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Ancalagon

2007-12-21T08:17:35Z

209.86.74.78:

{{Pronounce|Ancalagon.mp3|Ardamir}}
[[Image:Daniel Govar - Ancalagon the Black.jpg|thumb|250px|''Ancalagon the Black'' by [[Daniel Govar]]]]
'''Ancalagon''' ("Rushing Jaws") '''the Black''' was the greatest [[Dragon]] of [[Middle-earth]]

The Dark Lord [[Morgoth]] bred Ancalagon during the [[First Age]] to be the mightiest of all the winged Dragons. During the [[War of Wrath]] that pitted Morgoth's armies against the host of the [[Valar]], Morgoth sent Ancalagon forth from the fortress of [[Angband]] to destroy the Dark Lord's enemies. So powerful was the dragon that even the [[Valar]] host was driven back.

But [[Eärendil the Mariner|Eärendil]], a [[Half-elven]] descendent of the princes of the [[Eldar]] and [[Edain]], descended from the sky on his ship [[Vingilot]] and duelled with Ancalagon. They fought for an entire day until Eärendil slew the dragon, whose ruined corpse crashed down upon the triple-peaked towers of [[Thangorodrim]], destroying them. With his mightiest defender slain, [[Morgoth]] was utterly defeated soon afterward.

Ancalagon was said to have been so large that he blotted out the [[Sun]]. [[Gandalf]] later said that Ancalagon's fire-breath was hotter than that of any other dragon in history, and he speculated that it was hot enough to destroy even Rings of Power, although not the [[One Ring]] itself. It is not stated as to what methods or weapons Eärendil used to battle, and eventually kill, so vast and mighty a creature.

It is possible that Ancalagon's titanic size might have turned into a disadvantage when fighting a foe so comparativly small as Vingilot in the air, if one were to compare such an action to a large adult human attempting to swat a gnat buzzing around him. Eärendil more than likely had aid from the Eagles, which might be likened to trying to find and swat a gnat while at the same time fending off a swarm of angry bees. Eärendil may have focused on shredding the great dragon's wings, a difficult attempt at best, as to eventually deprive Ancalagon of the ability to fly, thus letting the great reptile simply fall to his grusome and doubtlessly painful death on the jagged tops of Thangorodrim.

Whatever method he might have used, Eärendil's slaying of Ancalagon would have been one of the greatest and most spectacular battles in all the recorded history of [[Arda]] before or since, even eclipsing [[Gandalf]]'s battle against the [[Balrog]] of [[Moria]] ages later.

{{dragons}}

[[Category:Dragons]]
[[de:Ancalagon]]
[[fi:Ancalagon]]

Nori

2007-12-21T08:05:06Z

209.86.74.78:

{{dwarves infobox
| image=[[Image:Angelo Montanini - Nori.jpg|250px]]
| name=Nori
| othernames=
| life=c. [[TA]] 2780 - ?
| realm=[[Erebor]], [[Blue Mountains]]
| parentage=Unknown
| lineage=[[House of Durin]]
| hood=Purple
| gender=Male
|}}

'''Nori''' was a [[Dwarf]] of [[Durin's folk]] who lived in the northern [[Blue Mountains]] and later [[Erebor]]. He had two brothers named [[Dori]], and [[Ori]], and was a remote kinsmen of [[Thorin Oakenshield]]. His hood was purple, he played the flute, and he was very fond of regular and plentiful meals.

== [[The Quest of Erebor]] ==

In 2941, Nori was selected as one of the twelve Dwarves to accompany King Thorin II Oakenshield to the Lonely Mountain to defeat the Dragon [[Smaug]] on the Quest of Erebor.
When Thorin and Company fled from the [[Wargs]] and [[Goblins]] they had climbed some trees to safety, where Nori was the first to realize that [[Bilbo Baggins | Bilbo]] had been left behind on the ground. To which Dori saved him.
He later fought and survived the [[Battle of Five Armies]], was given his share of the treasure by [[Dáin II Ironfoot]], and made his home in the mountain.

== Erebor, and the War of the Ring ==

During the [[War of the Ring Nori was still living in Erebor, and possibly fought in the [[Battle of Dale]].

His date of death is not known.

{{Template:Thorin and Company}}

[[Category:Longbeards]]
[[Category:Characters in The Hobbit]]

Tol Eressëa

2007-12-21T06:26:42Z

209.86.74.78:

{{expansion}}
{{location
| image=[[Image:Billy Mosig - Parting from Eressea.jpg|300px]]
| name=Tol Eressëa
| othernames=
| etymology=[[Q.]] ''[[tol]]'' "isle" + ''[[eressëa]]'' "lonely"
| type=Island
| location=[[Aman]], in [[Belegaer]]
| inhabitants=[[Eldar]]
| realms=[[Valinor]]
| description=Arrowhead-shaped island, green and beautiful
| events=
| references=''[[The Silmarillion]]''
|}}
'''Tol Eressëa''' is a large island, where the [[mallorn]] trees come from. Its name may be translated from [[Elvish]] as the ''Lonely Island'', for it lay originally in the middle of the [[Belegaer]], far from any other landmasses.

