Not Hini or anything like it. You're overthinking. Look at the theme and the previous clues, work with the straight clue.

I'm actually wondering at HOBBITS, since they were seen as myths by the Men of the southern realms, and are repeatedly referred to as children. But I can't make it fit the cryptic even slightly.

hS

Just to get it on this page:

You're on the right track. Reason you can't make it fit is because that's not the right word.

I was trying Pheriannath without success, but maybe HOLBYTLAN (which I had forgotten) has the elements required.

It has HALT.

And most of LOBBY.

Indeed so!

1. MEWLIP: Feline noise on half-mouth in slimy swamp.
2. ENYD: Hear they eat backwards, but they prefer drink.
3. OLIPHAUNT: Hangout after one cut off trampled tramper.
4. HOLBYTLA: Children stop in the entrance suddenly, confused.


Back over to you!

OK then.

1. Butterflies? Confused heroine finds direction twice, and she's radiant.
2. He appears to die, classically perturbed.
3. A troubled sound of pain gives him away.
4. Mutilate, seize ring, but lose an article? Such chaos! Is he really that violent, or just very powerful?
5. Find him in a rotating sauna.

3. ARGON, an anagram of groan?

Right method, wrong guy. Try a different synonym (and maybe slightly less intense pain).

NÁMO ("Moan"), then?

Correct.
 

1. Butterflies? Confused heroine finds direction twice, and she's radiant.
2. He appears to die, classically perturbed.
NAMO: A troubled sound of pain gives him away.
4. Mutilate, seize ring, but lose an article? Such chaos! Is he really that violent, or just very powerful?
5. Find him in a rotating sauna.

Ok, poorly reasoned guess that 5 is SAURON, based on the fact that you can find all the letters in the last two words of the clue.

Not Sauron. You need a synonym.

Pssst ... as I wouldn't want those in the UK to be at an unfair advantage, you might want to Google 'Butterflies' ....

ARIEN -radiant being Sun Maia and anagram of Ria with initials of North and East. Ria was heroine of the wonderful Seventies tragi-comedy series Butterflies the theme song of which I now have as an earworm

It's Mithalwen! :)

ARIEN: Butterflies? Confused heroine finds direction twice, and she's radiant.
2. He appears to die, classically perturbed.
NAMO: A troubled sound of pain gives him away.
4. Mutilate, seize ring, but lose an article? Such chaos! Is he really that violent, or just very powerful?
5. Find him in a rotating sauna.

Indeed so. Late 70's and early 80's British sitcom starring Wendy Craig as Ria, the heroine, and Geoffrey Palmer as her husband. I looked it up and I think it ran from 1978 to 1982.

(I have the earworm, too).

Regarding the earworm, apparently the theme tune was originally a Dolly Parton song.

I'm really bad with anagrams... :-/

A bad guess for #4: if you mutilate 'grab band', you get 'ANGBAND', which is the home of someone both violent and powerful.

... wait, hang on. Is the password AINUR?

And if so, is #2 IRMO, as an anagram of the Latin word mori, which I'm pretty sure is related to death?

... right, so #4 starts with MAUL, claims an O, loses the A, and is then scrambled to make ULMO.

hS

ARIEN: Butterflies? Confused heroine finds direction twice, and she's radiant.
IRMO: He appears to die, classically perturbed.
NAMO: A troubled sound of pain gives him away.
ULMO: Mutilate, seize ring, but lose an article? Such chaos! Is he really that violent, or just very powerful?
R: Find him in a rotating sauna.

Yes. 'Classically' to indicate the Latin, and 'mori' I believe literally means 'to die' in 'pro patria mori.' Well done!

I'm rather fond of clue 5. :)

... ROMESTAMO is an anagram of 'steam room', isn't it? :D

I was pretty sure there were only two Ainur with R- names (the other being Radagast), but I couldn't find the clue in either of them until now. I'm properly impressed you spotted that! (And bonus points for using the Blue Wizards, of course.)

hS

ARIEN: Butterflies? Confused heroine finds direction twice, and she's radiant.
IRMO: He appears to die, classically perturbed.
NAMO: A troubled sound of pain gives him away.
ULMO: Mutilate, seize ring, but lose an article? Such chaos! Is he really that violent, or just very powerful?
ROMESTAMO: Find him in a rotating sauna.

I did think of using Ungoliant for the U clue, but I think I read somewhere that she might not have been an Ainu/Maia.

Well done all, and especially Huinesoron! Over to you. :)

I think Ungoliant was one of those features Tolkien never really integrated into the later conception of Middle-earth: she was first written as a primordial nature spirit, but didn't make the transition to Maiadom well.

Anyway!

1. - The darkness a pig had within.
2. - How can it be both bald and straight of hair? A nigh-insurmountable problem.
3. - You speak not truth, in truth! An elvish insult cut short.
4. - Binding the triple element within.
5. - The slave tumbles, black-winged but doubly deprived.
6. - ... or old women, it falls.

Enjoy!

hS

4. - Binding the triple element within.
 

Might this relate to the Release from Bondage (Lay of LEITHIAN)?

Three elements plus in, perhaps? Ti, H, Al?

No -- but some of those thoughts are along the right track. :)

hS

Maybe the theme is linguistic elements and the binding clue is linked to 'krimpatul' from 'Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.'

Some of those thoughts are also on the right track. :D

('Some' should probably not be assumed to be plural here, though it could be; it means 'one or more'.)

hS

6. Possible connection to sharku or Sharkey = old man?

That thought, however, is not. :(

hS

4. ANGAINOR?

Na + Ag + In (within) + O. There's a spare R, but ....

I'm afraid not.

'Element' is singular.

hS

Burzum for the darkness clue. The sound of 'boar' for the pig. :D

Clever, but no.

hS

Well, 5 seems to indicate Nazgul, deprived of ring and then of life. But the wings would seem to refer to its steed (the fell beast).

Actually, that looks to me if it might be saying something like "take synonym for 'slave' (or name of a slave), anagrammize and remove letters to get a 'black-winged' creature". (Raven? Fell beast? Ancalagon? Thuringwethil? The famous Gundabad Warbats?) Or it could mean to do that in reverse.

Snaga means slave. There might be a way to get to Ancalagon ... losing 2 letters isn't a problem ... but there's a lot to add.

No correct answers have been said. Nerwen is sort of poking in the right dorection, though.

hS

"No correct answers"- does that include the suggestions I put in parenthesis?

I'm afraid so. I might have missed one, but I don't think anyone has said a word which answers any of the clues yet.

hS

'Binding the triple' ... I can't think of a triumvirate, but I wonder if this could refer to the binding of three kindreds in blood in a child of mixed union. I think Dior is the first of these, but Elrond and even Eldarion (just) qualify.

Whether we're looking for a whole element name or just its symbol, I do not know.

That clue is getting me fixated on Antananarivo, the only word I can think of to contain three of the same element scrambled and then some.

Whole elements tend to be long, and don't do well tripled. Unless it's not the element that is repeated thrice - but what then, "the" ? Thethethe. No one speaks with so many H's.

Tripling is easier with single letter elements. There are a bunch of words that contain three Ns, for instance, but they don't make sense with the rest of the clue.

The only other thing I had up my sleeve for 'binding' was HITHLAIN. It has Al and most of within, but ....