Among the many beautiful, fragrant evergreen trees that the Elves of Tol Eressea brought as a gift and a blessing to Numenor was one called the Taniquelasse. The flower, the leaf and the bark were much prized by the Numenoreans for their sweet scent. Its name suggests that the tree had its origins in the slopes of Taniquetil, the Sacred Mountain of Manwe and the highest mountain in the Undying Lands.

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The highest mountain in Arda was Taniquetil in the easter Pelori Mountains in the Undying Lands. The name means 'high white peak' and upon its summit was built Ilmarin, the mansions of the king and queen of Valar, Manwe and Varda.

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Those of the Elven people who heeded the summons of the Valar, departed to the West and looked on the Blessed Realm in the days of the Light of the Trees, were in the Quenya tongue called Tareldar or High Elves.

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In the Westron dialect there were many words taken from Elvish that were twisted in Orkish use. One of these was the Quenya word 'tarkil', meaning the Dunedain. In the Orc usage the became Tark, a word of contempt for the Gondor Men.

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Among the most ancient of trees were those that the first Elves called the Tasarion. With many other kinds of tree they had come into the World in the Ages of the Lamps at the wish of Yavanna, Queen of the Earth. The Tasarion were strong long-lived trees that loved to grow most of all by ruins, lakes, marshes and streams. In the Ages of Starlight the greatest forest of these tres on Middle-earth was in the Nan-tasarion, the 'valley of the Tasarion', in Beleriand. Though this forest was destroyed when Beleriand sank beneath the sea, the species of Tasarion survived all the changes of the World, and even the great invasions by the race of Men. For the Tasarion are the trees that Men now call the Willow.

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At the end of the War of the Rings a new line of kings was established to rule over the realms of Arnor and Gondor. The first of this line was Aragorn, son of Arathorn, who became King Elessar of the Reunited Kingdom. He chose Telcontar as the name of his House, for this was the Quenya form of Strider, the name by which he went in his years of exile. His descendants and successors preserved the name of the House that Aragorn had founded, called themselves the Telcontari.

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There were three Kindred of Elves who in the years of the Stars undertook the Great Journey from the East of Middle-earth to the Undying Lands. The first two were named the Vanyar and the Noldor, and they were the first of the Elvenhost to reach the Undying Lands beyond the Great Sea. The people of the Third Kindred were the Teleri; their destiny differed from the first two Kindred, for they were the largest in number of the Elven people and so their passage was slowest across the lands of Middle-earth. In the course of the Great Journey the Teleri became scattered and divided.

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The huge volcanic mountain that Morgoth raised above his mighty armoury and fortress of Angband after he and Ungoliant destroyed the Trees of Valar and stole the Silmarils was called Thangorodrim.

The terrible, three-peaked mountain of slag and volcanic rock constantly belched out poisonous smoke and fumes. Its name means 'mountains of oppression' and deep within its bowels, Morgoth devised and gathered many monsters and evil beings.

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Northman, king of Rohan. Born in 2948 of the Third Age, Theoden, son of Thengel, became the seventeenth king of Rohan in 2980. In the beginning he was a good and strong king, but near the end of his reign he fell under the influence of Grima Wormtongue, who secretly was a servant of the evil Wizard Saruman.

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Elven king of Doriath. Elwe Singollo, who later became King Thingol, was the High King of the Teleri Elves.

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Dwarf king of Grey Mountains. Born in the Kingdom under the Mountain in 2035, Thorin was the son of King Thrain I. In 2190, he became Thorin I, the second King under the Mountain. Thirty years later, wishing to find new challenges, Thorin I led his people to the Grey Mountains where he founded and ruled a prosperous new kingdom until his death in 2289.

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Dwarf king-in-exile. Born in 2746 of the Third Age in the Kingdom under the Mountain. Thorin was the grandson of King Thror. In 2770, all the Dwarves of Erebor were driven out by Smaug the Dragon. In 2790 his grandfather was slain, and his father, King Thrain II, led his people into the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs. At this time he became known as Thorin Oakenshield, because, when disarmed during the Battle of Azanulbizar, he used an oak bough as a weapon.

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Dwarf king of Erebor. Known as Thorin Stonehelm, this son of King Dain Ironfoot (heir to Thorin II) was born in Erebor in 2866 of the Third Age. He became King under the Mountain in 3019 after his father died defending Erebor during the War of the Ring. A brave warrior, Thorin Stonehelm rallied his people and, with the Men of Dale, broke the siege of Erebor and defeated the Easterling and Orc armies.

