Eldamar
Also calledElvenhome, The Bay of Eldamar, Elendë
Eldamar, Elvenhome, was the coast of Aman east of the Pelóri where the light of the Trees fell through the Calacirya, and the bay before it in which Tol Eressëa was anchored. Tirion of the Noldor and Alqualondë of the Teleri stood on its shore, and it was the home of the Eldar in the Blessed Realm.
Description
Elvenhome
Eldamar was the strip of coast and the great bay on the eastern side of Aman, between the northern wastes of Araman and the southern shadows of Avathar, where the Pelóri were cut by the Calacirya. Here the Eldar were settled when they came out of Middle-earth, not inside Valinor with the Valar but on the threshold of it, in a land lit by the Trees and yet open to the stars and the sea. In the mouth of the pass, on the hill of Túna, the Vanyar and Noldor built Tirion; to the north along the shore the Teleri built Alqualondë; and in the bay itself lay Tol Eressëa, the island on which the Elves had been ferried across the sea and which Ulmo rooted there at the Teleri's request. The Noldor, who loved the coast, scattered gems and pearls along its beaches in their generosity, and the shore of Elvenhome was said to glitter with them.
The bay was the meeting-place of the three kindreds and the doorway between Aman and the outer world. The swan-ships of the Teleri sailed on it under the light that fell through the pass, and the Noldor came down from Tirion to visit Alqualondë and the island. It was here that the strife of the Noldor first became bloodshed, at the Kinslaying in the haven, and here at the end of the First Age that Eärendil and Elwing came ashore after passing the Shadowy Seas, the first arrivals out of Middle-earth since the exile. After the War of Wrath most of the Eldar who returned from Beleriand lived in the bay on Eressëa rather than on the mainland, and when Aman was taken out of the world Eldamar went with it. The Elves of the Third Age sang of it as the land beyond the Sea to which they longed to return.
Geography
Eldamar lay on the eastern coast of Aman directly before the Calacirya, with Taniquetil overlooking it from the south-west. The coast ran north to Alqualondë and then into Araman; the Bay of Eldamar opened eastward with Tol Eressëa in it and, beyond the island after the Hiding of Valinor, the Enchanted Isles and the Shadowy Seas.
Places within3
- City
Alqualondë, the Haven of the Swans, was the harbour city of the Teleri on the coast of Eldamar north of the Calacirya, famous for its swan-shaped ships. In Y.T. 1495 the Noldor of Fëanor seized those ships by force and slew the Teleri who resisted, the Kinslaying that brought the Doom of Mandos upon the exiles.
- City
Tirion was the white city of the Noldor built on the hill of Túna in the Pass of Light, where its people could see both the Two Trees and the sea. It was the birthplace of Fëanor and his kin and the model for Gondolin; when most of the Noldor went into exile it remained under Finarfin, and Eärendil found its streets empty at the end of the First Age.
- Pass
The Calacirya was the deep pass the Valar cut through the Pelóri so that the light of the Two Trees could reach the shore of Eldamar and the Eldar could dwell within sight of both the Trees and the sea. Tirion stood in its mouth, and after the Flight of the Noldor it was the single guarded way into the Blessed Realm.
Associated figures
Visited
Lord of Arvernien
Eärendil
Half-elvenEärendil, son of Tuor and Idril of Gondolin and husband of Elwing, was the mariner who, bearing a Silmaril on his brow, crossed the Shadowy Seas that no ship had passed, stood before the Valar in Valinor, and won the aid of the West against Morgoth. He never came back to mortal shores: his ship Vingilot was raised into the sky, and the light of the jewel he carries is the Evening Star.
Arvernien and the Havens of Sirion; afterwards the heavensLady of the Havens of Sirion
Elwing
Half-elvenElwing, daughter of Dior and Nimloth and granddaughter of Beren and Lúthien, carried the Silmaril out of the ruin of Doriath and refused to yield it to the sons of Fëanor. When they sacked the Havens of Sirion she cast herself into the sea with the jewel and was borne up as a white bird to her husband Eärendil, with whom she reached Valinor. She chose the fate of the Elves and dwells on the shore of Aman.
Doriath, then the Havens of Sirion; afterwards a tower on the shores of Aman
Timeline
- Y.T. 1133
The Eldar arrive
The Vanyar and Noldor are brought across the sea on the island and settle on Túna in the Calacirya.
- Y.T. 1151
Tol Eressëa anchored in the bay
Ulmo roots the island in the Bay of Eldamar at the request of the Teleri, who remain on it for an age.
- Y.T. 1161
Alqualondë founded
The Teleri sail to the coast on their new ships and build the Haven of the Swans.
- Y.T. 1495
The Kinslaying
The Noldor seize the swan-ships at Alqualondë and Elves slay Elves for the first time.
- F.A. 542
Eärendil lands
Eärendil and Elwing come ashore in the Bay of Eldamar bearing the Silmaril.
- F.A. 590
The exiles return
After the War of Wrath the Eldar of Beleriand sail west and settle mostly on Tol Eressëa in the bay.
Sources
- The SilmarillionQuenta Silmarillion, chapters 5, 9, 24
- The Fellowship of the RingBook II, chapter 8, Galadriel's song of Eldamar
See also
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