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Gandalf is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's universe, Middle-earth. Along with Merlin, he is often considered the archetypal wizard in Western fiction.
The Old Norse name "Gandalfr" appears in the list of dwarves in the Völuspá of the Elder Edda; the name means "cane-elf". Tolkien took the name along with the dwarves' names when he wrote The Hobbit in the 1930s. He came to regret the creation of this "rabble of eddaic-named dwarves, [...] invented in an idle hour" (The Return of the Shadow:452), since it forced him to come up with an explanation of why Old Norse names should be used in Third Age Middle-earth. He solved the dilemma in 1942 by the explanation that Old Norse was a translation of the language of Dale. The figure of Gandalf has other influences from Germanic mythology, particularly Odin in his incarnation as "the Wanderer", an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff: Tolkien states that he thinks of Gandalf as an "Odinic wanderer" in a letter of 1946 (Letters no. 107).
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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) was the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings.
He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and Oxford University; he worked as reader in English language at Leeds from 1920 to 1925, as professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and of English Language and Literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was an eminently distinguished lexicographer and an expert in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse. He was a strongly committed Roman Catholic, and admitted in letters that his faith had a profound effect on his writings. He belonged to a literary discussion group called the Inklings, through which he enjoyed a close friendship with C. S. Lewis.
In addition to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's published fiction includes a number of posthumous books about the history of the imaginary world of Middle-earth, where his stories take place. The enduring popularity and influence of these works have established Tolkien as the father of the modern high fantasy genre. Tolkien's other published fiction includes adaptations of stories originally told to his children and not directly related to Middle-earth.
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The history of Arda, J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, is divided into three time periods, known as the Years of the Lamps, Years of the Trees and Years of the Sun. A separate, overlapping chronology divides the history into 'Ages of the Children of Iluvatar'. The first such Age began with the Awakening of the Elves during the Years of the Trees and continued for the first six centuries of the Years of the Sun. All the subsequent Ages took place during the Years of the Sun. Most Middle-earth stories take place in the first three Ages of the Children of Iluvatar.
Music of the Ainur Main article: Ainulindalë
The supreme deity of Tolkien's universe is called Eru Ilúvatar. In the beginning, Ilúvatar created spirits named the Ainur. Ilúvatar made divine music with them. Melkor, Tolkien's equivalent of Satan, who was then one of the Ainur, broke the harmony of the music, until Ilúvatar began a third theme which the Ainur could not comprehend since they were not the source of it. The essence of their song symbolized the history of the whole universe and the Children of Ilúvatar that were to dwell in it — the Men and the Elves.
Then Ilúvatar created Eä, the universe itself, and the Ainur formed within it Arda, the Earth, "globed within the void": the world together with the airs is set apart from Kuma, the "void" without. The first 15 of the Ainur that descended to Arda, and the most powerful ones, were called Valar, and the Ainur of lesser might that followed were called Maiar.
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In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Arda is the world in which all of the events occur, including the continents of Middle-earth and Aman. Arda was part of Eä, the universe of all which exists. Arda was created, together with the rest of Eä, through the Music of the Ainur for the Children of Ilúvatar (that is, Elves and Men).
Because the Sun, Moon, stars, and other objects orbited the planet in the cosmology of Middle-earth they were considered part of Arda, leading to Arda sometimes being called the 'Solar System' of Middle-earth. The term for the Earth itself, excluding these celestial bodies, was Ambar or Imbar.
See Middle-earth for the main article about Tolkien's fictional universe
Originally a flat world, the continents were surrounded by a mighty ocean (or perhaps by space), Ekkaia or the Encircling Sea, and separated by Belegaer, called the Great Sea. In the First Age, the area north and west of Middle-earth was occupied by the country of Beleriand, but this was destroyed during the War of Wrath.
In the Second Age, Númenor was raised in the Great Sea for the Edain. This island existed through most of the Second Age, but was destroyed as a result of the pride of the Númenórean people in defying the Ban of the Valar and sailing to Aman in the west.
After the destruction of Númenor, Arda was made round. Aman (The Undying Lands) was taken out of the world into an alien dimension, and could only be reached by the Elves, following the straight road that was granted to them. As Aman was taken away from Arda, new lands and continents were created.
