The third age: arnor and gondor

In the Third Age, when the civilization of the Dúnedain had advanced in technology as well as in level of sophistication, their heraldry had diverged from the Eldarin customs, maturing into a more stylized and elegant tradition. They often applied a single (usually white/silver) charge to a coloured background, approaching the heraldic customs of the middle ages. This tendency was perhaps inspired by the heraldry of the Twelve Houses of Gondolin, from which two of the ancestors of the Dúnedain had come. No samples of any of these devices have survived in their proper form, but there exist vivid oral descriptions, and many pictorial clues regarding their design. These clues are accounted for below.

T he emblem of Elendil and his heirs was seven five-pointed stars, each representing one of the palantíri that Elendil brought from Númenor. In Gondor they were set on a sable coat of arms, together with the White Tree, which represented any of the descendants of Nimloth that grew in Minas Ithil and, later, Minas Tirith. T o this device the Kings of the line of Elendil added the Silver Crown, which was the chief mark of royalty. In Arnor a single five-pointed star became used as a device, the Elendilmir, representing the Star of Earendil. In Gondor the device including the stars and the Silver Crown fell out of general use, until the time of Elessar and the Reunited Kingdom. [6] The crown of Gondor is depicted most clearly in letter 211 of Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. The tree here is based on the tree of a suggested dustjacked for The Return of the King made by Professor Tolkien.

E lendil himself is reported to have used his name, written in tengwar without vowel marks, as "a badge and a device upon his seals." This badge was found on his tomb on Amon Anwar. T he Stewards of Gondor never took any heraldic device of their own, and their banners were white with no charge. The Seal of the Stewards, used by Cirion to summon the Éothéod, reportedly showed the letters "R · ND · R" for arandur ("steward"), surmounted by three stars. [7]

T he city of Dol Amroth had the emblems of a white ship and a swan. These were sometimes combined in a device showing a white swanship on blue water [8]. A swanship is depicted by Professor Tolkien on his painting of Taniquetil, reproduced in Pictures By J.R.R. Tolkien, No 31. Dol Amroth was used as a port by the Elves of Lórien sailing west in their swanships during the Second and Third Age.

R ohan and The House of Eorl had a white horse on a green field as its emblem [9]. The reason for this is obvious. Most of the land of Rohan was covered by green plains, and the horses were the greatest assets of the Rohirrim. The horse depicted is likely one of the Mearas, the white horses of the Kings of Rohan. The Rohirrim weren't Edain, nor did they belong to either of the Realms in Exile, but by the end of the Third Age they occupied an area that had earlier belonged to Gondor [7], and the dealings between the two peoples were extensive.

Others

THE ISTARI

Both Gandalf and Saruman, the two most important Wizards in the westlands, used cirth (runes) as seals.

G andalf used both a G-tengwa and a G-certh as his seals, though he seems to have preferred the certh. It was the tengwa that the Hobbit-children identified when Gandalf arrived in Hobbiton, but both in Bree and on Weathertop he only used the certh. [12]

S aruman's soldiers had helmets decorated with an S-certh. T heir black shields also portrayed a small white hand in the middle. The white hand of Saruman appears in other places as well. The hand that is drawn here is based on a proposed dustjacket design for The Two Towers by Professor Tolkien. [13]