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Eagle of the Encircling Mountains. Thorondor was the king of the Eagles during the First Age of the Sun. With a wingspan measured at thirty fathoms, he appears to have been the largest Eagle ever to have lived.

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Dwarf king of Erebor. Thrain I became the first King under the Mountain at Erebor in 1999 of the Third Age of the Sun. Born in Moria in 1934, Thrain was teh son of King Nain I. His father ruled Moria for just one year before being slain by the Balrog in 1981. Forced to abandon Moria, Thrain I became king-in-exile. Finally Thrain I brought his wandering people to Erebor, where he found that great jewel called the Arkenstone, the 'heart of the mountain'. There he founded the Kingdom under the Mountain and prospered until his death in 2190.

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Dwarf king-in-exile. Born in the Kingdom under the Mountain in 2644 of the Third Age of the Sun, Thrain was the son of King Thror. In 2770 Thror, Thrain and all the Dwarves of Erebor were driven out by Smaug the Dragon.

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The three steep-sided mountains that stood out above the gorge of Helm's Deep. They were the northernmost of the White Mountains, and so they also marked the southern edge of the wide Gap of Rohan. The name 'Thrihyrne' is Old English, and means simply 'three horns'.

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The ancient breed of Thursh that lived in Erebor had an alliance with the Men and Dwarves of that place. The Men of Dale and some of the Lake Men of Esgaroth knew the Thrush language and used these birds as messengers.

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Maia and Vampire. Thuringwethil, meaning the 'woman of shadows', was an evil Maia spirit of Melkor, who took on the form of a huge Vampire Bat with iron claws. During the First Age of the Sun, Thuringwethil was one of the many shape-shifting monsters inhabiting Sauron's tower on the Isle of Werewolves in Beleriand. She flew between Sauron and Melkor carrying messages and doing evil deeds. After the overthrow of Sauron and the Werewolves, her power seems to have been destroyed. Her shaping-cloak was taken and was used by Luthien as a means of entering the realm of Angband.

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Maia guardian of the Moon. Tilion of the Silver Bow was once a Maia spirit of Orome the Huntsman. However, Telperion, the last flower of the silver Tree of Valar, was placed in a silver vessel to beome the Moon. Tilion was chosen as its guiding spirit. Ever since the first rising of the Moon, he was laboured each night to carry the silver vessel and flower though the heavens.

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In the first ages of Arda there was a large island in the middle of the Great Sea of Belegaer that Ulmo the Valarian, Lord of the Oceans uprooted and made into a floating island that served him as a vast ship. This was the Ship of Ulmo that transported the Vanyar and Noldor Elves of the Great Journey from Middle-earth to the Undying Lands. However a part of the island ran aground just off Beleriand and broke off to become the Isle of Balar. Once the Vanyar and Noldor were safely delivered and Ulmo's island returned to Beleriand to transport the Teleri Elves. However, many years later the Teleri had come to love the sea so greatly that Osse the Maiar spirit, who is Master of the Waves, persuaded Ulmo not to complete the crossing, but to anchor the isle in the Bay of Eldamar. Although within sight of the Undying Lands and their brethren the Eldamar, the Teleri Elves were seperated from their brethren and during this time the island was given its name, Tol Eressea, the 'Lonely Island'.

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In Beleriand during the First Age of the Sun, there was a green island on the northern reach of the Sirion River that controlled the Pass of Sirion. This was called Tol Sirion, and was where the Noldor Prince Finrod built the fortress of Minas Tirith to guard the pass against the forces of Morgoth.

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Maia master of Old Forest. Tom Bombadil was the Hobbit name for the powerful and eccentric master of the Old Forest. Called Iarwain Benadar, which means both 'old' and 'without father', by the Elves, he was probably a Maia spirit that came to Middle-earth in the Ages of Starlight. By Dwarves he was called Forn, while Men knew him as Orald. He was a very strange and merry spirit. He was a short, stout Man with blue eyes, a red face and a brown beard. He wore a blue coat, a tall battered hat with a blue feather, and yellow boots. Always singing or speaking in rhymes, he seemed a nonsensical being, yet within the Old Forest his power was absolute, and no evil was strong enough to touch him. His spouse was Goldberry the River-daughter. Tom Bombadil played a role in the Quest of the Ring by twice rescuing the Hobbits who carried the Ring: first from Old Man Willow in the Old Forest, and later from the Barrow Wights in the Barrow Downs.

