malevolent power going far beyond conferring invisibility: it was created by Sauron the Dark Lord as part of his design to win dominion over Middle-earth; the Lord of the Rings concerns the quest to destroy the Ring to keep Sauron from fulfilling his design. In The Lord of the Rings and the posthumously published The Silmarillion, Tolkien provides a detailed internal development from the forging of the Ring to its destruction. In the fictional context of Middle-earth, these events take place during several thousand years in the Second and Third Age of Arda; the One Ring was forged by the Dark Lord Sauron during the Second Age to gain dominion over the free peoples of Middle-earth. In disguise as Annatar, or "Lord of Gifts", he aided the Elven smiths of Eregion and their leader Celebrimbor in the making of the Rings of Power.
He forged the One Ring himself in the fires of Mount Doom. Sauron intended it to be the most powerful of all Rings, able to rule and control those who wore the others. Since the other Rings were themselves powerful, Sauron was obliged to place much of his own power into the One to achieve his purpose. Creating the Ring strengthened and weakened Sauron's power. On the one hand, as long as Sauron had the Ring, he could control the power of all the other Rings, thus he was more powerful after its creation than before. On the other hand, by binding his power within the Ring, Sauron became dependent on it—without it, his power was diminished; the Ring seemed to be made of gold, but it was impervious to damage. It could be destroyed only by throwing it into the pit of the volcanic Mount Doom where it was forged. Unlike other rings, the One Ring was not susceptible to dragon fire, but it could still be heated to some extent, as Isildur's hand was burnt when he took the Ring for the first time, because it was hot.
Like some lesser rings forged by the Elves as "essays in the craft"—but unlike the other Rings of Power—the One Ring bore no gem. Its identity could be determined by a little-known but simple test: when placed in a fire, it displayed a fiery Tengwar inscription in the Black Speech of Mordor, with two lines from a rhyme of lore describing the Rings: Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie; the lines inscribed on the Ring were pronounced by Sauron. The Elven smiths heard him chanting them, thereupon became aware of his purpose and took off their own Rings to foil his plan. A person wearing the Ring would enter a shadowy world revealing the physical world from a different aspect, from which physical objects were harder to see.
The wearer was invisible to ordinary beings, such as Men, but visible to the Nazgûl. The Ring dimmed the wearer's sight; the enigmatic Tom Bombadil appeared to be unaffected by the Ring. Tom played with the Ring like a conjurer borrowing someone's watch for a trick making it disappear and reappear, but Gandalf maintained that while the Ring had no effect on Bombadil, Bombadil could not unmake it or alter its power on others. The Ring but corrupted its bearer, regardless of the bearer's initial intent; this corrupting power was stronger on individuals more inclined to evil and selfishness: it took immediate hold of the greedy Sméagol as soon as he saw it, corrupted Boromir after a few months of near proximity, while its effects were only starting to be seen in the well-meaning Bilbo after his sixty years' possession. The Wise such as Gandalf and Galadriel were not immune. Rather than wielding it, the Wise determined that it should be destroyed; the Ring had the ability to change size, its weight too.
As well as adapting to fingers of varying size, from Sauron's to Frodo's, it sometimes expanded to escape from its wearer. For this reason, Frodo attached the Ring to a chain around his neck to avoid unwillingly losing it; the words of the ring-inscription are in Black Speech, a language devised by Sauron and used in the land of Mordor. The inscription reflects the One Ring's power to control the other Rings of Power; the writing uses Elvish letters, in a mode adapted to the Black Speech. The One Ring appeared plain and featureless, but when heated its inscription appeared in fiery letters. A drawing of the inscription and a translation provided by Gandalf appears in Book I, Chapter 2 of The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Shadow of the Past". Gandalf speaks the words in Black Speech in Book II, Chapter 2, "The Council of Elrond": Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. Translated, the words mean: One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them,One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
When Isildur took the Ring from Sauron's
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of British writer J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium; the term is equivalent to the term Midgard of Norse mythology, describing the human-inhabited world, that is, the central continent of the Earth in Tolkien's imagined mythological past. Tolkien's most read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, take place in Middle-earth, Middle-earth has become a short-hand to refer to the legendarium and Tolkien's fictional take on the world. Within his stories, Tolkien translated the name "Middle-earth" as Endor and Ennor in the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin sometimes referring only to the continent that the stories take place on, with another southern continent called the Dark Land. Middle-earth is the north continent of Earth in an imaginary period of the Earth's past, in the sense of a "secondary or sub-creational reality", its general position is reminiscent of Europe, with the environs of the Shire intended to be reminiscent of England. Tolkien's stories chronicle the struggle to control the world and the continent of Middle-earth: on one side, the angelic Valar, the Elves and their allies among Men.
