[Resource - Released v. 1.01] Of the Lore of Middle-earth (A Brief Overview of Matters of Lore)

[Alkar]

Hello fellow Tolkien fans! I have decided to post my general overview of the matters of lore in Middle-earth! Whereas my other thread, Of the Rings of Power and other Topics of Middle-earth Lore, was dedicated to the discussion of certain topics regarding the lore of Middle-earth, this thread has been created for the purpose of displaying an overview of the mechanics, peoples, technology, and geography of Middle-earth in a user-friendly format, complete with illustrations. I originally posted this thread in the forum of another mod, Total War: Middle-earth, which has unfortunately ceased development. The forum was then deleted. What I could salvage is posted here, but unfortunately only some of it could be salvaged. Expect updates and revisions as I have the time, which unfortunately doesn't happen very often anymore. Anyway, enjoy!


Once again, here is the link to my other lore thread: Of the Rings of Power and Other Topics of Middle-earth Lore (Lore Discussion Thread). Feel free to drop by and take a look or start a conversation! I would very much appreciate comments!

[Alkar]

Armour


Examples of Hauberks (Usually Knee-length Mail), Corslets (Usually a coat of Mail or Plates), Byrnies (Usually Waist-length Mail), Habergoens (Sleeveless Coat of Mail), Vambraces (Arm-guards), Greaves (Leg-guards), and foot and neck protection (when mentioned the protection is always made of iron).


The Silmarillion


Now the traffic of the Dwarves down from the Blue Mountains followed two roads across East Beleriand, and the northern way, going towards the Fords of Aros, passed nigh to Nan Elmoth; and there Eöl would meet the Naugrim and hold converse with them. And as their friendship grew he would at times go and dwell as guest in the deep mansions of Nogrod or Belegost. There he learned much of metalwork, and came to great skill therein; and he devised a metal as hard as the steel of the Dwarves, but so malleable that he could make it thin and supple; and yet it remained resistant to all blades and darts. He named it galvorn, for it was black and shining like jet, and he was clad in it whenever he went abroad. (Most Likely Special Elvish Plate Armour)


Therefore Thingol took thought for arms, which before his people had not needed, and these at first the Naugrim smithied for him; for they were greatly skilled in such work, though none among them surpassed the craftsmen of Nogrod, of whom Telchar the smith was greatest in renown. A warlike race of old were all the Naugrim, and they would fight fiercely against whomsoever aggrieved them: servants of Melkor, or Eldar, or Avari, or wild beasts, or not seldom their own kin, Dwarves of other mansions and lordships. Their smithcraft indeed the Sindar soon learned of them; yet in the tempering of steel alone of all crafts the Dwarves were never outmatched even by the Noldor, and in the making of mail of linked rings, which was first contrived by the smiths of Belegost, their work had no rival. At this time therefore the Sindar were well-armed, and they drove off an creatures of evil, and had peace again; but Thingol's armouries were stored with axes and with spears and swords, and tall helms, and long coats of bright mail; for the hauberks of the Dwarves were so fashioned that they rusted not but shone ever as if they were new-burnished. And that proved well for Thingol in the time that was to come. (Dwarves)


Now as has been told, one Lenwë of the host of Olwë forsook the march of the Eldar at that time when the Teleri were halted by the shores of the Great River upon the borders of the westlands of Middle-earth. Little is known of the wanderings of the Nandor, whom he led away down Anduin: some, it is said, dwelt age-long in the woods of the Vale of the Great River, some came at last to its mouths and there dwelt by the Sea, and yet others passing by Ered Nimrais, the White Mountains, came north again and entered the wilderness of Eriador between Ered Luin and the far Mountains of Mist. Now these were a woodland people and had no weapons of steel, and the coming of the fell beasts of the North filled them with great fear, as the Naugrim declared to King Thingol in Menegroth. Therefore Denethor, the son of Lenwë, hearing rumour of the might of Thingol and his majesty, and of the peace of his realm, gathered such host of his scattered people as he could, and led them over the mountains into Beleriand. There they were welcomed by Thingol, as kin long lost that return, and they dwelt in Ossiriand, the Land of Seven Rivers. (Elves in Comparison with Others)


Then they cast Eöl over the Caragdûr, and so he ended, and to all in Gondolin it seemed just; but Idril was troubled, and from that day she mistrusted her kinsman. But Maeglin prospered and grew great among the Gondolindrim, praised by all, and high in the favour of Turgon; for if he would learn eagerly and swiftly all that he might, he had much also to teach. And he gathered about him all such as had the most bent to smithcraft and mining; and he sought in the Echoriath (which are the Encircling Mountains), and found rich lodes of ore of divers metals. Most he prized the hard iron of the mine of Anghabar in the north of the Echoriath, and thence he got a wealth of forged metal and of steel, so that the arms of the Gondolindrim were made ever stronger and more keen; and that stood them in good stead in the days to come. Wise in counsel was Maeglin and wary, and yet hardy and valiant at need. And that was seen in after days: for when in the dread year of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad Turgon opened his leaguer and marched forth to the help of Fingon in the north, Maeglin would not remain in Gondolin as regent of the King, but went to the war and fought beside Turgon, and proved fell and fearless in battle. (Elves Starting to Use Steel)


Now Morgoth, who knew much of what was done and designed by his enemies, chose his hour, and trusting in his treacherous servants to hold back Maedhros and prevent the union of his foes he sent a force seeming great (and yet but part of all that he had made ready) towards Hithlum; and they were clad all in dun raiment and showed no naked steel, and thus were already far over the sands of Anfauglith before their approach was seen. (Orcs of Melkor)


Then in the plain of Anfauglith, on the fourth day of the war, there began Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Unnumbered Tears, for no song or tale can contain all its grief. The host of Fingon retreated over the sands, and Haldir lord of the Haladin was slain in the rearguard; with him fell most of the Men of Brethil, and came never back to their woods. But on the fifth day as night fell, and they were still far from Ered Wethrin, the Orcs surrounded the host of Hithlum, and they fought until day, pressed ever closer. In the morning came hope, when the horns of Turgon were heard as he marched up with the main host of Gondolin; for they had been stationed southward guarding the Pass of Sirion, and Turgon restrained most of his people from the rash onslaught. Now he hastened to the aid of his brother; and the Gondolindrim were strong and clad in mail, and their ranks shone like a river of steel in the sun. (Elves)


And Ulmo warned Turgon that he also lay under the Doom of Mandos, which Ulmo had no power to remove. 'Thus it may come to pass,' he said, 'that the curse of the Noldor shall find thee too ere the end, and treason awake within thy walls. Then they shall be in peril of fire. But if this peril draweth nigh indeed, then even from Nevrast one shall come to warn thee, and from him beyond ruin and fire hope shall be born for Elves and Men. Leave therefore in this house arms and a sword, that in years to come he may find them, and thus shalt thou know him, and not be deceived.' And Ulmo declared to Turgon of what kind and stature should be the helm and mail and sword that he left behind. (Elves)


And Tuor came into Nevrast, and looking upon Belegaer the Great Sea he was enamoured of it, and the sound of it and the longing for it were ever in his heart and ear, and an unquiet was on him that took him at last into the depths of the realms of Ulmo. Then he dwelt in Nevrast alone, and the summer of that year passed, and the doom of Nargothrond drew near; but when the autumn came he saw seven great swans flying south, and he knew them for a sign that he had tarried overlong, and he followed their flight along the shores of the sea. Thus he came at length to the deserted halls of Vinyamar beneath Mount Taras, and he entered in, and found there the shield and hauberk, and the sword and helm, that Turgon had left there by the command of Ulmo long before; and he arrayed himself in those arms, and went down to the shore. But there came a great storm out of the west, and out of that storm Ulmo the Lord of Waters arose in majesty and spoke to Tuor as he stood beside the sea. And Ulmo bade him depart from that place and seek out the hidden kingdom of Gondolin; and he gave Tuor a great cloak, to mantle him in shadow from the eyes of his enemies. (Elves)


That was the last time in those wars that he passed the doors of his stronghold, and it is said that he took not the challenge willingly; for though his might was greatest of all things in this world, alone of the Valar he knew fear. But he could not now deny the challenge before the face of his captains; for the rocks rang with the shrill music of Fingolfin's horn, and his voice came keen and clear down into the depths of Angband; and Fingolfin named Morgoth craven, and lord of slaves. Therefore Morgoth came, climbing slowly from his subterranean throne, and the rumour of his feet was like thunder underground. And he issued forth clad in black armour; and he stood before the King like a tower, iron-crowned, and his vast shield, sable on-blazoned, cast a shadow over him like a stormcloud. But Fingolfin gleamed beneath it as a star; for his mail was overlaid with silver, and his blue shield was set with crystals; and he drew his sword Ringil, that glittered like ice. Then Morgoth hurled aloft Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, and swung it down like a bolt of thunder. (Elves and Melkor)


But now a cry went up, passing up the wind from the south from vale to vale, and Elves and Men lifted their voices in wonder and joy. For unsummoned and unlocked for Turgon had opened the leaguer of Gondolin, and was come with an army ten thousand strong, with bright mail and long swords and spears like a forest. Then when Fingon heard afar the great trumpet of Turgon his brother, the shadow passed and his heart was uplifted, and he shouted aloud: 'Utúlie'n aurë! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatári, utúlie'n aurë! The day has come! Behold, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!' And all those who heard his great voice echo in the hills answered crying: 'Auta i lómë! The night is passing!' (Elves)

But there came a day when the messengers did not return out of the north, and Thingol would send no more. Then Túrin was filled with fear for his mother and his sister, and in grimness of heart he went before the King and asked for mail and sword; and he put on the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin and went out to battle on the marches of Doriath, and became the companion in arms of Beleg Cúthalion. (Elves)


In the time that followed Túrin grew high in favour with Orodreth, and well-nigh all hearts were turned to him in Nargothrond. For he was young, and only now reached his full manhood; and he was in truth the son of Morwen Eledhwen to look upon: dark-haired and pale-skinned, with grey eyes, and his face more beautiful than any other among mortal Men, in the Elder Days. His speech and bearing were that of the ancient kingdom of Doriath, and even among the Elves he might be taken for one from the great houses of the Noldor; therefore many called him Adanedhel, the Elf-Man. The sword Anglachel was forged anew for him by cunning smiths of Nargothrond, and though ever black its edges shone with pale fire; and he named it Gurthang, Iron of Death. So great was his prowess and skill in warfare on the confines of the Guarded Plain that he himself became known as Mormegil, the Black Sword; and the Elves said: 'The Mormegil cannot be slain, save by mischance, or an evil arrow from afar.' Therefore they gave him dwarf-mail, to guard him; and in a grim mood he found also in the armouries a dwarf-mask all gilded, and he put it on before battle, and his enemies fled before his face. (Dwarves)


And when Melkor saw that these lies were smouldering, and that pride and anger were awake among the Noldor, he spoke to them concerning weapons; and in that time the Noldor began the smithying of swords and axes and spears. Shields also they made displaying the tokens of many houses and kindreds that vied one with another; and these only they wore abroad, and of other weapons they did not speak, for each believed that he alone had received the warning. And Fëanor made a secret forge, of which not even Melkor was aware; and there he tempered fell swords for himself and for his sons, and made tall helms with plumes of red. Bitterly did Mahtan rue the day when he taught to the husband of Nerdanel all the lore of metalwork that he had learned of Aulë. (Armament of Feanor and Others)


'I ask then for a sword of worth,' said Beleg; 'for the Orcs come now too thick and close for a bow only, and such blade as I have is no match for their armour.' (Orc Armour)


The Children of Hurin


Then Fingon looked east and his elven-sight saw far off a dust and the glint of steel like stars in a mist, and he knew that Maedhros had set forth; and he rejoiced. Then he looked towards Thangorodrim, and there was a dark cloud about it and a black smoke went up; and he knew that the wrath of Morgoth was kindled and that their challenge would be accepted, and a shadow of doubt fell upon his heart. But at that moment a cry went up, passing on the wind from the south from vale to vale, and Elves and Men lifted up their voices in wonder and joy. For unsummoned and unlooked-for Turgon had opened the leaguer of Gondolin, and was come with an army, ten thousand strong, with bright mail and long swords and spears like a forest. Then when Fingon heard afar the great trumpet of Turgon, the shadow passed and his heart was uplifted, and he shouted aloud: 'Utúlie'n aurë! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatarni, utúlie'n aurë! The day has come! Behold, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!' And all those who heard his great voice echo in the hills answered crying: 'Auta i lómë! The night is passing!' (Elves)


Now Thingol had in Menegroth deep armouries filled with great wealth of weapons: metal wrought like fishes' mail and shining like water in the moon; swords and axes, shields and helms, wrought by Telchar himself or by his master Gamil Zirak the old, or by elven-wrights more skilful still. For some things he had received in gift that came out of Valinor and were wrought by Fëanor in his mastery, than whom no craftsman was greater in all the days of the world. Yet Thingol handled the Helm of Hador as though his hoard were scanty, and he spoke courteous words, saying: 'Proud were the head that bore this helm, which the sires of Húrin bore.' (Elves)


'What do you desire, foster-son?' said Thingol, and guessed that he would ask for nothing small. 'Mail, sword, and shield of my stature, lord,' answered Túrin. 'Also by your leave I will now reclaim the Dragon-helm of my sires.' (Elves)


Thus three years passed, and in that time Túrin came seldom to Thingol's halls; and he cared no longer for his looks or his attire, but his hair was unkempt, and his mail covered with a grey cloak stained with the weather. (Elves)


Nonetheless his death seemed near, for many arrows were notched to the string, waiting for the word of the captain, and though Túrin wore elven-mail under his grey tunic and cloak, some would find a deadly mark. (Elves)


The pursuit came swiftly after them, until turn and dodge as they would they were driven at last out of the forest; and then they were espied, and as they sought to cross the Road Orleg was shot down by many arrows. But Túrin was saved by his elven-mail, and escaped alone into the wilds beyond; and by speed and craft he eluded his enemies, fleeing far into lands that were strange to him. (Elves)


So valiant was Túrin, and so exceedingly skilled inarms, especially with sword and shield, that the Elves said that he could not be slain, save by mischance, or an evil arrow from afar. Therefore they gave him dwarf-mail, to guard him; and in a grim mood he found in the armouries a dwarf-mask all gilded, and he put it on before battle, and his enemies fled before his face. (Dwarves)


Tall Elves of Doriath they were, grey-clad, and cloaked over their mail. (Elves)


'I ask then for a sword of worth,' said Beleg; 'for the Orcs come now too thick and close for a bow only, and such blade as I have is no match for their armour.' (Orcs)


The Fall of Gondolin


Now this great work was finished to their mind, and folk were the busier about the quarrying of metals and the forging of all manner of swords and axes, spears and bills, and the fashioning of coats of mail, byrnies and hauberks, greaves and vambraces, helms and shields. (Elves)


The Hobbit

The dwarves are exceedingly strong for their height, but most of these were strong even for dwarves. In battle they wielded heavy two-handed mattocks; but each of them had also a short broad sword at his side and a round shield slung at his back. Their beards were forked and plaited and thrust into their belts. Their caps were of iron and they were shod with iron, and their faces were grim. (Iron foot protection of Dain's Dwarves)


Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his underparts and his long belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed. Behind him where the walls were nearest could dimly be seen coats of mail, helms and axes, swords and shields hanging; and there in rows stood great jars and vessels filled with a wealth that could not be guessed. (Dwarves)


They wondered if they were still lying there unharmed in the hall below: the spears that were made for the armies of the great King Bladorthin (long since dead), each had a thrice-forged head and their shafts were inlaid with cunning gold, but they were never delivered or paid for; shields made for warriors long dead; the great golden cup of Thror, two-handed, hammered and carven with birds and flowers whose eyes and petals were of jewels; coats of mail gilded and silvered and impenetrable; the necklace of Girion, Lord of Dale, made of five hundred emeralds green as grass, which he gave for the arming of his eldest son in a coat of dwarf-linked rings the like of which had never been made before, for it was wrought of purse silver to the power and strength of triple steel. (Dwarves)


Now the dwarves took down mail and weapons from the walls, and armed themselves. Royal indeed did Thorin look, clad in a coat of gold-plated rings, with a silver hafted axe in a belt crusted with scarlet stones. (Dwarves)


And so Bilbo was swung down from the wall, and departed with nothing for all his trouble, except the armour which Thorin had given him already. More than one of the dwarves in their hearts felt shame and pity at his going. "Farewell!" he cried to them. "We may meet again as friends." "Be off!" called Thorin. "You have mail upon you, which was made by my folk, and is too good for you. It cannot be pierced by arrows; but if you do not hasten, I will sting your miserable feet. So be swift!" (Dwarves)


Dain had come. He had hurried on through the night, and so had come upon them sooner than they had expected. Each one of his folk was clad in a hauberk of steel mail that hung to his knees, and their legs were covered with hose of a fine and flexible metal mesh, the secret of whose making was possessed by Dain's people. (Dwarves)


"Fools!" laughed Bard, "to come thus beneath the Mountain's arm! They do not understand war above ground, whatever they may know of battle in the mines. There are many of our archers and spearmen now hidden in the rocks upon their right flank. Dwarf-mail may be good, but they will soon be hard put to it. Let us set on them now from both sides, before they are fully rested!" (Dwarves)


The Lord of the Rings


Forty-two, Master Legolas! he cried. Alas! My axe is notched: the forty-second had an iron collar on his neck. (Orc iron collar)


Light feet may run swiftly here, said Aragorn. More swiftly, maybe, than iron-shod Orcs. Now we have a chance to lessen their lead! (Iron foot protection of Isengard and Mordor Orcs)

Frodo and Sam could not see ahead, but already they heard the tramp of iron-shod feet, and upon the road there rang the swift clatter of hoofs. (Iron foot protection of Mordor Orcs)

'We have done well,' he said. 'But in metalwork we cannot rival our fathers, many of whose secrets are lost. We make good armour and keen swords, but we cannot again make mail or blade to match those that were made before the dragon came. (Dwarves)


To his surpirse Frodo saw that Aragorn stood beside her; his dark cloak was thrown back, and he seemed to be clad in elven-mail, and a star shone on his breast. (Elves)


But even as they retreated, and before Pippin and Merry had reached the stair outside, a huge orc-chieftain, almost man-high, clad in black mail from head to foot, leaped into the chambr; behind him his followers clustered in the doorway. (Orc of Misty Mountains)


'And all the arrows of all the hunters in the world would be in vain,' said Gimli, gazing at the mail in wonder. 'It is a mithril-coat. Mithril! I have never seen or heard tell of one so fair. (Mithril Mail of the Dwarves)


Beside it a broad white ladder stood, and at its foot three Elves were seated. They sprang up as the travelers approached, and Frodo saw that they were tall and clad in grey mail, and from their shoulders hung long white cloaks. (Elves)


At that moment there was a twang of bowstrings: several arrows whistled over them, and some fell among them. One smote Frodo between the shoulders and he lurched forward with a cry, letting go his paddle: but the arrow fell back, foiled by his hidden coat of mail. (Mithril-Mail of the Dwarves)


Now the cries of clear strong voices came ringing over the fields. Suddenly they swept up with a noise like thunder, and the foremost horseman swerved, passing by the foot of the hill, and leading the host back southward along the western skirts of the downs. After him they rode: a long line of mail-clad men, swift, shining, fell and fair to look upon. (Rohan)


In their hands were tall spears of ash, painted shields were slung at their backs, long swords were at their belts, ther burnished skirts of mail hung down upon their knees. (Rohan)


Beside it was a great pile of helms and mail, cloven shields, and broken swords, bows and darts and other gear of war. Upon a stake in the middle was set a great goblin head; upon its shattered helm the white badge could still be seen. (Orcs of Isengard)


Then with a great cry the Riders charged from the East; the red light gleamed on mail and spear. (Rohan)


'There men in bright mail stand' but all else within the courts are yet asleep.' (Rohan)


There sat many men in bright mail, who sprang at once to their feet and barred the way with spears. (Rohan)


And to you my other guests I will offer such things as may be found in my armoury. Swords you do not need, but there are helms and coats of mail of cunning work, gifts to my fathers out of Gondor. (Rohan and Gondor)


Now men came bearing raiment of war from the king's hoard and they arrayed Aragorn and Legolas in shining mail. Helms too they chose, and round shields: their bosses were overlaid with gold and set with gems, green and red and white. Gandalf took no armour; and Gimli needed no coat of rings, even if one had been found to match his stature, for there was no hauberk in the hoards of Edoras of better make than his short corslet forged beneath the Mountains of the North. But he chose a cap of iron and leather that fitted well upon his round head; and a small shield he also took. It bore the running horse, white upon green, that waas the emblem of the House of Eorl. (Rohan)


Alone Eowyn stood before the doors of the house at the stair's head; the sword was set upright before her, and her hands were laid upon the hilt. She was clad now in mail and shone like silver in the sun. (Rohan)


Leading the line there came walking a big thick-limbed horse, and on it sat a man of wide shoulders and huge girth, but old and grey-bearded, yet mail-clad and black-helmed and bearing a long heavy spear. Behind him marched proudly a dusty line of men, well-armed and bearing great battle-axes; grim-faced they were, and shorter and somewhat swarthier than any men Pippin had yet seen in Gondor. (Men of Lossarnach of Gondor)


'There are no great weapon-hoards here, lord' answered Eomer. 'Maybe a light helm might be found to fit him; but we have no mail or sword for one of his stature.' (Rohan)


So much alike were they, the sons of Elrond, that few could tell them apart: dark-haired, grey-eyed, and their faces elven-fair, clad alike in bright mail beneath cloaks of silver-grey. (Elves)


A tall man entered, and Merry choked back a cry; for a moment it seemed to him that Boromir was alive again and returned. Then he saw that it was not so; the man was a stranger, though as like to Boromir as if he were one of his kin, tall and grey-eyed and proud. He was clad as a rider with a cloak of dark green over a coat of fine mail; on the front of his helm was wrought a small silver star. (Hirgon, Messenger of Denethor of Gondor)


'No mail have we to fit you,' said Eowyn, 'nor any time for the forging of such a hauberk; but her is also a stout jerkin of leather, a belt, and a knife. A sword you have.' (Rohan)


It was as he said; and Pippin soon found himself arrayed in strange garments, all of black and silver. He had a small hauberk, its rings forged of steel, maybe, yet black as jet; and a high-crowned helm with small raven-wings on either side, set with a silver star in the centre fo the circlet. Aboce the mail was a short surcoat of black, but broidered on the breast in silver with the token of the Tree. (Gondor)


He stood up and cast open his long black cloak, and behold! he was clad in mail beneath, and girt with a long sword, great-hilted in a sheath of black and silver. 'Thus have I walked, and thus now for many years have I slept,' he said, 'lest with age the body should grow soft and timid.' (Gondor)


