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| Bag End |
Bag End was considered by Hobbits to be one of the finest hobbit-holes in the whole of Hobbiton, if not the entire Shire. Built in the 28th century of the Third Age, at the end of Bagshot Row, it was the home of three generations of Baggin's: Bungo, Bilbo and Frodo. In 3018, when he embarked on the Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo sold Bag-End to Lobelia and Lotho Sackville-Baggins.
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| Balar |
In the beginning the Isle of Balar was a part of Tol Eressea, the floating island that was the ship of Ulmo the Ocean Lord who used it to take the Teleri into the Undying Lands.
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| Balchoth |
In the time of Cirion, the twelfth Ruling Steward of Gondor, some fierce barbarian people lived in Rhovanion on the eastern borders of the realm. They were the Balchoth and they were part of the Easterling race. The Balchoth caused great terror in the southern Vales of Anduin, for their ways were evil and their deeds were directed by the Dark Lord Sauron, who resided in Dol Guldur in Mirkwood. The savagery of the Balchoth was legendary and their numbers were very great.
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| Balin |
Dwarf of Thorin and Company, Balin was born in the Kingdom under the Mountain at Erebor in 2763. In 2770, Smaug the Dragon drove all of his people out. In 2790, Balin followed King Thrain II into the bloody War of Dwarves and Orcs, after which he settled for a time in a Dwarf-colony in the Blue Mountains. In 2841, Balin began an ill-fated quest with King Thrain II to return to Erebor. This journey resulted in the disappearance and eventual death of Thrain II. Balin returned to the Blue Mountains. Exactly one century later, he set out with Thorin and Company in the successful Quest of Erebor, which resulted in the slaying of Smaug the Dragon and the re-establishment of the Kingdom under the Mountain. In 2989 Balin left Erebor in an attempt to re-establish a Dwarf-kingdom in Moria. For five years Balin struggled against the Balrog and his Orkish hordes, but finally he and his followers were overwhelmed and slain.
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| Balrogs |
The most terrible of the Maiar spirits who became the servants of Melkor, the Dark Enemy, were those who were transformed into demons. In the High Elven tongue they were named the Valaraukar, but in Middle-Earth were called Balrogs, the 'demons of might'. Most infamous of the Balrog race was Gothmog, Lord of the Balrogs and High Captain of Angband.
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| Banakil |
It was not until the first thousand years of the Third Age of the Sun had passed in the Vales of Anduin, east of the Mountains of the Mist, that men first became aware of the Banakil, the 'Halfling' race called the Hobbits. Smaller than Dwarves and shy of other races, they lived quietly and no history tells of their beginning before this time.
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| Barad-dur |
The greatest fortess tower on Middle-Earth during the Second and Third Age of the Sun was Barad-dur in the evil land of Mordor. Called the Dark Tower by Men and Lugburz by Orcs, it was built after the first millennium of the Second Age by Sauron, with the power of the One Ring. In the year 3019, the One Ring was destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom, and the very foundations of Barad-dur cracked and collapsed. With the One Ring unmade Sauron's powers were utterly destroyed and the tower of Barad-dur fell into a pile of rubble.
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| Bard the Bowman |
Man of Dale and Dragon Slayer. Born and raised among the Lake Men of Esgaroth, Bard was an exile of Dale, which had been destroyed by Smaug, the Golden Dragon. He was a strong, grim faced Man who claimed descent from a famous archer called Girion of Dale.
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| Bardings |
Among the strong Northmen who lived between Mirkwood and the Iron Hills, there were those who, in the last century of the Third Age of the Sun, were called the Bardings. Previously these peopel had been known as the Men of Dale and had inhabited the wealthy city of Dale below the Lonely Mountain, but when the Dragon Smaug came to the Lonely Mountain, Dale was sacked and the people fled. The Lake Men of Esgaroth gave them sanctuary for almost two centuries. In that time, among these exiles of Dale rose the heir to the king who was called Bard the Bowman.
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| Barrow Downs |
The downlands east of the Shire and the Old Forest were called the Barrow Downs because of the great barrow graves built there.
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| Barrow-Wights |
West of the Brandywine River beyond the Old Forest were the Barrow-downs, the most ancient burial ground of Men in Middle-Earth. There were no trees or water there, but only grass and turf covering dome-shaped hills that were crowned with monoliths and great rings of bone-white stone. These hills were the burial mounds that were made in the First Age of Sun for the Kings of Men. For many Ages the Barrow-downs were sacred and revered, until out of the Witch-kingdom of Angmar many terrible and tortured spirits fled across Middle-Earth, desperately seeking to hide from the ravening light of the Sun. Demons whose bodies had been destroyed looked for other bodies in which their evil spirits could dwell. And so it was that the Barrow-downs became a haunted and dread place. The demons became the Barrow-wights, the Undead.