South of Middle-earth was the Dark Land and east of it was the Land of the Sun.
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Balrogs are fictional demon-like creatures from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. A Balrog (Sindarin for "Demon of Might"; the Quenya form is Valarauko , Valarauco or Valaraukar) was a tall, menacing being in the shape of a Man, having control of both fire and shadow and with a fiery whip of many thongs. They induced great terror in friends and foes alike and could shroud themselves in darkness and shadow. The Fellowship of the Ring encountered a Balrog in the mines of Moria, in The Lord of the Rings (specifically, in Book II, the second half of The Fellowship of the Ring).
The Balrogs were originally Maiar, of the same order as Sauron and Gandalf, but they became seduced by Morgoth, who corrupted them to his service in the days of his splendour before the creation of Arda. During the First Age, they were among the most feared of Morgoth's forces. When his fortress of Utumno was destroyed by the Valar, they fled and lurked in the pits of Angband.
As Maiar, Balrogs would have had the natural ability to change their shape at will, and to move "unclad in the raiment of the world" meaning invisible and without form. As such, their appearance would change according to the will of the Balrog. However, it seems that Melkor, Sauron and their assorted Ainur servants all have lost the ability to change shape and to have become bound to one form permanently. Melkor became locked into the "tyrant of Utumno", gigantic and terrible, and he even seems unable to heal basic wounds, his hands and forehead remained burned by the Silmarils and his face and foot wounds never healed after the battle with Fingolfin. Sauron became trapped in the form of a gigantic burning man after the flooding of Númenor and even lost his finger when the Ring was cut from his hand. It is unknown whether this affected Balrogs in the same way, and whether Balrogs had the ability to change shape or not.
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The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy saga by British author J. R. R. Tolkien, his magnum opus and a sequel to his well-received earlier work, The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings was originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955. Three film adaptations have been made of the story told by the books: the first, by animator Ralph Bakshi was released in 1978 (as part one of what was intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story); the second, a 1980 television special; and the third, director Peter Jackson's epic film trilogy, released in three installments in 2001, 2002, and 2003 which starred Elijah Wood as the main character of Frodo.
For more information regarding the fictional universe in which the story takes place, including lists of characters and locations, see Middle-earth (the name Tolkien bestowed upon his world).
The titular character of the Lord of the Rings is the Dark Lord Sauron, ruler of the land of Mordor. The evil power of the work, Sauron created the One Ring to control nineteen other Rings of Power, and was thus the "Lord of the Rings." Sauron, in turn, was the servant of an earlier Dark Lord, Morgoth (Melkor), who is prominent in Tolkien's The Silmarillion, an earlier history of Middle-Earth.
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Sindarin is an artificial language (or conlang) developed by J. R. R. Tolkien. In Tolkien's mythos, it was the Elvish language most commonly spoken in Middle-earth in the Third Age. It was the language of the Sindar, those Teleri which had been left behind on the Great Journey of the Elves. It was derived from an earlier language called Common Telerin. When the Ñoldor came back to Middle-earth, they adopted the Sindarin language, although they believed their native Quenya more beautiful. Sindarin shared common roots with Quenya, and the two languages had many similar words. Sindarin was said to be more changeful than the older tongue, however, and there were a number of regional 'dialects' of the tongue. The Sindarin spoken in Doriath was said to be the highest and most noble form of the language.
Before the downfall, most of the Men of Númenor also spoke the language. Knowledge of it was kept in the Númenórean realm in exile Gondor, especially amongst the learned. Sindarin is the language referred to as the Elven-tongue in The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien originally imagined that the language which would become Sindarin was spoken by the Ñoldor (second clan of Elves). However, Tolkien later decided that it was the language of the Sindar. For this reason it is called Noldorin in the older material, such as the Etymologies. When Noldorin became Sindarin, it also adopted some features of the originally unrelated language Ilkorin. Tolkien based the sound and some of the grammar of his Noldorin/Sindarin on Welsh, and Sindarin displays of the consonant mutations that characterise the Celtic (especially Brythonic) languages. The language was also probably influenced to an extent by the Germanic languages, as Tolkien was a scholar of both Old English and Old Norse.
The written script alphabet of the Elven languages is typically Tengwar, although Cirth can also be used.
