Nogrod

The Hollowbold

Nogrod was one of the two great mansions of the Dwarves in the Blue Mountains, delved on the eastern side of the range south of Mount Dolmed; its sister city Belegost lay to the north of the mountain. The Dwarves called it Tumunzahar, and the Elves' name Nogrod, like the English Hollowbold, described a stronghold dug out of the rock. From it the Dwarf-road climbed the pass beneath Dolmed and ran down through Ossiriand to the ford of Sarn Athrad and on toward Doriath. The Dwarves of Nogrod were above all smiths. Telchar, the most renowned of all the Dwarf-smiths of the Elder Days, worked there, and from his forge came the knife Angrist that Beren used to cut the Silmaril from Morgoth's crown, the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin and, by the tradition of the Dúnedain, the sword Narsil. The city was also a home of jewel-work, and its people were among those who had made the Nauglamír for Finrod in the days of Nargothrond. They were less friendly to Elves than the folk of Belegost, though they traded freely with Caranthir in Thargelion and Eöl of Nan Elmoth was a welcome guest among them.

The ruin of Doriath

Nogrod's fame ends in disaster. Thingol engaged its smiths to set the Silmaril in the Nauglamír, and when the work was finished they claimed the necklace as their own, quarrelled with the king in his treasury and slew him. The craftsmen were hunted down, but two escaped, and Nogrod, refusing the counsel of Belegost, sent an army over the mountains. With the Girdle of Melian gone they sacked Menegroth, slew Mablung and carried off the treasure. On the way home the host was ambushed at Sarn Athrad by Beren and the Green-elves; the lord of Nogrod died there cursing the treasure, and those who fled up the road were met beneath Mount Dolmed by the Shepherds of the Trees, so that none returned. Nogrod itself was broken in the War of Wrath, and its surviving people, with those of Belegost, went east to swell the numbers of Khazad-dûm.