Tirelessly he strode from Citadel to Gate, from north to south about the wall; and with him went the Prince of Dol Amroth in his shining mail. (Dol Amroth of Gondor)


'No, he will try to trap the fly and take the sting,' said Gandalf. 'And there are names among us that are worth more than a thousand mail-clad knights apiece. No, he will not smile.' (Gondor Knights)


There were long hairy breeches of some unclean beast-fell, and a tunic of dirty leather. He drew them on. Over the tunic went a coat of stout ring-mail, short for a full-sized orc, too long for Frodo and heavy. About it he clasped a belt, at which there hung a short sheath holding a broad-bladed
stabbing-sword. Sam had brought several orc-helmets. One of them fitted Frodo well enough, a black cap with iron rim, and iron hoops covered with leather upon which the evil Eye was painted in red aboce the bealkile nose-guard. (Orcs of Mordor)


'The Morgul-stuff, Gorbag's gear, was a better fit and better made,' said Sam; 'but it wouldn't do, I guess, to go carrying his tokens into Mordor, not after this business here. Well, there you are, Mr. Frodo. A perfect little orc, if I may make so bold - at least you would be, if we could cover your face with a mask, give you longer arms, and make you bow-legged. This will hide some of the tell-tales.' He put a large black cloak round Frodo's shoulders. 'Now you're ready! You can pick up a shield as we go.' (Orcs of Minas Morgul, a Better Quality, and Orcs Used Shields)


'These thorns must be a foot long by the feel of them; they've stuck through everything I've got on. Wish I'd a'put that mail-shirt on!' 'Orc-mail doesn't keep these thorns out,' said Frodo. 'Not even a leather jerkin is any good.' (Quality of Orc-Mail)


As they came to the opening in the wood, they were surprised to see knights in bright mail and tall guards in silver and blacks standing there, who greeted them with honour and bowed before them. (Gondor)


But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry's sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through he black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee. (King of Angmar's Armour)


Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strenght she drove her sword between crown and mantle, as the great shoulders bowed before her. The sword broke sparkling into many shards. The crown rolled away with a clang. Eowyn fell forward upon her fallen foe. But lo! the mantle and hauberk were empty. (King of Angmar's Armour)


There the hammer on anvil smote,
There chisel clove, and graver wrote;
There forged was blade, and bound was hilt;
The delver mined, the mason built.
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale,
And metal wrought like fishes' mail,
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword,
And shining spears were laid in hoard.
(Dwarves, Note That They Had Bucklers, a Smaller Shield)


Their golden hair was braided on their shoulders, the sun was blazoned upon their green shields, their long corslets were burnished bright, and when they rose taller they seemed than mortal men. (Rohan)


Then the king sat upon a seat before his doors, and Eowyn knelt before him and received from him a sword and a fiar corlslet. (Rohan)


Sam, eager to see more, went now and joined the guards. He scrambled a little way up into on of the larger bay-trees. For a moment he caught a glimpse of swarthy men in red running down the slope some way off with green-clad warriors leaping after them, hewing them down as they fled. Arrows were thick in the air. Then suddenly straight over the rim of their sheltering bank, a man fell, crashing through the slender trees, nearly on top of them. He came to rest in the fern a few feet away, face downward, green arrow-feathers sticking from his neck below a golden collar. His scarlet robes were tattered, his corslet of overlapping brazen plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched with blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword. (Haradrim)


Taller and broader than Men they were, and they were clad only in clode-fitting mesh of horny scales, or maybe that was their hideous hide; but they bore round bucklers huge and black and wielded heavy hammers in their knotted hands. (Trolls, they Used Bucklers)


Then the prince seeing her beauty, though her face was pale and cold, touched her hand as he bent to look more closely on her. 'Men of Rohan!' he cried. 'Are there no leeches among you? She is hurt to the death maybe, but I deem that she yet lives.' And he held the bright-burnished vambrace that was upon his arm before her cold lips, and behold! a little mist was laid on it hardly to be seen. (Prince of Dol Amroth of Gondor, Vambraces Were in Use)


In panopoly of ancient kings,
in chained rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scored with runes
to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn,
his arrows shorn of ebony,
of silver was his habergeon,
his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant,
of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest,
upon his breast and emerald. (Men of the Edain, most likely with Elvish Armour, note the presence of a Habergeon)

Forty-two, Master Legolas! he cried. Alas! My axe is notched: the
forty-second had an iron collar on his neck. (Orc Armour)


Examples of Plate-type Armour


Sam, eager to see more, went now and joined the guards. He scrambled a little way up into on of the larger bay-trees. For a moment he caught a glimpse of swarthy men in red running down the slope some way off with green-clad warriors leaping after them, hewing them down as they fled. Arrows were thick in the air. Then suddenly straight over the rim of their sheltering bank, a man fell, crashing through the slender trees, nearly on top of them. He came to rest in the fern a few feet away, face downward, green arrow-feathers stiching from his neck below a golden collar. His scarlet robes were tattered, his corslet of overlapping brazen plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched with blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword. (Haradrim, This Was a Type of Primitive Plate Armour) – Lord of the Rings


The great doors slammed to. Boom. The bars of iron fell into place inside. Clang. The gate was shut. Sam hurled himself against the bolted brazen plates and fell senseless to the ground. He was out in the darkness. Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy. (This is Saying that the Orcs had the Same Metal Work as the Haradrim, thus Bronze Plating is Common, in Fact, bronze was also used for the Gates of Angband as well) – Lord of the Rings


Now the traffic of the Dwarves down from the Blue Mountains followed two roads across East Beleriand, and the northern way, going towards the Fords of Aros, passed nigh to Nan Elmoth; and there Eöl would meet the Naugrim and hold converse with them. And as their friendship grew he would at times go and dwell as guest in the deep mansions of Nogrod or Belegost. There he learned much of metalwork, and came to great skill therein; and he devised a metal as hard as the steel of the Dwarves, but so malleable that he could make it thin and supple; and yet it remained resistant to all blades and darts. He named it galvorn, for it was black and shining like jet, and he was clad in it whenever he went abroad. (This Sounds Very Much Like a Type of Plate Armour all the way Back in the First Age, this is Steel Plate Armour, not Bronze, which is Quite Weak) – The Silmarillion


That was the last time in those wars that he passed the doors of his stronghold, and it is said that he took not the challenge willingly; for though his might was greatest of all things in this world, alone of the Valar he knew fear. But he could not now deny the challenge before the face of his captains; for the rocks rang with the shrill music of Fingolfin's horn, and his voice came keen and clear down into the depths of Angband; and Fingolfin named Morgoth craven, and lord of slaves. Therefore Morgoth came, climbing slowly from his subterranean throne, and the rumour of his feet was like thunder underground. And he issued forth clad in black armour; and he stood before the King like a tower, iron-crowned, and his vast shield, sable on-blazoned, cast a shadow over him like a stormcloud. But Fingolfin gleamed beneath it as a star; for his mail was overlaid with silver, and his blue shield was set with crystals; and he drew his sword Ringil, that glittered like ice. Then Morgoth hurled aloft Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, and swung it down like a bolt of thunder. (This is open to interpretation whether he had plate-armour or not, but keep in mind that he is the greatest maker of things of war in all of Ea; however, it is said that he will be stabbed in the hearth with Gurthang, the Iron of Death in the last battle, which wouldn't be possible if he actually wore Plate Armour, or he could have just not had Armour at that time. My impression would be that he never had Plate Armour, along with Sauron, only the traditional type.)



Summary


All the groups of Middle-earth commonly used mail, with a helmet and leather surcoat, with greaves, vambraces, foot-guards, and a shield (either a smaller buckler, the iconic tapering Kite Shield frequently used by the Elves, or a round shield), with a few using relatively weak bronze plating to cover the upper chest area or perhaps entire body. Orcs were even mentioned as sometimes wearing iron collars for protection. On closer inspection, the aforementioned bronze plating seems to have been a type of scale armour, that is, where small overlapping plates of bronze were attached to each other and to a backing of cloth or leather, most likely leather. It would have looked something like this:








Apparently the only true plate-type Armour (and even that one sounded quite primitive) could possibly have been made by Eol but that secret would have been long lost.



Here is what a vambrace would look like (the top one would be metal instead of leather, however, unless it was unafordable):










Here is what a greave would look like (you also can see a foot-guard on the bottom area, which also would be a type of armour used in Middle-earth):





And here is what a leather surcoat would look like (and a Gondor Soldier as well, if you add a helmet and make the mail black):






Engines


The Silmarillion


Nonetheless for long it seemed to the Númenóreans that they prospered, and if they were not increased in happiness, yet they grew more strong, and their rich men ever richer. For with the aid and counsel of Sauron they multiplied then: possessions, and they devised engines, and they built ever greater ships. (Numenorean Engines, Numenor)

The Orcs and the wolves went freely through all the North, and came ever further southward into Beleriand, even as far as Nantathren, the Land of Willows, and the borders of Ossiriand, and none were safe in field or wild. Doriath indeed remained, and the halls of Nargothrond were hidden; but Morgoth gave small heed to them, either because he knew little of them, or because their hour was not yet come in the deep purposes of his malice. Many now fled to the Havens and took refuge behind Círdan's walls, and the mariners passed up and down the coast and harried the enemy with swift landings. But in the next year, ere the winter was come, Morgoth sent great strength over Hithlum and Nevrast, and they came down the rivers Brithon and Nenning and ravaged all the Falas, and besieged the walls of Brithombar and Eglarest. Smiths and miners and makers of fire they brought with them, and they set up great engines; and valiantly though they were resisted they broke the walls at last. (Orc Engines, Angband)


The Hobbit


Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light. It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far. (Orc Engines, Misty Mountains)


The Lord of the Rings


Busy as ants hurrying orcs were digging, digging lines of deep trenches in a huge ring, just out of bowshot from the walls; and as the trenches were made each was filledw ith fire, though how it was kindled or fed, by art or devilry, nonce could see. All day the labour went forward, while the men of Minas Tirith looked on, unable to hinder it. And as each length of trench was completed, they could see great wains approaching; and soon yet more companies of the enemy were swiftly setting up, each behind the cover of a trench, great engines for the casting of missiles. There were none upon the City walls large enough to reach so far or to stay the work. At first men laughed and did not greatly fear such devices. For the main wall of the City was of great height and marvelous thickness, built ere the power and craft of Numenor waned in exile; and its outward face was like to the Tower of Orthanc, hard and dark and smooth, unconquerable by steel or fire, unbreakable except by some convulsion that would rend the very earth on which it stood. (Orc and Gondor Engines, Mordor)


But the engines did not waste shot on the indomitable wall. It was no brigand or orc-chieftain that ordered the assault upon the Lord of Mordor's greatest foe. A power and mind of malice guided it. As soon as the great catapults were set, with many yells and the creaking of rope and winch, they began to throw missiles marvellously high, so that they passed right above the battlement and fell thudding withing the first circle of the City; and many of them by some secret art burst into flame as they came toppling down. (Orc Engines, Mordor)


There came great beasts, like moving houses in the red and fitful light, the mumakil fo the Harad draggin through the lanes amid the fires, huge towers, and engines. (Orc Engines, Mordor)

The drums rolled louder. Fires leaped up. Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, Orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it. (Orc Engines, Mordor)


The drums rolled and rattled. With a vast rush Grond was hurled forward by huge hands. It reached the Gate. It swung. A deep boom rumbled through the City like thunder running in the clouds. But the doors of iron and posts of steel withstood the stroke. Then the Black Captain rose in his stirrups and cried aloud in a dreadful voice, speaking in some forgotten words of power and terror to rend both heart and stone. Thrice he cried. Thrice the great ram boomed. And suddenly upon the last stroke the Gate of Gondor broke. As if stricken by some blasting spell it burs asunder: there was a flash of searing lightning, and the doors tumbled in riven fragments to the ground. (Orc Ram, Mordor)


Ahead nearer the walls Elfhelm's men were among the siege-engines, hewing, slaying, driving their foes into the fire-pits. (Orc Engines, Mordor)


Fire and smoke and stench was in the air; for many engines had been burned or cast into the fire-pits, and many of the slain also, while here and there lay many carcasses of the great Southron monsters, half-burned, or broken by stone-cast, or shot through the eyes by the valiant archers of Morthond. (Orc and Gondor Engines, Mordor)


The two vast iron doors of the Black Gate under its frowning arch were fast closed. Upon the battlement nothing could be seen. All was silent but watchful. They were come to the last end of their folly, and stood forlorn and chill in the grey light of early days before towers and walls which their army could not assault with hope, not even if it had brought thither engines of great power, and the Enemy had no more force than would suffice for the manning of the gate and wall alone. (Gondor Engines)


There was a crash on the door, followed by crash after crash. Rams and hammers were beating against it. It cracked and staggered back, and the opening grew suddenly wide. (Orc Ram, Moria)


Again and again the great rams swung and crashed. Eomer and Aragorn stood together on the Deeping Wall. They heard the roar of voices and the thudding of rams; and then in a sudden flash of light they beheld the peril of the gates. (Orc Rams, Isengard)


Dismayed the rammers let fall the trees and turned to fight; but the wall of their shields was broken as by a lightning stroke, and they were swept away, hewn down, or cast over the Rock into the stony stream below. (Orc Rams, Isengard, not the Mighty Ones of Mordor)


Slowly the great siege-towers built in Osgiliath rolled forward through the dark. (Orc Siege Towers, Mordor)


Shot and dart fell thick; siege-towers crashed or blazed suddenly like torches. (Orc Siege Towers, Mordor)


Summary

The only people to use large and advanced siege engines of war (catapults, rams, etc.) were the Orcs and the Numenorean Exiles, as they were taught to build engines of war in Numenor by Sauron. I am sure others would use crude ones if they so desired, but engines of war were largely considered some devilry of Melkor and Sauron, somewhat known about by the Numenorean Exiles and a lot by the Orcs. After all, there wasn't much need for them for the most part, except when Sauron launches his attacks against walled cities.


Weapons


The common weapons of Middle-earth were Swords, Spears, Axes, Mattocks (Larger Two-handed Axes) Long-bows, Short-bows, Bills (a type of pole-arm similar to a Halberd), and Maces, with the Numenoreans having composite bows of metal. Composite bows made of horn were also used. Generally all the peoples of Middle-earth use the same types of weapons except the Dwarves are famous for their Axes; however, they used the other weapons as well, it's simply that the most effective weapon for the close-range melee of their caves was axes.


Here is a comparison of what a Bill would look like compared to other pole-arms:








Metal Technology


Special Metals


Galvorn


Now the traffic of the Dwarves down from the Blue Mountains followed two roads across East Beleriand, and the northern way, going towards the Fords of Aros, passed nigh to Nan Elmoth; and there Eöl would meet the Naugrim and hold converse with them. And as their friendship grew he would at times go and dwell as guest in the deep mansions of Nogrod or Belegost. There he learned much of metalwork, and came to great skill therein; and he devised a metal as hard as the steel of the Dwarves, but so malleable that he could make it thin and supple; and yet it remained resistant to all blades and darts. He named it galvorn, for it was black and shining like jet, and he was clad in it whenever he went abroad.


Mithril


The Hobbit


They wondered if they were still lying there, unharmed in the hall below: the spears that were made for the armies of the great King Bladorthin (long since dead), each had a thrice-forged head and their shafts were inlaid with cunning gold, but they were never delivered or paid for; shields made for warriors long dead; the great golden cup of Thror, two-handed, hammered and carven with birds and flowers whose eyes and petals were of jewels; coats of mail gilded and silvered and impenetrable; the necklace of Girion, Lord of Dale, made of five hundred emeralds green as grass, which he gave for the arming of his eldest son in a coat of dwarf-linked rings the like of which had never been made before, for it was wrought of pure silver to the power and strength of triple steel.


The Lord of the Rings


It could be beaten like copper, andpolished like glass; and the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim.


It was close-woven of many rings, as supple almost as linen, cold as ice, and harder than steel. It shone like moonlit silver, and was studded with white gems.


For here alone in the world was found Moria-silver, or true-silver as some have called it: mithril is the Elvish name.


Steel


The Hobbit


But when they struck the stone the handles splintered and jarred their arms cruelly, and the steel heads broke or bent like lead.


A light helm of figured leather, strengthened beneath with hoops of steel, and studded about the bring with white gems, was set upon the hobbit's head. Each one of his folk was clad in a hauberk of steel mail that hung to his knees, and his legs were covered with hose of a fine and flexible metal mesh, the secret of whose making was possessed by Dain's people.


There a host of Wargs came ravening and with them came the bodyguard of Bolg, goblins of huge size with scimitars of steel. There were five tall figures: two standing on the lip of the dell, three advancing. In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs were helms of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of steel.


The Lord of the Rings


There were five tall figures: two standing on the lip of the
dell, three advancing. In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes;
under their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs were helms
of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of steel.


In panoply of ancient kings,
in chain'd rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scored with runes
to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn,
his arrows shorn of ebony,
of silver was his habergeon,
his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant,
of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest,
upon his breast an emerald.


Gimli the dwarf alone wore openly a short shirt of steel-rings, for dwarves make light of burdens; and in his belt was a broad-bladed axe.


Now for the last race! said Gandalf. If the sun is shining outside we may still escape. After me! He turned left and sped across the smooth floor of the hall. The distance was greater than it had looked. As they ran they heard the beat and echo of many hurrying feet behind. A shrill yell went up: they had been seen. There was a ring and clash of steel.


Then turning south again he beheld Minas Tirith. Far away it seemed. and beautiful: white-walled, many-towered, proud and fair upon its mountain-seat; its battlements glittered with steel, and its turrets were bright with many banners.


Now, thought Pippin, if only it takes that ugly fellow a little while to get his troop under control, I've got a chance. A gleam of hope had come to him. The edge of the black knife had snicked his arm, and then slid down to his wrist. He felt the blood trickling on to his hand, but he also felt the cold touch of steel against his skin.

They were so wrought and poised upon their huge hinges, posts of steel driven into the living stone, that when unbarred they could be moved with a light thrust of the arms, noiselessly.


Another dreadful day of fear and toil had come to Mordor; and the night-guards were summoned to their dungeons and deep halls, and the day-guards, evil-eyed and fell, were marching to their posts. Steel gleamed dimly on the battlement.


He could hear plainly the ringing grate of steel on steel, the clang of sword on iron cap, the dull beat of blade on shield; men were yelling and screaming, and one clear loud voice was calling Gondor! Gondor!


The blade scored it with a dreadful gash, but those hideous folds could not be pierced by any strength of men, not though Elf or Dwarf should forge the steel or the hand of Beren or of Turin wield it.


The red eye of the tower had not been blind. He was caught. Now the flicker of approaching torches and the clink of steel ahead was very near.


In his hand he bore a single arrow, black-feathered and barbed with steel, but the point was painted red.


He had a small hauberk, its rings forged of steel, maybe, yet black as jet; and a high-crowned helm with small raven-wings on either side, set with a silver star in the centre of the circlet.


Very strong it might be, wrought of steel and iron, and guarded with towers and bastions of indomitable stone, yet it was the key, the weakest point in all that high and impenetrable wall.


Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay.


A deep boom rumbled through the City like thunder running in the clouds. But the doors of iron and posts of steel withstood the stroke.


A crown of steel he bore, but between rim and robe naught was there to see, save only a deadly gleam of eyes: the Lord of the Nazgul.


Don't kill us, he wept. Don't hurt us with nassty cruel steel!


A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements, tall as hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed.


In his time the City was made more fair than it had ever been, even in the days of its first glory; and it was filled with trees and with fountains, and its gates were wrought of mithril and steel, and its streets were paved with white marble; and the Folk of the Mountain laboured in it, and the Folk of the Wood rejoiced to come there; and all was healed and made good, and the houses were filled with men and women and the laughter of children, and no window was blind nor any courtyard empty; and after the ending of the Third Age of the world into the new age it preserved the memory and the glory of the years that were gone.


Quickbeam bowed like a tree bending in the wind and handed to Aragorn two great black keys of intricate shape, joined by a ring of steel.


Bill Ferny, said Merry, if you don't open that gate in ten seconds, you'll regret it. I shall set steel to you, if you don't obey.


Iron


The Hobbit


The dwarves are exceedingly strong for their height, but most of these were strong even for dwarves. In battle they wielded heavy two-handed mattocks; but each of them had also a short broad sword at his side and a round shield slung at his back. Their beards were forked and plaited and thrust into their belts. Their caps were of iron and they were shod with iron, and their faces were grim.


The Lord of the Rings


At the far end it was closed by a gate of thick-set iron bars.


The wealth of Moria was not in gold and jewels, the toys of the Dwarves; nor in iron, their servant. Such things they found here, it is true, especially iron; but they did not need to delve for them: all things that they desired they could obtain in traffic.


Then at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant, he saw it: Barad-dur, Fortress of Sauron. All hope left him.


Upon their shields they bore a strange device: a small white hand in the centre of a black field; on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal.


Light feet may run swiftly here, said Aragorn. More swiftly, maybe, than iron-shod Orcs. Now we have a chance to lessen their lead!


His own little prints and Merry's were overwhelmed by the trampling of the iron-shod shoes before them and behind them and about them.


Gandalf took no armour; and Gimli needed no coat of rings, even if one had been found to match his stature, for there was no hauberk in the hoards of Edoras of better make than his short corslet forged beneath the Mountain in the North. But he chose a cap of iron and leather that fitted well upon his round head; and a small shield he also took. It bore the running horse, white upon green, that was the emblem of the House of Eorl.


'We did not come too soon,' said Aragorn, looking at the gates. Their great hinges and iron bars were wrenched and bent; many of their timbers were cracked.


The postern was closed again, the iron door was barred and piled inside with stones.


Forty-two, Master Legolas! he cried. Alas! My axe is notched: the forty-second had an iron collar on his neck.


It is not wizardry, but a power far older, said Gandalf:
a power that walked the earth, ere elf sang or hammer rang.
Ere iron was found or tree was hewn,
When young was mountain under moon;
Ere ring was made, or wrought was woe,
It walked the forests long ago.


Here through the black rock a long tunnel had been hewn, closed at either end with mighty doors of iron. They were so wrought and poised upon their huge hinges, posts of steel driven into the living stone, that when unbarred they could be moved with a light thrust of the arms, noiselessly.


The roads were paved with stone-flags, dark and hard; and beside their borders instead of trees there marched long lines of pillars, some of marble, some of copper and of iron, joined by heavy chains.


Iron wheels revolved there endlessly, and hammers thudded. At night plumes of vapour steamed from the vents, lit from beneath with red light, or blue, or venomous green.


A punch from an Ent-fist crumples up iron like thin tin.


I saw iron posts and blocks of masonry go rocketing up hundreds of feet, and smash against the windows of Orthanc.