In ages, after Morgoth's defeat and expulsion from Arda, his place was taken by his lieutenant Sauron. The Valar withdrew from direct involvement in the affairs of Middle-earth after the defeat of Morgoth, but in years they sent the wizards or Istari to help in the struggle against Sauron; the most important wizards were Gandalf the Saruman the White. Gandalf proved crucial in the fight against Sauron. Saruman, became corrupted and sought to establish himself as a rival to Sauron for absolute power in Middle-earth. Other races involved in the struggle against evil were Dwarves and most famously Hobbits; the early stages of the conflict are chronicled in The Silmarillion, while the final stages of the struggle to defeat Sauron are told in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings. Conflict over the possession and control of precious or magical objects is a recurring theme in the stories; the First Age is dominated by the doomed quest of the elf Fëanor and most of his Noldorin clan to recover three precious jewels called the Silmarils that Morgoth stole from them.
The Second and Third Age are dominated by the forging of the Rings of Power, the fate of the One Ring forged by Sauron, which gives its wearer the power to control or influence those wearing the other Rings of Power. In ancient Germanic mythology, the world of Men is known by several names, such as Midgard, Middenheim and Middengeard; the Old English middangeard descends from an earlier Germanic word and so has cognates in languages related to Old English such as the Old Norse word Miðgarðr from Norse mythology, transliterated to modern English as Midgard. The term "Middle-earth", it is found throughout the Modern English period as a development of the Middle English word middel-erde, which developed in turn, through a process of folk etymology, from middanġeard. By the time of the Middle English period, middangeard was being written as middellærd, midden-erde, or middel-erde, indicating that the second element had been reinterpreted, based on its similarity to the word for "earth"; the shift in meaning was not great, however: middangeard properly meant "middle enclosure" instead of "middle-earth".
Tolkien first encountered the term middangeard in an Old English fragment he studied in 1914: Éala éarendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended. Hail Earendel, brightest of angels / above the middle-earth sent unto men; this quote is from the second of the fragmentary remnants of the Crist poems by Cynewulf. The name Éarendel was the inspiration for Tolkien's mariner Eärendil, who set sail from the lands of Middle-earth to ask for aid from the angelic powers, the Valar. Tolkien's earliest poem about Eärendil, from 1914, the same year he read the Crist poems, refers to "the mid-world's rim"; the concept of middangeard was considered by Tolkien to be the same as a particular usage of the Greek word οἰκουμένη - oikoumenē. In this usage Tolkien says that the oikoumenē is "the abiding place of men". Tolkien wrote: Middle-earth is... not my own invention. It is a modernization or alteration... of an old word for the inhabited world of Men, the oikoumene: middle because thought of vaguely as set amidst the encircling Seas and between ice of the North and the fire of the South.
O. English middan-geard, mediaeval E. midden-erd, middle-erd. Many reviewers seem to assume. However, the term "Middle-earth" is not found in Tolkien's earliest writings about Middle-earth, dating from the early 1920s and published in The Book of Lost Tales. Nor is the term used in The Hobbit. Tolkien began to use the term "Middle-earth" in the late 1930s, in place of the earlier terms "Great Lands", "Outer Lands", "Hither Lands"
Lothlórien
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Lothlórien or Lórien is the fairest realm of the Elves remaining in Middle-earth during the Third Age; the realm, a broad woodland valley, plays an important part in The Lord of the Rings as the Elven centre of resistance against Sauron and is a symbol for the Elves' aesthetics of preservation which provides a space'out of time' for the characters who both live and visit there. With Lothlórien, Tolkien reconciles otherwise conflicting ideas regarding time-distortion in Elfland from various traditional sources such as Thomas the Rhymer and the Danish folk-play Elverhøj. Tolkien gave the same forest many different names: The form Lórinand was rendered in Quenya as Laurenandë and in Sindarin as Glornan or Nan Laur, all of the same meaning. Other names given to the land included the much Rohirric name Dwimordene, the Westron name the Golden Wood. Early in the First Age some of the Eldar left the Great March and settled in the lands east of the Misty Mountains.
