Beleriand

Overview

Beleriand was the westernmost country of Middle-earth in the Elder Days, a broad land of forests, rivers and highlands stretching from the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin) in the east to the shores of the Great Sea in the west, and from the northern fortress-realm of Morgoth down to the marshy delta where the river Sirion met the sea. Its name was said originally to have belonged only to the coastlands about the Mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar, but as the Elves spread inland the name came to cover the whole country between the mountains and the sea.

The land was defined above all by the river Sirion, which rose in the north beneath the Ered Wethrin and flowed south for the length of the country, dividing it into West Beleriand and East Beleriand. Across the north, beyond the plain of Ard-galen, lay the Iron Mountains and the gates of Angband, so that Beleriand was for all its history a frontier country under the constant shadow of an enemy who could never be entirely shut out.

Peoples

Beleriand was above all the home of the Sindar, the Grey-elves who stayed behind when their king Thingol was lost during the Great Journey and who afterwards gathered about him and Melian in Doriath. The Sindar spread throughout the land: some settled the coasts of the Falas under Círdan, some the highlands of Hithlum, and the Green-elves, the Laiquendi, came late over the mountains and settled Ossiriand in the far east. The Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost crossed the Blue Mountains to trade and to build, and the road they made became the chief highway of the eastern country.

At the beginning of the First Age the Noldor returned from Aman in pursuit of Morgoth and settled the north and west: Fingolfin and Fingon in Hithlum, the sons of Fëanor in the east under Maedhros, Finrod at Nargothrond, Turgon in the hidden city of Gondolin. Some three centuries later the first Men came over the mountains, the three houses of the Edain, who became allies and vassals of the Elven-kings and settled in Estolad, Dorthonion, Dor-lómin and the forest of Brethil.

Significance

Beleriand is the setting of nearly the whole of the Quenta Silmarillion after the return of the Noldor, and of the tales of Beren and Lúthien, the children of Húrin, and the fall of Gondolin. It was a land of great beauty and great sorrow, where the highest works of the Elves in Middle-earth were raised and where all of them were in the end overthrown. When the War of Wrath ended, the land itself was broken, and only a fragment of it, the country later called Lindon, remained above the sea.

The Sindar and the Sleep of Yavanna

Before the Sun and Moon, Beleriand was lit only by starlight. The Teleri who had lost their king during the Great Journey searched the land for him, and when Thingol emerged from his long enchantment in Nan Elmoth with Melian at his side, they acknowledged him as lord of all the Elves of Beleriand. Under Thingol's rule and Melian's guidance the Sindar grew in wisdom and craft, and with the help of the Dwarves they built Menegroth. The Dwarves also brought word of dark creatures multiplying in the east, and Thingol had weapons made for his people.

When Morgoth returned to Middle-earth with the Silmarils and rebuilt Angband, orcs poured into Beleriand. In the First Battle of Beleriand the Sindar and the Green-elves of Ossiriand were hard pressed; Denethor of the Laiquendi was slain on Amon Ereb, and Thingol drew his people within the borders of Doriath, which Melian fenced with a girdle of enchantment. The havens of the Falas were besieged.

The Return of the Noldor

The host of Fëanor landed at Losgar on the firth of Drengist and burned the stolen ships. The Noldor won the Dagor-nuin-Giliath, the Battle-under-Stars, but Fëanor was slain, and Maedhros was captured and hung from Thangorodrim. Then the Moon rose, and the Sun, and Fingolfin's host crossed the Helcaraxë and marched to the very gates of Angband. Fingon's rescue of Maedhros healed the feud between the two houses, and the Noldor settled the lands as described above. At the feast of Mereth Aderthad beside the pools of Ivrin the Elves of Beleriand swore friendship, and Sindarin became the common tongue.

