Hobbit of the Shire. Samwise Gamgee was born in 2980 of the Third Age and became a gardener at Bag End. A faithful servant of first Bilbo and then Frodo Baggins, Sam travelled with the Ringbearer to Rivendell, where he became a member of the Fellowship of the Ring. Samwise was the only one to remain with the Ringbearer for the entire quest.

When Frodo sailed to the Undying Lands, Samwise inherited Bag End, and became a highly famous and respected figure in the Shire. He married Rose Cotton and sired thirteen children. He was elected Mayor of the Shire secen times. After the death of his wife in the eighty-second year of the Fourth Age, Samwise sailed to the Undying Lands to rejoin his friend and master, Frodo Baggins.

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Istari, Wizard of Isengard, Saruman the White was the head of the Istari, the Order of Wizards, who came to Middle-earth about the year 1000 in the Third Age of the Sun. In the Undying Lands he was Curumo, a Maia spirit of Aule the Smith. When he first appeared he wore white robes, had raven hair and spoke with a voice both wise and fair. Called Curunir, meaning 'man of skill', by the Elves, he wandered Middle-earth seeking to overcome the Dark Lord. After a time he grew proud and wished to have power for himself. In the year 2759, Saruman entered Isengard, and the tower of Orthanc, and summond Orcs, Half-orcs, Uruk-hai and Dunlendings under a black banner marked with a white hand. He became ensnared in the Ring Lord's web and unwittingly became his servant. In the War of the Rings, Saruman's power was annihilated by a combination of the Ent's march on Isengard and the Rhorrim in the Battle of Hornburg. Finally, his staff was broken and his sorcerous power was taken from him by Gandalf.

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Maia, Lord of the Rings. Once a Maia spirit of Aule the Smith, Sauron, meaning 'the abhorred' became the chief lieutenant of Melkor, the Dark Lord.

During the Wars of Beleriand, Sauron served his master until Melkor was cast into the Void, at the end of the first First Age of the Sun. Sauron reappeared on Middle-earth during the fifth century of the Second Age as Annatar, 'giver of gifts'. In 1500 he seduced the Elven-smiths of Eregion into forging the Rings of Power. The he made himself Lord of the Rings by forging the One Ring.

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Dragon of Grey Mountains. Scatha the Worm was a Dragon who in the second millennium of the Third Age of the Sun led his brood of Cold-drakes into the gold-rich kingdom of the Dwarves in the Grey Mountains. There they slaughtered the Dwarves and took their hoards of gold. In time, Prince Fram, the son of Frumgar of the Eotheod entered the Grey Mountains slew Scatha the worm and took his hoard.

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Of all the Elves, the Third Kindred, the Teleri, most loved the seas of Ulmo the Ocean Lord and lived longest on the shores of Belegaer, the Sea of the West. They were wisest in its lore and so were named the Sea-elves. They were the first people to build ships, for they were taught by Osse, a Maia of the turbulent waves.

The Sea-elves sailed in the fairest ships, which were white and shaped like the great Swans of Ulmo that once drew them to the shores of Eldamar. And in the Undying Lands they sail and sing with voices like the rippling waves, for they know the language of the sea, a language which is subtle beyond the reckoning of teh wisest of the races of Men.

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Before the World was made, in that dimension before Time began, it had been foretold that Iluvatar alone would call forth two great peoples out of the World to Be. The First-born of Iluvatar was the immortal race of the Elves who arose with the Rekindling of the Stars. Those who were named the Secondborn, the mortal race of Men, came into being when Arien the Sun first shone on Middle-earth. In the Quenya tongue Second-born translates as 'Atani' and in the Sindarin as 'Edain'; and these were the names by which the first Men to enter the lands of Beleriand were known.

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In ancient Beleriand was once a stony hill called Amon Rudh, the 'bald hill', wherein were cut the caverns of the last of the Petty-dwarves. Upon that hill nothing would grow except the hardy Seregon plant. In Elvish its name means 'blood-stone', for when the plant blossoms with its dark red flower the stone summit appears to be covered in blood.

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In the War of the Ring there was a great battle before the ancient port of Pelargir when the ships of the Corsairs of Umbar were conquered by phantom warriors. The warriors were the Dead Men of Dunharrow, ghosts who through the long years of the Third Age had lingered on Earth because of a broken oath. To fulfil that oath and become released from limbo, this Shadow Host led by Aragorn, son of Arathorn, came to battle against the Corsairs, enemy of the Dunedain. Once victory was assured the Shadow Host vanished from Earth forever.