These elves became known as the Nandor and the Silvan Elves. By S. A. 1200 Galadriel had made contact with an existing Nandorin realm, Lindórinand, in the area that would be known as Lothlórien, planted there the golden mallorn trees which Gil-galad had received as a gift from Tar-Aldarion. The culture and knowledge of the Silvan elves was enriched by the arrival of Sindarin Elves from west of the mountains and the Silvan language was replaced by Sindarin. Amongst these arrivals was Amdír, who became their first lord, as well as Galadriel and Celeborn, who crossed the mountains and the Anduin to join these southern Nandor after the destruction of Eregion during the War of the Elves and Sauron. Amdír led an army out of the forest as part of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, just as Oropher, another Sindarin lord, led the Silvan Elves of the north in the same victory over Sauron, so it can be assumed that both northern and southern woodland realms had been founded by then. With the gradual return of Sauron's malign influence to the forest east of Anduin, the northern Silvan Elves led by Thranduil son of Oropher, moved further north to escape it, those of the south returned west across the Anduin, although without their last Sindarin lord Amroth son of Amdír, who departed to Edhellond after his lover Nimrodel had fled there.
It was revealed that Galadriel's Ring enriched the land by preserving its flora from death and decay, in wielding it she created a powerful ward against all creatures of evil intent: in fact, the only way that Galadriel's Lothlórien could have been conquered by Mordor is if Sauron himself, the master of all the Rings of Power, had gone there. Following the departure of Galadriel for Valinor at the beginning of the Fourth Age, the Elves of Lothlórien were ruled by Celeborn alone, who led them across the Anduin to found a new, larger realm, East Lórien, centred on Amon Lanc. By the time of the death of Queen Arwen and Galadriel's granddaughter, Lothlórien itself was deserted. Lothlórien was located in the west of the large region of Wilderland. On its west stood the great Misty Mountains, on its east ran the great river Anduin; the fabulous Dwarf-realm of Moria was situated nearby to the north-west, at the entrance to routes through the Misty Mountains. Across the Anduin lay the vast forest of Mirkwood and the fortress of Dol Guldur.
The river Silverlode flowed through Lothlórien. The realm lay to the north of the Silverlode, other than the small strip of forested land to the south; the main part of the realm was the Gore in Westron. The narrowest portion of the Naith, where the two rivers came together, was called Egladil, or the Angle, or the Tongue. Caras Galadhon, a city of great trees and the capital of Lothlórien, stood "some ten miles" back from the point; the Elves of Lothlórien resided in flets, or tree-houses. These ranged from simple guard-posts on the borders to elaborate halls in Caras Galadhon. For thousands of years Lothlórien had an unnatural climate; the weather remained in perpetual Spring, regardless of the change of seasons in the surrounding lands. This feature, ascribed to the magical power of Elves, was experienced by the Fellowship of the Ring; when the Elves left Lothlórien in the early Fourth Age, the climate reverted to that of the surrounding areas. Despite the unnatural climate of Lothlórien, the annual cycles of its mallorn trees continued in synchronization with the normal seasons outside Lothlórien.
As well as inspiring real-world places, Lothlórien has been depicted in other media. In the Middle-earth Role Playing supplement Lórien and the Halls of the Elven Smiths, Lórien society is divided into several guilds, or "Glades" with each one taking a specific craft; the hidden nature of the place is accorded to effects of the ring Nenya, Elessar, the elf-stone—which are both said to slow the effects of time. Its particular geographic position, being sheltered by the Misty Mountains from storms, the environmental effect of mallorn trees are claimed to cause a reduction in the effect of the passing seasons. In The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, Lorien was a region introduced to the game in March 2009, which allows
Angmar
Angmar is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's continent of Middle-earth, at the north end of the Misty Mountains, it was used by the Lord of the Ringwraiths as a base from which to attack the kingdoms of the Dúnedain in the North, all of which were destroyed. Angmar itself was subsequently destroyed by combined armies of men and elves shortly thereafter. Angmar was founded ca T. A. 1300 in the far north of the Misty Mountains by the Lord of the Ringwraiths, who became known as the "Witch-king of Angmar". The Witch-king came north to attack the Dúnedain of Arnor, whose disunity made them an easier target than Gondor at that time. Angmar straddled the northern reaches of the Misty Mountains, where many evil men gathered on both sides of the mountains; the chief fortress of Angmar was Carn Dûm. Soon after Angmar was founded, it waged war against the divided Dúnedain realms of Arthedain and Rhudaur; the Witch-king subverted Rhudaur, the weakest of Arnor's successor kingdoms, replaced its Dúnedain king with one of the native Hillmen.