In the Dagor Aglareb, the Glorious Battle, a sudden assault out of Angband was destroyed on the plain of Ard-galen, and the Noldor began the long Siege of Angband. For nearly four hundred years Beleriand knew peace and prosperity. Nargothrond and Gondolin were built in secret; the sons of Fëanor held the eastern marches from Himring; Glaurung first issued from Angband and was driven back.

The Coming of Men

Some three hundred years after the Noldor, Finrod came upon the first Men in Ossiriand, the people of Bëor. They and the later folk of Haleth and Marach were granted lands by the Elven-kings, and the alliance of Elves and Edain became the strength of Beleriand in the wars to come.

The Battles of Beleriand

The peace ended in the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame, when Morgoth sent rivers of fire over Ard-galen and turned it into the desert Anfauglith. Dorthonion was overrun, the pass of Sirion and the eastern marches were breached, and Fingolfin rode alone to Angband and died in single combat with Morgoth. In the years that followed, Beren came out of Dorthonion into Doriath, and he and Lúthien took a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown.

Maedhros then gathered a great league of Elves, Men and Dwarves, but the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, ended in catastrophe through the treachery of the Easterlings. Fingon fell, Húrin was captured, Hithlum was given to the Easterlings, and the free peoples were driven back into their hidden refuges. Morgoth's servants then found and destroyed them one by one: Nargothrond was sacked by Glaurung, Doriath fell to the Dwarves and then to the sons of Fëanor, and Gondolin was betrayed by Maeglin and burned. The survivors gathered at the Mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar, and from there Eärendil sailed into the West to plead for aid.

The War of Wrath and the Drowning

The Valar answered. The host of the West under Eönwë crossed the sea and fought Morgoth's armies for many years across the north; Thangorodrim was broken, Angband was unroofed and Morgoth was cast out through the Door of Night. But the violence of that war shattered the land. The sea flooded in over Beleriand, and all the country from the Blue Mountains westward was drowned save a few hills and coasts, which became Lindon and the islands off its shore. Those Elves who did not sail to the West gathered under Gil-galad in Lindon, and the surviving Edain were given the island of Númenor.

Boundaries

Beleriand was bounded in the east by the Blue Mountains, in the north by the Ered Wethrin, the highlands of Dorthonion and the hills of the March of Maedhros, and in the west and south by the sea. North of these northern uplands lay Ard-galen, and beyond it the Iron Mountains and Angband; in the strict sense these lands were not part of Beleriand, though they are usually reckoned with it.

West Beleriand

West of Sirion the land rose in the north-west into the mountain-walled country of Hithlum, with its lake Mithrim and the valley of Dor-lómin. South of the Ered Wethrin lay Nevrast, the coast where Turgon first dwelt, and further south the wooded lands between the rivers Narog and Sirion: Brethil north of the Crossings of Teiglin, the Guarded Plain of Talath Dirnen, and the caves of Nargothrond in the gorge of Narog. On the coast lay the Falas and its havens Brithombar and Eglarest. In the south the country softened into the Land of Willows, Nan-tathren, and the coastal Arvernien.

East Beleriand

East of Sirion the central land was dominated by Doriath, with its forests of Neldoreth and Region and the river Esgalduin. North of Doriath lay the dreadful valley of Nan Dungortheb beneath the Ered Gorgoroth, then the passes of Aglon and Maglor's Gap held by the sons of Fëanor. East of Doriath were Himlad, Estolad, Nan Elmoth, and the broad lands between Doriath and the river Gelion, with Thargelion north of them beneath the Blue Mountains. Beyond Gelion, between its six tributaries, lay Ossiriand, the Land of Seven Rivers.

Rivers

Sirion was the greatest river, fed by the Teiglin, Narog and Esgalduin, and passing through the Fens of Sirion and a great underground stretch before reaching the sea. Gelion, rising in the March of Maedhros, was longer but narrower; it took in the streams of Ossiriand and reached the sea far in the south-east. The Dwarf-road crossed Gelion at the ford of Sarn Athrad.