Person

Fairbairn Family - The hereditary Wardens of Westmarch

The family of the descendants of Samwise Gamgee, through his eldest daughter Elanor and her husband Fastred of Greenholm. Fastred became the first Warden of Westmarch, a title handed down to his son Elfstan Fairbairn and his descendants. The family seat was at Undertowers on the Tower Hills, so that the family are often referred to as the 'Fairbairns of the Towers'

Fair Elves - A name for the Vanyar

A name for the Vanyar, from the fair colour of their hair.

Fangorn - The Ent known as Treebeard

The Elvish rendering of the name 'Treebeard'; the old Ent who inhabited the great Forest at the southern feet of the Misty Mountains, and from whom that Forest took its name.

Faramir - Last of the Ruling Stewards, Lord of Emyn Arnen, Prince of Ithilien, Steward of Gondor

Younger son of Steward Denethor II of Gondor, and brother to Boromir of the Company of the Ring. He fought in the Battle of the Pelennor, and was rewarded after the installation of Aragorn II Elessar with the princedom of Ithilien.

Fastred - Lost heir of Folcwine of Rohan

With Folcred, one of the twin sons of Folcwine of Rohan. Upholding the Oath of Eorl, he rode to the aid of Gondor with his brother, and was lost. The brothers were buried together in a mound at the Crossings of Poros known as the Haudh in Gwanur.

Felaróf - The great horse of Eorl Eorl's father Léod was a tamer of horses among the Éothéod, who captured this wild white horse while it was still a foal. He tried to tame it himself, but when he attempted to mount it, it threw him and escaped. So Léod died, leaving a sixteen-year-old son, Eorl. Eorl hunted the white horse, found it, and demanded that it give up its freedom in payment for the death of his father. The horse agreed, and took the name that Eorl gave it: Felaróf, a name said to mean 'very valiant' or 'very strong'.

Fellowship of the Ring - The Nine Walkers

The nine who set out from Rivendell on the Quest of Mount Doom, under the leadership of Gandalf, seeking to destroy Sauron's One Ring.

Fengel - The grandfather of Théoden

The fifteenth King of Rohan, whose name means, simply, 'king'. He was the father of Thengel and grandfather of Théoden, but Fengel was himself remembered chiefly for his greed and love of gold.

Ferny Family - A family of the Men of Bree

A typically 'botanical' family name of the Men of Bree. At the time of the War of the Ring, it was held by the suspicious ruffian Bill Ferny, a minor agent of Saruman in the north.

Fimbrethil - Treebeard’s beloved Wandlimb

The Elvish name, translated as 'Wandlimb', for Treebeard's beloved Entwife. She was lost with other Entwives at the time Sauron blasted the regions known as the Brown Lands.

Findegil - A scribe of Gondor

King's Writer of Gondor, who lived in the early Fourth Age. He completed the copy of the Red Book of Westmarch which (within the context of the tales) is the basis for The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

Finglas - An ancient Ent of Fangorn Forest

'Leaflock'; with Fladrif and Fangorn, one of the oldest of the Ents of Fangorn Forest.

Firstborn - The Elder Children of Ilúvatar

A name for Elves, the Firstborn Children of Ilúvatar, who awoke in Middle-earth millennia before Men, the Aftercomers.

Fladrif - An ancient Ent of Fangorn Forest

'Skinbark'; with Finglas and Fangorn himself, one of the last three Ents to walk beneath the boughs of Fangorn Forest.

Flourdumpling - See Will Whitfoot

Folca - The hunter King of Rohan

The thirteenth King of Rohan, a great hunter who famously cleared his country of the scourge of the Orcs, in vengeance for the death of his father Walda at their hands. Having cleared Rohan of Orcs, he rode to hunt the monstrous Boar of Everholt, but suffered a mortal wound in that hunt. He was succeeded by his son Folcwine.