On the eastern side, in the angle of two piers, there was a great door, high above the ground; and over it was a shuttered window, opening upon a balcony hedged with iron bars.


But what went on in his wretched heart between the pressure of the Eye, and the lust of the Ring that was so near, and his grovelling promise made half in the fear of cold iron, the hobbits did not guess: Frodo gave no thought to it.


Across the mouth of the pass, from cliff to cliff, the Dark Lord had built a rampart of stone. In it there was a single gate of iron, and upon its battlement sentinels paced unceasingly.


He could hear plainly the ringing grate of steel on steel, the clang of sword on iron cap, the dull beat of blade on shield; men were yelling and screaming, and one clear loud voice was calling Gondor! Gondor!


The bars of iron fell into place inside. Clang. The gate was shut. Sam hurled himself against the bolted brazen plates and fell senseless to the ground.


So Gandalf and Peregrin rode to the Great Gate of the Men of Gondor at the rising of the sun, and its iron doors rolled back before them.


Very strong it might be, wrought of steel and iron, and guarded with towers and bastions of indomitable stone, yet it was the key, the weakest point in all that high and impenetrable wall.


But the doors of iron and posts of steel withstood the stroke.


Then you will kill gorgyn and drive away bad dark with bright iron, and Wild Men can go back to sleep in the wild woods.


Walls stand up no longer: gorgun knock them down with earth-thunder and with clubs of black iron.


The two vast iron doors of the Black Gate under its frowning arch were fast closed.


One of them fitted Frodo well enough, a black cap with iron rim, and iron hoops covered with leather upon which the evil Eye was painted in red above the beaklike nose-guard.


Frodo and Sam could not see ahead, but already they heard the tramp of iron-shod feet, and upon the road there rang the swift clatter of hoofs.


Out from the Dark Tower's huge western gate it came over a deep abyss by a vast bridge of iron, and then passing into the plain it ran for a league between two smoking chasms, and so reached a long sloping causeway that led up on to the Mountain's eastern side.


Far off the shadows of Sauron hung; but torn by some gust of wind out of the world, or else moved by some great disquiet within, the mantling clouds swirled, and for a moment drew aside; and then he saw, rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dur.


I don't hold with wearing ironmongery, whether it wears well or no.


Summary


Apparently, steel and iron technology went hand-in-hand, with most peoples having a combination of both. Of course, iron is better in some situations, and steel in others, but steel is generally regarded as better. Naturally, it is certainly more advanced, as it is an alloy of carbon and iron produced with a fairly complicated process. I would assume such things would be known to Dwarves, Numenoreans, or Sauron (Orcs had steel apparently). Take especial note of the Viking-like iron caps, and the few made with a combination of steel, leather, and other materials. Normal helms are very distinct from caps, and are mentioned many times in the Lord of the Rings, no doubt made of steel. Also take note of the mention of the "dull beat of sword on shield", which means the shields were made of wood, making total sense because shields were rarely, if ever, made of metal. Swords seemed to be primarily of steel, and mail seems to be made of steel, bronze (Eastern scale armour), and iron if steel is not obtainable.

Resources

I would advise taking a look at these resources in regard to mail armour and its effectiveness:

Scale Armour

Mail



Engine Ideas for the Mod

Mordor

Mentioned in Lore: Enormous battering ram strengthened with sorcery and held by a large frame (Grond), explosive gunpowder, long-range catapults (out-distanced the Gondorian ones), and siege-towers. Special ammo used for the catapults: severed heads and shot that burst into flames upon impact. Take note that the battering ram was strengthened with the sorcery of the Witch king during the battle, he gave it the power to blast through the gate, though it could have took down the gate itself without help over a period of time.

Mordor should offer the most diverse and powerful roster of siege engines in the game. It was Sauron who developed the lore of creating devices to bring down fortifications. He was always after the most efficient and rapid way to destroy any who dared to defy him. No one else had ever thought of such things devices before, because only Sauron and those like him thought in such terms. Think of "devices of devilry and cunning" vs. "nature and aesthetics". As a faction bent on technology, industry, and domination, Mordor should without a doubt be incredibly powerful in the area of siege weapons - much, much more so than any other faction. This adds power to their offensive nature as well, because fortresses should not pose a serious hindrance to their war effort.
Notes: Mordor, as did Isengard, possessed black powder of a less pure and sophisticated nature than the gunpowder used today or during the 1800s for example. The explosion created by this type of gunpowder was not very efficient in comparison to the amount of gunpowder used. So, this powder is the equivalent of the first types of gunpowder invented. It would take a lot of this type to make a large explosion. Take note that the powder used by Mordor obliterated the outer wall of Gondor with ease (the Rammas) but could not make a dent in the original ancient walls of Minas Tirith that were built by the Numenoreans. In the books, Mordor’s gunpowder technology is represented with sapping, the ability to blow through walls. This was most likely done by filling up an object with black powder, perhaps even making the object have spikes or whatnot, and then placing it against the wall. Mordor’s tech tree should heavily focus on siege engines and other types of engines. The later into the game, the exponentially greater Mordor’s siege engine technology should become. It would be interesting also for there to be a unique area on the tree for gunpowder, so that it could become possible to create purer and more efficient gunpowder, allowing for greater and more concentrated blasts. Although it is only mentioned that Isengard uses small rams to smash doors, as well as ladders and hooks to scale walls, Mordor most certainly would to. It is just that the walls and doors of Minas Tirith are so strong, high, and well-defended that such tactics are useless against it.
Suggested items: a powerful ballista weapon, if that is your plan to incorporate these into the mod. The ballista could fire both large bolts (arrows) and stones, or even shot that bursts into flame on impact. So three possible different ballistae versions or different ammo if it is possible to allow a ballista to fire two or three types of ammo at will. The bolts are more accurate and have greater piercing power, and the stones have a greater impact force. The flaming shot deals more morale damage and causes flammables to catch on fire. Another suggestion would be to add biological warfare to Mordor. Not while in a siege, but on the campaign map. Sauron and his sorcerer servants had sent both harsh winters and plagues in the past to trouble his enemies. It would be so awesome if this could somehow be incorporated. I wonder how the team plans to incorporate Sauron’s great dominating spiritual power overall, and the great Eye. For example, if Sauron focuses his will on something, then the performance of his troops in that area drastically increases. If he stops focusing, then their performance decreases. Also many of his forces have become reliant on his will guiding them, so if it stops then they are helpless (mostly the ones in Mordor garrisoned there near Barad-dur). His focusing will might even decrease the performance of opposing forces, but I’m not sure on that one. It certainly can if focused on an individual, such as Frodo and the Eye. In general: Catapults (with flaming ammo, heads, or normal stone), rams, ballistae, and siege towers of various sizes and strengths, some augmented with sorcery. It would be awesome if the heads could deal a lot of morale damage. Alos blasting powder and advanced ammunition such as flaming shot are very important items. Grappling hooks with ropes for scaling walls. Perhaps a few magic abilities for Sauron or the Witch king to weaken/destroy walls and/or gates, if that is something you would like to experiment with. For examples of things of this nature, look at the Witch king bringing down the gates of Minas Tirith, and the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog in which they blast a door that stands between them with sorcery (Gandalf tries to hold it in place with sorcery).



Isengard

Mentioned in Lore: Small battering rams (trees carried by Orcs pretty much), explosive gunpowder, ladders to scale walls, and grappling-hooks to climb walls.

Isengard should offer the second most diverse and powerful roster of siege engines in the game. Saruman is exactly like a miniature of Sauron, including all his thinking patterns and knowledge. It follows then that Saruman would have much the same technology as Mordor, but on a less grand scale, with perhaps a few ingenious additions of his own. Or perhaps, with less technology of his own.

Notes: the same things that apply to Mordor’s gunpowder, gunpowder technology, and technology in general apply to Isengard, but simply on a less powerful scale (including tech tree stuff). Although it is mentioned that Isengard only used simple battering rams and no catapults at all during the battle of Helm’s Deep, this makes perfect sense. They have the capacity to create such engines, but they could not be effectively used in the siege of Helm’s Deep. The terrain and defense would stop such efforts. It is impossible to move a large ram up to the Deep, thus the small ram carried by Orcs. Also, the Deep is not a City, it does not have houses and civilians right behind the walls that could be endangered by catapults, and it walls cannot be destroyed by catapults because they were built by the Numenoreans. As a side note, I wouldn’t add the blasting power sorcery to Saruman though, it just seems like he would not have that much raw power, though I really have no idea, he may have. He seems to rely almost totally on machines, whereas Sauron and the Witch king can use sorcery and machines at will.
Suggested items: same as Mordor, but less powerful



Gondor

Mentioned in Lore: Small catapults

Gondor should offer the third most diverse and powerful roster of siege engines in the game. The lore of making siege engines was taught to the Numenoreans by Sauron when he took over the Kingdom of Numenor. The Numenoreans learned the art and habit of creating siege engines from him, and part of that knowledge was passed down the centuries even until the present day. Before Sauron's teachings and corruption of the Numenoreans, they had neither the desire nor the know-how to create such devices, but after they were taught and corrupted by Sauron, they had both. Although the corruption wasn't quite as bad in Gondor as it had been in Numenor under Sauron, the habit and desire of creating siege weapons lived on. However, the modern siege weapons of Gondor pale in comparison to Sauron's and the engines of old. It is a time of waning for Gondor, and of decreasing knowledge. In the books, they are only mentioned as having catapults, and that only one time. They are mentioned as being so weak as to not even be able to reach Mordor’s catapults, even though Mordor’s catapults were on the ground and Gondor’s were placed high up on the City.
Notes: The Gondor that we all know and love has powerful engines with the ability to adequately compete with Sauron. It would seem strange for them to only have a few weak catapults, and their offensive power would be next to nothing if they ran into opposing fortresses in their way. Thus, I would advocate a Gondor possessing siege engine technology. Their tech tree should be far more basic than Mordor’s or Isengard’s.

Suggested items: pretty much everything Isengard has, but less powerful and without blasting powder



Dwarves

Mentioned in Lore: Nothing

Now, it is interesting that the Dwarves are not mentioned as having any siege engines of any kind whatsoever. This does make sense in that they are craftsmen, not wizards, sorceries, chemists, or scientists. They deal with tempering and shaping steel. They do not think like Sauron, and have not been taught by him or any influenced by him. They have no interest in sieges, they defend their own mountains from attack. In whatever sieges they did aid, they never actually entered the besieged fortresses, at least not on their own.
Notes: For mod purposes, it would be rather lame for the Dwarves to not have any siege engines. That being said, I think it would be nice to incorporate Dwarves with siege engines perhaps even on a level on par with Gondor or a little higher up, almost on par with Isengard. I don’t think black arrows would be a good idea, they were very rare, but I would incorporate bolts fired from the ballistae that has a large penetration power.

Suggested items: Pretty much all the items Isengard had, but less advanced. I would give their siege engines greater raw impact power, such as heavy stones for catapults and very high piercing bolts for the ballistae. Their excellent craftsmanship should allow them to create every siege engine cheaply and of high quality. The Orc ones should generally be incredibly cheap but perhaps of lower quality, except such things as Grond and other very powerful siege items. And, of course, I would give them the ability to have flaming ammo as a powerful tech upgrade, though I would actually personally not recommend it. Fire weapons seem to be better suited to the factions of evil and Sauron. Over all, the Dwarven tech should focus quite a bit on siege engines and things of that nature. Maybe their siege towers could also be coated with iron or something so as to be invulnerable to missiles flung at it or fire. I don’t know if this can be implemented but Dwarves should be very good at sapping walls. If this could be incorporated, you could make a unit of Dwarven Miners that vaporize sections of the wall over time, but they have to be protected with a covering like the covering protecting rams.



Elves

Mentioned in Lore: Nothing

Siege-engines and things of that sort are opposite to the Elvish way of life. The Elves are concerned with nature, aesthetics, culture, heroics, and the like. They would refer to siege-engines and such as distasteful, cowardly, and of Sauron, as indeed they could be considered as such. It is never mentioned that they have siege engines of any kind, but they are mentioned as having power over fortresses with magic.

Notes: It would be interesting for them to take a more magical, "cleansing" approach. Such as cleansing fortresses of evil, opening up all spells and locks on them (read The Hobbit and The Silmarillion for more details on that, or the movie). That may be impossible or too cheezy, so I would definitely let the team decide if they want to take the magic direction or engine direction. The magic direction is probably not possible, imo. If possible, it would be cool for Elvish abilities or whatnot of such people as Galadriel and Glorfindel to blast open holes in walls or knock down gates. Elves really cannot tackle superb fortresses without their heroes (like Glorfindel) and their magic. Their defense is also heavily reliant on magic, think “The Girdle of Melian” and the “Power of Galadriel” keeping evil at bay. Also, think of the cleansing of fortresses such as Gul Guldur in The Hobbit, and the cleansing of Sauron’s fortress by Luthien in The Silmarillion. In general, they are not a very offensive, siege-type faction, they much prefer to defend and fight in the woods or plains.

Suggested items: No direct engines if at all possible (message me if this is not feasible and I will scratch my current philosophy on Elvish engines!), magical powers of Elvish heroes.



Wild Men (Dunlendings, Rohirrim)

Mentioned in Lore: Nothing

These societies are not highly advanced in terms of technology. Like none whatsoever besides basic things. The Rohirrim however actually received some of their equipment and no doubt technology as well from Gondor. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for the Gondorians to teach the Rohirrim how to build siege equipment or to perhaps give them some. The same goes for the Dunlendings. It is possible, but unlikely, that Saruman would teach them the art of creating siege engines. I would think that he wouldn’t, though. The Dunlendings can provide him grunt work, and he can provide the technology, it’s not as if Saruman wants the Dunlendings to become more independent of his power. Much of the same principles apply to the Rohirrim, besides the fact that they do not care for sieges or siege engines. In other words, the Dunlendings provide auxiliaries for Saruman, and the Rohirrim fight on the open plains, functioning sort-of as auxiliaries for Gondor, though they certainly wouldn’t call themselves that.

Notes: Basically, the engines of the Rohirrim and Dunlendings could either be non-existent, or they could have a few reverse-engineered, stolen, copied, or borrowed engine pieces, with crippling unit caps. The same thing goes for the Rohirrim.

Suggested items: Very, very limited types and power. Long research times to represent ongoing research, stealing, reverse-engineering, borrowing, copying, etc. Maybe obtain the basic catapult, ram, and ladder.



Primitive Orcs (Orcs of the Misty Mountains, etc.)

Mentioned in Lore: Nothing

During the time of The Hobbit, it is mentioned that Orcs in general had not advanced to the point where they were building siege engines and explosions, especially since they were largely on their own during the time period of The Hobbit. It really isn’t known whether Sauron facilitated the building of such devices directly, but it is to be guessed that the organization of the Orcs into the Mordor realm facilitated the developing of such technologies in some way or other. For the more isolated Orcs that live in the Misty Mountains and such places, I would suggest for them to not have technology to create siege engines or explosions, at least not at the outset of the game. The Misty Mountains and such are mostly areas that provide recruitment of troops for Sauron’s cause.
Notes: It would definitely be interesting to allow them to either develop similar technologies to Mordor later in the game, either on their own initiative or with help from Mordor. What level of technology and how soon I guess would be totally up to you, I really have no idea lore-wise. Their situation might be similar to that of the Wild Men such as the Dunlendings and Rohirrim in terms of them not having high technology and having to develop it or incorporate it from other nations. Their situation is pretty much the same as the Wild Men.

Suggested Additions: pretty much the same as the Wild Men



Here are some quotes that I found interesting when dealing with siege engines and explosive devices. Many of them deal with Tolkien's terminology with such things as arrows, darts, shot, stone-cast, etc. Some of it could prove useful, and some not so much. They are not in any particular order and some only deal with terminology, or a mixture of terminology and other things.

Then Gil-galad and Elendil passed into Mordor and encompassed the stronghold of Sauron; and they laid siege to it for seven years, and suffered grievous loss by fire and by the darts and bolts of the Enemy, and Sauron sent many sorties against them.

The crown of Gondor was derived from the form of a Númenórean war-helm. In the beginning it was indeed a plain helm; and it is said to have been the one that Isildur wore in the Battle of Dagorlad (for the helm of Anárion was crushed by the stone-cast from Barad-dûr that slew him).

Fire and smoke and stench was in the air; for many engines had been burned or cast into the fire-pits, and many of the slain also, while here and there lay many carcases of the great Southron monsters, half-burned, or broken by stone-cast, or shot through the eyes by the valiant archers of Morthond.

Indeed the whole surface of the plains of Gorgoroth was pocked with great holes, as if, while it was still a waste of soft mud, it had been smitten with a shower of bolts and huge slingstones.

Busy as ants hurrying orcs were digging, digging lines of deep trenches in a huge ring, just out of bowshot from the walls; and as the trenches were made each was filled with fire, though how it was kindled or fed, by art or devilry, none could see. All day the labour went forward, while the men of Minas Tirith looked on, unable to hinder it. And as each length of trench was completed, they could see great wains approaching; and soon yet more companies of the enemy were swiftly setting up, each behind the cover of a trench, great engines for the casting of missiles. There were none upon the City walls large enough to reach so far or to stay the work.

But the engines did not waste shot upon the indomitable wall. It was no brigand or orc-chieftain that ordered the assault upon the Lord of Mordor’s greatest foe. A power and mind of malice guided it. As soon as the great catapults were set, with many yells and the creaking of rope and winch, they began to throw missiles marvellously high, so that they passed right above the battlement and fell thudding within the first circle of the City; and many of them by some secret art burst into flame as they came toppling down. Soon there was great peril of fire behind the wall, and all who could be spared were busy quelling the flames that sprang up in many places. Then among the greater casts there fell another hail, less ruinous but more horrible. All about the streets and lanes behind the Gate it tumbled down, small round shot that did not burn. But when men ran to learn what it might be, they cried aloud or wept. For the enemy was flinging into the City all the heads of those who had fallen fighting at Osgiliath, or on the Rammas, or in the fields.

But about the Gate resistance still was stout, and there the knights of Dol Amroth and the hardiest of the garrison stood at bay. Shot and dart fell thick; siege-towers crashed or blazed suddenly like torches.

But in the next year, ere the winter was come, Morgoth sent great strength over Hithlum and Nevrast, and they came down the rivers Brithon and Nenning and ravaged all the Falas, and besieged the walls of Brithombar and Eglarest. Smiths and miners and makers of fire they brought with them, and they set up great engines; and valiantly though they were resisted they broke the walls at last.

Nonetheless for long it seemed to the Númenóreans that they prospered, and if they were not increased in happiness, yet they grew more strong, and their rich men ever richer. For with the aid and counsel of Sauron they multiplied then: possessions, and they devised engines, and they built ever greater ships. And they sailed now with power and armoury to Middle-earth, and they came no longer as bringers of gifts, nor even as rulers, but as fierce men of war.

There came great beasts, like moving houses in the red and fitful light, the mûmakil of the Harad dragging through the lanes amid the fires huge towers and engines.

Fires leaped up. Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it.

Even as they spoke there came a blare of trumpets. Then there was a crash and a flash of flame and smoke. The waters of the Deeping-stream poured out hissing and foaming: they were choked no longer, a gaping hole was blasted in the wall. A host of dark shapes poured in. ‘Devilry of Saruman!’ cried Aragorn. ‘They have crept in the culvert again, while we talked, and they have lit the fire of Orthanc beneath our feet. Elendil, Elendil!’ he shouted, as he leaped down into the breach; but even as he did so a hundred ladders were raised against the battlements.

When they came to the arch Gandalf went through, signing to them to wait. As he stood just beyond the opening they saw his face lit by a red glow. Quickly he stepped back. ‘There is some new devilry here,’ he said, ‘devised for our welcome, no doubt. But I know now where we are: we have reached the First Deep, the level immediately below the Gates. This is the Second Hall of Old Moria; and the Gates are near: away beyond the eastern end, on the left, not more than a quarter of a mile. Across the Bridge, up a broad stair, along a wide road, through the First Hall, and out! But come and look!’ They peered out. Before them was another cavernous hall. It was loftier and far longer than the one in which they had slept. They were near its eastern end; westward it ran away into darkness. Down the centre stalked a double line of towering pillars. They were carved like boles of mighty trees whose boughs upheld the roof with a branching tracery of stone. Their stems were smooth and black, but a red glow was darkly mirrored in their sides. Right across the floor, close to the feet of two huge pillars a great fissure had opened. Out of it a fierce red light came, and now and again flames licked at the brink and curled about the bases of the columns. Wisps of dark smoke wavered in the hot air. ‘If we had come by the main road down from the upper halls, we should have been trapped here,’ said Gandalf. ‘Let us hope that the fire now lies between us and pursuit. Come! There is no time to lose.’

‘But the Orcs have brought a devilry from Orthanc,’said Aragorn. ‘They have a blasting fire, and with it they took the Wall. If they cannot come in the caves, they may seal up those that are inside.

‘Alas! he speaks all too shrewdly,’said Théoden. ‘And our scouts say that they have cast trenches and stakes across the road. We cannot sweep them away in sudden onset.’

Taking his leave, he returned to the walls, and passed round all their circuit, enheartening the men, and lending aid wherever the assault was hot. Legolas went with him. Blasts of fire leaped up from below shaking the stones. Grappling-hooks were hurled, and ladders raised.

There was a roar and a blast of fire. The archway of the gate above which he had stood a moment before crumbled and crashed in smoke and dust. The barricade was scattered as if by a thunderbolt.

The bells of day had scarcely rung out again, a mockery in the unlightened dark, when far away he saw fires spring up, across in the dim spaces where the walls of the Pelennor stood. The watchmen cried aloud, and all men in the City stood to arms. Now ever and anon there was a red flash, and slowly through the heavy air dull rumbles could be heard. ‘They have taken the wall!’ men cried.

‘They are blasting breaches in it. They are coming!’

Presently Ghân turned to the king. ‘Wild Men say many things,’ he said. ‘First, be wary! Still many men in camp beyond Dîn, an hour’s walk yonder,’ he waved his arm west towards the black beacon.

‘But none to see between here and Stone-folk’s new walls. Many busy there. Walls stand up no longer: gorgûn knock them down with earth-thunder and with clubs of black iron. They are unwary and do not look about them.

Far behind the battle the River had been swiftly bridged, and all day more force and gear of war had poured across. Now at last in the middle night the assault was loosed. The vanguard passed through the trenches of fire by many devious paths that had been left between them.

There in the shadows on a large flat stone sat a tremendous goblin with a huge head, and armed goblins were standing round him carrying the axes and the bent swords that they use. Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light. It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far.



