1.1 See App. F, 54.

2.( There were thirty days in March (or Rethe) in the Shire calendar.

3.( It was probably Orkish in origin: sharku, 'old man'.

4.A few references are given to The Lord of the Rings by volume and page, and to The Hobbit by page.

5.In this edition the dates have been revised, and some errors emended: most of these were accidents occurring in the course of typing and marking,

6.Cf. I, 54; II, 54; III, 54: no likeness remained in Middle-earth of Laurelin the Golden.

7.I, 54; II, 54.

8.I, 54-54; II, 54.

9.Hobbit, 61; I, 54.

10.I, 54-54.

11.I, 54, 54,54; II, 54,54; III, 54,54

12.I, 39, 54.

13.See III, 54, 54.

14.I, 54.

15.II, 54; III, 54.

16.I, 54.

17.I, 54.

18.I, 54.

19.He was the fourth son of Isildur, born in Imladris. His brothers were slain in the Gladden Fields.

20.After Earendur the Kings no longer took names in High-elven form.

21.After Malvegil, the Kings at Fornost again claimed lordship over the whole Arnor, and took names with the prefix ar (a) in token of this.

22.See III, 54. The wild white kine that were still to be found near the Sea of Rhun were said in legend to be descended from the Kine of Araw, the huntsman of the Valar, who alone of the Valar came often to Middle-earth in the Elder Days. Orome is the High-elven form of his name (III, 54).

23.I, 54.

24.I, 54.

25.These are a strange, unfriendly people, remnant of the Forodwaith, Men of far-off days, accustomed to the bitter colds of the realm of Morgoth. Indeed those colds linger still in that region, though they lie hardly more than a hundred leagues north of the Shire. The Lossoth house in the snow, and it is said mat they can run on the ice with bones on their feet, and have carte without wheels. They live mostly, inaccessible to their enemies, on the great Cape of Forochel that shuts off to the north-west the immense bay of mat name; but they often camp on the south shores of the bay at the feet of the Mountains'.

26.'In this way the ring of the House of Isildur was saved; for it was afterwards ransomed by the Dunedain. It is said that it was none other than the ring which Felagund of Nargothrond gave to Barahir, and Beren recovered at great peril'.

27.'These were the Stones of Annuminas and Amon Sul. The only Stone left in the North was the one in the Tower on Emyn Beraid that looks towards the Gulf of Lune. That was guarded by the Elves, and though we never knew it, it remained there, until Cirdan put it aboard Elrond's ship when he left (I, 34, 54). But we are told that it was unlike the others and not in accord with them; it looked only to the Sea. Elendil set it there so that he could look back with "straight sight" and see Eressea in the vanished West; but the bent seas below covered Numenor for ever'.

28.The sceptre was the chief mark of royalty in Numenor, the King tells us; and that was also so in Arnor, whose kings wore no crown, but bore a single white gem, the Elendilmir, Star of Elendil, bound on their brows with a silver fillet'. (I, 54, III 54, 54, 54, 54). In speaking of a crown (I, 54, 54) Bilbo no doubt referred to Gondor; he seems to have become well acquainted with matters concerning Aragorn's line. 'The sceptre of Numenor is said to have perished with Ar-Pharazon. That of Annuminas was the silver rod of the Lords of Andunie, and is now perhaps the most ancient work of Men's hands preserved in Middle-earth. It was already more than five thousand years old when Elrond surrendered it to Aragorn (III, 54). The crown of Gondor was derived from the form of a Numenorean war-helm. In the beginning it was indeed a plain helm; and it is said to have been the one that Isildur wore in the Battle of Dagorlad (for the helm of Anarion was crushed by the stone-cast from Barad-dur that slew him). But in the days of Atanatar Alcarin this was replaced by the jewelled helm that was used in the crowning of Aragorn.'

29.I, 54

30.I, 10; III,54.

31.'The great cape and land-locked firth of Umbar had been Numenorean land since days of old; but it was a stronghold of the King's Men, who were afterwards called the Black Numenoreans, corrupted by Sauron, and who hated above all the followers of Elendil. After the fall of Sauron their race swiftly dwindled or became merged with the Men of Middle-earth, but they inherited without lessening their hatred of Gondor. Umbar, therefore, was only taken at great cost.

32.The River Running.

33.That law was made in Numenor (as we have learned from the King) when Tar-Aldarion, the sixth king, left only one child, a daughter. She became the first Ruling Queen, Tar-Ancalime. But the law was otherwise before her time. Tar-Elendil, the fourth king, was succeeded by his son Tar-Meneldur, though his daughter Silmarien was the elder. It was, however, from Silmarien that Elendil was descended'.

34.This name means "Ship of Long-foam'; for the isle was shaped like a great ship, with a high prow pointing north, against which the white foam of Anduin broke on sharp rocks.

35.'I gave Hope to the Dunedain, I have kept no hope for myself.'

36.I, 54

37.It flows into Isen from the west of Ered Nimrais.