An encyclopedia of Middle-earth and Numenor

This site is intended as an online reference tool for Tolkien fans and newcomers to Tolkien's world. It is my intention to provide descriptive entries of the people, places, things, and events found in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and to lead readers to the major passages in the books where they occur and to other sources of information as applicable. I am not a Tolkien scholar, I am simply a long-time fan of Tolkien's work. I have created this site for my own enjoyment and for the enjoyment and, hopefully, occasional enlightenment of others.

The encyclopedia is a work in progress. There are hundreds of names in Tolkien's works, and it takes time to research and write each entry. Although I do frequent updates, it will be a long time before the encyclopedia is complete.

All possible care has been taken to ensure that the information in these entries is correct using the sources listed below. Conjecture and debatable points are noted as such. Comments, corrections and questions can be e-mailed to thain at tuckborough.net. If you are suggesting a correction, please cite your source.

All entries on this site are the original work of The Thain's Book. If you would like to quote brief passages from this site, please include a reference link to The Thain's Book at www.tuckborough.net. Please keep the length and extent of quotations from this site within reason. If you have any questions about what you may quote, e-mail thain at tuckborough.net.

I am not in any way affiliated with the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien, Tolkien Enterprises, Houghton Mifflin, Harper Collins UK, or New Line Cinema.

Sources of Information:

The information on this site is drawn mainly from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Page references and quotes are cited from the following American hardcover editions published by Houghton Mifflin:

The Hobbit: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. ISBN: 0-395-17711-1
The Fellowship of the Ring: Houghton Mifflin, 1965 (Second Edition). ISBN: 0-395-48931-8
The Two Towers: Houghton Mifflin, 1965 (Second Edition). ISBN: 0-395-48933-4
The Return of the King: Houghton Mifflin, 1965 (Second Edition). ISBN: 0-395-48930-X

Other writings of J.R.R. Tolkien used as sources include the American hardcover edtions of:

The Silmarillion: Houghton Mifflin, 2001, ©1977 (Second Edition). ISBN: 0-618-13504-9
Unfinished Tales: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. ISBN: 0-618-15404-3
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. ISBN: 0-618-05699-8
"Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings," in A Tolkien Compass: Open Court Publishing, 1975. ISBN: 0-87548-303-8
The History of Middle-earth, volumes I - XII, edited by Christopher Tolkien: Houghton Mifflin, 1983-1996

Sources used in conjunction with Tolkien's writings include:

Reference:
The Annotated Hobbit by Douglas Anderson: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. ISBN: 0-618-13470-0
The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. ISBN-10: 0-618-64267-6; ISBN-13: 978-0-618-64267-0
The Encyclopedia of Arda by Mark Fisher
The Complete Guide to Middle-earth by Robert Foster: Ballantine, 1971, 1978. ISBN: 0-345-44976-2
J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. ISBN: 0-618-12764-X

Maps & Illustrations:
The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad: Houghton Mifflin, 1991 (Revised Edition). ISBN: 0-618-12699-6
The Journeys of Frodo by Barbara Strachey: Ballantine, 1981. ISBN: 0-345-29723-7
J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator by Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. ISBN: 0-395-74816-X

Languages:
The Quenya Corpus Wordlist
Hiswelókë's Sindarin Dictionary
Gateway to Sindarin by David Salo
The Tolkien Language List
Lambengolmor
A Tolkien Dictionary by Robert Ireland
Old English Made Easy
Bright's Old English Glossary
Old English Glossary at Beowulf on Steorarume compiled by Benjamin Slade

Proper names of characters, places, creatures and things are the property of Tolkien Enterprises.

Illustrations & Fonts:

Many illustrations on this site are from Peter Jackson's film version of The Lord of the Rings and are the property of New Line Cinema.

Other illustrations are the work of John Howe, Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith, Anke-Katrin Eissmann, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others and are the property of the artists.

The maps and family trees are the work of The Thain's Book.

The Celtic font used in the headers was created by Dan Smith and is available for download at his site, along with various Tengwar fonts.

Accents and Diacritical Marks:

Many of the words and names created by J.R.R. Tolkien include accent marks. However, accents and diacritical marks pose a problem for Internet searching in that letters with accents are created as "special characters" that are not recognized when the unaccented letter is entered in a search term. Thus, if one searches for "Gúthwinë" one will not find "Guthwine" and vice versa. As a compromise between preserving Tolkien's original language and making this site easily searchable, accent marks are used in the subject's entry header, but not in the body of the text. For example:

Gúthwinë:
Guthwine was the sword of Eomer ...

Dates:

All dates given are Third Age unless otherwise noted. Shire Reckoning (S.R.) can be determined by subtracting 1600 from a Third Age date. Shire Reckoning began in the year 1601 of the Third Age, when the Hobbits crossed the Brandywine into the Shire led by Marcho and Blanco.

Fourth Age (F.A.) dates are more difficult to determine. According to the New Reckoning in Gondor, Year One of the Fourth Age began on March 25, 3021 of the Third Age. However, in the Shire the Fourth Age was thought to have started at the beginning of 3022, though they continued to number the years according to Shire Reckoning.

It is not always clear whether a given Fourth Age date is derived from the method used in Gondor or the Shire. Therefore, depending on the source there may be a discrepancy of one year in Fourth Age dates.

Since this is a Hobbit-oriented site I have chosen to calculate Fourth Age dates from the dates given in Shire Reckoning in "The Tale of Years" according to the method used in the Shire. Therefore, one subtracts 1421 from the Shire Reckoning date to get a Fourth Age date. For example:

To calculate Fourth Age dates from Shire Reckoning dates according to the method used in Gondor, subtract 1420 instead.

In some sources, Third Age dates are given for events in the Fourth Age. For these dates, subtract 3021 to get the Fourth Age date as reckoned in the Shire. To get the Fourth Age date according to the New Reckoning of Gondor subtract 3020. For example:

All entries are Copyright © 2003-2008, The Thain's Book - www.tuckborough.net - e-mail: thain at tuckborough.net