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| Bats |
Of the many creatures that Melkor the Dark Enemy bred in darkness, the blood-sucking Bat was one.
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| Belain |
Within Arda since its beginning there was a race of guardians who were known as the Valar in the High Elven tongue. The Grey-elves of Beleriand knew them as the Belain, which means the 'powers'.
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| Belegaer |
The vast western sea which seperated Middle-Earth from the Undying Lands was called Belegaer, Elvish for the 'Great Sea'. Belegaer extended from Helcaraxe in the north (the 'grinding ice' bridge that once joined the two continents) to the limits of Arda in the south, with Numenor in the centre.
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| Belegost |
One of the two great Dwarf kingdoms built in the Blue Mountains of Beleriand during the Second Age of Starlight, Belegost is Elvish for 'mighty fortress'. In Khuzdul, the language of the Dwarves, it was Gabilgathol, or Mickleburg.
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| Beleriand |
Until its sinking at the beginning of the Second Age of the Sun, Beleriand was to be found west of the Blue Mountains in the extreme northwest part of Middle-Earth. All the Eldar passed through Beleriand during the Great Journey, but the Teleri lingered there the longest while they awaited Ulmo the Ocean Lord to take them to the Undying Lands. Not all of the Teleri departed. The Sindar, or Grey Elves of Doriath and the Falas remained behind and through the Ages of Starlight built wonderful kingdoms there.
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| Beorn |
Northman, Beorning chieftain. Beorn's people inhabited the northern Anduin valley between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood during the last centuries of the Third Age. He and his woodsmen guarded the Ford of Carrock and the High Pass from Orcs and Wargs. Beorn was a huge black bearded Man who wore coarse wool tunic and was armed with a woodsman's axe. He was a berserker warrior who had the gift of the 'skin changer'; that is, transforming into the form of a bear.
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| Beornings |
In the Third Age of the Sun there was a race of solitary Northmen who guarded the Ford of Carrock and the High Passes of Rhovanion from the Orcs and Wargs. these people were the Beornings, and they were black-haired, black-bearded Men clothed in coarse wool garments. They carried the woodman's axe and were gruff, huge-muscled, but honourable. They were named after a fierce warrior called Beorn, who was a mighty man and a skin changer.
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| Beren |
Edain Lord of Dorthonian. Beren was the son of Barahir, lord of the Edain. Born in the fourth century of the First Age, Beren was the sole survivor of the outlaws of Dorthonian, and the only person ever to cross the Mountains of Terror and pass through the vile realm of the Giant Spiders. Entering Doriath, Beren met and fell in love with Princess Luthien, the daughter of King Thingol and Melian the Maia. Thingol forbade the marriage unless Beren brought him one of the Silmarils.
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| Bifur |
Dwarf of Thorin and Company. Bifur went on the Quest of Erebor which in 2941 of the Third Age, resulted in the death of Smaug the Dragon and the re-establishment of the Dwarf Kingdom under the Mountain. He survived the Battle of Five Armies; thereafter he settled in the kingdom at Erebor.
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| Big Folk |
To the small, shy race of the Hobbit, the ways of other races (except Elves) are thought to be coarse, loud and without subtelty. And though the affairs of other races might often threaten Hobbit lives, they seem little interested in the great nations of Men, and so Men of whatever origin are simply known to the Hobbits as the Big Folk.
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| Bilbo Baggins |
Hobbit of the Shire. Born in the year 2890 of the Third Age, Bilbo was a bachelor Hobbit who lived in Bag End in the Shire. On his adventure with Thorin and Company which led to the slaying of Smaug the Dragon, Bilbo acquired a mysterious ring which had the power to make the wearer invisible. It was later discovered that this was, in fact, the One Ring. Starting out on his eleventy first birthday, Bilbo travelled to Rivendell, having left Bag End and the One Ring to Frodo Baggins. He spent the next twenty years there, when he wrote poems, stories and Elf-lore, as well as his memoirs, entitled 'There and Back Again' and his three-volume scholarly work, 'Translations from the Elvish'. After the War of the Ring, at the age of 131 years, Bilbo sailed into the west with Frodo to the Undying Lands.
