1. Maytime, more or less – but now tertiary in Gondor?
HALE (STILL): The magnificent one is constant. And hearty. Remains so at his final summons.
EVENDIM (LAKE): Flat and subdued? A waterside billet – temporary, but kingly.
4. Troubled? Yes, we hear she’s a convicted murderer.
OLD TOBY: The main hero of a botanical tome?
UNDERTOWERS: Here, beneath Orthanc and Cirith Ungol?
7. Flipping heck! Roheryn’s mate for a festival? Translate!
TOLMAN COTTON: Island chap – good material for a temporary mayor?
HOLDWINE: Keep the champagne and the claret! Rohan calls you once more!
ANDUIN: Alternative route to paradise for the final two. (Well, part of it. Arguably).
GOLDILOCKS: A bride fit for a future Thain?
12. Trumpet loses one note, to gain two more and reveal him.

You want a more 'poetic' word for a trumpet, G55.

Clarion instead? Lose the C, add E + D and get Eldarion?

1. Maytime, more or less – but now tertiary in Gondor?
HALE (STILL): The magnificent one is constant. And hearty. Remains so at his final summons.
EVENDIM (LAKE): Flat and subdued? A waterside billet – temporary, but kingly.
4. Troubled? Yes, we hear she’s a convicted murderer.
OLD TOBY: The main hero of a botanical tome?
UNDERTOWERS: Here, beneath Orthanc and Cirith Ungol?
7. Flipping heck! Roheryn’s mate for a festival? Translate!
TOLMAN COTTON: Island chap – good material for a temporary mayor?
HOLDWINE: Keep the champagne and the claret! Rohan calls you once more!
ANDUIN: Alternative route to paradise for the final two. (Well, part of it. Arguably).
GOLDILOCKS: A bride fit for a future Thain?
ELDARION: Trumpet loses one note, to gain two more and reveal him.

Precisely correct! :)

And 'clarion' features in loads of poems and prose, I am sure, but this is my favourite usage of it:

'Enough! the Resurrection,
A heart’s-clarion! Away grief’s gasping, | joyless days, dejection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. | Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; | world’s wildfire, leave but ash:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.'

From 'That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection' by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

You stole my series...

Password: The Fourth Age.

T: Maytime, more or less – but now tertiary in Gondor?
HALE (STILL): The magnificent one is constant. And hearty. Remains so at his final summons.
EVENDIM (LAKE): Flat and subdued? A waterside billet – temporary, but kingly.

F: Troubled? Yes, we hear she’s a convicted murderer.
OLD TOBY: The main hero of a botanical tome?
UNDERTOWERS: Here, beneath Orthanc and Cirith Ungol?
R: Flipping heck! Roheryn’s mate for a festival? Translate!
TOLMAN COTTON: Island chap – good material for a temporary mayor?
HOLDWINE: Keep the champagne and the claret! Rohan calls you once more!

ANDUIN: Alternative route to paradise for the final two. (Well, part of it. Arguably).
GOLDILOCKS: A bride fit for a future Thain?
ELDARION: Trumpet loses one note, to gain two more and reveal him.

You had your chance. ;)

I wanted to see if the 4th Age could be done.

Inspired partly by your 3 Ages and partly by a clue of Huey's which led to a hint about there being strictly 4 of something but most people think of there being 3. I can't remember the theme of that password offhand.

Aww the password was guessed. I wanted to see how long we could get all the right letters in without one of us admitting to clearly knowing the answer. :D

I am totally stumped on the last clues I must admit. The Maytime one feels like it should be a month or a date at least but I'm not good enough with the calendars to figure it out. And I've got nothing for F or R.

Two of the remaining clues refer to changes made in Gondor after the destruction of the Ring. One is a new holiday that is established. The other is a change to when the New Year begins.

The Shire, though, implemented neither of those changes. 'A prophet is never appreciated in his own country.' ;)

So if it was the tertiary month in Gondor, what month would it probably be in a Fourth Age Shire?

Regarding Old Toby: he lived in the Third Age, but the clue refers to a book in which he features, and that book was written in the Fourth Age.

Ok .... so could R be Ringday? And the month could be Thrimidge.

THRIMIDGE: Maytime, more or less – but now tertiary in Gondor?
HALE (STILL): The magnificent one is constant. And hearty. Remains so at his final summons.
EVENDIM (LAKE): Flat and subdued? A waterside billet – temporary, but kingly.

F: Troubled? Yes, we hear she’s a convicted murderer.
OLD TOBY: The main hero of a botanical tome?
UNDERTOWERS: Here, beneath Orthanc and Cirith Ungol?
RINGDAY (CORMARE): Flipping heck! Roheryn’s mate for a festival? Translate!
TOLMAN COTTON: Island chap – good material for a temporary mayor?
HOLDWINE: Keep the champagne and the claret! Rohan calls you once more!

ANDUIN: Alternative route to paradise for the final two. (Well, part of it. Arguably).
GOLDILOCKS: A bride fit for a future Thain?
ELDARION: Trumpet loses one note, to gain two more and reveal him.

Flipping heck = COR!
Roheryn's* mate is a MARE!
Translate it = RINGDAY.

And Arod's. And Asfaloth's. And probably Fatty Lumpkin's as well. I just chose Roheryn. ;) Are there any named mares in Tolkien's books?

One to go!