Now under the Witch-king's control, Rhudaur invaded Arthedain in T. A. 1356, Arthedain's King Argeleb I was slain. However, with the aid of the armies of Cardolan, Arthedain managed to maintain a line of defence along the Weather Hills. In T. A. 1409 Angmar attacked Cardolan. At this time, Rhudaur disappeared, leaving Arthedain as the last remaining Dúnedain kingdom in Arnor. With help from Lindon, Arthedain struggled on for another 500 years; the end came in T. A. 1974. Angmar took Fornost, the capital of Arthedain, destroyed the last kingdom of the Dúnedain in the North. King Arvedui of Arthedain fled north; the following summer, Prince Eärnur of Gondor arrived to aid Arthedain. His army, along with the remaining Dúnedain, the elves of Lindon, a company of hobbit archers, elves led by Glorfindel from Rivendell, utterly defeated the forces of Angmar in the Battle of Fornost; the Witch-king, was not slain: he escaped and fled to Mordor. It was after this battle that Glorfindel made the famous prophecy that the Witch-king would be killed by no man.
The Witch-king had achieved his master's wishes: the power of the Dúnedain of the north was destroyed until the reign of Aragorn as King Elessar in the Fourth Age. Following this defeat of Angmar, its forces west of the Misty Mountains were shattered and it ceased to exist; the parts of it extending to the east of the Misty Mountains were wiped out by the ancestors of the Rohirrim, who settled in this northern territory under Frumgar. At the end of the Third Age, Frodo Baggins, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin Took were captured at the Barrow-downs on their journey to Rivendell; when rescued by Tom Bombadil, Merry thought he had been stabbed by one of the men of Carn Dûm, but realized this was a dream. In The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, the remains of Angmar consist of a mountainous, barren wasteland populated by hillmen and a large army of the Witch-king amassed to conquer Eriador. At the northern edge of Angmar are the ruins of Carn Dûm, which have been rebuilt and populated with the Witch-king's forces, overseen by Mordirith, the steward of Angmar.
Players can venture into Angmar to perform quests and fight the creatures there, as well as entering several instanced dungeons. In The Battle for Middle-earth II's expansion pack The Rise of the Witch-king the campaign tells the story of the Kingdom of Angmar and the fall of Arnor. Angmar is added as a seventh faction to the game. A campaign for the Angmar faction was created, showing the Witch King's Rise to Power and Conquest of Arnor. In The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, the final mission of the game takes place in Carn Dûm, corrupted by the power of Agandaur and set in mountainous and rugged terrain. In The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, it is stated that Sauron is attempting to capture the Lonely Mountain because controlling its location will give him a strategic advantage and allow him to restore Angmar. "Angmar". Encyclopedia of Arda
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck referred to as Merry, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings. A lover of boats and maps, Merry is described as one of the closest friends of Frodo Baggins, the main protagonist. Merry is a member of the Fellowship of the Ring, he shares a close association with Peregrin Took, another Hobbit who accompanies Frodo as a member of the Fellowship. Merry and Pippin become separated from the rest of the group at the breaking of the Fellowship and spend much of The Two Towers with their own story line. By the time of The Return of the King, he has enlisted in the army of Rohan as an esquire to King Théoden, in whose service he fights several battles during the War of the Ring. Upon the conclusion of the war, he returns to The Shire with his friend Pippin, where in time he inherited the title of Master of Buckland, he was interred in Gondor as a hero of the War of the Ring. When he first appeared in Tolkien's early drafts, his name was Drogo Took.
