Council of the Wise · Seat 3

The Seat of Lore

Pengolodh of Gondolin

Pengolodh was a loremaster of Gondolin who lived through the fall of the hidden city and later dwelt on Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle. In Tolkien's own drafts he is the Elf who writes down the history of the Elvish languages. His Lhammas, the "Account of Tongues", traces how the speech of the Elves divided and changed, building on the older work of Rúmil. When the mariner Ælfwine asked him why tongues change at all, Pengolodh's answer became the Dangweth Pengoloð. The word Lhammas comes from the Elvish lam, "tongue". Lammath's own name sounds almost the same but comes from a different Elvish lam, meaning "echo": lamath, "echoing voices". This seat honours the keepers of the story behind the words: where each one came from, how it changed, and which sources it rests on. It guards the notes, sources and reasoning behind every lesson.

Sources: The History of Middle-earth vol. V, The Lost Road; vol. XII, The Peoples of Middle-earth.