Oh! Cormare is great! I was thinking of actual names for the mate for Roheryn. So I'm trying to look up the names of the horses the Rangers brought, and then I'm trying to work out how Hasufel could fit because that would be a mate in terms of a pair of horses Aragorn rides. You can see why I wasn't getting anywhere!

F: Troubled? Yes, we hear she’s a convicted murderer.

The main cryptic element is what someone is or becomes *when* they're convicted for murder.

I've been percolating but got nowhere.

Prisoner? Imprisoned.

Troubled: flustered, fearful, frightened.

And the she is really throwing me off. At one point I was thinking Fastred because it could be that flustered 'we hear' sounds like Fastred but I can't see how that would connect with the rest of the clue.

Someone who's gone down for murder is serving such a long sentence that they're a ...

The 'someone' is very close to Fastred.

... a lifer?

If they're very close to Fastred I'd be guessing Elanor.

'Lifer' is correct.

Now, how about the sound of another word for yes, and a bit of troubling? ;)

I can't get the thing about yes, but working backwards - because I think the answer is Firiel - the troubling bit could be that they yell.

THRIMIDGE: Maytime, more or less – but now tertiary in Gondor?
HALE (STILL): The magnificent one is constant. And hearty. Remains so at his final summons.
EVENDIM (LAKE): Flat and subdued? A waterside billet – temporary, but kingly.

FIRIEL: Troubled? Yes, we hear she’s a convicted murderer.
OLD TOBY: The main hero of a botanical tome?
UNDERTOWERS: Here, beneath Orthanc and Cirith Ungol?
RINGDAY (CORMARE): Flipping heck! Roheryn’s mate for a festival? Translate!
TOLMAN COTTON: Island chap – good material for a temporary mayor?
HOLDWINE: Keep the champagne and the claret! Rohan calls you once more!

ANDUIN: Alternative route to paradise for the final two. (Well, part of it. Arguably).
GOLDILOCKS: A bride fit for a future Thain?
ELDARION: Trumpet loses one note, to gain two more and reveal him.

LIFER plus I (homophone of 'aye').

Mix it up to get FIRIEL. 'Troubled' is an anagram indicator.

Well done, everyone!

And over to Urwen!

If Urwen doesn't fancy taking this one, I've had a go at creating a password. I've never tried these kinds of clues before so I can't promise it will be any good, though. :D

Knew you'd catch the bug, Kath! :)

They can have it.

Thanks, Urwen! Didn't want to step on your toes. :)

Ok so here goes. And apologies for potentially misleading clues, clues that don't have a clear meaning etc.

1. Absence in brides met with initial resistance
2. Whiskerless traveller's joy at avoiding extremes of hosiery
3. Men grow out baffled at this louse's conversation
4. Throw after the idle
5. Unseen; hidden
6. Reduced title for foe
7. This lass railed around her reflector

I have been looking at the password for a couple days, and don't have anything resembling an answer. But to get the ball rolling:

1. Bride + absent B + R(esistance) = RIDER

So you're close but you need a different word for absence rather than using the word itself.

And please forgive where things like that aren't clear. I tried to read up on the conventions for making these clues but I definitely didn't get it all right!

V
 

I will have an uncertain stab at 2 since Traveller’s joy is also called Old man”s beard socks could be hosiery and their extremities would be s which leaves old man. So Sharkey or Saruman?

Hi Mith!! :D Long time no see.

Old man's beard is correct so if he's whiskerless ...

And you need to take the extremities off hosiery before trying to change it.

Ah is it Old man willow then ? Losing beardas discussed above. Actual hosiery without extremities is osier, a type of willow.

1. Absence in brides met with initial resistance
OLD MAN WILLOW: Whiskerless traveller's joy at avoiding extremes of hosiery
3. Men grow out baffled at this louse's conversation
4. Throw after the idle
5. Unseen; hidden
6. Reduced title for foe
7. This lass railed around her reflector

Old Man Willow it is, Mith!

So I am kinda stuck on this password, not because I haven't looked at it further but because I've tried for days and no luck with the clues. A hint, perhaps? :Merisu:

Sure! 3 and 7 both involve anagrams if that's any help?

I am stuck too, Kath, but I LOVE your osier/hosiery/Old Man Willow clue!

Could number 4 be something ending in -cast? Is there such a character, I wonder?

I, too, keep coming back to this and staring blankly at it. :) For #7, there is a Hobbit-lass who famously receives a mirror - Angelica Baggins - but since there don't seem to be any straight clues elsewhere in the riddle, I assume that's a dead end.

hS

Hang on. Could throw be FLING?

HALFLING? (No 'idle' element, though).

No but you're on the right lines with words for throw. So keep going and also think about alternatives for idle.

Mirror is halfway there. Who else has a mirror?

And G55 was almost there with this one. I was after a different word for absent that would add into it

7. Galadriel.

Gal + railed.

1. Absence in brides met with initial resistance
OLD MAN WILLOW: Whiskerless traveller's joy at avoiding extremes of hosiery
3. Men grow out baffled at this louse's conversation
4. Throw after the idle
5. Unseen; hidden
6. Reduced title for foe
GALADRIEL'S MIRROR: This lass railed around her reflector

Correct, Pervinca! :)

Is 6 just Sauron or Gorthaur without 'the Cruel' or 'the Great?'

Sorry, no. You've got the right villain in Sauron but what's another word for foe?

Enemy?