He was renamed Vigo, the name Drogo reassigned to Frodo's father. After that, he was renamed Marmaduke, Meriadoc Brandybuck. Frodo and Merry are first cousins once removed, their common ancestors are Mirabella Took Brandybuck. Merry was born T. A. 2982, in Buckland. He is the only child of Saradoc Brandybuck, a Master of Buckland, Esmeralda Brandybuck, the younger sister of Paladin Took II, making him first cousin to Paladin's son Peregrin Took. Merry married Estella Brandybuck, the younger sister of Fredegar Bolger, who helped Frodo, Sam and Pippin on the first leg of their quest journey. Meriadoc and Estella had at least one son; the Council of Elrond convened on 25 October, T. A. 3018 in Rivendell. In The Lord of the Rings, Merry is considered, was described by Tolkien as, the most perceptive and intelligent of the hobbits. Before Bilbo Baggins left the Shire, Merry knew of the One Ring and its power of invisibility, he guarded Bag End after Bilbo's party, protecting Frodo from the various and unwanted guests.
He has an innocent, teasing sense of humour. In one incident, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins accused Frodo of being no true Baggins. Merry assured Frodo, "It was a compliment. Merry was a force behind "the Conspiracy" of Sam, Fredegar Bolger and himself to help Frodo. Thus, at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, Merry was well-prepared and organized — he assembled their packs and brought ponies, his shortcut through the Old Forest distanced them from the Nazgûl for a time, though they had to be rescued from Old Man Willow by the enigmatic Tom Bombadil. In the Barrow-downs, he acquired his sword, a dagger forged in the kingdom of Arnor. At Bree, Merry was not present in the Prancing Pony when Frodo put on the Ring. At Rivendell, he was seen plotting their path, he was admitted to the Fellowship only a little less reluctantly than Pippin. At the entrance to Moria, he asked Gandalf the meaning of the door inscription "Speak and enter"; when Gandalf discovered the true interpretation, he said, "Merry, of all people, was on the right track".
At Amon Hen, he was captured, along with Pippin, by a band of Saruman's Uruk-hai, although he gave a good account of himself and was valiantly defended by Boromir. Escaping with Pippin into Fangorn forest, Merry was rescued by Treebeard. Along with Pippin, he drank significant amounts of Ent-draught and grew taller, despite being a grown adult Hobbit. Accompanying Treebeard to the Entmoot and to Isengard, he and Pippin took up residence in an Isengard gate-house, it was here that he first encountered King Théoden of Rohan, was reunited with four of the remaining members of the Fellowship. Merry was separated from Pippin after his friend beheld Sauron in the palantír and was hastily taken to Gondor with Gandalf on Shadowfax. Merry became esquire to the king. Against Théoden's orders, he rode to Gondor with Éowyn, disguised as a common soldier named Dernhelm. In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, while the Witch-king of Angmar was preoccupied with Éowyn, Merry stabbed him in the sinew behind his knee with a sword, made by the Dúnedain of Arnor for combat against the Nazgûl.
The Black Captain stumbled from Merry's stroke, Éowyn seized the moment to strike the Captain's head, destroying him. This fulfilled the prophecy, as he was not killed "by the hand of man," but rather by a hobbit and a woman. Merry went unnoticed by the honour escort of Riders. Aragorn healed him and he recovered more than Éowyn. For his bravery in battle, Merry was knighted by King Éomer as a Knight of the Mark. During the scouring of the Shire, he was in effect the commander of the hobbit forces, laid the plans for the ambush which resulted in the decisive victory at the Battle of Bywater, at which he killed the leader of the opposing forces. Upon his return, he and Pippin were seen to be the tallest of hobbits, taller than the legendary Bullroarer Took. In the Brandybuck family tree as it appeared in the First Edition, the name of Merry's wife was no
The Children of Húrin
The Children of Húrin is an epic fantasy novel which forms the completion of a tale by J. R. R. Tolkien, he wrote the original version of the story in the late 1910s, revised it several times but did not complete it before his death in 1973. His son, Christopher Tolkien, edited the manuscripts to form a consistent narrative, published it in 2007 as an independent work; the book contains 33 illustrations in colour. The history and descent of the main characters are given as the leading paragraphs of the book, the back story is elaborated upon in The Silmarillion, it begins five hundred years before the action of the book, when Morgoth, a Vala and the prime evil power, escapes from the Blessed Realm of Valinor to the north-west of Middle-earth. From his fortress of Angband he endeavours to gain control of the whole of Middle-earth, unleashing a war with the Elves that dwell in the land of Beleriand to the south. However, the Elves manage to stay his assault, most of their realms remain unconquered.