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Meara, Horse of Rohan. Greatest of the Mearas 'horse-princes' of Rohan at the time of the War of the Rings, Shadowfax was tamed and ridden without bridle or saddle by Gandalf the Wizard. Called Shadowfax because of his silver-grey coat, he was the only horse who could outrun the phantom black Horses and Winged Beasts of the Ring-wraiths. He carried Gandalf the White to the defence of the Tower of Gondor and into the last battle before the Black Gates of Mordor.

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In the histories of Middle-earth, there are two mountain ranges which are called the Shadowy Mountains. One was in the northwest of Beleriand in the First Age and by the Elves was called the Ered Wethrin, the 'mountains of shadow'. They formed a natural defensive border around the Noldor kingdoms of Hithlum. The second Shadowy Mountain range was so named in the Second Age and formed the thousand-mile border of western and southern Mordor. The Shadowy Mountains of Mordor appear to have been virtually unclimable and had only two known passes, Cirith Gorgor and Cirith Ungol.

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Uruk-hai of Cirith Ungol. During the War of the Ring, Shagrat as the Captain of the Orcs of the Tower of the Spider's Pass.

His Orc band became involved in a brief, bloody battle with a Morgul Orc band, over possession of Frodo Baggin's mithril mail coat. Although greviously wounded, Shagrat managed to keep the mail coat and take it to his master, Sauron the Ring Lord.

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Spider of Cirith Ungol. Shelob was the largest and nastiest of the Great Spiders to survive the destruction of Beleriand.

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The green and pleasant lands of the Shire in Eriador - just west of the Brandywine River and east of the Far Downs - had been the homeland of the Halfling people called the Hobbits since the seventeenth century of the Third Age of the Sun. Once a part of the kingdom of Arnor that through the centuries of war had become deserted, the Shire was given over to the Hobbits in 1601 by decree of the Dunedain king Argeleb II of Arthedain.

The Shire itself was divided into four primary areas, called the Four Farthings, later, in 2340, the Hobbit family called the Oldbucks crossed the Brandywine River and settled in what became Buckland, along with the lands of Westmarch from the Far Downs to the Tower Hills, was officially added to the Free Lands of the Shire.

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Those Elves who undertook the Great Journey were the Teleri. Of this kindred were those called the Nandor, who stopped their westward march at the Anduin River and went no further. Of these Nandor, there were some who settled in Greenwood and Lothlorien. These were named Silvan Elves, for most of them lived in forests; they were a tribal people who built no cities and had no kings.

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Near Edoras, the Golden Hall of the kings of the Mark, lay the great barrow graves of the kings who for the last five hundred years of the Third Age of the Sun had ruled Rohan. By the end of the Third Age the graves were laid in two rows; one of nine for those of the first Line; the other of eight for those of the Second Line. On these graves, like glittering snow, grew the white flowers called Simbelmyne, which in common speech of Men is 'Evermind' and by the Elves was known as Uilos. They blossomed in all seasons, like the bright eyes of Elves, glinting always with starlight.

Simbelmyne grew whitest and thickest on the grave of Helm Hammerhand, the ninth king of the First Line, who during the Siege of Hornburg went alone amongs his foes, the Dunlendings.

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How the Grey-elves, who are called the Sindar, came to be a seperate race, is told in the tale of the Journey of the Elves. In the beginning they were of the Third Kindred, the Teleri, and their king was the High King of all Teleri. In those first years he was called Elwe Singollo and he was the tallest of Elves. When he later decided to make a kingdom in Beleriand along with his wife Melian the Maia, its people became known as the Sindar, the 'Grey-elves' and the Elves of Twilight.

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The most important river system in Beleriand was that of the Sirion, whose delta emptied into the Bay of Balar. The Sirion and its many tributaries drained all of central Beleriand south of the Mountains of Shadow and the Mountains of Terror. Its major tributaries were the Narog and Ginglith in the realm of Nargothrond and the Aros, Celon, Esgalduin, Mindeb, Teiglin and Maduin in Doriath.

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Ent of Fangorn Forest. Skinbark was one of the three oldest surviving Ents, or 'Tree-herds', surviving at the time of the War of the Rings. Skinbark was called Fladrif by the Elves and most resembled a birch tree in appearance. At the time of Saruman's rise to power, Skinbark lived just west of Isengard, where he was attacked and wounded by Orcs. He fled to the highest hills of the Fangorn Forest and remained there, refusing to come down even during the March of the Ents on Isengard.

