Middle-earth Journeys

A thousand pardons for being tardy! Yes, you both have listed the two. Are you going to flip a coin for who goes next?

What say you Merry?

After you, my friend!

All right then...

Level 2

Where in Middle-earth did Men wake up?

I finally had to look this one up, Philipa--they awoke in some place called Hildorien "at the rising of the Sun". No idea where that is: like Sam, my mind has no place for maps.

Yup, I had to try and find it too...on the maps that is. You are correct Merry give us a good one.

Okay, then, I'll try!

Level 2: What is the real name of the one whom the Eldar call Sauron?

Merry wrote:
Level 2: What is the real name of the one whom the Eldar call Sauron?

I liked his real name it was Ainu. It's a pretty name for such an aweful being isn't it?

I'm not an expert here, but I don't think that's right, Philipa. Sauron was an Ainu (plural Ainur)--the little Index at the back of the Sil defines the Ainur as "the first beings created by Iluvatar, the 'order' of the Valar and Maiar, made before Ea." So maybe that's where the confusion is.

But Sauron's real name is something else, according to the Valaquenta. (hint!)

From The Valaquenta:

Among those of his [Melkor's/Morgoth's] servants that have names the greatest was that spirit whom the Eldar called Sauron, or Gorthaur the Cruel. In his beginning he was of the Maiar of Aule, and he remained mighty in the lore of that people. In all the deeds of Melkor the Morgoth upon Arda, in his vast works and in the deceits of his cunning, Sauron had a part, and was only less evil than his master in that for long he served another and not himself. But in after years he rose like a shadow of Morgoth and a ghost of his malice, and walked behind him on the same ruinous path down into the Void.

I should note that the names Sauron ("The Abhorred") and Gorthaur ("Terrible Dread") were given to him by the Eldar. I haven't been able to find any indication of Sauron's original name as an unfallen Maiar. Isn't that interesting? What was he called when he was still a "good guy," before Melkor seduced him into evil?

The Encyclopedia of Arda also lists the following names, all of which were names Sauron used during the Second Age when he came among the Noldor in disguise and tricked them into making the Three, the Seven, and the Nine:

Annatar "Lord of Gifts"
Artano "High Smith"
Aulendil "Devotee of Aule"

Oh, I think I read that wrongly, Lindariel. I doubt he was originated as 'Gorthaur the Cruel'! But that was the name I was looking for.

That first line is also interesting in that it indicates that some of the bad guys were so bad that they didn't have names. That had to be the epitome of evil for a thinker like Tolkien.

Your turn!

This is a level 1 question:

Provide the next line for the following section of a famous Tolkien poem:

Though all to ruin fell the world
and were dissolved and backward hurled
unmade into the old abyss,
yet were its making good, for this --
the dusk, the dawn, the earth, the sea --

that Lúthien for a time should be.

From the Silmarillion.

Correct! Your turn.

Another Level 1 question:

What is the emblem for the Eldar and where can it be found?

Bonus question: what is another name for it?