Vinyamar

Turgon's first halls

Vinyamar, the New Dwelling, was raised by Turgon son of Fingolfin in the first years after the Noldor's return, when the sons of the High King took up separate lands. He chose the coast of Nevrast and built his halls on the seaward slopes of Mount Taras, the great headland that rose at the western edge of the land. The city looked out over the Great Sea, and Turgon's people, Noldor mingled with the Sindar of the shore, were the first of the exiles to settle within sound of the waves.

It was in Vinyamar that Ulmo sought out Turgon. The Lord of Waters came to him in dreams, and afterward in person, and led him to the hidden vale of Tumladen, where Turgon began the secret building of Gondolin. For more than a century Vinyamar remained his dwelling while the new city rose, and then he led his whole people away, and the halls beneath Taras were left to the wind. Before leaving, at Ulmo's command, Turgon set a sword, a hauberk, a helm and a shield in the hall against a coming messenger, and Ulmo prophesied that from Nevrast one would come by whom his warning would be delivered.

Tuor

That messenger was Tuor son of Huor. Escaping from the Easterlings of Hithlum, he came down the empty coast and found Vinyamar deserted, its doors open and its halls silent. He took up the arms in the great hall and went down to the shore, where Ulmo rose out of a storm and charged him to seek Gondolin and warn Turgon of its coming doom. The Elf Voronwë, sole survivor of a ship Turgon had sent west, was cast ashore beneath the city the same night and became Tuor's guide. Vinyamar is the earliest settled dwelling of the Noldor in Beleriand of which the name survives, and it sank with the coast at the end of the Age.