They held their great shields above them like a roof, while in their midst they bore two trunks of mighty trees. Behind them orc-archers crowded, sending a hail of darts against the bowmen on the walls. They gained the gates. The trees, swung by strong arms, smote the timbers with a rending boom.
Suggested reading for ideas of different siege weapons/engines and the way they function:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_thermal_weapons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battering_ram
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamethrower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_(military)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helepolis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastraphetes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_siege_engines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onager_(weapon)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catapult

[Alkar]

Balrogs

Here are some crucial quotes on Balrogs (not a complete list as the Armour section, as that is a major controversy, and things so very often need to be weighted, i.e. multiple examples, to sink into people's heads most of the time):

Origin


But in the north Melkor built his strength, and he slept not, but watched, and laboured; and the evil things that he had perverted walked abroad, and the dark and slumbering woods were haunted by monsters and shapes of dread. And in Utumno he gathered his demons about him, those spirits who first adhered to him in the days of his splendour, and became most like him in his corruption: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they were named in Middle-earth in later days. And in that dark time Melkor bred many other monsters of divers shapes and kinds that long troubled the world; and his realm spread now ever southward over Middle-earth. - The Silmarillion


The Balrog is a survivor from the Silmarillion and the legends of the First Age. So is Shelob. The Balrogs, of whom the whips were the chief weapons, were primeval spirits of destroying fire, chief servants of the primeval Dark Power of the First Age. They were supposed to have been all destroyed in the overthrow of Thangorodrim, his fortress in the North. But it is here found (there is usually a hang-over especially of evil from one age to another) that one had escaped and taken refuge under the mountains of Hithaeglin (the Misty Mountains). It is observable that only the Elf knows what the thing is – and doubtless Gandalf. - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien


Number


'There should not he supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.' - The History of Middle-earth



Relationship Between Form and Spirit


Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic. In his earlier incarnation he was able to veil his power (as Gandalf did) and could appear as a commanding figure of great strength of body and supremely royal demeanor and countenance. - The History of Middle-earth



The Valar had no bodies, but could assume shapes. After the coming of the Eldar they most often used shapes of 'human' form, though taller (not gigantic) and more magnificent. - The History of Middle-earth



It was because of this pre-occupation with the Children of God that the spirits so often took the form and likeness of the Children, especially after their appearance. It was thus that Sauron appeared in this shape. It is mythologically supposed that when this shape was ‘real’, that is a physical actuality in the physical world and not a vision transferred from mind to mind, it took some time to build up. It was then destructible like other physical organisms. But that of course did not destroy the spirit, nor dismiss it from the world to which it was bound until the end. After the battle with Gilgalad and Elendil, Sauron took a long while to re-build, longer than he had done after the Downfall of Numenor (I suppose because each building-up used up some of the inherent energy of the spirit, which might be called the ‘will’ or the effective link between the indestructible mind and being the realization of its imagination). The impossibility of re-building after the destruction of the Ring, is sufficiently clear ‘mythologically’ in the present book. I am sorry if this all seems deary and ‘pompose’. But so do all attempts to ‘explain’ the images and events of a mythology. Naturally the stories come first. But it is, I suppose, some test of the consistency of a mythology as such, if it is capable of some rational or rationalized explanation. The History of Middle-earth


It was because of the love of Ea, and because of the pan they had played in its making, that they wished to, and could, incarnate themselves in visible physical forms, though these were comparable to our clothes (in so far as our clothes are a personal expression) not to our bodies. Their forms were thus expressions of their persons, powers, and loves. They need not be anthropomorphic (Yavanna wife of Aule would, for instance, appear in the form of a great Tree.) But the ‘habitual’ shapes of the Valar, when visible or clothed, were anthropomorphic, because of their intense concern with Elves and Men. - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien


​Appearance in the Latest Conception


Then something came into the chamber – I felt it through the door, and the orcs themselves were afraid and fell silent. It laid hold of the iron ring, and then it perceived me and my spell. ‘What it was I cannot guess, but I have never such a challenge. The counter-spell was terrible. It nearly broke me. For an instant the door left my control and began to open! I had to speak a word of Command. That proved too great a strain. The door burst in pieces. Something dark as a cloud was blocking out all the light outside, and I was thrown backwards down the stairs. All the wall gave way, and the roof of the chamber as well, I think. ‘I am afraid Balin is buried deep, and something else is buried there too. I cannot say. But at least the passage behind us was completely blocked. Ah! I have never felt so spent, but it is passing. - The Lord of the Rings


The ranks of the orcs opened, and they crowded away, as if they themselves were afraid. Something was coming up behind them. What it was could not be seen: it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and go before it. It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a cloud had bent over it. Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. It streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs. - The Lord of the Rings


The Balrog reached the bridge. Gandalf stood in the middle of the span, leaning on the staff in his left hand, but in his other hand Glamdring gleamed, cold and white. His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. It raised the whip, and the thongs whined and cracked. Fire came from its nostrils. But Gandalf stood firm. - The Lord of the Rings


The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall; but still Gandalf could be seen, glimmering in the gloom; he seemed small, and altogether alone: grey and bent, like a wizened tree before the onset of a storm. - The Lord of the Rings


Here is what a Balrog may have looked like (with a few differences, of course):





Summary


Balrogs were fire-spirits of the order of the Maiar cloaked in a visible form of darkness upon Arda. They were most probably not terribly huge, more akin to about the height of two Men at most, as was Sauron, and were of vaguely humanoid shape, although they could project themselves into a much greater shape of great height. They had weapons of fire: a great sword, and a whip of many thongs. The shadow about them was quite large and would project to a great distance, so much so that Tolkien likened it to two great wings.



Dragons


Origin and Characteristics


The Silmarillion

But thereafter there was peace for many years, and no open assault from Angband, for Morgoth perceived that the Orcs unaided were no match for the Noldor; and he sought in his heart for new counsel. Again after a hundred years Glaurung, the first of the Uruloki, the fire-drakes of the North, issued from Angband’s gates by night. He was yet young and scarce half-grown, for long and slow is the life of the dragons, but the Elves fled before him to Ered Wethrin and Dorthonion in dismay; and he defiled the fields of Ard-galen. Then Fingon price of Hithlum rode against him with archers on horseback, and hemmed him round with a ring of swift riders; and Glaurung could not endure their darts, being not yet come to his full armoury, and he fled back to Angband, and came not forth for many years.

There came wolves, and wolfriders, and there came Balrogs, and dragons, and Glaurung father of dragons. The strength and terror of the Great Worm were now great indeed, and Elves and Men withered before him; and he came between the hosts of Maedhros and Fingon and swept them apart.


Last of all the eastern force to stand firm were the Dwarves of Belegost, and thus they won renown. For the Naugrim withstood fire more hardily than either Elves or Men, and it was their custom moreover to wear great masks in battle hideous to look upon; and those stood them in good stead against the dragons. And but for them Glaurung and his brood would have withered all that was left of the Noldor. But the Naugrim made a circle about him when he assailed them, and even his mighty armour was not full proof against the blows of their great axes; and when in his rage Glaurung turned and struck down Azaghâl, Lord of Belegost, and crawled over him, with his last stroke Azaghâl drove a knife into his belly, and so wounded him that he fled the field, and the beasts of Angband in dismay followed after him. Then the Dwarves raised up the body of Azaghâl and bore it away; and with slow steps they walked behind singing a dirge in deep voices, as it were a funeral pomp in their country, and gave no heed more to their foes; and none dared to stay them.


Then Túrin sprang about, and strode against him, and the edges of Gurthang shone as with flame; but Glaurung withheld his blast, and opened wide his serpent-eyes and gazed upon Túrin. Without fear Túrin looked into them as he raised up the sword; and straightway he fell under the binding spell of the lidless eyes of the dragon, and was halted moveless. Then for a long time he stood as one graven of stone; and they two were alone, silent before the doors of Nargothrond. But Glaurung spoke again, taunting Túrin, and he said: 'Evil have been all thy ways, son of Húrin. Thankless fosterling, outlaw, slayer of thy friend, thief of love, usurper of Nargothrond, captain foolhardy, and deserter of thy kin. As thralls thy mother and thy sister live in Dor-lómin, in misery and want. Thou art arrayed as a prince, but they go in rags; and for thee they yearn, but thou carest not for that. Glad may thy father be to learn that he hath such a son; as learn he shall.' And Túrin being under the spell of Glaurung hearkened to his words, and he saw himself as in a mirror misshapen by malice, and loathed that which he saw. And while he was yet held by the eyes of the dragon in torment of mind, and could not stir, the Orcs drove away the herded captives, and they passed nigh to Túrin and crossed over the bridge. Among them was Finduilas, and she cried out to Túrin as she went; but not until her cries and the wailing of the captives was lost upon the northward road did Claiming release Túrin, and he might not stop his ears against that voice that haunted him after.
Then suddenly Glaurung withdrew his glance, and waited; and Túrin stirred slowly, as one waking from a hideous dream. Then coming to himself he sprang upon the dragon with a cry. But Glaurung laughed, saying: 'If thou wilt be slain, I will slay thee gladly. But small help will that be to Morwen and Nienor. No heed didst thou give to the cries of the Elf-woman. Wilt thou deny also the bond of thy blood?'
But Túrin drawing back his sword stabbed at the dragon's eyes; and Glaurung coiling back swiftly towered above him, and said: 'Nay! At least thou art valiant; beyond all whom I have met And they lie who say that we of our part do not honour the valour of foes. See now! I offer thee freedom. Go to thy kin, if thou canst. Get thee gone! And if Elf or Man be left to make tale of these days, then surely in scorn they will name thee, if thou spurnest this gift.'
Then Túrin, being yet bemused by the eyes of the dragon, as were he treating with a foe that could know pity, believed the words of Glaurung and fuming away he sped over the bridge. But as he went Glaurung spoke behind him, saying in a fell voice: 'Haste thee now, son of Húrin, to Dor-lómin! Or perhaps the Orcs shall come before thee, once again. And if thou tarry for Finduilas, then never shalt thou see Morwen again, and never at all shalt thou see Nienor thy sister; and they will curse thee.'
But Túrin passed away on the northward road, and Claiming laughed once more, for he had accomplished the errand of his Master. Then he turned to his own pleasure, and sent forth his blast, and burned all about him. But all the Orcs that were busy in the sack he routed forth, and drove them away, and denied them their plunder even to the last thing of worth.


Then, seeing that his hosts were overthrown and his power dispersed, Morgoth quailed, and he dared not to come forth himself. But he loosed upon his foes the last desperate assault that he had prepared, and out of the pits of Angband there issued the winged dragons, that had not before been seen; and so sudden and ruinous was the onset of that dreadful fleet that the host of the Valar was driven back, for the coming of the dragons was with great thunder, and lightning, and a tempest of fire.
But Eärendil came, shining with white flame, and about Vingilot were gathered all the great birds of heaven and Thorondor was their captain, and there was battle in the air all the day and through a dark night of doubt. Before the rising of the sun Eärendil slew Ancalagon the Black, the mightiest of the dragon-host, and cast him from the sky; and he fell upon the towers of Thangorodrim, and they were broken in his ruin.


At last, in the year when Eärendil was seven years old, Morgoth was ready, and he loosed upon Gondolin his Balrogs, and his Orcs, and his wolves; and with them came dragons of the brood of Glaurung, and they were become now many and terrible.


Summary


The Dragons were creatures capable of breeding devised by Melkor. They were of two kinds: winged and wingless, both of which could use fire. Tolkien does mention a cold-drake, but we are not told exactly what this means, but I think it probably means that it just can't use fire. Whether it had wings or not is impossible to determine, although it probably didn't, as it seems more of like a great snake that could not breathe fire. They had long lives, and their scales took a long time to develop. When they did develop, they were all but invincible except on the underside area, which was soft and slimy. Glaurung can use spells on opponents, so that seems to suggest an angelic spirit, but I do not know if this would have survived Tolkien's process of creating metaphysics for his universe. All we can really do is speculate on their origin and nature. For now, they seem as if they were another addition inspired from previous mythmaking. I am not finished with this section.

Here a a few pictures by Tolkien of dragons, namely of the wingless type:







Here is a comparison of what the different types of dragons may have looked like:

[Alkar]

Mumakil

Origin

But in the north Melkor built his strength, and he slept not, but watched, and laboured; and the evil things that he had perverted walked abroad, and the dark and slumbering woods were haunted by monsters and shapes of dread. And in Utumno he gathered his demons about him, those spirits who first adhered to him in the days of his splendour, and became most like him in his corruption: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they were named in Middle-earth in later days. And in that dark time Melkor bred many other monsters of divers shapes and kinds that long troubled the world; and his realm spread now ever southward over Middle-earth. - The Silmarillion


Characteristics


There came great beasts, like moving houses in the red and fitful light, the Mumakil of the Harad dragging through the lanes amid the fires, huge towers, and engines. Yet their Captain cared not greatly what they did or how many might be slain: their purpose was only to test the strength of the defense and to keep the men of Gondor busy in many places. - The Lord of the Rings


New forces of the enemy were hastening up the road from the River; and from under the walls came the legions of Morgul; and from the southward fields came footmen of Harad with horsemen before them, and behind them rose the huge backs of the Mumakil with war-towers upon them. - The Lord of the Rings


Horns were blown and trumpets were braying, and the Mumakil were bellowing as they were goaded to war. - The Lord of the Rings

But wherever the Mumakil came there the horses would not go, but blenched and swerved away; and the great monsters were unfought, and stood like towers of defense, and the Haradrim rallied about them. - The Lord of the Rings


The axes hewed Forlong as he fought alone and unhorsed; and both Duilin of Morthond and his brother were trampled to death when they assailed the Mumakil, leading their bowmen close to shoot at the eyes of the monsters. - The Lord of the Rings

Fire and smoke and stench was in the air; for many engines had been burned or cast into the fire-pits, and many of the slain also, while here and there lay many carcasses of the great Southron monsters, half-burned, or broken by stone-cast, or shot through the eyes by the valiant archers of Morthond. - The Lord of the Rings


To his astonishment and terror, and lasting delight, Sam saw a vast shape crash out of the trees and come careering down the slope. Big as a house, much bigger than a house, it looked to him, a grey-clad moving hill. Fear and wonder, maybe enlarged him in the hobbit’s eyes, but the Mumak of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk, and the like of him does not walk now in Middle-earth; his kin that live still in latter days are but memories of his girth and majesty. On he came, straight towards the watchers, and then swerved aside in the nick of time, passing only a few yards away, rocking the ground beneath their feet: his great legs like trees, enormous sail-like ears spread out, long snout upraised like a huge serpent about to strike, his small red eyes raging. His upturned hornlike tusks were bound with bands of gold and dripped with blood. His trappings of scarlet and gold flapped about him in wild tatters. The ruins of what seemed a very war-tower lay upon his heaving back, smashed in his furious passage through the woods; and high upon his neck still desperately clung a tiny figure – the body of a mighty warrior, a giant among the Swartings. On the great beast thundered, blundering in blind wrath through pool and thicket. Arrows skipped and snapped harmlessly about the triple hide of his flanks. Men of both sides fled before him, but many he overtook and crushed to the ground. - The Lord of the Rings

They put houses and towers on the oliphauntses backs and all, and the oliphaunts throw rocks and trees at one another. - The Lord of the Rings

Grey as a mouse,
Big as a house.
Nose like a snake,
I make the earth shake,
As I tramp through the grass;
Trees crack as I pass.
With horns in my mouth
I walk in the South,
Flapping big ears.
Beyond count of years
I stump round and round,
Never lie on the ground,
Not even to die.
Oliphaunt am I,
Biggest of all,
Huge, old, and tall.
If ever you’d met me
You wouldn’t forget me.
If you never do,
You won’t think I’m ture;
But old Oliphaunt am I,
And I never lie. - The Lord of the Rings


Summary

The Mumakil were fierce beasts of war of Elephant-shape under the use of the Haradrim. They were dreadful beasts of dreadful size (they were described as being as big as a house) who most likely originated in the First Age as another corruption of Melkor. Apparently they could throw things such as rocks and trees, implying they were very large wit large trunks. They were virtually untouchable besides a shot to the eye and catapults, which were used effectively against them during the siege of Minas Tirith.

Here is a picture of what the great Mumakil may have looked like, by Alan Lee:




Bat Creatures


Origin

We have not a single scrap of evidence as to their origin; however, it is most likely that they were just another creation of Iluvatar along with the other animals, similar to hos Wolves must have been.


Characteristics


The Hobbit


On and on he went, and down and down; and still he heard no sound of anything except the occasional whirr of a bat by his ears, which startled him at first, till it became too frequent to bother about.

They could not stand that, nor the huge bats, black as a top-hat, either; so they gave up fires and stat at night and dozed in the enormous uncanny darkness.

He was just going to turn and go back, when a black shape swooped at him and brushed his face. He squeeked and startled, stumbled backwards and fell. His torch dropped head downwards and went out! “Only a bat, I suppose and hope!” he said miserably. But now what am I to do? Which is East, South, North West?”

A whirl of bats frightened from slumber by their smoking torches flurried over them; as they sprang forward their feet slithered on stones rubbed smooth and slimed by the passing of the dragon.

O Dain! Whose father you slew in Moria. Behold! The bats are above his army like a sea of locusts. They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!”

Soon the thunder passed, rolling away to the South-East; but the bat-cloud came, flying lower, over the shoulder of the Mountain, and whirled above them shutting out the light and filling them with dread.

Soon actual darkness was coming into a stormy sky; while still the great bats swirled about the heads and ears of elves and men, or fastened vampire-like on the stricken.


Summary

The bats of Middle-earth could be ones of normal size or large size, and were a deep black in color, other than that we know pretty much nothing about them. From the examples we have they seemed to be of an evil nature, but were mostly passive. I doubt all were 'evil', however. These ones of evil nature were probably tainted by Melkor and/or Sauron, as most things of evil were.


Trolls


_Origin


(3). But Men had not yet appeared, when the Orcs already
existed. Aule constructed the Dwarves out of his memory of the
Music; but Eru would not sanction the work of Melkor so as to
allow the independence of the Orcs. (Not unless Orcs were
ultimately remediable, or could be amended and 'saved'?)
It also seems clear (see 'Finrod and Andreth') that though
Melkor could utterly corrupt and ruin individuals, it is not
possible to contemplate his absolute perversion of a whole
people, or group of peoples, and his making that state
heritable.(2) [Added later: This latter must (if a fact) be an act of
Eru.]
In that case Elves, as a source, are very unlikely. And are Orcs
'immortal', in the Elvish sense? Or trolls? It seems clearly
implied in The Lord of the Rings that trolls existed in their own
right, but were 'tinkered' with by Melkor.(3)


3. In The Lord of the Rings Appendix F (I) it is said of Trolls:
In their beginning far back in the twilight of the Elder Days,
these were creatures of dull and lumpish nature and had no
more language than beasts. But Sauron had made use of them,
teaching them what little they could learn, and increasing their
wits with wickedness.
In the long letter of September 1954 cited in note 1 he wrote of
them:
I am not sure about Trolls. I think they are mere 'counterfeits',
and hence (though here I am of course only using elements of
old barbarous mythmaking that had no 'aware' metaphysic)
they return to mere stone images when not in the dark. But
there are other sorts of Trolls beside these rather ridiculous, if
brutal, Stone-trolls, for which other origins are suggested. Of
course... when you make Trolls speak you are giving them a
power, which in our world (probably) connotes the possession
of a 'soul'.


The Elves would have classed the creatures called 'trolls' (in
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) as Orcs - in character
and origin - but they were larger and slower. It would seem
evident that they were corruptions of primitive human types.
At the bottom of the page my father wrote: 'See The Lord of the
Rings Appendix p. 410'; this is the passage in Appendix F concerning
Trolls.
It seems possible that his opening words in this note 'This suggests -
though it is not explicit - that the <Orcs> were of Elvish origin
actually refer to the previous text given here, VIII, where he first wrote
that 'Elves, as a source, are very unlikely', but later concluded that 'it
remains therefore terribly possible there was an Elvish strain in the
Orcs'. But if this is so, the following words 'Their origin is more
clearly dealt with elsewhere' must refer to something else.
He now expressly asserts the earlier view (see p. 408 and note 1)
that the Orcs were in origin corrupted Elves, but observes that 'later'
some were probably derived from Men. In saying this (as the last
paragraph and the reference to The Lord of the Rings Appendix F
suggest) he seems to have been thinking of Trolls, and specifically of
the Olog-hai, the great Trolls who appeared at the end of the Third
Age (as stated in Appendix F): 'That Sauron bred them none doubted,
though from what stock was not known. Some held that they were not
Trolls but giant Orcs; but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and
mind quite unlike even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed
in size and power.'


Characteristics


The Lord of the Rings


Gandalf and Thorin each took one of these; and
Bilbo took a knife in a leather sheath. It would have made only a tiny pocket-knife
for a troll, but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit.


'There are Orcs, very many of them,' he said. `And some are large and
evil: black Uruks of Mordor. For the moment they are hanging back, but there
is something else there. A great cave-troll, I think, or more than one.
There is no hope of escape that way.'


They found that they were looking at a most extraordinary face. It
belonged to a large Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen
foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck.


As when death smites the swollen brooding thing that inhabits
their crawling hill and holds them all in sway, ants will wander witless and
purposeless and then feebly die, so the creatures of Sauron, orc or troll or
beast spell-enslaved, ran hither and thither mindless; and some slew
themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or fled wailing back to hide in
holes and dark lightless places far from hope.


But they were trolls. Obviously trolls. Even Bilbo, in spite of his sheltered life, could
see that: from the great heavy faces of them, and their size, and the shape of their
legs, not to mention their language, which was not drawing-room fashion at all, at
all.


After hearing all this Bilbo ought to have done something at once. Either he
should have gone back quietly and warned his friends that there were three fairsized
trolls at hand in a nasty mood, quite likely to try toasted dwarf, or even
pony, for a change; or else he should have done a bit of good quick burgling.


He caught hold of Tom's leg-as well as he could, it was
thick as a young tree-trunk -but he was sent spinning up into the top of some
bushes, when Tom kicked the sparks up in Thorin's face.
The Dark Tower had been rebuilt, it was said. From
there the power was spreading far and wide, and away far east and south
there were wars and growing fear. Orcs were multiplying again in the
mountains. Trolls were abroad, no longer dull-witted, but cunning and armed
with dreadful weapons. And there were murmured hints of creatures more
terrible than all these, but they had no name.


'There are trolls!' Pippin panted. 'Down in a clearing in the woods not
far below. We got a sight of them through the tree-trunks. They are very
large!' (The Trolls Bilbo Encountered)


There stood the trolls: three large trolls. One was
stooping, and the other two stood staring at him. (The Trolls Bilbo Encountered)


Two great trolls appeared;
they bore great slabs of stone, and flung them down to serve as gangways
over the fire.


Maybe you have heard of Trolls? They are mighty strong. But Trolls
are only counterfeits. made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery
of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves. We are stronger than Trolls.


As tall as trolls they were, twelve feet or more in height; their
strong bodies, stout as young trees, seemed to be clad with raiment or with
hide of close-fitting grey and brown.


