Password

[Pervinca Took]

There are the OARNI, (the water spirits), but I don't think they're giants.

Oh, and Nan's sword is called Glend.

[Huinesoron]

Not those. Oarni are... well, 'mermaids' in one translation, but for consistency with what we understand about Middle-earth, they're best thought of as proto-Maiar. Not to say they couldn't be fish-tailed women if they really wanted, but...

(I mean, they could probably be giants, too, if they really put their minds to it. But, again, but.)

So far as I can tell, this character isn't mentioned on either Tolkien Gateway or the Encyclopedia of Arda. He does have a Wikipedia article, though!

His name is actually a relatively common English word.

hS

[Pervinca Took]

I looked at all the second lines in the Lays of Beleriand, and all through the glossary at the back of that volume, and found nothing but the Oarni and the name of Nan's sword.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

I looked at all the second lines in the Lays of Beleriand, and all through the glossary at the back of that volume, and found nothing but the Oarni and the name of Nan's sword.

You don't need the second line, you need the second letter in the name. I think it's the seventh line of the fragment it's in.

hS

[Pervinca Took]

I know I need the 2nd letter, but you also said the clue hinted at the line number, and I could not see any number hint but 'second,' so thought it referred to both things.

Googling Glend to check I'd got the name of Nan's sword right, I found a link to a Downs thread on obscure characters. I think it mentions some giants:

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=18935

I might read it after rechecking the L.O.B.

[Pervinca Took]

Wade of the Helsings, wearyhearted, from a fragment of the Lay of Earendel.

How can we deduce that he was a giant, though? Unless it's on a later line ... don't have time to read on now.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

Wade of the Helsings, wearyhearted, from a fragment of the Lay of Earendel.

Bingo!

1. GILIM - I save a third of a dwarf for last; seek me at the meeting of man and Eru.
2. ULBANDI - Backwards we fall, the headless onion and I; are we an ogre or ent we?
3. WADE - Wearyhearted, I splash through the water with the Mariner, second in line.
4. NAN - But for my sword, you might think me an aged woman; I am not a number.
5. TARLANG - From paved road and shortened speech, I build and become white.
6. STONE GIANTS - We're tall and we rock! And some of us are more or less decent.

And thus ends what may well be the most obscure password to date. 'Wade of the Helsings, wearyhearted' is actually a deleted line from the Earendil poem; quite what he was doing there, Tolkien never said.

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

How can we deduce that he was a giant, though? Unless it's on a later line ... don't have time to read on now.

It's not in the poem; Wade is a primary-world mythological character, seen here. There are stones at Whitby said to be the grave of a sea-giant by that name, and the article for his son Wayland confirms that the Thidrekssaga describes Wade as a giant.

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

I know I need the 2nd letter, but you also said the clue hinted at the line number, and I could not see any number hint but 'second,' so thought it referred to both things.

Yeah, 'wearyhearted' was the line hint, as I think you got.

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

Googling Glend to check I'd got the name of Nan's sword right, I found a link to a Downs thread on obscure characters. I think it mentions some giants:

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=18935

I might read it after rechecking the L.O.B.

That is a fascinating thread. I think I may have to pester it back into life; I've already got a theory that 'the dirk of Nargil/the knife of the North in Nogrod smithied' looks like a reference to Angrist, and I love the world-cleaving falchion of lightning. ^_^

And so, over to you, Pervinca Took, and well-earned.

hS