B of Middle Earth
B of Middle Earth


B of Middle Earth

Person

Frodo Baggins - Last of the Ring-bearers

Heir of Bilbo Baggins, and hero of the Lord of the Rings. Renowned for bearing the One Ring to the land of Mordor, and bringing it to the Cracks of Doom.

Drogo Baggins - Frodo’s drowned father

Frodo Baggins' father; he drowned in a boating accident with his wife Primula while Frodo was still young.

Baldor - The doomed son of Brego

The prideful son of Brego and grandson of Eorl the Young. He tried the Paths of the Dead, though he had been told that the way was shut to him. His bones were found long years afterward by Aragorn and his company.

Banks Family - A common family of Hobbits

A common Hobbit family name, found not only in the Shire, but also in Bree.

Barahir - The eighth Ruling Steward of Gondor

Barahir's father was Hador, a famously long-lived Man who ruled Gondor as its Steward for no less than one hundred and seventeen years. According to the best sources we have, Barahir was born in the twelfth year of his father's rule, meaning that he succeeded Hador at the age of one hundred and five. Given Barahir's great age, it is not surprising that his rule, and that of his son Dior, were brief ones.

Bard I - The Bowman of Lake-town

A descendant of Girion the Lord of Dale, Bard slew the dragon Smaug and refounded Dale under the Lonely Mountain.

Barrow-wights - Evil spirits out of Angmar

Evil spirits sent to dwell in the Barrow-downs by the Witch-king of Angmar during his wars with the remnant of Arnor, and who remained there long after the realm of Angmar itself had vanished from the world.

Beechbone - An Ent lost in the Circle of Isengard

The name, at least according to Peregrin Took, of a notably tall and handsome Ent. He was caught in a burning spray sent up by Saruman from the beneath the Circle of Isengard, but his fiery end brought his fellow Ents to the peak of their destructive anger.

Beorn - The Skin-changer of the Vales of Anduin

The skin-changer who dwelt in the Vales of Anduin near the western eaves of Mirkwood, who could take the form of a Man or a huge black bear. He played a great part in the victory over the Goblins at the Battle of Five Armies.

Bergil - The son of Beregond of the Guard

The son of Beregond of Gondor. A boy at the time of the War of the Ring, he accompanied Pippin Took when he first arrived in the city of Minas Tirith.

Berúthiel - The Queen with the magical cats

The dark and mournful Queen to Tarannon Falastur, the twelfth King of Gondor. She owned ten marvellous and magical cats, that she set to spy on the doings of the people of Gondor. Her scheming was her undoing, though, since her husband set her adrift on the Great Sea, with only her cats for company. She sailed into the far south and was never heard of again, but she and her mysterious cats lived on in legend for millennia.

Bifur - One of Thorin’s companions on the Quest of Erebor

A descendant of the Dwarves of Moria, one of the companions of Bilbo Baggins and Thorin II Oakenshield on the Quest of Erebor.

Big Folk - The Hobbits’ name for Men

A name for the race of Men, given them by the Hobbits, who they in turn called the Little Folk. The term was especially used in Bree, where the two races lived side by side.

Big People - Men, according to the Hobbits

A name used by Hobbits to refer to Men. The term was used occasionally in the Shire, but was in most common use in Bree, were the two races mixed freely with each other.

Bill - Sam’s faithful pack pony

Sam Gamgee's pony, named for its original owner Bill Ferny, that travelled with the Company of the Ring through the leagues of Eriador to the West-gate of Moria.

Black Captain- See Witch King

Black One - See Sauron

Bob - A hand at the Prancing Pony

One of the servants of Barliman Butterbur at the inn of the Prancing Pony in Bree. He was apparently its stablehand; at least, every time he is mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, his duties seem to involve stabling of horses and ponies.

Boffin Family - An important Hobbit family from the Yale

A prominent family of the Shire, associated with the region of the Yale in the Eastfarthing. Important members include Berylla Boffin, who was an ancestor of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, and Folco Boffin, who helped Frodo in his move from Bag End.

Bofur - The brother of Bombur

A descendant of the Dwarves of Moria, one of the companions of Bilbo Baggins and Thorin II Oakenshield on the Quest of Erebor.

Bolger Family - An important family of the Shire

A Hobbit family of Fallohidish origin, associated with the village of Budgeford, on the Water in the Eastfarthing of the Shire. In common with the Brandybucks and the Tooks, the Bolgers had a penchant for heroic names, and so as well as Fredegar (the most important Bolger in Tolkien's work), we find such noble names as Fastolph, Gundabald and Odovacar.

Tom Bombadil - The Master

A mysterious and powerful being, called by the Elves Iarwain Ben-adar (Oldest and Fatherless), who dwelt in the valley of the Withywindle, east of the Shire.

Bombur - Most rotund of the followers of Thorin

A descendant of the Dwarves of Moria, famed for his girth, who accompanied Thorin II Oakenshield and Bilbo Baggins on the Quest of Erebor.

Meriadoc ‘Merry’ Brandybuck - Companion of the Ring and later Master of Buckland

Son of Saradoc Brandybuck, called 'The Magnificent', Merry accompanied Frodo on the Quest of Mount Doom. Captured with his friend Peregrin Took by Orcs, they were separated from the rest of the Company of the Ring, but eventually escaped to become the first mortals for many centuries to encounter the Ents of Fangorn Forest. Merry was present at the destruction of Isengard, and rode to the Battle of the Pelennor with the Rohirrim. There, his deeds won great renown, for with Éowyn of Rohan he defeated and slew the Lord of the Nazgûl.

Bregalad - The Ent known as Quickbeam

The 'hasty' Ent known to the Hobbits as 'Quickbeam', who befriended Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took during the Entmoot that preceded the Ents' attack on Isengard. Bregalad later played an important role in that attack himself.