Great beasts drew it, Orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to
wield it.


But through them there came
striding up, roaring like beasts, a great company of hill-trolls out of
Gorgoroth. Taller and broader than Men they were, and they were clad only in
close-fitting mesh of horny scales, or maybe that was their hideous hide;
but they bore round bucklers huge and black and wielded heavy hammers in
their knotted hands. Reckless they sprang into the pools and waded across,
bellowing as they came. Like a storm they broke upon the line of the men of
Gondor, and beat upon helm and head, and arm and shield as smiths hewing the
hot bending iron. At Pippin's side Beregond was stunned and overborne, and
he fell; and the great troll-chief that smote him down bent over him,
reaching out a clutching claw; for these fell creatures would bite the
throats of those that they threw down.
Then Pippin stabbed upwards, and the written blade of Westernesse
pierced through the hide and went deep into the vitals of the troll, and his
black blood came gushing out. He toppled forward and came crashing down
like
a falling rock, burying those beneath him. Blackness and stench and crushing
pain came upon Pippin, and his mind fell away into a great darkness.


The Silmarillion


Last of all Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew Húrin cried: 'Aurë entuluva! Day shall come again!' Seventy times he uttered that cry; but they took him at last alive, by the command of Morgoth, for the Orcs grappled him with their hands, which clung to him still though he hewed off their arms; and ever their numbers were renewed, until at last he fell buried beneath them. Then Gothmog bound him and dragged him to Angband with mockery.


Summary


Trolls were rather large creatures about the tallness of Ents, that is, around 12 feet or more. A large troll was said to have a leg the width of a young tree-trunk, but that is open to speculation of what tree and just how young, as well as where this thickness was located. In addition, they had tough hides, only being able to be pierced by a very well-wrought blade born with great strength. The ones especially used for war used a war-hammer and a large black buckler. The ones that could turn to stone was an early addition to Tolkien's mythology and simply added in from other, more ancient, mythologies with no metaphysics. Tolkien's final word on the origin of Trolls is that they were corrupted forms of Men, just as Orcs were. These Melkor made much more powerful than the easily breed-able and expendable Orcs; however, it does not seem that they were as powerful as some might imagine. Tolkien classified Trolls by where they were from: hills, mountains, caves, etc. Here is a picture drawn by Tolkien of the Trolls encountered by Bilbo (these were said to be quite large for Trolls and apparently they were not so well-armored as the ones that specifically fought in armies):




Orcs

Origin

The origin of Orcs is a very complicated matter, and requires reading quite a bit of material on the topic. I will let the texts speak for itself for now, so I will not provide a summary. Perhaps I will do so in the future once I have compiled more material.


Aule so desired to see the Children, that he tried to make children according to his imperfect knowledge of their kind. When he had made thirteen, (one, the eldest, alone, and six more with six mates) God spoke to him in anger, but not without pity: for Aule had done this thing not out of evil desire to have slaves and subjects of his own, but out of impatient love, desiring children to talk to and teach, sharing with them the praise of Iluvatar and his great love of the materials of which the world is made. The One rebuked Aule, saying that he had tried to usurp the Creator’s power; but he could not give independent life to his makings. He had only one life, his own derived from the One, and could at most only distribute it. ‘Behold’ said the One: ‘these creatures of thine have only thy will, and thy movement. Though you have devised a language for them, they can only report to thee thine own thought. This is a mockery of me.’ Then Aule in grief and repentance humbled himself and asked for pardon. And he said: ‘I will destroy these images of my presumption, and wait upon thy will.’ And he took a great hammer, raising it to smite the eldest of the images; but it flinched and cowered from him. And as he withheld his stroke, astonished, he heard the laughter of Iluvatar. ‘Do you wonder at this?’ he said. ‘Behold! thy creatures now live, free from thy will! For I have seen thy humility, and taken pity on your impatience. Thy making I have taken up into my design.’ This is the Elvish legend of the making of the Dwarves; but the Elves report that Iluvatar said thus also: ‘Nonetheless I will not suffer my design to be forestalled: thy children shall not awake before mine own.’ And he commanded Aule to lay the fathers of the Dwarves severally in deep places, each with his mate, save Durin the eldest who had none. There they should sleep long, until Iluvatar bade them awake. Nonetheless there has been for the most part little love between the Dwarves and the children of Iluvatar. And of the fate that Iluvatar has set upon the children of Aule beyond the Circles of the world Elves and men know nothing, and if Dwarves know they do not speak of it.

(* [footnote to the text] One of the reasons for his self-weakening
is that he has given to his 'creatures', Orcs, Balrogs, etc. power of
recuperation and multiplication. So that they will gather again
without further specific orders. Part of his native creative power has
gone out into making an independent evil growth out of his control.)



(**[bracketed note inserted into the text] Melkor could not, of
course, 'annihilate' anything of matter, he could only ruin or destroy
or corrupt the forms given to matter by other minds in their subcreative
activities.)

In the last sentence of the original short version of text VII (p. 406) my
father wrote that the Eldar believed that Morgoth bred the Orcs
'by capturing Men (and Elves) early' (i.e. in the early days of their
existence). This indicates that his views on this subject had changed
since the Annals of Aman. For the theory of the origin of the Orcs as it
stood, in point of written record in the narratives,(1) at this time see
AAm $42 - 5 (pp. 72-4, and commentary p. 78), and $127
(pp. 109 - 10, and commentary pp. 123 - 4). In the final form in AAm
(p. 74) 'this is held true by the wise of Eressea':
all those of the Quendi that came into the hands of Melkor, ere
Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts of
cruelty and wickedness were corrupted and enslaved. Thus did
Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orkor in envy and mockery of
the Eldar, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes. For the
Orkor had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of
Iluvatar; and naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance
thereof, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindale
before the Beginning: so say the wise.
On the typescript of AAm my father noted against the account of the
origin of the Orcs: 'Alter this. Orcs are not Elvish' (p. 80).
The present text, entitled 'Orcs', is a short essay (very much a record
of 'thinking with the pen') found in the same small collection gathered
in a newspaper of 1959 as texts III and VI. Like them it was written on
Merton College papers of 1955; and like text VI it makes reference to
'Finrod and Andreth' (see pp. 385, 390).
Orcs.
Their nature and origin require more thought. They are not easy
to work into the theory and system.
(1). As the case of Aule and the Dwarves shows, only Eru
could make creatures with independent wills, and with reasoning
powers. But Orcs seem to have both: they can try to cheat
Morgoth / Sauron, rebel against him, or criticize him.
(2). ? Therefore they must be corruptions of something
pre-existing.
(3). But Men had not yet appeared, when the Orcs already
existed. Aule constructed the Dwarves out of his memory of the
Music; but Eru would not sanction the work of Melkor so as to
allow the independence of the Orcs. (Not unless Orcs were
ultimately remediable, or could be amended and 'saved'?)
It also seems clear (see 'Finrod and Andreth') that though
Melkor could utterly corrupt and ruin individuals, it is not
possible to contemplate his absolute perversion of a whole
people, or group of peoples, and his making that state
heritable.(2) [Added later: This latter must (if a fact) be an act of
Eru.]
In that case Elves, as a source, are very unlikely. And are Orcs
'immortal', in the Elvish sense? Or trolls? It seems clearly
implied in The Lord of the Rings that trolls existed in their own
right, but were 'tinkered' with by Melkor.(3)
(4). What of talking beasts and birds with reasoning and
speech? These have been rather lightly adopted from less
'serious' mythologies, but play a part which cannot now be
excised. They are certainly 'exceptions' and not much used, but
sufficiently to show they are a recognized feature of the world.
All other creatures accept them as natural if not common.
But true 'rational' creatures, 'speaking peoples', are all of
human / 'humanoid' form. Only the Valar and Maiar are
intelligences that can assume forms of Arda at will. Huan and
Sorontar could be Maiar - emissaries of Manwe.(4) But unfortunately
in The Lord of the Rings Gwaehir and Landroval are said
to be descendants of Sorontar.(5)
In any case is it likely or possible that even the least of the
Maiar would become Orcs? Yes: both outside Arda and in it,
before the fall of Utumno. Melkor had corrupted many spirits -
some great, as Sauron, or less so, as Balrogs. The least could
have been primitive (and much more powerful and perilous)
Orcs; but by practising when embodied procreation they would
(cf. Melian) [become] more and more earthbound, unable to
return to spirit-state (even demon-form), until released by death
(killing), and they would dwindle in force. When released they
would, of course, like Sauron, be 'damned': i.e. reduced to
impotence, infinitely recessive: still hating but unable more and
more to make it effective physically (or would not a very
dwindled dead Orc-state be a poltergeist?).
But again - would Eru provide fear for such creatures? For
the Eagles etc. perhaps. But not for Orcs.(6)
It does however seem best to view Melkor's corrupting power
as always starting, at least, in the moral or theological level. Any
creature that took him for Lord (and especially those v ho
blasphemously called him Father or Creator) became soon
corrupted in all parts of its being, the fea dragging down the
hroa in its descent into Morgothism: hate and destruction. As
for Elves being 'immortal': they in fact only had enormously
long lives, and were themselves physically 'wearing out', and
suffering a slow progressive weakening of their bodies.
In summary: I think it must be assumed that 'talking' is not
necessarily the sign of the possession of a 'rational soul' or fea.(7)
The Orcs were beasts of humanized shape (to mock Men
and Elves) deliberately perverted I converted into a more close
resemblance to Men. Their 'talking' was really reeling off
'records' set in them by Melkor. Even their rebellious critical
words - he knew about them. Melkor taught them speech and
as they bred they inherited this; and they had just as much
independence as have, say, dogs or horses of their human
masters. This talking was largely echoic (cf. parrots). In The
Lord of the Rings Sauron is said to have devised a language for
them.(8)
The same sort of thing may be said of Huan and the Eagles:
they were taught language by the Valar, and raised to a higher
level - but they still had no fear.
But Finrod probably went too far in his assertion that Melkor
could not wholly corrupt any work of Eru, or that Eru would
(necessarily) interfere to abrogate the corruption, or to end the
being of His own creatures because they had been corrupted
and fallen into evil.(9)
It remains therefore terribly possible there was an Elvish
strain in the Orcs.(10) These may then even have been mated with
beasts (sterile!) - and later Men. Their life-span would be
diminished. And dying they would go to Mandos and be held in
prison till the End.
The text as written ends here, but my father subsequently added the
following passage. The words with which it opens are a reference to
text Vl, Melkor Morgoth (p. 390).
See 'Melkor'. It will there be seen that the wills of Orcs and
Balrogs etc. are part of Melkor's power 'dispersed'. Their spirit
is one of hate. But hate is non-cooperative (except under direct
fear). Hence the rebellions, mutinies, etc. when Morgoth seems
far off. Orcs are beasts and Balrogs corrupted Maiar. Also (n.b.)
Morgoth not Sauron is the source of Orc-wills. Sauron is just
another (if greater) agent. Orcs can rebel against him without
losing their own irremediable allegiance to evil (Morgoth). Aule
wanted love. But of course had no thought of dispersing his
power. Only Eru can give love and independence. If a finite
sub-creator tries to do this he really wants absolute loving
obedience, but it turns into robotic servitude and becomes evil.
NOTES.
1. In a long letter to Peter Hastings of September 1954, which was
not sent (Letters no.153), my father wrote as follows on the
question of whether Orcs 'could have "souls" or "spirits"':
... since in my myth at any rate I do not conceive of the making
of souls or spirits, things of an equal order if not an equal power
to the Valar, as a possible 'delegation', I have represented at
least the Orcs as pre-existing real beings on whom the Dark
Lord has exerted the fullness of his power in remodelling and
corrupting them, not making them.... There might be other
'makings' all the same which were more like puppets filled
(only at a distance) with their maker's mind and will, or
ant-like operating under direction of a queen-centre.
Earlier in this letter he had quoted Frodo's words to Sam in the
chapter 'The Tower of Cirith Ungol': 'The Shadow that bred
them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its
own. I don't think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined them and
twisted them'; and he went on: 'In the legends of the Elder Days it þ
is suggested that the Diabolus subjugated and corrupted some of
the earliest Elves ...' He also said that the Orcs 'are fundamentally
a race of "rational incarnate" creatures'.
2. In the Athrabeth (p. 312) Finrod declared:
But never even in the night have we believed that [Melkor)
could prevail against the Children of Eru. This one he might
cozen, or that one he might corrupt; but to change the doom of
a whole people of the Children, to rob them of their inheritance:
if he could do that in Eru's despite, then greater and more
terrible is he by far than we guessed...
3. In The Lord of the Rings Appendix F (I) it is said of Trolls:
In their beginning far back in the twilight of the Elder Days,
these were creatures of dull and lumpish nature and had no
more language than beasts. But Sauron had made use of them,
teaching them what little they could learn, and increasing their
wits with wickedness.
In the long letter of September 1954 cited in note 1 he wrote of
them:
I am not sure about Trolls. I think they are mere 'counterfeits',
and hence (though here I am of course only using elements of
old barbarous mythmaking that had no 'aware' metaphysic)
they return to mere stone images when not in the dark. But
there are other sorts of Trolls beside these rather ridiculous, if
brutal, Stone-trolls, for which other origins are suggested. Of
course... when you make Trolls speak you are giving them a
power, which in our world (probably) connotes the possession
of a 'soul'.
4. See p. 138. - At the bottom of the page bearing the brief text V
(p. 389) my father jotted down the following, entirely unconnected
with the matter of the text:
Living things in Aman. As the Valar would robe themselves
like the Children, many of the Maiar robed themselves like
other lesser living things, as trees, flowers, beasts. (Huan.)
5. 'There came Gwaihir the Windlord, and Landroval his brother,
greatest of all the Eagles of the North, mightiest of the descendants
of old Thorondor' ('The Field of Cormallen' in The Return
of the King).
6. At this point there is a note that begins 'Criticism of (1) (2) (3)
above' (i.e. the opening points of this text, p. 409) and then refers
obscurely to the 'last battle and fall of Barad-dur etc.' in The
Lord of the Rings. In view of what follows my father was
presumably thinking of this passage in the chapter 'Mount
Doom':
From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all
his stratagems and wars his mind shook free; and throughout
his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted,
and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and
despaired. For they were forgotten.
The note continues:
They had little or no will when not actually 'attended to' by the
mind of Sauron. Does their cheating and rebellion pass that
possible to such animals as dogs etc.?
7. Cf. the end of the passage cited from the letter of 1954 in note 3.
8. Appendix F (I): 'It is said that the Black Speech was devised by
Sauron in the Dark Years'.
9. See the citation from the Athrabeth in note 2. Finrod did not in
fact assert the latter part of the opinion here attributed to him.
10. The assertion that 'it remains therefore terribly possible there was
an Elvish strain in the Orcs' seems merely to contradict what has
been said about their being no more than 'talking beasts' without
advancing any new considerations. In the passage added at the
end of the text the statement that 'Orcs are beasts' is repeated.
IX.
This is another and quite separate note on the origin of the Orcs,
written quickly in pencil, and without any indication of date.
This suggests - though it is not explicit - that the 'Orcs' were of
Elvish origin. Their origin is more clearly dealt with elsewhere.
One point only is certain: Melkor could not 'create' living
'creatures' of independent wills.
He (and all the 'spirits' of the 'First-created', according to
their measure) could assume bodily shapes; and he (and they)
could dominate the minds of other creatures, including Elves
and Men, by force, fear, or deceits, or sheer magnificence.
The Elves from their earliest times invented and used a word
or words with a base (o)rok to denote anything that caused fear
and/or horror. It would originally have been applied to 'phantoms'
(spirits assuming visible forms) as well as to any independently
existing creatures. Its application (in all Elvish tongues)
specifically to the creatures called Orks - so I shall spell it in The
Silmarillion - was later.
Since Melkor could not 'create' an independent species, but
had immense powers of corruption and distortion of those that
came into his power, it is probable that these Orks had a mixed
origin. Most of them plainly (and biologically) were corruptions
of Elves (and probably later also of Men). But always among
them (as special servants and spies of Melkor, and as leaders)
there must have been numerous corrupted minor spirits who
assumed similar bodily shapes. (These would exhibit terrifying
and demonic characters.)
The Elves would have classed the creatures called 'trolls' (in
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) as Orcs - in character
and origin - but they were larger and slower. It would seem
evident that they were corruptions of primitive human types.
At the bottom of the page my father wrote: 'See The Lord of the
Rings Appendix p. 410'; this is the passage in Appendix F concerning
Trolls.
It seems possible that his opening words in this note 'This suggests -
though it is not explicit - that the <Orcs> were of Elvish origin
actually refer to the previous text given here, VIII, where he first wrote
that 'Elves, as a source, are very unlikely', but later concluded that 'it
remains therefore terribly possible there was an Elvish strain in the
Orcs'. But if this is so, the following words 'Their origin is more
clearly dealt with elsewhere' must refer to something else.
He now expressly asserts the earlier view (see p. 408 and note 1)
that the Orcs were in origin corrupted Elves, but observes that 'later'
some were probably derived from Men. In saying this (as the last
paragraph and the reference to The Lord of the Rings Appendix F
suggest) he seems to have been thinking of Trolls, and specifically of
the Olog-hai, the great Trolls who appeared at the end of the Third
Age (as stated in Appendix F): 'That Sauron bred them none doubted,
though from what stock was not known. Some held that they were not
Trolls but giant Orcs; but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and
mind quite unlike even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed
in size and power.'
The conception that among the Orcs 'there must have been
numerous corrupted minor spirits who assumed similar bodily shapes'
appears also in text VIII (p. 410): 'Melkor had corrupted many spirits
- some great, as Sauron, or less so, as Balrogs. The least could have
been primitive (and much more powerful and perilous) Orcs'.
X.
I give here a text of an altogether different kind, a very finished essay
on the origin of the Orcs. It is necessary to explain something of the
relations of this text.
There is a major work, which I hope to publish in The History of
Middle-earth, entitled Essekenta Eldarinwa or Quendi and Eldar. It is
extant in a good typescript made by my father on his later typewriter,
both in top copy and carbon; and it is preceded in both copies by a
manuscript page which describes the content of the work:
Enquiry into the origins of the Elvish names for Elves
and their varieties clans and divisions: with Appendices
on their names for the other Incarnates: Men, Dwarves,
and Orcs; and on their analysis of their own language,
Quenya: with a note on the 'Language of the Valar'.
With the appendices Quendi and Eldar runs to nearly fifty closely
typed pages, and being a highly finished and lucid work is of the
utmost interest.
To one of the title pages my father subjoined the following:
To which is added an abbreviation of the Osanwe-kenta or
'Communication of Thought' that Pengolodh set at the end
of his Lammas or 'Account of Tongues'
This is a separate work of eight typescript pages, separately paginated,
but found together with both copies of Quendi and Eldar. In addition,
and not referred to on the title-pages, there is a further typescript of
four pages (also found with both copies of Quendi and Eldar) entitled
Orcs; and this is the text given here.
All three elements are identical in general appearance, but Orcs
stands apart from the others, having no linguistic bearing; and in view
of this I have thought it legitimate to abstract it and print it in this
book together with the other discussions of the origin of the Orcs
given as texts VIII and IX.
As to the date of this complex, one of the copies is preserved in a
folded newspaper of March 1960. On this my father wrote: '"Quendi
and Eldar" with Appendices'; beneath is a brief list of the Appendices,
the items all written at the same time, which includes both Osanwe
and Origin of Orcs (the same is true of the cover of the other copy of
the Quendi and Eldar complex). All the material was thus in being
when the newspaper was used for this purpose, and although, as in
other similar cases, this does not provide a perfectly certain terminus
ad quem, there seems no reason to doubt that it belongs to 1959 - 60
(cf. p. 304).
Appendix C to Quendi and Eldar, 'Elvish Names for the Orcs', is
primarily concerned with etymology, but it opens with the following
passage:
It is not here the place to debate the question of the origin of
the Orcs. They were bred by Melkor, and their breeding was the
most wicked and lamentable of his works in Arda, but not the
most terrible. For clearly they were meant in his malice to be a
mockery of the Children of Iluvatar, wholly subservient to his
will, and nursed in an unappeasable hatred of Elves and Men.
The Orcs of the later wars, after the escape of Melkor-
Morgoth and his return to Middle-earth, were neither spirits
nor phantoms, but living creatures, capable of speech and of
some crafts and organization, or at least capable of learning
such things from higher creatures or from their Master. They
bred and multiplied rapidly whenever left undisturbed. It is
unlikely, as a consideration of the ultimate origin of this race
would make clearer, that the Quendi had met any Orcs of this
kind, before their finding by Orome and the separation of Eldar
and Avari.
But it is known that Melkor had become aware of the Quendi
before the Valar began their war against him, and the joy of the
Elves in Middle-earth had already been darkened by shadows of
fear. Dreadful shapes had begun to haunt the borders of their
dwellings, and some of their people vanished into the darkness
and were heard of no more. Some of these things may have been
phantoms and delusions; but some were, no doubt, shapes
taken by the servants of Melkor, mocking and degrading the
very forms of the Children. For Melkor had in his service great
numbers of the Maiar, who had the power, as had their Master,
of taking visible and tangible shape in Arda.
No doubt my father was led from his words here 'It is unlikely, as a
consideration of the ultimate origin of this race would make clearer,
that the Quendi had met any Orcs of this kind, before their finding by
Orome' to write that 'consideration' which follows here. It will be
seen that one passage of this initial statement was re-used.
Orcs.
The origin of the Orcs is a matter of debate. Some have called
them the Melkorohini, the Children of Melkor; but the wiser
say: nay, the slaves of Melkor, but not his children; for Melkor
had no children.(1) Nonetheless, it was by the malice of Melkor
that the Orcs arose, and plainly they were meant by him to be a
mockery of the Children of Eru, being bred to be wholly
subservient to his will and filled with unappeasable hatred of
Elves and Men.
Now the Orcs of the later wars, after the escape of Melkor-
Morgoth and his return to Middle-earth, were not 'spirits', nor
phantoms, but living creatures, capable of speech and some
crafts and organization; or at least capable of learning these
things from higher creatures and from their Master. They bred
and multiplied rapidly, whenever left undisturbed. So far as can
be gleaned from the legends that have come down to us from
our earliest days,(2) it would seem that the Quendi had never yet
encountered any Orcs of this kind before the coming of Orome
to Cuivienen.
Those who believe that the Orcs were bred from some kind of
Men, captured and perverted by Melkor, assert that it was
impossible for the Quendi to have known of Orcs before the
Separation and the departure of the Eldar. For though the time
of the awakening of Men is not known, even the calculations of
the loremasters that place it earliest do not assign it a date long
before the Great March (3) began, certainly not long enough
before it to allow for the corruption of Men into Orcs. On the
other hand, it is plain that soon after his return Morgoth had at
his command a great number of these creatures, with whom he
ere long began to attack the Elves. There was still less time
between his return and these first assaults for the breeding of
Orcs and for the transfer of their hosts westward.
This view of the origin of the Orcs thus meets with difficulties
of chronology. But though Men may take comfort in this, the
theory remains nonetheless the most probable. It accords with
all that is known of Melkor, and of the nature and behaviour of
Orcs - and of Men. Melkor was impotent to produce any living
thing, but skilled in the corruption of things that did not
proceed from himself, if he could dominate them. But if he had
indeed attempted to make creatures of his own in imitation or
mockery of the Incarnates, he would, like Aule, only have
succeeded in producing puppets: his creatures would have acted
only while the attention of his will was upon them, and they
would have shown no reluctance to execute any command of
his, even if it were to destroy themselves.
But the Orcs were not of this kind. They were certainly
dominated by their Master, but his dominion was by fear, and
they were aware of this fear and hated him. They were indeed so
corrupted that they were pitiless, and there was no cruelty or
wickedness that they would not commit; but this was the
corruption of independent wills, and they took pleasure in their
deeds. They were capable of acting on their own, doing evil
deeds unbidden for their own sport; or if Morgoth and his
agents were far away, they might neglect his commands. They
sometimes fought [> They hated one another and often fought]
among themselves, to the detriment of Morgoth's plans.
Moreover, the Orcs continued to live and breed and to carry
on their business of ravaging and plundering after Morgoth was
overthrown. They had other characteristics of the Incarnates
also. They had languages of their own, and spoke among
themselves in various tongues according to differences of breed
that were discernible among them. They needed food and drink,
and rest, though many were by training as tough as Dwarves in
enduring hardship. They could be slain, and they were subject
to disease; but apart from these ills they died and were not
immortal, even according to the manner of the Quendi; indeed
they appear to have been by nature short-lived compared with
the span of Men of higher race, such as the Edain.
This last point was not well understood in the Elder Days. For
Morgoth had many servants, the oldest and most potent of
whom were immortal, belonging indeed in their beginning to
the Maiar; and these evil spirits like their Master could take on
visible forms. Those whose business it was to direct the Orcs
often took Orkish shapes, though they were greater and more
terrible.(4) Thus it was that the histories speak of Great Orcs or
Orc-captains who were not slain, and who reappeared in battle
through years far longer than the span of the lives of Men.*(5)
Finally, there is a cogent point, though horrible to relate. It
became clear in time that undoubted Men could under the
domination of Morgoth or his agents in a few generations be
reduced almost to the Orc-level of mind and habits; and then
they would or could be made to mate with Orcs, producing new
breeds, often larger and more cunning. There is no doubt that
long afterwards, in the Third Age, Saruman rediscovered this,
or learned of it in lore, and in his lust for mastery committed
this, his wickedest deed: the interbreeding of Orcs and Men,
(* [footnote to the text] Boldog, for instance, is a name that occurs
many times in the tales of the War. But it is possible that Boldog was
not a personal name, and either a title, or else the name of a kind
of creature: the Orc-formed Maiar, only less formidable than the
Balrogs.)
producing both Men-orcs large and cunning, and Orc-men
treacherous and vile.
But even before this wickedness of Morgoth was suspected
the Wise in the Elder Days taught always that the Orcs were not
'made' by Melkor, and therefore were not in their origin evil.
They might have become irredeemable (at least by Elves and
Men), but they remained within the Law. That is, that though of
necessity, being the fingers of the hand of Morgoth, they must
be fought with the utmost severity, they must not be dealt with
in their own terms of cruelty and treachery. Captives must not
be tormented, not even to discover information for the defence
of the homes of Elves and Men. If any Orcs surrendered and
asked for mercy, they must be granted it, even at a cost.* This
was the teaching of the Wise, though in the horror of the War it
was not always heeded.
It is true, of course, that Morgoth held the Orcs in dire
thraldom; for in their corruption they had lost almost all
possibility of resisting the domination of his will. So great
indeed did its pressure upon them become ere Angband fell that,
if he turned his thought towards them, they were conscious of
his 'eye' wherever they might be; and when Morgoth was at last
removed from Arda the Orcs that survived in the West were
scattered, leaderless and almost witless, and were for a long
time without control or purpose.
This servitude to a central will that reduced the Orcs almost
to an ant-like life was seen even more plainly in the Second and
Third Ages under the tyranny of Sauron, Morgoth's chief
lieutenant. Sauron indeed achieved even greater control over his
Orcs than Morgoth had done. He was, of course, operating on a
smaller scale, and he had no enemies so great and so fell as were
the Noldor in their might in the Elder Days. But he had also
inherited from those days difficulties, such as the diversity of the
Orcs in breed and language, and the feuds among them; while in
many places in Middle-earth, after the fall of Thangorodrim
and during the concealment of Sauron, the Orcs recovering
from their helplessness had set up petty realms of their own and
(* [footnote to the text] Few Orcs ever did so in the Elder Days, and
at no time would any Orc treat with any Elf. For one thing Morgoth
had achieved was to convince the Orcs beyond refutation that the
Elves were crueller than themselves, taking captives only for 'amusement',
or to eat them (as the Orcs would do at need).)
had become accustomed to independence. Nonetheless Sauron
in time managed to unite them all in unreasoning hatred of the
Elves and of Men who associated with them; while the Orcs of
his own trained armies were so completely under his will that
they would sacrifice themselves without hesitation at his command.*
And he proved even more skilful than his Master also in
the corruption of Men who were beyond the reach of the Wise,
and in reducing them to a vassalage, in which they would march
with the Orcs, and vie with them in cruelty and destruction.
It is thus probably to Sauron that we may look for a solution
of the problem of chronology. Though of immensely smaller
native power than his Master, he remained less corrupt, cooler
and more capable of calculation. At least in the Elder Days,
and before he was bereft of his lord and fell into the folly of
imitating him, and endeavouring to become himself supreme
Lord of Middle-earth. While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did
not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for
another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the beginning
he had adored. He thus was often able to achieve things,
first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not
complete in the furious haste of his malice.
We may assume, then, that the idea of breeding the Orcs
came from Melkor, not at first maybe so much for the provision
of servants or the infantry of his wars of destruction, as for the
defilement of the Children and the blasphemous mockery of
the designs of Eru. The details of the accomplishment of this
wickedness were, however, left mainly to the subtleties of
Sauron. In that case the conception in mind of the Orcs may go
far back into the night of Melkor's thought, though the
beginning of their actual breeding must await the awakening of
Men.
When Melkor was made captive, Sauron escaped and lay hid
in Middle-earth; and it can in this way be understood how the
breeding of the Orcs (no doubt already begun) went on with
increasing speed during the age when the Noldor dwelt in
Aman; so that when they returned to Middle-earth they found it
already infested with this plague, to the torment of all that dwelt
(* [footnote to the text] But there remained one flaw in his control,
inevitable. In the kingdom of hate and fear, the strongest thing is hate.
All his Orcs hated one another, and must be kept ever at war with
some 'enemy' to prevent them from slaying one another.)
there, Elves or Men or Dwarves. It was Sauron, also, who
secretly repaired Angband for the help of his Master when he
returned;(6) and there the dark places underground were already
manned with hosts of the Orcs before Melkor came back at last,
as Morgoth the Black Enemy, and sent them forth to bring ruin
upon all that was fair. And though Angband has fallen and
Morgoth is removed, still they come forth from the lightless
places in the darkness of their hearts, and the earth is withered
under their pitiless feet.
This then, as it may appear, was my father's final view of the
question: Orcs were bred from Men, and if 'the conception in mind of
the Orcs may go far back into the night of Melkor's thought' it was
Sauron who, during the ages of Melkor's captivity in Aman, brought
into being the black armies that were available to his Master when he
returned.
But, as always, it is not quite so simple. Accompanying one copy of
the typescript of this essay are some pages in manuscript for which my
father used the blank reverse sides of papers provided by the publishers
dated 10 November 1969. These pages carry two notes on the 'Orcs'
essay: one, discussing the spelling of the word orc, is given on p. 422;
the other is a note arising from something in the essay which is not
indicated, but which is obviously the passage on p. 417 discussing the
puppet-like nature inevitable in creatures brought into being by one of
the great Powers themselves: the note was intended to stand in relation
to the words 'But the Orcs were not of this kind'.
The orks, it is true, sometimes appear to have been reduced
to a condition very similar, though there remains actually a
profound difference. Those orks who dwelt long under the
immediate attention of his will - as garrisons of his strongholds
or elements of armies trained for special purposes in his
war-designs - would act like herds, obeying instantly, as if with
one will, his commands even if ordered to sacrifice their lives in
his service. And as was seen when Morgoth was at last
overthrown and cast out, those orks that had been so absorbed
scattered helplessly, without purpose either to flee or to fight,
and soon died or slew themselves.
Other originally independent creatures, and Men among
them (but neither Elves nor Dwarves), could also be reduced to
a like condition. But 'puppets', with no independent life or will,
would simply cease to move or do anything at all when the will
of their maker was brought to nothing. In any case the number
of orks that were thus 'absorbed' was always only a small part
of their total. To hold them in absolute servitude required a
great expense of will. Morgoth though in origin possessed of
vast power was finite; and it was this expenditure upon the
orks, and still more upon the other far more formidable
creatures in his service, that in the event so dissipated his powers
of mind that Morgoth's overthrow became possible. Thus the
greater part of the orks, though under his orders and the dark
shadow of their fear of him, were only intermittently objects of
his immediate thought and concern, and while that was removed
they relapsed into independence and became conscious
of their hatred of him and his tyranny. Then they might neglect
his orders, or engage in
Here the text breaks off. But the curious thing is that rough drafting
for the second paragraph of this note (written on the same paper
bearing the same date) begins thus:
But Men could (and can still) be reduced to such a condition.
'Puppets' would simply cease to move or 'live' at all, when not
set in motion by the direct will of their maker. In any case,
though the number of orks at the height of Morgoth's power,
and still after his return from captivity, seems to have been very
great, those who were 'absorbed' were always a small part of
the total.
The words that I have italicised deny an essential conception of the
essay.
The other note reads thus:
Orcs.
This spelling was taken from Old English. The word seemed,
in itself, very suitable to the creatures that 1 had in mind. But the
Old English orc in meaning - so far as that is known - is not
suitable.(7) Also the spelling of what, in the later more organized
linguistic situation, must have been a Common Speech form of a
word or group of similar words should be ork. If only because
of spelling difficulties in modern English: an adjective orc + ish
becomes necessary, and orcish will not do.(8) In any future publication
I shall use ork.
In text IX (the brief writing in which my father declared the theory
of Elvish origin to be certain) he spelt the word Orks, and said 'so I
shall spell it in The Silmarillion'. In the present essay, obviously later
than text IX, it is spelt Orcs; but now, in 1969 or later, he asserted
again that it must be Orks.
NOTES.
1. See text VII, p. 406. - On one copy of the text my father pencilled
against this sentence the names Eruseni, Melkorseni.
2. 'legends that have come down to us from our earliest days'; this
purports then to be an Elvish writing. Sauron is spoken of
subsequently as a being of the past ('This servitude to a central will
... was seen even more plainly in the Second and Third Ages under
the tyranny of Sauron', p. 419); but in the last sentence of the essay
the Orcs are a plague that still afflicts the world.
3. The time of the Awakening of Men is now placed far back; cf. text
II (p. 378), The March of the Eldar is through great Rains? Men
awake in an Isle amid the floods'; 'The coming of Men will
therefore be much further back'; 'Men must awake while Melkor
is still in [Middle-earth] - because of their Fall. Therefore in some
period during the Great March' (see p. 385 note 14). In the
chronology of the Annals of Aman and the Grey Annals the Great
March began in the Year of the Trees 1105 (p. 82), and the
foremost companies of the Eldar came to the shores of the Great
Sea in 1125; Men awoke in Hildorien in the year of the first rising
of the Sun, which was the Year of the Trees 1500. Thus if the
Awakening of Men is placed even very late in the period of the
Great March of the Eldar it will be set back by more than 3500
Years of the Sun. See further p. 430 note 5.
4. Cf. text IX, p. 414: 'But always among them [Orcs] (as special
servants and spies of Melkor, and as leaders) there must have been
numerous corrupted minor spirits who assumed similar bodily
shapes'; also text VIII, p. 410.
5. The footnote at this point, stating that 'Boldog, for instance, is a
name that occurs many times in the tales of the War', and was
perhaps not a personal name, is curious. Boldog appears several
times in the Lay of Leithian as the name of the Orc-captain who
led a raid into Doriath (references in the Index to The Lays of
Beleriand); he reappears in the Quenta (IV.113), but is not
mentioned thereafter. I do not know of any other reference to an
Orc named Boldog.
6. On the later story that Angband was built by Melkor in the ancient
days and that it was commanded by Sauron see p. 156, $12. There
has been no reference to the repairing of Angband against
Morgoth's return, and cf. the last narrative development in the
Quenta Silmarillion of the story of his return (p. 295, $14):
Morgoth and Ungoliant 'were drawing near to the ruins of
Angband where his great western stronghold had been.'
7. See p. 124.
8. 'orcish will not do': because it would be pronounced 'orsish'. The
Orkish language was so spelt in The Lord of the Rings from the
First Edition.

