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By Root 6776 0

said in his original foreword to The Lord of the Rings, to provide ‘an index of names and strange words with some explanations’; but it soon became clear that such a work would be too long and costly, easily a short volume unto itself. (Tolkien’s manuscript list of place-names informed his son Christopher’s indexes in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, and is referred to also in the present authors’ The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion.)

Readers have long complained that the original index is too brief and fragmented for serious use. In the present work citations are given more comprehensively for names of persons, places, and things, and unusual (invented) words, mentioned or alluded to in the text (i.e. excluding the maps); and there is a single main sequence of entries, now preceded by a list of poems and songs by first line and a list of poems and phrases in languages other than English (Common Speech). Nonetheless, although this new index is greatly enlarged compared with its predecessor, some constraints on its length were necessary so that it might fit comfortably after the Appendices. Thus it has not been possible to index separately or to cross-reference every variation of every name in The Lord of the Rings (of which there are thousands), and we have had to be particularly selective when indexing Appendices D through F, concentrating on those names or terms that feature in the main text, and when subdividing entries by aspect.

Primary entry elements have been chosen usually according to predominance in The Lord of the Rings, but sometimes based on familiarity or ease of reference: thus (for instance) predominant Nazgûl rather than Ringwraiths or even less frequent Black Riders, and predominant and familiar Treebeard rather than Fangorn, with cross-references from (as they seem to us) the most important alternate terms. Names of bays, bridges, fords, gates, towers, vales, etc. including ‘Bay’, ‘Bridge’, etc. are entered usually under the principal element, e.g. Belfalas, Bay of rather than Bay of Belfalas. Names of battles and mountains are entered directly, e.g. Battle of Bywater, Mount Doom. With one exception (Rose Cotton), married female hobbits are indexed under the husband’s surname, with selective cross-references from maiden names.

I. Poems and Songs

A Elbereth Gilthoniel 238

A Elbereth Gilthoniel (another poem) 729

A! Elbereth Gilthoniel! 1028

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen! 377–8

Alive without breath 621

All that is gold does not glitter 170, 247

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! 838

Arise now, arise, Riders of Théoden! 517

Cold be hand and heart and bone 141

Cold hard lands, The 620

Eärendil was a mariner 233–6

Elven-maid there was of old, An 339–41

Ents the earthborn, old as mountains 586

Ere iron was found or was hewn 544

Faithful servant yet master’s bane 845

Farewell we call to hearth and hall! 106

From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning 803

Get out, you old Wight! Vanish in the sunlight! 142

Gil-galad was an Elven-king 185

Gondor! Gondor, between the Mountains and the Sea! 423

Grey as a mouse 646

Hey! Come derry dol! Hop along, my hearties! 122

Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! My darling! 119

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! 119

Hey! now! Come hoy now! Whither do you wander? 144

Ho! Ho! Ho! to the bottle I go 90

Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo! 134, 142

Hop along, my little friends, up the Withywindle! 121

I had an errand there: gathering waterlilies 126

I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew 372–3

I sit beside the fire and think 278–9

In Dwimordene, in Lórien 514

In the willow-meads of Tasarinan I walked in the Spring 469

In western lands beneath the Sun 908–9

Learn now the lore of Living Creatures! 464

Leaves were long, the grass was green, The 191–3

Legolas Greenleaf long under tree 503

Long live the Halflings! Praise them with great praise! 953

Mourn not overmuch! Mighty was the fallen 843

Now let the song begin! Let us sing together 122

O Orofarnë, Lassemista, Carnimírië! 483–4

O slender as a willow-wand!