Brockhouse Family - A Hobbit family of Bree

A populous family of the Bree-hobbits.

burarum - See also Orcs

Butterbur Family - The family that kept the Prancing Pony

An old family of Bree, that had kept the inn there, the Prancing Pony, for years beyond reckoning. The innkeeper at the time of the War of the Ring was Barliman Butterbur.


Places

Bag End - The great smial beneath Hobbiton Hill

A large and comfortable hobbit-hole, well-known as the home of Bilbo Baggins and his heir, Frodo. Its round green door opened into a large, well-appointed hobbit-hole that took up much of the Hill above Hobbiton. In the tradition of hobbit-holes, all the rooms at Bag End were on the same level, and there were many of these; '...bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes ([Bilbo] had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms...'2.

Bagshot Row - The row of smials beneath Bag End

The row of hobbit-holes that were delved into Hobbiton Hill beneath Bag End. They were destroyed in the War of the Ring, and replaced by a new row called, simply, New Row.

Barazinbar - The Dwarvish name for the Redhorn

The Dwarvish name for the cruel red-sided mountain known to the Elves as Caradhras and to Men as the Redhorn.

Black Pit - A name for Moria

A rare name for Moria, an alternative translation for the more usual 'Black Chasm'.

Black Stone - See also Erech

Blackroot Vale - See also Morthond

Brandy Hall -The seat of the Brandybuck family

The ancestral home of the Brandybuck family, a deeply-delved smial in Buck Hill, in the central regions of Buckland on the banks of the River Brandywine.

Bree-hill - The centrepoint of the Bree-land

The most prominent point in the Bree-land, on the slopes of which stood the villages of Bree itself (to the west) and Staddle (to the east).

Bree - An ancient township of Eriador

An ancient colony in Eriador shared by Hobbits and Men. Far older than the Shire, it was from Bree that the two Fallohides, Marcho and Blanco, set out to found that land.

Bridge of Khazad-dûm - The entranceway to the Second Hall

Part of the defences of ancient Khazad-dûm - a narrow bridge across a chasm within the eastern gates of the Dwarf-city. Most famous as the site of Gandalf's encounter with Durin's Bane during the Quest of Mount Doom.

Bridge of Mitheithel - See also

Bridge of Stonebows - The ancient name for the Brandywine Bridge

The name of the Brandywine Bridge used while it was still in the keeping of the kingdom of Arthedain.

Brown Lands - The ruined lands to the east of the Anduin

The blighted lands that lay on the eastern banks of the Anduin, between the Emyn Muil in the south and the borders of Rhovanion in the north

Buck Hill - The hill that held Brandy Hall

A hill overlooking the village of Bucklebury in Buckland, deeply burrowed with the smials that made up Brandy Hall, the ancestral home of the Brandybuck family.

Buckland - The Eastmarch of the Shire

Seven hundred and forty years after the founding of the Shire, Gorhendad Oldbuck crossed the River Brandywine from the Eastfarthing and started the building of Brandy Hall in Buck Hill, in a land hitherto unpopulated by hobbits. As Gorhendad's family grew, the Hall also expanded, and soon there was a flourishing community in the land between the River and the Old Forest. From that time, Buckland was ruled by the Brandybucks, as Gorhendad renamed his family, who were given the title 'Masters of Buckland'.

Bucklebury - A village on the banks of the Brandywine

The chief village of Buckland, lying in the shadow of Buck Hill, seat of the Master of Buckland, on the banks of the River Brandywine

Bundushathûr - The mountain the Elves called Fanuidhol

With Barazinbar and Zirakzigil, one of the three Mountains of Moria that rose above the ancient Dwarf-kingdom of Khazad-dûm in the heart of the Misty Mountains. The name also appears in the short form Shathûr, and refers to the mountain called Fanuidhol by the Elves and Cloudyhead by Men.

Burg - See

Things

Battle of Bywater - The last battle of the War of the Ring

The confrontation that took place between the Shire-hobbits and Sharkey's invading ruffians. Under the leadership of Peregrin Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Tolman Cotton, the hobbits succeeded in trapping Sharkey's Men between the high banks of the Bywater Road, and managed to defeat them.

Battle of Five Armies - The great battle before the gates of Erebor

"So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible. Upon one side were the Goblins and the wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves." - The Hobbit 17 The Clouds Burst

Since the ending of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, and the Dwarves' ultimate victory at the Battle of Nanduhirion, the orcs had nursed a hatred of that race. In the year III 2941, the year of Bilbo Baggin's journey to the Lonely Mountain, those events lay more than one hundred and forty years in the past. Travelling through the Misty Mountains, Bilbo, Thorin and their companions were captured by a colony of the orcs that infested those regions. With Gandalf's help they escaped, but not before killing several of their captors, including their leader the Great Goblin.

Battle of Greenfields - Bandobras Took’s defeat of invading Orcs

A battle fought in the Shire's Northfarthing in the year III 2747, the only battle to be fought within the borders of the Shire before the War of the Ring. An invading band of Orcs from Mount Gram were led into the Shire by their chief Golfimbul; they were defeated, and Golfimbul was slain, by Bandobras Took, otherwise known as 'Bullroarer'.

Battle of the Peak - Gandalf’s battle on the peak of the Silvertine

Gandalf's name for his climactic battle with the Balrog known as Durin's Bane, on the peak of the mountain called Celebdil, the Silvertine.

Black Hand - The hand that first wore the Ring

A term used by Gollum to describe Sauron's literal hand, but also used figuratively of his immense power.

Black Shadow - The blight of the Nazgûl

An evil blight inflicted by the Nazgûl, causing their victims to slip into a dark sleep and never recover.

Black Stone - See Stone of Erech





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