[[Ulmo]] pushed it back and forth across Belegaer twice to transport the [[Elves]] to [[Aman]]. After that, it came to rest forever just off the eastern shore of that continent in the [[Bay of Eldamar]], and was inhabited by the [[Teleri]] of Aman, until they left to [[Alqualondë]].

With the end of the [[First Age]], many of the [[Eldar]] of [[Middle-earth]] exiles (and Teleri that never left it) went to Aman, and lived in the island of Tol Eressëa. Its principle location is the city/port of [[Avallónë]] on the eastern shore. It was also large enough to house many other towns and villages, and one of its houses was the [[Cottage of Lost Play]].

----
In early versions of Tolkien's legendarium (see: ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]''), the island was later visited by [[Ælfwine]] (or Eriol), an Englishman from the Middle Ages, which provided a framework for the tales that later became ''[[The Silmarillion]]''.

[[Category:Islands]]
[[Category:Aman]]

Tol Eressëa

2007-12-21T06:22:47Z

209.86.74.78:

{{expansion}}
{{location
| image=[[Image:Billy Mosig - Parting from Eressea.jpg|300px]]
| name=Tol Eressëa
| othernames=
| etymology=[[Q.]] ''[[tol]]'' "isle" + ''[[eressëa]]'' "lonely"
| type=Island
| location=[[Aman]], in [[Belegaer]]
| inhabitants=[[Eldar]]
| realms=[[Valinor]]
| description=Arrowhead-shaped island, green and beautiful
| events=
| references=''[[The Silmarillion]]''
|}}
'''Tol Eressëa''' is a large island, where the [[mallorn]] trees come from. Its name may be translated from [[Elvish]] as the ''Lonely Island'', for it lay originally in the middle of the [[Belegaer]], far from any other landmasses.

[[Ulmo]] pushed it back and forth across Belegaer twice to transport the [[Elves]] to [[Aman]]. After that, it came to rest forever just off the eastern shore of that continent in the [[Bay of Eldamar]], and was inhabited by the [[Teleri]] of Aman, until they left to [[Alqualondë]].

With the end of the [[First Age]], many of the [[Eldar]] of [[Middle-earth]] exiles (and Teleri that never left it) went to Aman, and lived in the island of Tol Eressëa. Its principle location is the city/port of [[Avallone]] on the eastern shore. It was large enough to house many other towns and villages, and one of its houses was the [[Cottage of Lost Play]].

----
In early versions of Tolkien's legendarium (see: ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]''), the island was later visited by [[Ælfwine]] (or Eriol), an Englishman from the Middle Ages, which provided a framework for the tales that later became ''[[The Silmarillion]]''.

[[Category:Islands]]
[[Category:Aman]]

Tol Eressëa

2007-12-21T06:21:29Z

209.86.74.78:

{{expansion}}
{{location
| image=[[Image:Billy Mosig - Parting from Eressea.jpg|300px]]
| name=Tol Eressëa
| othernames=
| etymology=[[Q.]] ''[[tol]]'' "isle" + ''[[eressëa]]'' "lonely"
| type=Island
| location=[[Aman]], in [[Belegaer]]
| inhabitants=[[Eldar]]
| realms=[[Valinor]]
| description=Arrowhead-shaped island, green and beautiful
| events=
| references=''[[The Silmarillion]]''
|}}
'''Tol Eressëa''' is a large island, where the [[mallorn]] trees come from. Its name may be translated from [[Elvish]] as the ''Lonely Island'', for it lay originally in the middle of the [[Belegaer]], far from any other landmasses.

[[Ulmo]] pushed it back and forth across Belegaer twice to transport the [[Elves]] to [[Aman]]. After that, it came to rest forever just off the eastern shore of that continent in the [[Bay of Eldamar]], and was inhabited by the [[Teleri]] of Aman, until they left to [[Alqualondë]].

With the end of the [[First Age]], many of the [[Eldar]] of [[Middle-earth]] exiles (and Teleri that never left it) went to Aman, and lived in the island of Tol Eressëa. Its principle location is the city/port of [[Avallone]]on the eastern shore. It was large enough to house many other towns and villages, and one of its houses was the [[Cottage of Lost Play]].

----
In early versions of Tolkien's legendarium (see: ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]''), the island was later visited by [[Ælfwine]] (or Eriol), an Englishman from the Middle Ages, which provided a framework for the tales that later became ''[[The Silmarillion]]''.

[[Category:Islands]]
[[Category:Aman]]

Mirkwood

2007-12-21T04:41:17Z

209.86.74.78: /* Mirkwood After the War of the Ring */

{{location
| image=[[Image:Alan_Lee_-_%27%27Well%2C_here_is_Mirkwood%21%27%27_said_Gandalf.jpg|300px]]
| name=Mirkwood
| othernames=[[Greenwood the Great]], [[Taur-nu-Fuin (Mirkwood)|Taur-nu-Fuin]], [[Eryn Lasgalen]]
| etymology=Anglicized [[Westron]] ''mirk'' + ''wood''
| type=Forest
| location=East of the [[Misty Mountains]], south of [[Ered Mithrin]]
| inhabitants=[[Spiders]], [[Wood-elves]], [[Orcs]], [[Nazgûl]]
| realms=[[Woodland Realm]], [[Dol Guldur]]
| description=Deep, thick, dark forest
| events=[[Fall of Dol Guldur]]
| references='''References Needed'''
|}}
'''Mirkwood''' was the name of a great wood east of the [[Misty Mountains]] in [[Rhovanion]]. The name originally came from Germanic legends.

