Beleriand: Difference between revisions

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium, Beleriand was a region in northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his work The Silmarillion, which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales of Nordic literature. Beleriand also appears in the works The Book of Lost Tales, The Children of Húrin, and in the epic poems of The Lays of Beleriand.

Fictional history

The history of Beleriand encompasses much of the action of The Silmarillion. The land is occupied by Teleri Elves of King Thingol from the east, who found the city of Menegroth in the forest realm of Doriath. Other Elves, the Vanyar and Noldor, cross the Belegaer sea to Valinor. The Noldor of Kings Finrod of the realm of Nargothrond and Turgon of Gondolin return, resented by the Teleri. Later, Men arrive from the east, fleeing from an encounter with the satanic Vala Morgoth. Morgoth gathers a great army of Orcs, Balrogs and other monsters in his fortress of Angband beneath the Thangorodrim mountains in the north of Beleriand, and attacks the Elves repeatedly. Despite the threat, Thingol refuses to fight alongside the Noldor. One by one, the realms of Doriath, Nargothrond, and Gondolin all fall to assaults, assisted by betrayals and disputes among Elves, Men, and Dwarves.^[2] Finally, the Valar of Valinor ask the creator, Eru Ilúvatar, to stop Morgoth. Ilúvatar ends the War of Wrath and the First Age of Middle-earth by destroying Angband and banishing Morgoth. Beleriand's inhabitants flee, and much of Beleriand sinks into the sea. Only a small section of the eastern edge of Beleriand survive, including part of the Ered Luin (Blue Mountain) range and the land of Lindon, on the far northwestern shore of Middle-earth.

Fictional geography

Arvernien is the southernmost region of Beleriand, bordered on the east by the Mouths of Sirion.^{[T 2]}

Doriath is the realm of the Sindar, the Grey Elves of King Thingol.^{[T 3][T 4]}

The Falas was the realm of Círdan the Shipwright and his Sindar Elves in the years of Starlight and the First Age of Sun. They lived in two havens, Eglarest at the mouth of the River Nenning, and Brithombar at the mouth of the River Brithon. The Havens were besieged during the First Battle of Beleriand. When the Havens were destroyed, Círdan's people fled to the Mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar.^{[T 5]}

Gondolin was a hidden city of Elves in the north of Beleriand, founded by Turgon, and hidden from Morgoth by mountains.^{[T 6]}

Hithlum ("Mist-shadow") is the region north of Beleriand near the icy Helcaraxë. It contains Mithrim, where the High Kings of the Noldor had their halls, and Dor-lómin, later a fief of Men of the House of Hador. Hithlum was cold and rainy, but fertile.^{[T 3]}

A great fortress was built on the hill of Himring in northeast Beleriand. It was the chief stronghold of Maedhros, from which he guarded the northeastern border region, the March of Maedhros.^{[T 3]} It was the only fortress to survive the Dagor Bragollach; the forces of Angband captured it in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.^{[T 7]} After the Drowning of Beleriand , the peak of Himringremained above the waves as an island.^{[T 8]}

Nargothrond ("Underground fortress on the river Narog") was built by Finrod Felagund, delved into the banks of the river Narog in Beleriand.^{[T 9]}

Nevrast ("Hither Shore", as opposed to Aman) is a coastal region in the north of Beleriand; its city was Vinyamar.^{[T 3]} It was the centre of Turgon's Elven kingdom until people left for Gondolin.^[3]

Ossiriand ("Land of Seven Rivers") was the most easterly region of Beleriand during the First Age, between the Ered Luin and the river Gelion. It was a green and forested land.^{[T 3]}

Dor Daedeloth ("Land of the Shadow of Dread") far to the north, lay around Morgoth's fortress of Angband under the peaks of Thangorodrim, and the Ered Engrin, the Iron Mountains.^{[T 3]}

Analysis

Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in Tolkien's work The Silmarillion, which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales of Nordic literature.^[5] Beleriand also appears in the works The Book of Lost Tales,^[6] The Children of Húrin,^[7] and in the epic poems of The Lays of Beleriand.

Beleriand had many different names in Tolkien's early writings, including Broceliand, the name of an enchanted forest in medieval romance,^[4] Golodhinand, Noldórinan ("valley of the Noldor"), Geleriand, Bladorinand, Belaurien, Arsiriand, Lassiriand, and Ossiriand (later used as a name for the easternmost part of Beleriand).^{[T 10]}

One of Beleriand's early names was Ingolondë, a play on "England", part of Tolkien's long-held but ultimately unsuccessful aim to create what Shippey calls "a mighty patron for his country, a foundation-myth more far-reaching than Hengest and Horsa, one to which he could graft his own stories."^[8] Tolkien's aim had been to root his mythology for England in the scraps of names and myths that had survived, and to situate it in a land in the northwest of the continent, by the sea.^[8]

Shippey writes that the human race seen in Beleriand in the First Age, as told in The Silmarillion, did not "originate 'on stage' in Beleriand, but drifts into it, already sundered in speech, from the East [the main part of Middle-earth]. There something terrible has happened to them of which they will not speak: 'A darkness lies behind us... and we have turned our backs upon it'".^[9] Shippey comments that the reader is free to assume that the Satanic Morgoth has carried out the Biblical serpent's temptation of Adam and Eve, and that "the incoming Edain and Easterlings are all descendants of Adam flying from Eden and subject to the curse of Babel."^[9]

References

Primary

This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.

Secondary

Bibliography

• Garth, John (2020). Tolkien's Worlds: The Places that Inspired the Writer's Imagination. London: White Lion Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7112-4127-5. OCLC 1181910875.
• Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth (Third ed.). HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0261102750.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a). The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 9552942.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Silmarillion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1986). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Shaping of Middle-earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-42501-5.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1994). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The War of the Jewels. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-71041-3.

External links

• Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-earth (3rd edition) by Michael Martinez
• Maps Of Middle-earth by Douglas Eckhart