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Dragon of Erebor. Smaug was the greatest Dragon of the Third Age. A huge golden-red Fire-drake, Smaug had vast bat-like wings and a coat of impenetrable iron scales. His one vulnerable part, his belly, was protected by a waistcoat of gemstones which became embedded there from centuries of laying on jewelled treasure hoards. Although his beginnings are obscure, he is known to have lived in the Grey Mountains before he came to Erebor.

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Among those evil beings that in the histories of Middle-earth are named Orcs, there were many breeds, each it seemed being made to suit some particular evil. The most common breed was that which in Black Speech was called Snaga, meaning 'slaves'.

Snaga was also the name of one particular Orc of Cirith Ungol. This Orc was one of the Orc guardsmen of the Tower of the Spider Pass who fought under the Uruk captain, Shagrat, against the Morgul Orcs for possession of Frodo Baggins's mithril mail coat. He survived the battle, only to die by breaking his neck during a struggle with Samwise Gamgee.

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Meara, Horse of Rohan. During the War of the Ring, Snowmane was the mount of Theoden, King of Rohan. He carried his master into the Battle of Hornburg. At the Battle of Pelennor Fields, both were slain by the Witch-king.

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In the northern land of Forochel, in the Third Age of the Sun, there lived a primitive people who were descendants of the ancient Forodwaith. In Sindarin these were the Lossoth, but in the common western tongue they werw called the Snowmen of Forochel.

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A part of the histories of the Westlands is given to the fierce people who, in the Second and Third Age of the Sun, came from the hot deserts and forests of the Sunlands, which lay in the South of Middle-earth. These people were ruled by many kings and lords, until in time Sauron the Maia corrupted them and called them to war. The Dunedain named them Southrons, though more often they were called the Haradrim.

The Southrons were brown and black skinned Men who came forth fiercely in war, ornamented with much gold. Their banner was a black serpent on a scarlet ground. Their armour was bronze, their robes were crimson and they carried spears and scimitars. They came on foot, in the ships on the sea, on Horses and even on the backs of teh mighty war beasts that are named Mumakil.

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The Elves were conceived in the Music of Ainur and were the first race to give voice to the music and make song. They were also the first to use speech in Arda, and it is said that their speech was as bright and subtle as starlight on running water. For their language was not just the first but also the fairest tongue that ever was conceived. The Elves therefore called themselves the Speakers, which in that first Elven tongue was the 'Quendi'.

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Among the foulest beings that ever inhabited Arda were the Great Spiders. They were dark and filled with envy, greed and the poison of malice. Greatest of the giant beings that took Spider form was Ungoliant, a mighty and evil spirit that entered the World before the Trees of the Valar were made.

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Alone of the three Hobbit strains, those named Stoors knew the ars of boating, fishing and swimming. They were lovers of flat river lands and were most friendly with Elves. The Harfoots thought the Stoors a queer folk. Last of the Hobbits to settle in the Shire, the Stoors had attained a Mannish appearance in the eyes of the Harfoots, for they were heavier and broader than the other strains and, unlike the other Hobbits, they were able to grow beards.

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It is told in the tale of the Great Journey of the Elves how the Teleri were brought at last to Eldamar by the Swans of Ulmo after long exile on Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle.

One of the Maia had come to the Teleri and taught them how to build a great fleet that could carry all their Kindred. Once the ships were made the Swans of Ulmo, Lord of the Waters, came out of the West. These brilliant creatures were foam white and they circled in great broken rings round the ships of the Elves. The feathered glory of these birds was nearly equal to the size and strength of the Eagles of Manwe.

In the place where the Swans of Ulmo had brought them, the Teleri made a city named Alqualone, the 'haven of Swans'. There they made the finest ships of Arda, even more cunningly fashioned than the first ones, and they built them in the forms of the Swans of Ulmo, with vast, white wings and beaks of jet and gold.

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In the First Age of the Sun those Men who came after the Edain to Beleriand were named Easterlings. However, some called them Swarthy Men, for they were shorter, broader and darker of hair and eye than the Edain. Mostly they were less worthy people, and they betrayed the Elves to their enemies.

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In the last centuries of the Third Age of the Sun, rumours and tales reached the peaceful lands of the Shire about the wars between the Men of Gondor and the fierce warrior people far to the south who were named the Haradrim. In the dialect of the Shire of Haradrim people were called Swertings.

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