[Alkar]

Dwarves

I will provide information on Dwarves as they are a novelty and help in discovering the origins of the Servants of Melkor and Eagles.


Origin and Characteristics


Aule so desired to see the Children, that he tried to make children according to his imperfect knowledge of their kind. When he had made thirteen, (one, the eldest, alone, and six more with six mates) God spoke to him in anger, but not without pity: for Aule had done this thing not out of evil desire to have slaves and subjects of his own, but out of impatient love, desiring children to talk to and teach, sharing with them the praise of Iluvatar and his great love of the materials of which the world is made. The One rebuked Aule, saying that he had tried to usurp the Creator’s power; but he could not give independent life to his makings. He had only one life, his own derived from the One, and could at most only distribute it. ‘Behold’ said the One: ‘these creatures of thine have only thy will, and thy movement. Though you have devised a language for them, they can only report to thee thine own thought. This is a mockery of me.’ Then Aule in grief and repentance humbled himself and asked for pardon. And he said: ‘I will destroy these images of my presumption, and wait upon thy will.’ And he took a great hammer, raising it to smite the eldest of the images; but it flinched and cowered from him. And as he withheld his stroke, astonished, he heard the laughter of Iluvatar. ‘Do you wonder at this?’ he said. ‘Behold! thy creatures now live, free from thy will! For I have seen thy humility, and taken pity on your impatience. Thy making I have taken up into my design.’ This is the Elvish legend of the making of the Dwarves; but the Elves report that Iluvatar said thus also: ‘Nonetheless I will not suffer my design to be forestalled: thy children shall not awake before mine own.’ And he commanded Aule to lay the fathers of the Dwarves severally in deep places, each with his mate, save Durin the eldest who had none. There they should sleep long, until Iluvatar bade them awake. Nonetheless there has been for the most part little love between the Dwarves and the children of Iluvatar. And of the fate that Iluvatar has set upon the children of Aule beyond the Circles of the world Elves and men know nothing, and if Dwarves know they do not speak of it. - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien



It is told that in their beginning the Dwarves were made by Aulë in the darkness of Middle-earth; for so greatly did Aulë desire the coming of the Children, to have learners to whom he could teach his lore and his crafts, that he was unwilling to await the fulfilment of the designs of Ilúvatar. And Aulë made the Dwarves even as they still are, because the forms of the Children who were to come were unclear to his mind, and because the power of Melkor was yet over the Earth; and he wished therefore that they should be strong and unyielding. But fearing that the other Valar might blame his work, he wrought in secret: and he made first the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves in a hall under the mountains in Middle-earth.
Now Ilúvatar knew what was done, and in the very hour that Aulë's work was complete, and he was pleased, and began to instruct the Dwarves in the speech that he had devised for them, Ilúvatar spoke to him; and Aulë heard his voice and was silent. And the voice of Ilúvatar said to him: 'Why hast thou done this? Why dost thou attempt a thing which thou knowest is beyond thy power and thy authority? For thou hast from me as a gift thy own bring only, and no more; and therefore the creatures of thy hand and mind can live only by that being, moving when thou thinkest to move them, and if thy thought be elsewhere, standing idle. Is that thy desire?'
Then Aulë answered: 'I did not desire such lordship. I desired things other than I am, to love and to teach them, so that they too might perceive the beauty of Eä, which thou hast caused to be. For it seemed to me that there is great room in Arda for many things that might rejoice in it, yet it is for the most part empty still, and dumb. And in my impatience I have fallen into folly. Yet the making of thing is in my heart from my own making by thee; and the child of little understanding that makes a play of the deeds of his father may do so without thought of mockery, but because he is the son of his father. But what shall I do now, so that thou be not angry with me for ever? As a child to his father, I offer to thee these things, the work of the hands which thou hast made. Do with them what thou wilt. But should I not rather destroy the work of my presumption?'
Then Aulë took up a great hammer to smite the Dwarves; and he wept. But Ilúvatar had compassion upon Aulë and his desire, because of his humility; and the Dwarves shrank from the hammer and wore afraid, and they bowed down their heads and begged for mercy. And the voice of Ilúvatar said to Aulë: 'Thy offer I accepted even as it was made. Dost thou not see that these things have now a life of their own, and speak with their own voices? Else they would not have flinched from thy blow, nor from any command of thy will.' Then Aulë cast down his hammer and was glad, and he gave thanks to Ilúvatar, saying: 'May Eru bless my work and amend it!'
But Ilúvatar spoke again and said: 'Even as I gave being to the thoughts of the Ainur at the beginning of the World, so now I have taken up thy desire and given to it a place therein; but in no other way will I amend thy handiwork, and as thou hast made it, so shall it be. But I will not suffer this: that these should come before the Firstborn of my design, nor that thy impatience should be rewarded. They shall sleep now in the darkness under stone, and shall not come forth until the Firstborn have awakened upon Earth; and until that time thou and they shall wait, though long it seem. But when the time comes I will awaken them, and they shall be to thee as children; and often strife shall arise between thine and mine, the children of my adoption and the children of my choice.'
Then Aulë took the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves, and laid them to rest in far-sundered places; and he returned to Valinor, and waited while the long years lengthened.
Since they were to come in the days of the power of Melkor, Aulë made the Dwarves strong to endure. Therefore they are stone-hard, stubborn, fast in friendship and in enmity, and they suffer toil and hanger and hurt of body more hardily than all other speaking peoples; and they live long, far beyond the span of Men, yet not for ever. Aforetime it was held among the Elves in Middle-earth that dying the Dwarves returned to the earth and the stone of which they were made; yet that is not their own belief. For they say that Aulë the Maker, whom they call Mahal, cares for them, and gathers them to Mandos in halls set apart; and that he declared to their Fathers of old that Ilúvatar will hallow them and give them a place among the Children in the End. Then their part shall be to serve Aulë and to aid him in the remaking of Arda after the Last Battle. They say also that the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves return to live again in their own kin and to bear once more their ancient names: of whom Durin was the most renowned in after ages, father of that kindred most friendly to the Elves, whose mansions were at Khazad-dûm. - The Silmarillion


Summary


Aule created the Dwarves out of stone in impatience of the arrival of the Children, and taught them speech, but they were hinged upon his Thought, and did not have independent Wills. Iluvatar then gave them Souls in His mercy, at which point they gained a Will of their own and Thought of their own. Dwarves were very hardy, so much so that it is said that they were best-fitted to fight Orcs, and lived quite long lives.


Ents


Origin


No one knew whence they (Ents) came or first appeared. The High Elves said that the Valar did not mention them in the ‘Music.’ But some (Galadriel) were [of the] opinion that when Yavanna discovered the mercy of Eru to Aule in the matter of the Dwarves, she besought Eru (through Manwe) asking him to give life to things made of living things not stone, and that the Ents were either souls sent to inhabit trees, or else that slowly took the likeness of trees owing to their inborn love of trees. (Not all were good [words illegible]) The Ents thus had mastery over stone. The males were devoted to Orome, but the Wives to Yavanna. - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien


Now when Aulë laboured in the making of the Dwarves he kept this work hidden from the other Valar; but at last he opened his mind to Yavanna and told her of all that had come to pass. Then Yavanna said to him: 'Eru is merciful. Now I see that thy heart rejoiceth, as indeed it may; for thou hast received not only forgiveness but bounty. Yet because thou hiddest this thought from me until its achievement, thy children will have little love for the things of my love. They will love first the things made by their own hands, as doth their father. They will delve in the earth, and the things that grow and live upon the earth they will not heed. Many a tree shall feel the bite of their iron without pity.'
But Aulë answered: 'That shall also be true of the Children of Ilúvatar; for they will eat and they will build. And though the things of thy realm have worth in themselves, and would have worth if no Children were to come, yet Eru will give them dominion, and they shall use all that they find in Arda: though not, by the purpose of Eru, without respect or without gratitude.'
'Not unless Melkor darken their hearts,' said Yavanna. And she was not appeased, but grieved in heart, fearing what might be done upon Middle-earth in days to come. Therefore she went before Manwë, and she did not betray the counsel of Aulë, but she said: 'King of Arda, is it true, as Aulë hath said to me, that the Children when they come shall have dominion over all the things of my labour, to do as they will therewith?'
'It is true,' said Manwë. 'But why dost thou ask, for thou hadst no need of the teaching of Aulë?'
Then Yavanna was silent and looked into her own thought. And she answered: 'Because my heart is anxious, thinking of the days to come. All my works are dear to me. Is it not enough that Melkor should have marred so many? Shall nothing that I have devised be free from the dominion of others?'
'If thou hadst thy will what wouldst thou reserve?' said Manwë. 'Of all thy realm what dost thou hold dearest?'
'All have their worth,' said Yavanna, 'and each contributes to the worth of the others. But the kelvar can flee or defend themselves, whereas the olvar that grow cannot. And among these I hold trees dear. Long in the growing, swift shall they be in the felling, and unless they pay toll with fruit upon bough little mourned in their passing. So I see in my thought. Would that the trees might speak on behalf of all things that have roots, and punish those that wrong them!'
'This is a strange thought,' said Manwë.
'Yet it was in the Song,' said Yavanna. 'For while thou wert in the heavens and with Ulmo built the clouds and poured out the rains, I lifted up the branches of great trees to receive them, and some sang to Ilúvatar amid the wind and the rain.'
Then Manwë sat silent, and the thought of Yavanna that she had put into his heart grew and unfolded; and it was beheld by Ilúvatar. Then it seemed to Manwë that the Song rose once more about him, and he heeded now many things therein that though he had heard them he had not heeded before. And at last the Vision was renewed, but it was not now remote, for he was himself within it, and yet he saw that all was upheld by the hand of Ilúvatar; and the hand entered in, and from it came forth many wonders that had until then been hidden from him in the hearts of the Ainur.
Then Manwë awoke, and he went down to Yavanna upon Ezellohar, and he sat beside her beneath the Two Trees. And Manwë said: 'O Kementári, Eru hath spoken, saying: "Do then any of the Valar suppose that I did not hear all the Song, even the least sound of the least voice? Behold! When the Children awake, then the thought of Yavanna will awake also, and it will summon spirits from afar, and they will go among the kelvar and the olvar, and some will dwell therein, and be held in reverence, and their just anger shall be feared. For a time: while the Firstborn are in their power, and while the Secondborn are young." But dost them not now remember, Kementári, that thy thought sang not always alone? Did not thy thought and mine meet also, so that we took wing together like great birds that soar above the clouds? That also shall come to be by the heed of Ilúvatar, and before the Children awake there shall go forth with wings like the wind the Eagles of the Lords of the West.'
Then Yavanna was glad, and she stood up, reaching her arms towards the heavens, and she said: 'High shall climb the trees of Kementári, that the Eagles of the King may house therein!'
But Manwë rose also, and it seemed that he stood to such a height that his voice came down to Yavanna as from the paths of the winds.
'Nay,' he said, 'only the trees of Aulë will be tall enough. In the mountains the Eagles shall house, and hear the voices of those who call upon us. But in the forests shall walk the Shepherds of the Trees.'
Then Manwë and Yavanna parted for that time, and Yavanna returned to Aulë; and he was in his smithy, pouring molten metal into a mould. 'Eru is bountiful,' she said. 'Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at their peril.'
'Nonetheless they will have need of wood,' said Aulë, and he went on with his smith-work. - The Silmarillion


Characteristics


‘All right,’said Sam, laughing with the rest. ‘But what about these Tree-men, these giants, as you might call them? They do say that one bigger than a tree was seen up away beyond the North Moors not long back.’ ‘Who’s they?’ ‘My cousin Hal for one. He works for Mr. Boffin at Overhill and goes up to the Northfarthing for the hunting. He saw one.’ ‘Says he did, perhaps. Your Hal’s always saying he’s seen things; and maybe he sees things that ain’t there.’ ‘But this one was as big as an elm tree, and walking – walking seven yards to a stride, if it was an inch.’ ‘Then I bet it wasn’t an inch. What he saw was an elm tree, as like as not.’ ‘But this one was walking, I tell you; and there ain’t no elm tree on the North Moors.’ ‘Then Hal can’t have seen one,’ said Ted. There was some laughing and clapping: the audience seemed to think that Ted had scored a point.