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| Black Numenoreans |
In the 'Akallabeth' is told the story of the land of the Numenoreans, which flourished as the mightiest kingdom of Men upon Arda during the Second Age of the Sun. In the year 3319 of the Second Age it was cast down beneath Beegaer, the Western Sea, in other parts forever. Most of the Numenoreans perished, but some had left Middle-Earth before the Downfall and so survived. One part of those who were saved from disaster was named the Black Numenoreans. These people mada a great haven in a placed named Umbar, which lay on the coastlands in the south of Middle-Earth. The Black Numenoreans were a great sea power and for many centuries they raided and pillaged the coastlands of Middle-Earth. They were allies of Sauron. To three of the Black Numenoreans he gave Rings of Power, and these three were numbered among the wraiths who were called Nazgul.
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| Black Riders |
In the centuries that followed the forging of the Rings of Power by the Elven-smiths and Sauron the Maia; nine Black Riders on swift black horses appeared in Middle-Earth. Few knew what manner of beings Black Riders were, but the wise learned that they had once been Men, who by the power of the Rings had been turned into deathless wraiths. These Black Riders were the mightiest of the Ring Lord Sauron's servants; in the Black Speech of Orcs their name was Nazgul.
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| Blue Mountains |
The great mountain chain that marked the eastern border of the Elf lands of Beleriand was the Ered Luin, the Blue Mountains.
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| Boars |
The hunting of Boars was a sport among the Elves and the Men of Arda. Even Orome the Valarian huntsman, who was Lord of the forest, would chase these tusked beasts of the woodlands with hounds and Horse.
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| Bofur |
Dwarf of Thorin and Company. Bofur was one of the company which, in the year 2941 of the Third Age, embarked on the Quest of the Lonely Mountain.
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| Bolg |
Orc king of Misty Mountains. Bolg of the North was the son of Azog, the Orc King who was slain by Dain Ironfoot in the Battle of Azanulbizar at the end of the War of the Orcs and Dwarves. Like his father, Bolg was a particularly large and powerful Orc, and therefore was probably one of the race of super-Orcs called the Uruk-hai. He was slain during the Battle of Five Armies, by Beorn, the Beorning's chieftain.
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| Bombur |
Dwarf of Thorin and Company. In 2941 of the Third Age of the Sun, Bombur went on the Quest of Lonely Mountain which resulted in the slaying of Smaug the Dragon and the re-establishment of the Dwarf Kingdom under the Mountain at Erebor. Bombur, like his companions Bifur and Bofur, was a Dwarf of Moria, but was not descended from Durin's race. Even during his prime, Bombur had always been a very fat Dwarf; however, later in life he became so enormously stout that he could not even walk, and it took six other Dwarves to carry him about. After the quest, Bombur remained at Erebor for the rest of his life.
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| Boromir |
Dunedain lord of Gondor. Eldest son of Denethor II, ruling Steward of Gondor. Born in the year 2978 of the Third Age, Boromir was the tall handsome heir to the Steward. He became a member of the Fellowship of the Ring. Boromir was overcome by the desire to seize the One Ring, and tried to kill Frodo Baggins the Ring-bearer. After Frodo had escaped and continued on with his journey with only Samwise Gamgee for company, Boromir was killed while gallantly defending the Hobbits Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took from an Orc attack.
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| Brambles of Mordor |
In the Black Land of Mordor was Gorgoroth, where the furnace and forge of the Ring Lord Sauron were housed. It was boasted that nothing grew upon that poisoned land, but as the 'Red Book of Westmarch' tells, some life did in fact dare to come forth from the harsh ground. In sheltered places twisted tree forms and stunted grey grasses haltingly grew and though the leaves were shrivelled with sulphur vapour and maggot hatchings, nowhere on Middle-Earth did brambles grow so large and fierce. The Brambles of Mordor were hideous with foot-long thorns, as barbed and sharp as the daggers of Orcs, and they sprawled over the land like coils of steel wire. They were truly the flowers of the land of Mordor.
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| Brandywine River |
In the Third Age of the Sun, the Brandywine was one of the three great rivers of Eriador. It flowed from the hills and lake of Evindim that was once the heart of the lost kingdom of Arnor, southwestward past the Shire and the Old Forest through to the sea at the southern end of the Blue Mountains.
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| Bree |
Reputedly founded during the Second Age of the Sun by Men from Dunland, Bree was the main village of Breeland (the others being Combe, Archet and Staddle). It was to be found at the crossing of the Great East Road and the North Road, which was to the east of the Shire and in the heartland of what was once the kingdom of Arnor, and was home to around one hundred Hobbits and Men.
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| Brethil |
In the lost land of Beleriand, there were once wide forests of birch trees. In the Sindarin language of the Grey-elves, the trees of these lands were called 'Brethil' and their beauty was much admired by those Elves.
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