In addition, after some time the Noldorin Elves forsake Valinor and pursue Morgoth to Middle-earth in order to take vengeance upon him. Together with the Sindar of Beleriand, they proceed to lay siege to Angband, establish new strongholds and realms in Middle-earth, including Hithlum ruled by Fingon, Nargothrond by Finrod Felagund and Gondolin by Turgon. Three centuries pass, during; these are the Edain, descendants of those Men who have rebelled against the rule of Morgoth's servants and journeyed westward. Most of the Elves welcome them, they are given fiefs throughout Beleriand; the House of Bëor rules over the land of Ladros, the Folk of Haleth retreat to the forest of Brethil, the lordship of Dor-lómin is granted to the House of Hador. Other Men enter Beleriand, the Easterlings, many of whom are in secret league with Morgoth. Morgoth manages to break the Siege of Angband in the Battle of Sudden Flame; the House of Bëor is destroyed and the Elves and Edain suffer heavy losses. Túrin, son of Húrin of the race of Men, lived in Dor-lómin with his father, his mother Morwen, his sister Urwen.
Urwen died as a child from a plague. Túrin's father was taken prisoner by Morgoth after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. During Húrin's imprisonment Túrin was sent by his mother to live in the Elf-realm Doriath for protection. In his absence Morwen gave birth to her third child, a girl. Morgoth had placed a curse upon Húrin and all his family whereby evil would befall them for their whole lives. King Thingol of Doriath takes Túrin as a foster-son. During his time in Doriath Túrin befriends an Elf named Beleg, the two become close companions. Túrin accidentally causes the death of the Elf Saeros, who attempts to jump a ravine while fleeing but falls and is killed. Túrin refuses becoming an outlaw. Thingol tries Túrin in absentia and pardons him, he gives Beleg leave to bring him back to Doriath. Túrin meanwhile joins a band of outlaws in the wild, he renames himself Neithan, "the wronged" and becomes their captain. Beleg locates the band while Túrin is absent, the outlaws leave him tied to a tree until he agrees to give them information.
Túrin returns in time to cut Beleg free and, horrified by the outlaws' actions, resolves to forsake the cruel habits he has fallen into. Beleg delivers the message of the king's pardon but Túrin refuses to return to Doriath. Beleg returns to aid Doriath's defence. Túrin and his men capture a Petty-dwarf, who leads them to the caves at Amon Rûdh. Beleg decides to return to Túrin; the outlaws resent disliking Elves, grows to hate him. Mîm betrays the outlaws to orcs, leading the orcs to the caves where Túrin's company is taken unawares; the entire band is killed, save for Túrin. They take Túrin off towards Angband. Mîm is about to kill Beleg after the orcs depart when one of the outlaws, mortally wounded, rouses himself before dying to drive Mîm away and release Beleg. Beleg follows the orcs. Beleg happens across a mutilated elf, Gwindor of Nargothrond, sleeping in the forest of Taur-nu-Fuin, they enter the orc camp at night and carry Túrin, from the camp. Beleg begins to cut Túrin's bonds with his sword Anglachel, but the sword slips in his hand and cuts Túrin.
Túrin, mistaking Beleg for an orc, kills Beleg with his own sword. When a flash of lightning reveals Beleg's face, Túrin falls into a frenzy, he refuses to leave Beleg's body until morning. Túrin remains witless with grief. Túrin and Gwindor proceed to Nargothrond. There Túrin gains the favour of King Orodreth, after leading the Elves to considerable victories, he becomes Orodreth's chief counsellor and commander of his forces. Against all counsel Túrin refuses to hide Nargothrond from Morgoth or to retract his plans for full-scale battle. Morgoth sends an orc-army under the command of the dragon and Nargothrond is defeated; the orcs, crossing over the bridge that Túrin had built, sack Nargothrond and capture its citizens. Túrin returns as the prisoners are to be led away by the orcs, encounters Glaurung; the dragon enchants and tricks him into returning to Dor-lómin to seek out Morwen and Niënor instead of rescuing the prisoners—among whom is Finduilas, Orodreth’s daughter, who loved him. In Dor-lómin Túrin learns that Morwen and Niënor