I almost feel that I dislike you both, but do not let us be hasty. Turn round!' A large knob-knuckled hand was laid on each of their shoulders, and they were twisted round, gently but irresistibly; then two great arms lifted them up. They found that they were looking at a most extraordinary face. It belonged to a large Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Whether it was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether that was its hide, was difficult to say. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends. But at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating. They were brown, shot with a green light. Often afterwards Pippin tried to describe his first impression of them. 'One felt as if there was an enormous well behind them, filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thinking; but their surface was sparkling with the present: like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples of a very deep lake. I don't know but it felt as if something that grew in the ground-asleep, you might say, or just feeling itself as something between roof-tip and leaf-tip, between deep earth and sky had suddenly waked up, and was considering you with the same slow care that it had given to its own inside affairs for endless years.' 'Hrum, Hoom,' murmured the voice, a deep voice like a very deep woodwind instrument. 'Very odd indeed! Do not be hasty, that is my motto. But if I had seen you, before I heard your voices-I liked them: nice little voices: they reminded me of something I cannot remember---if I had seen you before I heard you, I should have just trodden on you, taking you for little Orcs, and found out my mistake afterwards. Very odd you are, indeed. Root and twig, very odd!' Pippin, though still amazed, no longer felt afraid. Under those eyes he felt a curious suspense, but not fear. 'Please.' he said, 'who are you? And what are you?' A queer look came into the old eyes, a kind of wariness; the deep wells were covered over.

Holding the hobbits gently but firmly, one in the crook of each arm, Treebeard lifted up first one large foot and then the other, and moved them to the edge of the shelf. The rootlike toes grasped the rocks. Then carefully and solemnly, he stalked down from step to step, and reached the floor of the Forest. At once he set off with long deliberate strides through the trees, deeper and deeper into the wood, never far from the stream, climbing steadily up towards the slopes of the mountains. Many of the trees seemed asleep, or as unaware of him as of any other creature that merely passed by; but some quivered, and some raised up their branches above his head as he approached. All the while, as he walked, he talked to himself in a long running stream of musical sounds.

Learn now the lore of Living Creatures!
First name the four, the free peoples:
Eldest of all, the elf-children;
Dwarf the delver, dark are his houses;
Ent the earthborn, old as mountains;

'Hm, but you are hasty folk, I see,' said Treebeard. 'I am honoured by your confidence; but you should not be too free all at once. There are Ents and Ents, you know; or there are Ents and things that look like Ents but ain't, as you might say. I'll call you Merry and Pippin if you please-nice names. For I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.' A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes.'For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it. unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to. 'But now,' and the eyes became very bright and 'present', seeming to grow smaller and almost sharp, 'what is going on? What are you doing in it all? I can see and hear (and smell and feel) a great deal from this, from this, from this a-lalla-lalla-rumba-kamanda-lind-or-bur®ml. Excuse me: that is a part of my name for it; I do not know what the word is in the outside languages: you know, the thing we are on, where I stand and look out on fine mornings, and think about the Sun, and the grass beyond the wood, and the horses, and the clouds, and the unfolding of the world. What is going on? What is Gandalf up to? And these -- burbrum,' he made a deep rumbling noise like a discord on a great organ -- 'these Orcs, and young Saruman down at Isengard? I like news.

‘You must be getting tired of holding us up.' 'Hm, tired? No. I am not tired. I do not easily get tired. And I do not sit down. I am not very. hm, bendable.’

‘I can give you a drink that will keep you green and growing for a long, long while.’

‘But now I am going to stand up and take a little sleep. Where will you stand?' 'We usually lie down to sleep,' said Merry. 'We shall be all right where we are.' 'Lie down to sleep!' said Treebeard. 'Why of course you do! Hm, hoom: I was forgetting: singing that song put me in mind of old times; almost thought that I was talking to young Entings, I did. Well, you can lie on the bed. I am going to stand in the rain. Good night!'

He hummed to himself deeply and thoughtfully, but Merry and Pippin caught no proper words: it sounded like boom, boom, rumboom, boorar, boom, boom, dahrar boom boom, dahrar boom, and so on with a constant change of note and rhythm. Now and again they thought they heard an answer, a hum or a quiver of sound, that seemed to come out of the earth, or from boughs above their heads, or perhaps from the boles ofthe trees; but Treebeard did not stop or turn his head to either side. They had been going for a long while -- Pippin had tried to keep count of the 'ent-strides' but had failed, getting lost at about three thousand -- when Treebeard began to slacken his pace. Suddenly he stopped, put the hobbits down, and raised his curled hands to his mouth so that they made a hollow tube; then he blew or called through them. A great hoom, hom rang out like a deep-throated horn in the woods, and seemed to echo from the trees. Far off there came from several directions a similar hoom, hom, hoom that was not an echo but an answer.

'It is not a place, it is a gathering of Ents -- which does not often happen nowadays. But I have managed to make a fair number promise to come.’

Several Ents had already arrived. More were coming in down the other paths, and some were now following Treebeard. As they drew near the hobbits gazed at them. They had expected to see a number of creatures as much like Treebeard as one hobbit is like another (at any rate to a stranger's eye); and they were very much surprised to see nothing of the kind. The Ents were as different from one another as trees from trees: some as different as one tree is from another of the same name but quite different growth and history; and some as different as one tree-kind from another, as birch from beech; oak from fir. There were a few older Ents, bearded and gnarled like hale but ancient trees (though none looked as ancient as Treebeard); and there were tall strong Ents, clean-limbed and smooth-skinned like forest-trees in their prime; but there were no young Ents, no saplings. Altogether there were about two dozen standing on the wide grassy floor ofthe dingle, and as many more were marching in. At first Merry and Pippin were struck chiefly by the variety that they saw: the many shapes, and colours, the differences in girth; and height, and length of leg and arm; and in the number of toes and fingers (anything from three to nine). A few seemed more or less related to Treebeard, and reminded them of beech-trees or oaks. But there were other kinds. Some recalled the chestnut: brown-skinned Ents with large splayfingered hands, and short thick legs. Some recalled the ash: tall straight grey Ents with many-fingered hands and long legs; some the fir (the tallest Ents), and others the birch, the rowan, and the linden. But when the Ents all gathered round Treebeard, bowing their heads slightly, murmuring in their slow musical voices, and looking long and intently at the strangers, then the hobbits saw that they were all of the same kindred, and all had the same eyes: not all so old or so deep as Treebeard's, but all with the same slow, steady, thoughtful expression, and the same green flicker. As soon as the whole company was assembled, standing in a wide circle round Treebeard, a curious and unintelligible conversation began. The Ents began to murmur slowly: first one joined and then another, until they were all chanting together in a long rising and falling rhythm, now louder on one side of the ring, now dying away there and rising to a great boom on the other side. Though he could not catch or understand any of the words -- he supposed the language was Entish -- Pippin found the sound very pleasant to listen to at first; but gradually his attention wavered. After a long time (and the chant showed no signs of slackening) he found himself wondering, since Entish was such an 'unhasty' language, whether they had yet got further than Good Morning; and if Treebeard was to call the roll, how many days it would take to sing all their names. 'I wonder what the Entish is for yes or no,' he thought. He yawned. Treebeard was immediately aware of him. 'Hm, ha, hey, my Pippin!' he said, and the other Ents all stopped their chant. 'You are a hasty folk, I was forgetting; and anyway it is wearisome listening to a speech you do not understand. You may get down now. I have told your names to the Entmoot, and they have seen you, and they have agreed that you are not Orcs, and that a new line shall be put in the old lists. We have got no further yet, but that is quick work for an Entmoot.

But I have an odd feeling about these Ents: somehow I don't think they are quite as safe and, well funny as they seem. They seem slow, queer, and patient, almost sad; and yet I believe they could be roused. If that happened, I would rather not be on the other side.' 'Yes!' said Pippin. 'I know what you mean. There might be all the difference between an old cow sitting and thoughtfully chewing, and a bull charging; and the change might come suddenly. I wonder if Treebeard will rouse them. I am sure he means to try. But they don't like being roused. Treebeard got roused himself last night, and then bottled it up again.'

Bregalad stood for some time surveying the hobbits solemnly; and they looked at him, wondering when he would show any signs of 'hastiness'. He was tall, and seemed to be one of the younger Ents; he had smooth shining skin on his arms and legs; his lips were ruddy, and his hair was grey-green. He could bend and sway like a slender tree in the wind. At last he spoke, and his voice though resonant was higher and clearer than Treebeard's.

Before long they saw the marching line approaching: the Ents were swinging along with great strides down the slope towards them. Treebeard was at their head, and some fifty followers were behind him, two abreast, keeping step with their feet and beating time with their hands upon their flanks. As they drew near the flash and flicker of their eyes could be seen.

Though they had expected something to happen eventually, they were amazed at the change that had come over the Ents. It seemed now as sudden as the bursting of a flood that had long been held back by a dike. 'The Ents made up their minds rather quickly, after all, didn't they?' Pippin ventured to say after some time, when for a moment the singing paused, and only the beating of hands and feet was heard. 'Quickly?' said Treebeard. 'Hoom! Yes, indeed. Quicker than I expected. Indeed I have not seen them roused like this for many an age. We Ents do not like being roused; and we never are roused unless it is clear to us that our trees and our lives are in great danger. That has not happened in this Forest since the wars of Sauron and the Men of the Sea. It is the orc-work, the wanton hewing -- rbrum -- without even the bad excuse of feeding the fires, that has so angered us; and the treachery of a neighbour, who should have helped us. Wizards ought to know better: they do know better. There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men bad enough for such treachery. Down with Saruman!' 'Will you really break the doors of Isengard?' asked Merry. 'Ho, hm, well, we could, you know! You do not know, perhaps. how strongwe are. Maybe you have heard of Trolls? They are mighty strong. But Trolls are only counterfeits. made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves. We are stronger than Trolls. We are made of the bones of the earth. We can split stone like the roots of trees, only quicker, far quicker, if our minds are roused! If we are not hewn down, or destroyed by fire or blast of sorcery, we could split Isengard into splinters and crack its walls into rubble.' 'But Saruman will try to stop you. won't he?' 'Hm, ah, yes, that is so. I have not forgotten it. Indeed I have thought long about it. But. you see, many of the Ents are younger than I am. by many lives of trees. They are all roused now. and their mind is all on one thing: breaking Isengard. But they will start thinking again before long; they will cool down a little. when we take our evening drink. What a thirst we shall have!

He put the hobbits down. Before they walked away, they bowed low. This feat seemed to amuse the Ents very much, to judge by the tone of their murmurs, and the flicker of their eyes; but they soon turned back to their own business.

Pippin looked behind. The number of the Ents had grown -- or what was happening? Where the dim bare slopes that they had crossed should lie, he thought he saw groves of trees. But they were moving! Could it be that the trees of Fangorn were awake, and the forest was rising, marching over the hills to war? He rubbed his eyes wondering if sleep and shadow had deceived him; but the great grey shapes moved steadily onward. There was a noise like wind in many branches. The Ents were drawing near the crest of the ridge now, and all song had ceased. Night fell, and there was silence: nothing was to be heard save a faint quiver of the earth beneath the feet of the Ents, and a rustle, the shade of a whisper as of many drifting leaves.

Merry waved his hand towards the steaming lake; and as they looked, they heard a distant rumbling and rattling, as if an avalanche was falling from the mountain-side. Far away came a hoom-hom, as of horns blowingtriumphantly. 'And is Orthanc then left unguarded?' asked Gandalf. 'There is the water,' said Merry. 'But Quickbeam and some others are watching it. Not all those posts and pillars in the plain are of Saruman's planting. Quickbeam, I think, is by the rock, near the foot of the stair.' 'Yes, a tall grey Ent is there,' said Legolas, 'but his arms are at his sides, and he stands as still as a door-tree.' '

For Treebeard is Fangorn, and the eldest and chief of the Ents, and when you speak with him you will hear the speech of the oldest of all living things.'

And then late in the afternoon in the third day of their moot, the Ents suddenly blew up. It was amazing. The Forest had felt as tense as if a thunderstorm was brewing inside it: then all at once it exploded. I wish you could have heard their song as they marched.'

'It was then that I first had the feeling that the Forest itself was moving behind us. I thought I was dreaming an entish dream, but Pippin had noticed it too. We were both frightened; but we did not find out more about it until later. 'It was the Huorns, or so the Ents call them in "short language". Treebeard won't say much about them, but I think they are Ents that have become almost like trees, at least to look at. They stand here and there in the wood or under its eaves, silent, watching endlessly over the trees; but deep in the darkest dales there are hundreds and hundreds of them, I believe. 'There is a great power in them, and they seem able to wrap themselves in shadow: it is difficult to see them moving. But they do. They can move very quickly, if they are angry. You stand still looking at the weather,maybe, or listening to the rustling of the wind, and then suddenly you find that you are in the middle of a wood with great groping trees all around you. They still have voices, and can speak with the Ents -- that is why they are called Huorns, Treebeard says -- but they have become queer and wild. Dangerous. I should be terrified of meeting them, if there were no true Ents about to look after them. 'Well, in the early night we crept down a long ravine into the upper end of the Wizard's Vale, the Ents with all their rustling Huorns behind. We could not see them, of course, but the whole air was full of creaking. It was very dark, a cloudy night. They moved at a great speed as soon as they had left the hills, and made a noise like a rushing wind. The Moon did not appear through the clouds, and not long after midnight there was a tall wood all round the north side of Isengard. There was no sign of enemies nor of any challenge. There was a light gleaming from a high window in the tower, that was all. 'Treebeard and a few more Ents crept on, right round to within sight of the great gates. Pippin and I were with him. We were sitting on Treebeard's shoulders, and I could feel the quivering tenseness in him. But even when they are roused, Ents can be very cautious and patient. They stood still as carved stones, breathing and listening.

But arrows are no use against Ents. They hurt them, of course, and infuriate them: like stinging flies. But an Ent can be stuck as full of orc-arrows as a pin-cushion, and take no serious harm. They cannot be poisoned, for one thing; and their skin seems to be very thick, and tougher than bark. It takes a very heavy axe-stroke to wound them seriously. They don't like axes. But there would have to be a great many axe-men to one Ent: a man that hacks once at an Ent never gets a chance of a second blow. A punch from an Ent-fist crumples up iron like thin tin. 'When Treebeard had got a few arrows in him, he began to warm up, to get positively "hasty", as he would say. He let out a great hoom-hom, and a dozen more Ents came striding up. An angry Ent is terrifying. Their fingers, and their toes, just freeze on to rock; and they tear it up like bread-crust. It was like watching the work of great tree-roots in a hundred years, all packed into a few moments. 'They pushed, pulled, tore, shook, and hammered; and clang-bang, crash-crack, in five minutes they had these huge gates just lying in ruin; and some were already beginning to eat into the walls, like rabbits in a sand-pit.

The Ents let the Men go, after they had questioned them, two or three dozen only down at this end. I don't think many orc-folk, of any size, escaped. Not from the Huorns: there was a wood full of them all round Isengard by that time, as well as those that had gone down the valley. 'When the Ents had reduced a large part of the southern walls to rubbish, and what was left of his people had bolted and deserted him, Saruman fled in a panic. He seems to have been at the gates when we arrived: I expect he came to watch his splendid army march out. When the Ents broke their way in, he left in a hurry. They did not spot him at first. But the night had opened out, and there was a great light of stars, quite enough for Ents to see by, and suddenly Quickbeam gave a cry "The tree-killer, the tree-killer!" Quickbeam is a gentle creature, but he hates Saruman all the more fiercely for that: his people suffered cruelly from orc-axes. He leapt down the path from the inner gate, and he can move like a wind when he is roused. There was a pale figure hurrying away in and out of the shadows of the pillars, and it had nearly reached the stairs to the tower-door. But it was a near thing. Quickbeam was so hot after him, that he was within a step or two of being caught and strangled when he slipped in through the door. 'When Saruman was safe back in Orthanc, it was not long before he set some of his precious machinery to work. By that time there were many Ents inside Isengard: some had followed Quickbeam, and others had burst in from the north and east; they were roaming about and doing a great deal of damage. Suddenly up came fires and foul fumes: the vents and shafts all over the plain began to spout and belch. Several of the Ents got scorched and blistered. One of them, Beechbone I think he was called, a very tall handsome Ent, got caught in a spray of some liquid fire and burned like a torch: a horrible sight. 'That sent them mad. I thought that they had been really roused before; but I was wrong. I saw what it was like at last. It was staggering. They roared and boomed and trumpeted, until stones began to crack and fall at the mere noise of them. Merry and I lay on the ground and stuffed our cloaks into our ears. Round and round the rock of Orthanc the Ents went striding and storming like a howling gale, breaking pillars, hurling avalanches of boulders down the shafts, tossing up huge slabs of stone into the air like leaves. The tower was in the middle of a spinning whirlwind. I saw iron posts and blocks of masonry go rocketing up hundreds of feet, and smash against the windows of Orthanc. But Treebeard kept his head. He had not had any burns, luckily. He did not want his folk to hurt themselves in their fury, and he did not want Saruman to escape out of some hole in the confusion. Many of the Ents were hurling themselves against the Orthanc-rock; but that defeated them. It is very smooth and hard. Some wizardry is in it, perhaps, older and stronger than Saruman's. Anyway they could not get a grip on it, or make a crack in it; and they were bruising and wounding themselves against it. 'So Treebeard went out into the ring and shouted. His enormous voice rose above all the din. There was a dead silence, suddenly. In it we heard a shrill laugh from a high window in the tower. That had a queer effect on the Ents. They had been boiling over; now they became cold, grim as ice, and quiet. They left the plain and gathered round Treebeard, standing quite still. He spoke to them for a little in their own language; I think he was telling them of a plan he had made in his old head long before. Then they just faded silently away in the grey light. Day was dawning by that time. 'They set a watch on the tower, I believe, but the watchers were so well hidden in shadows and kept so still, that I could not see them.

There was a great shadowy wood of Huorns at the head of the valley, and another round the northern wall. We did not dare to go in. But there was a rending, tearing noise of work going on inside. Ents and Huorns were digging great pits and trenches, and making great pools and dams, gathering all the waters of the Isen and every other spring and stream that they could find.

'Treebeard heard his voice and came out of the shadows at once; and there was a strange meeting.’

We lay on top of a pile of stone, and could see nothing beyond it. Mist or shadows blotted out everything like a great blanket all round us. The air seemed hot and heavy; and it was full of rustlings, creakings, and a murmur like voices passing. I think that hundreds more of the Huorns must have been passing by to help in the battle. Later there was a great rumble of thunder away south, and flashes of lightning far away across Rohan. Every now and then we could see mountain-peaks, miles and miles away, stab out suddenly, black and white, and then vanish. And behind us there were noises like thunder in hills, but different. At times the whole valley echoed. 'It must have been about midnight when the Ents broke the dams and poured all the gathered waters through a gap in the northern wall, down into Isengard. The Huorn-dark had passed, and the thunder had rolled away. The Moon was sinking behind the western mountains.

We felt very lonely. Not even a visible Ent to talk to in all the ruin; and no news.
Things have changed, but it is still true in places.' 'What do you mean?' said Pippin. 'What is true?' 'The trees and the Ents,' said Treebeard. 'I do not understand all that goes on myself, so I cannot explain it to you. Some of us are still true Ents, and lively enough in our fashion, but many are growing sleepy, going tree-ish, as you might say. Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake. Some are quite wide awake, and a few are, well, ah, well getting Entish. That is going on all the time. 'When that happens to a tree, you find that some have bad hearts. Nothing to do with their wood: I do not mean that. Why, I knew some good old willows down the Entwash, gone long ago, alas! They were quite hollow, indeed they were falling all to pieces, but as quiet and sweet-spoken as a young leaf. And then there are some trees in the valleys under the mountains, sound as a bell, and bad right through. That sort of thing seems to spread. There used to be some very dangerous parts in this country. There are still some very black patches.' 'Like the Old Forest away to the north, do you mean?' asked Merry. 'Aye, aye. something like, but much worse. I do not doubt there is some shadow of the Great Darkness lying there still away north; and bad memories are handed down. But there are hollow dales in this land where the Darkness has never been lifted, and the trees are older than I am. Still, we do what we can. We keep off strangers and the foolhardy; and we train and we teach, we walk and we weed. 'We are tree-herds, we old Ents. Few enough of us are left now. Sheep get like shepherd, and shepherds like sheep, it is said; but slowly, and neither have long in the world. It is quicker and closer with trees and Ents, and they walk down the ages together. For Ents are more like Elves: less interested in themselves than Men are, and better at getting inside other things. And yet again Ents are more like Men, more changeable than Elves are, and quicker at taking the colour of the outside, you might say. Or better than both: for they are steadier and keep their minds on things longer. 'Some of my kin look just like trees now, and need something great to rouse them; and they speak only in whispers. But some of my trees are limb-lithe, and many can talk to me. Elves began it, of course, waking trees up and teaching them to speak and learning their tree-talk.