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During the Wars of Beleriand there came forth in the service of Morgoth, the Dark Enemy, a race of Man-eating Giants of great strength. Elves named these creatures Torogs, from which Men later invented the name Trolls. The lore of Middle-earth was filled with tales of this evil but stupid race of Giants who often beset the unwary traveller.

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Ent of Fangorn Forest. Treebeard which is 'Fangorn' in Elvish, was the guardian of the Fangorn Forest. He was an Ent, a fourteen foot tall giant 'tree shepherd' who resembled something between an evergreen tree and a man. He had a rough and sturdy trunk, a thatch beard and branch-like arms, with smooth seven-fingered hands. At the time of the War of the Ring he was the oldest of his race.

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From the seeds devised by Yavanna, Queen of the Earth, there grew in the Ages of the Lamps the trees of the Great Forests of Arda. Many of these trees were the same as trees we now know, although taller in those days and of greater girth. There were trees of oak, alder, rowan, fir, beech (which was known as Neldoreth), birch (called brethil), and holly (which was called Region). There were others which have now vanished from the World: the red-gold Culumba of Ithilien and the golden Mallorn, the tallest tree of Middle-earth, which stood in Lothlorien.

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In the Pits of Angband, Melkor bred a race of giant cannibals who were fierce and strong but without intelligence. These black-blooded giants were called Trolls and for five Ages of Starlight and four Ages of the Sun they committed deeds as evil as their dull wits allowed.

Melkor bred the Trolls because he desired a race as powerful as the giant Ents, the Tree-herds. Though not as strong as Ents, for they could crush stone, Trolls were rock hard and powerful. Yet in the sorcery of their making there was a fatal flaw: they feared light. They were created in darkness and if light did fall on them it was as if the spell was broken and they returned to stone from whence they came.

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In Eriador, during the last thousand years of the Third Age, the forest that stood just north of the Great East Road and east of the Elf-kingdom of Rivendell was called the Trollshaws. It had once been a civilized part of Arnor, and the ruins of Dunedain castles were there, but since the wars with the Witch-king of Angmar the forest had become the domain of Trolls who loved nothing better than feasting upon unwary travellers. The Trollshaws was the home of the three trolls; Bert, Tom and William Huggins, who were turned into stone by Gandalf during the Quest of Erebor.

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Vala called 'the Wrestler'. Tulkas was the Hercules of the Valar. Last of the Ainur to enter Arda, he came to fight Melkor in the First War. Even-tempered and slow to anger, Tulkas loved testing his strength against others. Sometimes called Tulkas the Strong, and Tulkas Astaldo, meaning 'valiant', his wife was Nessa the Dancer.

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Edain of Dor-lomin. Tuor was born in 473 in the First Age of the Sun, just before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, in which his father Huor was slain and his uncle Hurin, was captured. Tuor was raised by Sindar Elves in the caves of Androth. He married the Elven princess Idril. The couple had a single child, Earendil.

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Elven king of Gondolin. Born during the Ages of Stars in Eldamar, Turgon was the second son of Fingolfin of the Noldor. Turgon was among the Noldor who pursued Morgoth and the Silmarils to Middle-earth. In Beleriand, Turgon claimed Nevrast as his realm. In the year 51 of the First Age of the Sun, Ulmo the Vala showed Turgon the hidden valley of Tumladen within the Encircling Mountains. There he built a city of white stone and called it Gondolin.

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Edain of Dor-lomin and Dragon Slayer. Turin was born in 465 of the First Age, the son of Hurin and Morwen. After the disaster of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears in 473, Turin was sent to be raised by the Grey Elf king Thingol in Doriath. In 486 he adopted the name Nethian and went into exile. After capturing the Petty-dwarf Mim, he and his outlaw band made the caves beneath Amon Rudh the centre of their operations. During this time, he was called Gorthol Dragon-helm. From 488 to 496, Turin lived in Nargothrond and was called Mormegil the Black Sword. After fighting in the disastrous Battle of Tumhalad, Turin returned to Nargothrond where Glaurung the Dragon bound him with a spell and an evil curse. For the next three years, calling himself Turambar (master of doom), he lived among the Haladin, and in 500 married the maid, Niniel. In 501, Glaurung entered Brethil and Turin ambushed and slew him. Before dying Glaurung revealed to Turin that his wife Niniel was, in fact, his long lost sister, Nienor. Realising that he had married his own sister, Turing killed himself.

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In the lore of the Hobbits there is the tale of a great Turtle-fish that is called the Fastitocalon. Whether the tale grew from the sighing of a leviathan upon the sea or was the product of Hobbit fancy cannot now be discovered, for no other race upon Arda ever makes mention of this mighty creature.

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