came for him to depart was it known that he had long guarded the Red Ring of Fire. At the first that Ring had been entrusted to C?rdan, Lord of the Havens; but he had surrendered it to Mithrandir, for he knew whence he came and whither at last he would return.
'Take now this Ring,' he said; 'for thy labours and thy cares will be heavy, but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weariness. For this is the Ring of Fire, and herewith, maybe, thou shalt rekindle hearts to the valour of old in a world that grows chill. But as for me, my heart is with the Sea, and I will dwell by the grey shores, guarding the Havens until the last ship sails. Then I shall await thee.'
White was that ship and long was it a-building, and long it awaited the end of which C?rdan had spoken. But when all these things were done, and the Heir of Isildur had taken up the lordship of Men, and the dominion of the West had passed to him, then it was made plain that the power of the Three Rings also was ended, and to the Firstborn the world grew old and grey. In that time the last of the Noldor set sail from the Havens and left Middle-earth for ever. And latest of all the Keepers of the Three Rings rode to the Sea, and Master Elrond took there the ship that C?rdan had made ready. In the twilight of autumn it sailed out of Mithlond, until the seas of the Bent World fell away beneath it, and the winds of the round sky troubled it no more, and borne upon the high airs above the mists of the world it passed into the Ancient West, and an end was come for the Eldar of story and of song.
NOTE ON
PRONUNCIATION
The following note is intended simply to clarify a few main features in the pronunciation of names in the Elvish languages, and is by no means exhaustive. For full information on the subject see The Lord of the Rings Appendix E.
CONSONANTS
C always has the value of k, never of s; thus Celeborn is 'Keleborn' not 'Seleborn'. In a few cases, as Tulkas, Kement?ri a k has been used in the spelling in this book.
CH always has the value of ch in Scotch loch or German buch, never that of ch in English church. Examples are Carcharoth. Erchamion.
DH is always used to represent the sound of a voiced ('soft') th in English, that is the th in then, not the th in thin. Examples are Maedhros, Aredhel, Haudh-en-Arwen.
G always has the sound of English g in get; thus Region, Eregion are not pronounced like English region, and the first syllable of Ginglith is as in English begin not as in gin.
Consonants written twice are pronounced long; thus Yavanna has the long n heard in English unnamed, penknife, not the short n in unaimed, penny.
VOWELS
AI has the sound of English eye; thus the second syllable of Edain is like English dine, not Dane.
AU has the value of English ow in town; thus the first syllable of Aul? is like English owl, and the first syllable of Sauron is like English sour, not sore.
EI as in Teiglin has the sound of English grey.
IE should not be pronounced as in English piece, but with both the vowels i and e sounded, and run together; thus Ni-enna, not 'Neena'.
UI as in Uinen has the sound of English ruin.
AE as in Aegnor, Nirnaeth, and OE as in Noegyth, Loeg, are combinations of the individual vowels, a-e, o-e, but ae may be pronounced in the same way as ai, and oe as in English toy
EA and EO are not run together, but constitute two syllables; these combinations are written ea and eo (or, when they begin names, E? and Eo: E?rendil, E?nw?).
U in names like H?rin, T?rin, T?na should be pronounced oo; thus 'Toorin' not 'Tyoorin'.
ER, IR, UR before a consonant (as in Nerdanel, C?rdan, Gurthang) or at the end of a word (as in Ainur) should not be pronounced as in English fern, fir, fur, but as in English air, eer, oor.
E at the end of words is always pronounced as a distinct vowel, and in this position is written e. It is likewise always pronounced in the middle of words like Celeborn, Menegroth.
A circumflex accent in stressed monosyllables in Sindarin denotes the particularly long vowel heard in such words (thus H?n