The Middle-earth 1200 - The Hall of Fire (2025)

...or the Arda 1200, to be more precise; 1200 characters, over 1200 days, over 1200 points (for character #1)!

Tolkien’s legendarium has a total of 1179 indexed characters, as I’ve discovered, carefully extracting each separate and independent character (in all his/her/its forms) from all writings, entering them in a spreadsheet, and sorting them according to the total space each takes up in 35 prominent sources: the indices in 22 books (LotR, Sil, UT, HoMe, Letters, Carpenter, Garth, Drout, Rateliff, Kane), entries in 6 compendiums (Foster, Tyler, Drout, Day, EoArda, Wiki) and 5 name-lists (CoHurin, LofElros, FofGond, QuenyaLex, GnomishLex) as well 2 lists of lesser influence (votes in a favourite-character web composite & answers in a Hall of Fire thread which prompted this exercise).

In other words, attempting to answer the question ‘what characters are most important to the Story of Arda?’ I think they fall in line quite nicely, and I intend to count them down over time, all the way to #1!

I begin this on April 12, as that’s when the Great Years began according to the Tale of Years, in 1418 SR, and plan to wrap this up on the date corresponding to when the Ring-bearers sailed, ending the Third Age. A long time, yes, but we’re in a lull, lucky if first Hobbit movie is released in this time, and message-boards are awfully quiet - so, something to keep people’s (okay, my) interest maintained.

(The list of course will largely cover obscure names for a long time. If you wish to catch all of the Lords of Gondolin you can hold off till mid-Sept to peek-in and follow to the end; or all of the children of Samwise, wait until November and follow to the summer of 2012, though I’m sure you’d want to continue to see where their father ranks. Winter, through to early spring of next year, will introduce the Stewards of Gondor, Chieftains of the Dúnedain, Lords of the Edain, and Kings of Arnor, Númenor and Rohan in turn. The summer will begin to introduce the Kings of Gondor as well as all of the White Trees, yes, named trees are entities in Arda, as of course are Ents. Fall of 2011 will introduce the Istari; Christmas-time should begin the companions of Thorin Oakenshield; summer of 2012 will introduce the Valar, the children of Húrin, and the sons of Fëanor, in turn; 2013 will see the Aratar, the Kings of the Noldor, and the Elf Ambassadors emerge; and in the spring, the Ring-bearers and the members of the Fellowship will begin to fall in line.)

Finally, although there are many animals, some of the smallest kind (yes, the Thrush and the Fox), and a few inanimate objects, bearing some form of sentience; no Rings, not even the One, are on the list. And although the One’s sentience is entirely attributable to Sauron, Ring references, thus points, were not added to his total.

So, without further adieu, let’s begin with 10 of the 21 unindexed characters, chosen by me, which garnered no points, but will get us started on as many races and species as possible. Feel free to point out any mistakes, and do chime in when your namesake appears! But please no quips about Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope also beginning on April 12, 30 years ago, and how that turned out!

#1200: Gollum’s grandmother
I begin, appropriately, with a character from The Hobbit. In ‘Riddles in the Dark’ we learned that Gollum lived “with his grandmother in a hole in a bank by a river”. Then in LotR we learned that she, wise and stern, ruled a wealthy family on the Anduin; and after Gollum’s descent, she, “desiring peace, expelled him from the family and turned him out of her hole”. Probably more influential in the scheme of things than #1200, but that’s what the lack of a recorded name will do for an elder hobbit lady, the 1st of 271 halflings on the list, and the 1st of 3 Anduin Stoors – the other 2 being much closer to #1.

#1199: Great Grey Wolf, chieftain of the Wargs of the Edge of the Wild
Another Hobbit character, this wolf stands out as the leader who spoke “in the dreadful language of the Wargs”, which Gandalf understood, and to whom his wolves in the glade circle answered in unison. It was he, of course, who delivered Thorin’s party from the frying-pan into the fire; but when Gandalf set an especially large pine-cone alight and whizzed it, he hit the chief on the nose, leaping him 10 feet in the air, causing him to bite the other wolves. He is the 1st of 11 canines on the list, and the 1st of 4 wolves.

#1198: Halfast of Overhill's Northfarthing Elm-tree Ent
Only legendary, possibly, but just wait till the turtle-fish appears later. They’re all fictional, so I don’t discriminate. And a perfect debut for the 24 trees that appear.

#1197: the Purse of William Huggins
“’Ere, ‘oo are you?” it squeaked when Bilbo thought he’d pick the pocket of the giant who will rank highest on this list. “Mischief” is how Trolls’ pursues are described in the text. What more can be said of this unique character, that will be classified as a ‘textile-entity’ with the occupation of ‘handbag’, and the first of 7 inanimate objects?

#1196: Chieftain of the Lossoth
About time a man appeared, as nearly half will be – 532 in total. This one appears of course in the LotR appendices, where he is given the Ring of Barahir by Arvedui before he perishes in the Bay of Forochel; and keeps the Ring for his people, to be ransomed later. He is the only Snowman to appear, but the 1st of 2 Forodwaith.

#1195: Ox of the Kine of Araw, provider of the Stewards’ Great Horn
The first of 7 oxen to appear... just kidding, the only one of course, but I couldn’t resist its inclusion. Killed by Vorondil the Hunter, Steward from 1998 to 2029 of the 3rd Age, this animal plays a significant, however indirect, role in LotR.

#1194: Orc-chieftain of Moria
It was he, not the Cave-troll, who nearly slew Frodo with a spear-thrust that “would have skewered a wild boar”, despite Jackson’s movie. Clad from head to foot in black mail, he was “almost man-high”, and bore a huge hide shield. He of course fell with a cloven head thanks to Aragorn, and is the 1st of 26 orcs on the list.

#1193: Black horse of the Mouth of Sauron
If horse it was, indeed, “huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame”. Lacking a known name, unlike the other 23 horses to appear, adding this LotR creature to the list was a no-brainer.

#1192: Cold-drake of Ered Mithrin
Specifically the great one that slew Dain I at the doors of his hall in 2589 of the 3rd Age, driving out Durin’s Folk. The 1st of 2 cold-drakes on the list and 1st of 5 dragons, and another no-brainer.

#1191: Marh-? lord of the Eotheod
In ‘Cirion and Eorl (1) The Northmen and the Wainriders’ we’re given the ultimate forebears of the Rohirrim: Forthwini son of Marhwini son of Marhari (the latter dying in 1856 of the 3rd Age). But this writing abruptly breaks off, at which time the leader of these Northmen, “whose name is indecipherable after the first element Marh-“, came to the rescue of Faramir son of King Ondoher in 1944 TA. Though not said, the timeline is such that he could be the son, or grandson, of Forthwini. He is the 1st of 59 Eotheod making the list, and with half a name, he has more identity than others in this initial 10.

Next week, the other 11 of my inclusions...