He ended, and strode on silently, and in all the wood, as far as ear could reach, there was not a sound.

The hobbits now noticed that as he walked his knees hardly bent, but his legs opened in a great stride. He planted his big toes (and they were indeed big, and very broad) on the ground first, before any other part of his feet.

Treebeard lifted two great vessels and stood them on the table. They seemed to be filled with water; but he held his hands over them, and immediately they began to glow, one with a golden and the other with a rich green light; and the blending of the two lights lit the bay; as if the sun of summer was shining through a roof of young leaves. Looking back, the hobbits saw that the trees in the court had also begun to glow, faintly at first, but steadily quickening, until every leaf was edged with light: some green, some gold, some red as copper; while the tree-trunks looked like pillars moulded out of luminous stone.

'This is an ent-house,' he said, 'and there are no seats, I fear.

The drink was like water, indeed very like the taste of the draughts they had drunk from the Entwash near, the borders of the forest, and yet there was some scent or savour in it which they could not describe: it was faint, but it reminded them of the smell of a distant wood borne from afar by a cool breeze at night. The effect of the draught began at the toes, and rose steadily through every limb, bringing refreshment and vigour as it coursed upwards, right to the tips of the hair. Indeed the hobbits felt that the hair on their heads was actually standing up, waving and curling and growing.

You can sit on the floor, and I will lie down; that will prevent this drink from rising to my head and sending me to sleep.' On the right side of the bay there was a great bed on low legs; not more than a couple of feet high, covered deep in dried grass and bracken. Treebeard lowered himself slowly on to this (with only the slightest sign of bending at his middle), until he lay at full length, with his arms behind his head, looking up at the ceiling. upon which lights were flickering, like the play of leaves in the sunshine.

'Hoom, hm, I have not troubled about the Great Wars,' said Treebeard; 'they mostly concern Elves and Men. That is the business of Wizards: Wizards are always troubled about the future. I do not like worrying about the future. I am not altogether on anybody's side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if you understand me: nobody cares for the woods as I care for them, not even Elves nowadays. Still, I take more kindly to Elves than to others: it was the Elves that cured us of dumbness long ago, and that was a great gift that cannot be forgotten, though our ways have parted since. And there are some things, of course, whose side I am altogether not on; I am against them altogether: these -- burbrum' (he again made a deep rumble of disgust)' -- these Orcs, and their masters. 'I used to be anxious when the shadow lay on Mirkwood, but when it removed to Mordor, I did not trouble for a while: Mordor is a long way away. But it seems that the wind is setting East, and the withering of all woods may be drawing near. There is naught that an old Ent can do to hold back that storm: he must weather it or crack. 'But Saruman now! Saruman is a neighbour: I cannot overlook him. I must do something. I suppose. I have often wondered lately what I should do about Saruman.' 'Who is Saruman?' asked Pippin. 'Do you know anything about his history?' 'Saruman is a Wizard,' answered Treebeard. 'More than that I cannot say. I do not know the history of Wizards. They appeared first after the Great Ships came over the Sea; but if they came with the Ships I never can tell. Saruman was reckoned great among them. I believe. He gave up wandering about and minding the affairs of Men and Elves, some time ago -- you would call it a very long time ago: and he settled down at Angrenost, or Isengard as the Men of Rohan call it. He was very quiet to begin with, but his fame began to grow. He was chosen to be head of the White Council, they say; but that did not turn out too well. I wonder now if even then Saruman was not turning to evil ways. But at any rate he used to give no trouble to his neighbours. I used to talk to him. There was a time when he was always walking about my woods. He was polite in those days, always asking my leave (at least when he met me); and always eager to listen. I told him many things that he would never have found out by himself; but he never repaid me in like kind. I cannot remember that he ever told. me anything. And he got more and more like that; his face, as I remember it-I have not seen it for many a day-became like windows in a stone wall: windows with shutters inside. 'I think that I now understand what he is up to. He is plotting to become a Power. He has a mind of metal and wheels; and he does not care for growing things, except as far as they serve him for the moment. And now it is clear that he is a black traitor. He has taken up with foul folk, with the Orcs. Brm, hoom! Worse than that: he has been doing something to them; something dangerous. For these Isengarders are more like wicked Men. It is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman's Orcs can endure it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? Are they Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of Orcs and Men? That would be a black evil!' Treebeard rumbled for a moment, as if he were pronouncing some deep, subterranean Entish malediction. 'Some time ago I began to wonder how Orcs dared to pass through my woods so freely,' he went on. 'Only lately did I guess that Saruman was to blame, and that long ago he had been spying out all the ways, and discovering my secrets. He and his foul folk are making havoc now. Down on the borders they are felling trees-good trees. Some of the trees they just cut down and leave to rot -- orc-mischief that; but mostare hewn up and carried off to feed the fires of Orthanc. There is always a smoke rising from Isengard these days. 'Curse him, root and branch! Many of those trees were my friends creatures I had known from nut and acorn; many had voices of their own that are lost for ever now. And there are wastes of stump and bramble where once there were singing groves. I have been idle. I have let things slip. It must stop!' Treebeard raised himself from his bed with a jerk, stood up, and thumped his hand on the table. The vessels of light trembled and sent up two jets of flame. There was a flicker like green fire in his eyes, and his beard stood out stiff as a great besom. 'I will stop it!' he boomed. '

'Good! Good!' said Treebeard. 'But I spoke hastily. We must not be hasty. I have become too hot. I must cool myself and think; fur it is easier to shout stop! than to do it.' He strode to the archway and stood for some time under the falling rain of the spring. Then he laughed and shook himself, and wherever the drops of water fell glittering from him to the ground they glinted like red and green sparks. He came back and laid himself on the bed again and was silent. After some time the hobbits heard him murmuring again. He seemed to be counting on his fingers. 'Fangorn, Finglas, Fladrif, aye, aye,' he sighed. 'The trouble is that there are so few of us left,' he said turning towards the hobbits. 'Only three remain of the first Ents that walked in the woods before the Darkness: only myself, Fangorn, and Finglas and Fladrif -- to give them their Elvish names; you may call them Leaflock and Skinbark if you like that better. And of us three Leaflock and Skinbark are not much use for this business. Leaflock has grown sleepy. almost tree-ish, you might say: he has taken to standing by himself half-asleep all through the summer with the deep grass of the meadows round his knees. Covered with leafy hair he is. Heused to rouse up in winter; but of late he has been too drowsy to walk far even then. Skinbark lived on the mountain-slopes west of Isengard. That is where the worst trouble has been. He was wounded by the Orcs, and many of his folk and his tree-herds have been murdered and destroyed. He has gone up into the high places, among the birches that he loves best, and he will not come down. Still, I daresay I could get together a fair company of our younger folks-if I could make them understand the need: if I could rouse them: we are not a hasty folk. What a pity there are so few of us!' 'Why are there so few when you have lived in this country so long?' asked Pippin. 'Have a great many died?' 'Oh, no!' said Treebeard. 'None have died from inside, as you might say. Some have fallen in the evil chances of the long years, of course: and more have grown tree-ish. But there were never many of us and we have not increased. There have been no Entings -- no children, you would say, not for a terrible long count of years. You see, we lost the Entwives.'

the Ents loved the great trees; and the wild woods, and the slopes of the high hills; and they drank of the mountain-streams, and ate only such fruit as the treeslet fall in their path; and they learned of the Elves and spoke with the Trees.

The Riders came to the wood, and they halted; horse and man, they were unwilling to pass in. The trees were grey and menacing, and a shadow or a mist was about them. The ends of their long sweeping boughs hung down like searching fingers, their roots stood up from the ground like the limbs of strange monsters, and dark caverns opened beneath them. But Gandalf went forward, leading the company, and where the road from the Hornburg met the trees they saw now an opening like an arched gate under mighty boughs; and through it Gandalf passed, and they followed him. Then to their amazement they found that the road ran on, and the Deeping-stream beside it; and the sky was open above and full of golden light. But on either side the great aisles of the wood were already wrapped in dusk, stretching away into impenetrable shadows; and there they heard the creaking and groaning of boughs, and far cries, and a rumour of wordless voices, murmuring angrily. No Orc or other living creature could be seen. Legolas and Gimli were now riding together upon one horse; and they kept close beside Gandalf, for Gimli was afraid of the wood. 'It is hot in here,' said Legolas to Gandalf. 'I feel a great wrathabout me. Do you not feel the air throb in your ears?' 'Yes,' said Gandalf. 'What has become of the miserable Orcs?' said Legolas. 'That, I think, no one will ever know,' said Gandalf. They rode in silence for a while; but Legolas was ever glancing from side to side, and would often have halted to listen to the sounds of the wood, if Gimli had allowed it. 'These are the strangest trees that ever I saw,' he said; 'and I have seen many an oak grow from acorn to ruinous age. I wish that there were leisure now to walk among them: they have voices, and in time I might come to understand their thought.' 'No, no!' said Gimli. 'Let us leave them! I guess their thought already: hatred of all that go on two legs; and their speech is of crushing and strangling.' 'Not of all that go on two legs,' said Legolas. 'There I think you are wrong. It is Orcs that they hate. For they do not belong here and know little of Elves and Men. Far away are the valleys where they sprang. From the deep dales of Fangorn, Gimli, that is whence they come, I guess.'

Where before the green dale had lain, its grassy slopes lapping the ever-mounting hills, there now a forest loomed. Great trees, bare and silent, stood, rank on rank, with tangled bough and hoary head; their twisted roots were buried in the long green grass. Darkness was under them.

'There are eyes!' he said. 'Eyes looking out from the shadows of the boughs! I never saw such eyes before.' The others, surprised by his cry, halted and turned; but Legolas started to ride back. 'No, no!' cried Gimli. 'Do as you please in your madness, but let me first get down from this horse! I wish to see no eyes!' 'Stay, Legolas Greenleaf!' said Gandalf. 'Do not go back into the wood, not yet! Now is not your time.' Even as he spoke, there came forward out of the trees three strange shapes. As tall as trolls they were, twelve feet or more in height; their strong bodies, stout as young trees, seemed to be clad with raiment or withhide of close-fitting grey and brown. Their limbs were long, and their hands had many fingers; their hair was stiff, and their beards grey-green as moss. They gazed out with solemn eyes, but they were not looking at the riders: their eyes were bent northwards. Suddenly they lifted their long hands to their mouths, and sent forth ringing calls, clear as notes of a horn, but more musical and various. The calls were answered; and turning again, the riders saw other creatures of the same kind approaching, striding through the grass. They came swiftly from the North, walking like wading herons in their gait, but not in their speed; for their legs in their long paces beat quicker than the heron's wings. The riders cried aloud in wonder, and some set their hands upon their sword-hilts. 'You need no weapons,' said Gandalf. 'These are but herdsmen. They are not enemies, indeed they are not concerned with us at all.' So it seemed to be; for as he spoke the tall creatures, without a glance at the riders, strode into the wood and vanished. 'Herdsmen!' said Thjoden. 'Where are their flocks? What are they, Gandalf? For it is plain that to you, at any rate, they are not strange.' 'They are the shepherds of the trees,' answered Gandalf. 'Is it so long since you listened to tales by the fireside? There are children in your land who, out of the twisted threads of story, could pick the answer to your question. You have seen Ents, O King, Ents out of Fangorn Forest, which in your tongue you call the Entwood.

Tom's words laid bare the hearts of trees and their thoughts, which were often dark and strange, and filled with a hatred of things that go free upon the earth, gnawing, biting, breaking, hacking, burning: destroyers and usurpers. It was not called the Old Forest without reason, for it was indeed ancient, a survivor of vast forgotten woods; and in it there lived yet, ageing no quicker than the hills, the fathers of the fathers of trees, remembering times when they were lords. The countless years had filled them with pride and rooted wisdom, and with malice. But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning, and a master of winds, and his song and thought ran through the woods on both sides of the river. His grey thirsty spirit drew power out of the earth and spread like fine root-threads in the ground, and invisible twig-fingers in the air, till it had under its dominion nearly all the trees of the Forest from the Hedge to the Downs.

Stars were shining above; but over the ground there crept a darkness blacker than the night. On both sides of the river it rolled towards them, going northward. 'Stay where you are!' said Gandalf. 'Draw no weapons! Wait! and it will pass you by!' A mist gathered about them. Above them a few stars still glimmered faintly; but on either side there arose walls of impenetrable gloom; they were in a narrow lane between moving towers of shadow. Voices they heard, whisperings and groanings and an endless rustling sigh; the earth shook under them. Long it seemed to them that they sat and were afraid; but at last the darkness and the rumour passed, and vanished between the mountain's arms. Away south upon the Hornburg, in the middle night men heard a great noise, as a wind in the valley, and the ground trembled; and all were afraid and no one ventured to go forth. But in the morning they went out and were amazed; for the slain Orcs were gone, and the trees also. Far down into the valley of the Deep the grass was crushed and trampled brown, as if giant herdsmen had pastured great droves of cattle there; but a mile below the Dike a huge pit had been delved in the earth, and over it stones were piled into a hill. Men believed that the Orcs whom they had slain were buried there; but whether those who had fled into the wood were with them, none could say, for no man ever set foot upon that hill. The Death Down it was afterwards called, and no grass would grow there. But the strange trees were never seen in Deeping-coomb again; they had returned at night, and had gone far away to the dark dales of Fangorn. Thus they were revenged upon the Orcs.

Then Treebeard said farewell to each of them in turn, and he bowed three times slowly and with great reverence to Celeborn and Galadriel. 'It is long, long since we met by stock or by stone, A vanimar, vanimblion nostari!' he said. 'It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.' And Celeborn said: 'I do not know, Eldest.' But Galadriel said: 'Not in Middle-earth, nor until the lands that lie under the wave are lifted up again. Then in the willow-meads of Tasarinan we may meet in the Spring. Farewell!'


Summary


The Ents were created as Shepherds of the Forest on behalf of Yavanna by Iluvatar during the Music of the Ainur. They were peaceful creatures, but could become very dangerous when aroused, caring deeply for the things they loved. Although they were incredibly powerful, they were also incredibly swift when needed. There weaknesses were to great axe-strokes and being subjected to intense and/or long periods of sustained fire; in other words, just like trees. In addition, they were also weak to 'blasts of sorcery'.


Great Eagles


Origin


What of talking beasts and birds with reasoning andspeech?
These have been rather lightly adopted from less
'serious' mythologies, but play a part which cannot now be
excised. They are certainly 'exceptions' and not much used, but
sufficiently to show they are a recognized feature of the world.
All other creatures accept them as natural if not common.
But true 'rational' creatures, 'speaking peoples', are all of
human / 'humanoid' form. Only the Valar and Maiar are
intelligences that can assume forms of Arda at will. Huan and
Sorontar could be Maiar - emissaries of Manwe.(4) But unfortunately
in The Lord of the Rings Gwaehir and Landroval are said
to be descendants of Sorontar.(5)
In any case is it likely or possible that even the least of the
Maiar would become Orcs? Yes: both outside Arda and in it,
before the fall of Utumno. Melkor had corrupted many spirits -
some great, as Sauron, or less so, as Balrogs. The least could
have been primitive (and much more powerful and perilous)
Orcs; but by practising when embodied procreation they would
(cf. Melian) [become] more and more earthbound, unable to
return to spirit-state (even demon-form), until released by death
(killing), and they would dwindle in force. When released they
would, of course, like Sauron, be 'damned': i.e. reduced to
impotence, infinitely recessive: still hating but unable more and
more to make it effective physically (or would not a very
dwindled dead Orc-state be a poltergeist?).
But again - would Eru provide fear for such creatures? For
the Eagles etc. perhaps. But not for Orcs.(6)
It does however seem best to view Melkor's corrupting power
as always starting, at least, in the moral or theological level. Any
creature that took him for Lord (and especially those v ho
blasphemously called him Father or Creator) became soon
corrupted in all parts of its being, the fea dragging down the
hroa in its descent into Morgothism: hate and destruction. As
for Elves being 'immortal': they in fact only had enormously
long lives, and were themselves physically 'wearing out', and
suffering a slow progressive weakening of their bodies.
In summary: I think it must be assumed that 'talking' is not
necessarily the sign of the possession of a 'rational soul' or fea.(7)
The Orcs were beasts of humanized shape (to mock Men
and Elves) deliberately perverted I converted into a more close
resemblance to Men. Their 'talking' was really reeling off
'records' set in them by Melkor. Even their rebellious critical
words - he knew about them. Melkor taught them speech and
as they bred they inherited this; and they had just as much
independence as have, say, dogs or horses of their human
masters. This talking was largely echoic (cf. parrots). In The
Lord of the Rings Sauron is said to have devised a language for
them.(8)
The same sort of thing may be said of Huan and the Eagles:
they were taught language by the Valar, and raised to a higher
level - but they still had no fear. - The History of Middle-earth


Characteristics


The Great Eagles were Eagle-like creatures of a much larger size, with the largest of their race, Thorondor, being 180 feet. As to their origin, Tolkien actually wanted them to be Maiar, but the Eagles were already incorporated into The Lord of the Rings in a different way; therefore, his final word on them as they are is that they were normal Eagles risen to a higher level on account of the Valar, to serve as messengers both to and from the Valar and helpers in times of dire need. I am not finished with this section.


Flying to Mount Doom Debate


The Great Eagles in Tolkien's novels were the agents of what Tolkien described as Eucatostrophe, which is defined as: The sudden turn of events in a story which ensures that the protagonist does not meet some terrible, impending, and very plausible doom. This purpose did the Great Eagles serve, and nothing more. Here are two quotes pertinent to this:

The Eagles are adangerous 'machine'. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limitof their credibility or usefulness. - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien



I am sorry if this all seems dreary and ‘pompose’. But so do all attempts to ‘explain’ the images and events of a mythology. Naturally the stories come first. But it is, I suppose, some test of the consistency of a mythology as such, if it is capable of some rational or rationalized explanation. - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien



I am not sure about Trolls. I think they are mere ‘counterfeits’, and hence (though here I am of course only using elements of old barbarous mythmaking that had no ‘aware’ metaphysic) they return to mere stone images when not in the dark. - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien


Only the Valar and Maiar are intelligences that can assume forms of Arda at will. Huan and Sorontar could be Maiar - emissaries of Manwe.(4) But unfortunately in The Lord of the Rings Gwaehir and Landroval are said to be descendants of Sorontar.(5) - The History of Middle-earth


Summary


All of these quotes explain that, to Tolkien, the story was the prime element in his writings, and that the Eagles only served a limited function in them, as the power of the story would be greatly diminished if they only served as the American Eagle Airlines. He may have offered some realistic explanation in the story, such as in the Council of Elrond, but the story was already made a certain way, just as he could not change the Eagles to be Maiar. The Eagles were also introduced as an element from previous mythmaking, and would have no metaphysics for them. Tolkien only started to create metaphysics for his Arda in the last few years of his life, and it was quite a struggle for him.

[Alkar]

Reserved.

Some material on the the Nine and the Rings of Power (and thus magical mechanics) is in rough format in this thread:

Of the Rings of Power and other Topics of Middle-earth Lore

[Alkar]

Reserved.

What I have so far:

Here are some very interesting Middle-earth maps:

http://lotrproject.com/map/#zoom=3&l...yers=BTTTTTTTT (this one is the best out there by far)

http://lindefirion.net/maps/PeoplesOfMiddleEarth.jpg

http://nd06.jxs.cz/060/048/7853e63a99_95578455_o2.jpg

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...Shadowtest.jpg

http://ponungeologentuvida.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/map.jpg

http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/imag...9963242851.gif

I would definitely advise visiting the first link, it is an interactive map and includes such lands as Far Harad and Umbar.

[ekingsb]

Cool maps Alkar, but I'm confused. Why are you posting them again? I've been following the mapping forums closely, as I want to see more and more of the map ideas for Attila, but these maps have no European landscaping. Are they just for the lore and history of Middle Earth?

[Alkar]

Cool maps Alkar, but I'm confused. Why are you posting them again? I've been following the mapping forums closely, as I want to see more and more of the map ideas for Attila, but these maps have no European landscaping. Are they just for the lore and history of Middle Earth?

Yeah they're just for lore purposes.

[Maestro1]

Alkar, I've got a good quesion for you I believe: is taniquetil positioned near the bay of eldamar, or furthere north as in that map of tolkien that contained Aman and Middle-Earth?

[Alkar]

Alkar, I've got a good quesion for you I believe: is taniquetil positioned near the bay of eldamar, or furthere north as in that map of tolkien that contained Aman and Middle-Earth?

The exact position of Taniquetil is unknown. We do however know for starters that it is the highest mountain in the Pelóri range of mountains, near the eastern border of Aman. It is also known to be just below the Calacirya (a mountain pass cut in the Pelóri mountain range to allow the Elves to see out into Middle-earth), and roughly parallel to Valmar (the capital of Aman), which is marked with a dot on the above map. The pass of Calacirya opens up onto the middle of the Bay of Eldamar, so Taniquetil should be roughly located parallel to the lower portion of the Bay. The above map renders the Bay of Eldamar a bit smaller than in the maps below, but the general idea is there.

Here are some closeups that may help:

[Maestro1]

This one by Tolkien itself confuses me though. I believe that this one was not modified alongside the silmarillion:

[Alkar]

This one by Tolkien itself confuses me though. I believe that this one was not modified alongside the silmarillion:

That's fan-art, done by David Day.

You can find it here:

http://tolkien-inspired-art.tumblr.com/page/18

[Berem]

Alkar, those posts are almost an entire book of information!!! By the beard of Ζεύς, it is gigantic!

[Alkar]

Alkar, those posts are almost an entire book of information!!! By the beard of Ζεύς, it is gigantic!

Yes I know.

[OnionSpider13]

And there's a very negative reaction to that map in the following Reddit post...

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/commen...s_good_and_bad

[Alkar]

And there's a very negative reaction to that map in the following Reddit post...

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/commen...s_good_and_bad

I guess it's quite fair to say that the map is inaccurate then, and thus your question is answered Maestro.

[Maestro1]

Yes, thanks guys!

[Alkar]

Yes, thanks guys!

No problem!

[Toonu]

I want to ask if existed some clan of dwarves in white mountains......were there any dwarves?