Forlong - The old Lord of Lossarnach

The Lord of the lands of Lossarnach, the region to the immediate southwest of Minas Tirith, who was famed for his enormous girth (he was referred to as Forlong the Fat). Though he was an old man at the time of the War of the Ring, he rode with two hundred of his men to the aid of the City of Gondor, and lost his life in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Forn - One of the many names of Tom Bombadil

The name used among the Dwarves for the being known to the Hobbits as Tom Bombadil.

Fréa - The fourth King of Rohan

The great-grandson of Eorl, who himself became the fourth of the Kings of Rohan. Fréa succeeded the long-lived Aldor, and was seventy-five years old when he came to the throne. His fourteen-year reign is recorded as one of peace and prosperity.

Fréawine - The little-known fifth Lord of the Mark, King of the Mark, King of Rohan, Lord of the Mark

The son of Fréa and grandson of Aldor the Old. On account of his grandfather's immensely long reign, Fréawine, like his father before him, became Rohan's King in his old age, when he was already more than sixty years old. Little is said of his twenty-one years as King, except that it was a time of peace and plenty in the Mark. Fréawine was succeeded by his son Goldwine.

Fredegar ‘Fatty’ Bolger - Loyal friend of Frodo Baggins

A friend of Frodo Baggins in the Shire, who assisted with his removal to Buckland, and impersonated him while he travelled eastward to evade suspicion.

Free Peoples - The peoples of Middle-earth not under the yoke of Sauron

A term used at the time of the War of the Ring to describe Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits, and those Men who had not fallen under the power of Sauron.

Fundin - The father of Balin

A Dwarf of the royal house of the Longbeards, the great-grandson of King Náin II. He fathered two sons, Balin and Dwalin, who would later travel to Erebor with Bilbo Baggins. Fundin was killed beneath the East-gate of Moria in the Battle of Azanulbizar.

Places

Fangorn Forest - Last home of the Ents in the West of Middle-earth

A last remnant of the great forests of Eriador, lying in the southern foothills of the Misty Mountains, in which the Ents still dwelt during the Third Age.



Fanuidhol - ‘Cloudyhead’

Called Cloudyhead, one of the three peaks in the Misty Mountains (with Caradhras and Celebdil) that lay above the ancient dwarf-city of Khazad-dûm.

Far Downs - The western borderland of the Shire

The downlands that marked the western borders of the Shire, forty leagues (120 miles) west from the Brandywine Bridge. Of their geography almost nothing is known, except that the town of Greenholm seems to have been built among the Downs. It was from here that Fastred of Greenholm came, the first Warden of the Westmarch that lay between the Far Downs and, still further westward, the Tower Hills.

Farthings - The four quarters of the Shire

The four divisions of the Shire, north, south, east and west. The term comes from an Old English word meaning 'quarter' or 'fourth part'.

Fen Hollen - The Closed Door

The Closed Door on the sixth level of Minas Tirith, which led to Rath Dínen, the Silent Street, where the tombs of the Stewards and Kings of Gondor lay.

The Fire - The flames of Orodruin

A common epithet for the flames of Orodruin, into which the One Ring was to be cast.

Ford of Bruinen - The crossing of the Loudwater

The ford of the River Bruinen or Loudwater that lay at the entrance to the valley of Rivendell, said to be under the power of Elrond.

Frogmorton - Home of The Floating Log

A village in the Eastfarthing of the Shire. It stood on the East Road, between the Three-farthing Stone (fourteen miles to the west) and the Brandywine Bridge (twenty-two miles to the east). Immediately to the north of the village, the stream known as the Water broke into two, creating a wide watery region - this feature seems to have given Frogmorton its name, which means 'frog marsh'.

Things

Fourth Age - The centuries after the Downfall of Barad-dûr

The last of the four ages chronicled by Tolkien, and the one about which least is known (including its length). The Fourth Age was held to have begun with the passing of the Ring-bearers over the sea from Mithlond on 29 September 3021 (Third Age), though in Gondor it was reckoned as beginning on 25 March of the same year (the second anniversary of the Downfall of Barad-dûr).





Back to the Encyclopedia of Middle Earth