Lake Mithrim

The lake

Lake Mithrim was the largest body of water in Hithlum, lying in the region of Mithrim beneath the western slopes of the Ered Wethrin. Streams from the mountains fed it, and its shores were the most sheltered and habitable part of the cold northern realm. The Sindar of Mithrim lived about it before the Noldor came.

In the first year of the Sun the lake was the scene of the uneasy reunion of the two houses of the Noldor. Fëanor's people had made their camp on its northern shore, and after his death and the capture of Maedhros they stayed there under his remaining sons. When Fingolfin's host, having crossed the Helcaraxë, came down into Hithlum with the first sunrise, they found the followers of Fëanor already there and would not share a camp with those who had burned the ships at Losgar. They settled instead on the southern shore, and the lake divided the two hosts, while the mists that Morgoth sent from Angband made the whole region dim.

Fingon set out alone from the southern shore on his journey to Thangorodrim to seek Maedhros, and it was to Mithrim that Thorondor bore the two back. Maedhros's healing and his surrender of the kingship to Fingolfin ended the division, and the northern camp was abandoned when the sons of Fëanor moved to the eastern marches. Thereafter the lake lay at the heart of Fingolfin's realm until the Easterlings took Hithlum after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.