Echoriath
Also calledThe Encircling Mountains, The Mountains of Turgon
The Echoriath were the ring of mountains south of Ard-galen that enclosed the hidden vale of Tumladen and the city of Gondolin. The Eagles of Thorondor nested on their northern peaks and kept watch over the approaches.
Description
The ring of mountains
The Echoriath, the Encircling Mountains, were a great ring of peaks standing between the upper vale of Sirion on the west and the valley of Nan Dungortheb and the highlands of Dorthonion on the east, with the plain of Ard-galen to the north. Inside the ring lay the wide green vale of Tumladen, a former lake-bed with the hill of Amon Gwareth rising in its centre, and on that hill Turgon built Gondolin. The mountains were sheer and pathless, and from outside no one guessed that they held a valley at all.
The only way in was the Dry River, a gorge on the western side where a stream had once flowed out to Sirion, which led through the roots of the mountains to a tunnel and then to the Orfalch Echor, a ravine climbing to the vale. Turgon fortified this passage with seven gates of wood, stone, bronze, iron, silver, gold and steel, and it was watched by guards day and night. The northern peaks, the Crissaegrim, were the abode of Thorondor and the Eagles, who kept all spies of Morgoth from the mountains and were the true guardians of the secret. It was to the Crissaegrim that the Eagles brought the body of Fingolfin after his death at Angband, and on a cairn on those heights he was laid.
The Echoriath kept Gondolin hidden for more than three hundred years, through the Dagor Bragollach and the Nirnaeth. Húrin and Huor were carried over them by the Eagles as youths and back again. Tuor and Voronwë came through the Dry River and the gates. But Maeglin, taken while mining outside the ring, betrayed the position to Morgoth, and the army that destroyed the city came over the northern heights by ways that only the Eagles had watched. When Idril and Tuor led the survivors out by a secret tunnel, it was on a high pass of the Echoriath, the Cirith Thoronath, that Glorfindel fought and killed the Balrog that pursued them.
Associated figures
Buried in
High King of the Noldor
Fingolfin
NoldorFingolfin, eldest son of Finwë and Indis, was the first High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth, who led his people across the grinding ice of the Helcaraxë after Fëanor abandoned them. He held Hithlum through the long Siege of Angband and died in single combat with Morgoth at the gates of Angband, the most famous duel of the Elder Days.
HithlumLord of the House of the Golden Flower
Glorfindel
NoldorGlorfindel was lord of the House of the Golden Flower in Gondolin, golden-haired and reckoned among the mightiest of the Noldor of the Hidden City. He died killing a Balrog above the pass of Cirith Thoronath so that the refugees of Gondolin could escape, and by long tradition he is the same Glorfindel who returned to Middle-earth, routed the Witch-king at Fornost, carried Frodo to the Ford of Bruinen, and sat at the Council of Elrond.
Gondolin, later Rivendell
Visited
Lord of Dor-lómin
Húrin
House of HadorHúrin Thalion, lord of Dor-lómin, was the greatest warrior of the Edain. He held the Fen of Serech alone at the end of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, was taken alive to Morgoth, defied him and was cursed with his whole house, and sat bound on Thangorodrim for twenty-eight years watching the ruin of his children Túrin and Nienor.
Dor-lóminLord of the House of Hador
Tuor
House of HadorTuor son of Huor, born after his father's death at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, was raised by Grey-elves in Mithrim, enslaved by Easterlings, and chosen by Ulmo to carry his warning to the hidden city of Gondolin. There he married Turgon's daughter Idril, fathered Eärendil, and led the survivors out of the city's fall. At the end of his life he sailed into the West, and alone of Men he is said to have been numbered among the Elves.
Hithlum; Gondolin; the Havens of SirionLord of the House of the Mole
Maeglin
NoldorMaeglin was the son of Eöl the Dark Elf and Aredhel of the Noldor, born in the shadowed wood of Nan Elmoth and brought by his mother to Gondolin, where he rose to be the greatest of Turgon's counsellors. His unlawful desire for his cousin Idril soured into hatred; taken alive by Orcs, he bought his own life and the promise of Idril by telling Morgoth where the hidden city lay, and Tuor threw him from its walls when it burned.
Gondolin
Died in
Lord of the House of the Golden Flower
Glorfindel
NoldorGlorfindel was lord of the House of the Golden Flower in Gondolin, golden-haired and reckoned among the mightiest of the Noldor of the Hidden City. He died killing a Balrog above the pass of Cirith Thoronath so that the refugees of Gondolin could escape, and by long tradition he is the same Glorfindel who returned to Middle-earth, routed the Witch-king at Fornost, carried Frodo to the Ford of Bruinen, and sat at the Council of Elrond.
Gondolin, later Rivendell
Dwelt in
King of the Eagles of the Crissaegrim
Thorondor
Great EaglesKing of the Great Eagles of the First Age and the mightiest bird that ever flew, with wings that spanned thirty fathoms. Sent by Manwë to watch over the exiled Noldor, he rescued Maedhros from Thangorodrim, bore away the body of Fingolfin, guarded Gondolin, carried Beren and Lúthien from the gate of Angband, and led the eagles against the dragons in the War of Wrath.
Crissaegrim, in the Encircling Mountains
Ruled
Lord of the House of the Fountain
Ecthelion
NoldorEcthelion of the Fountain was lord of one of the twelve houses of Gondolin and the warden of its Great Gate, a captain famous for the beauty of his voice and the music of his people's flutes. When the Hidden City was stormed he held the square before the king's tower against the Balrogs, and there he and Gothmog their lord destroyed each other.
Gondolin
Peoples
Timeline
- F.A. 50
Turgon finds Tumladen
Guided by Ulmo, Turgon discovers the hidden vale within the Encircling Mountains.
- F.A. 456
Fingolfin's cairn
Thorondor lays the body of Fingolfin on a peak of the Echoriath north of Gondolin.
- F.A. 496
Tuor passes the Seven Gates
Tuor and Voronwë enter through the Dry River and are brought before Turgon.
- F.A. 510
Glorfindel and the Balrog
On the Cirith Thoronath the fugitives of Gondolin are saved when Glorfindel slays a Balrog and falls with it.
Sources
- The SilmarillionQuenta Silmarillion, chapters 15, 18, 23
- Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earthOf Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin
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