Projected into Old English, the term appears as ''Myrcwudu'' in Tolkien's ''[[The Lost Road and Other Writings|The Lost Road]]'', as a poem sung by [[Aelfwine]] (''[[King Sheave]]'', [[The Lost Road and Other Writings]]):
<poem>
Sea-danes and Goths, Swedes and Northmen,
Franks and Frisians, folk of the islands,
Swordmen and Saxons, Swabes and English,
and the Langobards who long ago
beyond Myrcwudu a mighty realm
and wealth won them in the Welsh countries
where Ælfwine Eadwine's heir
in Italy was king. All that has passed.
</poem>

Mirkwood also appears in the [[Middle-earth]] fiction, as the names of two distinct forests.

In [[the Lord of the Rings]] and associated writings, Mirkwood is used as a translation of the unknown [[Westron]] name for the great forest in [[Rhovanion]]. The forest held the dwelling of a [[Silvan Elves|Silvan]] [[Elves|Elven]] kingdom, ruled by King [[Thranduil]]. It had been called ''Greenwood the Great'' until around the year 1050 in the [[Third Age]] of the [[Years of the Sun]], when a shadow of the dark lord [[Sauron]] fell upon it, and men began to call it ''Taur-nu-Fuin'' and ''Taur-e-Ndaedelos'' in the [[Sindarin]] tongue. Sauron established himself at the hill-fortress of [[Dol Guldur]] on ''Amon Lanc'', and drove Thranduil and his people ever northward, so that by the end of the [[Third Age]] they were a diminished and wary people, who had entrenched themselves beyond the ''Mountains of Mirkwood'' (''Emyn Fuin'', formerly the ''Emyn Duir'' or "Dark Mountains"). The ''Old Forest Road'' or ''Old Dwarf Road'' crossed the forest east to west, but due to its relative proximity to Dol Guldur, the road was mostly unusable. The [[Elves]] made a path farther to the north, which ended somewhere in the marshes south of the Long Lake of [[Esgaroth]].

== Mirkwood in ''The Silmarillion'' ==

In [[The Silmarillion]], the highlands of [[Dorthonion]] eventually fell under [[Morgoth]]'s spell, and was renamed to [[Taur-nu-Fuin]] ("Forest under Deadly Nightshade") in [[Sindarin]], a name which Tolkien translated as ''Mirkwood'' in English. Along with the rest of [[Beleriand]] this forest disappeared after the cataclysm of the [[War of Wrath]], although part of its peaks may have survived as an island far of the coast of [[Lindon]].

== Mirkwood in ''The Hobbit'' ==

In ''[[The Hobbit]]'', [[Bilbo Baggins]], along with [[Thorin Oakenshield]] and his band of [[Dwarves]], ventured into Mirkwood during their quest to regain [[Erebor]] from the [[Dragons|Dragon]] [[Smaug]]. There, they came across many great spiders, the breed of [[Shelob]]. Shortly after the Dwarves' escape, they were captured by the Elves. After or during these events the [[White Council]] attacked Dol Guldur, and Sauron fled to [[Mordor]], and his influence in Mirkwood diminished for a while.

== Mirkwood in the ''The Lord of the Rings'' ==

Sometime after losing the [[One Ring]] in [[The Hobbit]], [[Gollum]] left the [[Misty Mountains]] to try to find it. He was captured by servants of Sauron and interrogated, then released. After his release from Mordor, he was captured by [[Aragorn II|Aragorn]] and brought as a prisoner to Thranduil's halls. He escaped during an [[Orcs|Orc]] raid, and fled south to [[Moria]].

During the [[War of the Ring]], [[Dol Guldur]] sent troops to attack [[Lorien]] to the West, and [[Thranduil's halls]] to the far North. Lorien was assaulted three times by Dol Guldur with failure and [[Thranduil]] lead a great battle under the trees and was victorious. [[Celeborn]] lead his forces across the [[Anduin]] from Lorien, while Thranduil lead his from the North to attack Dol Guldur for the last time. [[Galadriel]] threw down the gates of the stronghold and the darkness was lifted from Mirkwood, and it became known again by its old name of '''Eryn Lasgalen''', Sindarin for the '''Wood of Greenleaves'''.

== Mirkwood After the War of the Ring ==

Celeborn expanded Lorien with the addition of Southern Mirkwood which became known as East Lorien, and Thranduil's realm went as far south as the Mountains of Mirkwood. The land in between was given to the [[Beornings]] and [[Woodmen]].

[[Category:Regions]]
[[Category:Forests]]
[[Category:Rhovanion]]