Arda Kompendium

Beleriand

the land of the First Age; the north-west lands of Middle-earth

placeregionbeleriandfirst agerealm

Name and Position

Beleriand — the land of the First Age, the north-western lands of Middle-earth between the Ered Luin (Blue Mountains) and the Great Sea, north of the coastlands of Doriath; its heart the country of the rivers (the Sirion and its kindred), its ruin the theatre of the whole history of the Silmarils. The name is associated with the great bay — the tradition: Beleriand — the land “of the Balar” — it comprised (north to south) the marches and the hidden realms: The realm-map in brief: Thangorodrim and Angband in the north-west; Hithlum and Dor-lómin; the pine-lands of Dorthonion; the great marches of the Noldor (Himring, Thargelion); the forests of Doriath; the hidden valleys (Gondolin, Nargothrond, Nevrast) and the coast of the Falas with the havens; and, east, the lands of Ossiriand and the Ered Luin.

The Age of Beleriand

  • The government: The land was under the distant haven-kingdom — its age is the age of the Leaguer, the Long Peace, and the great wars: the “Quenta Silmarillion” is, in effect, the history of Beleriand (and of the fugitives from Aman within it).
  • The main peoples: the Sindar (under Thingol at Doriath, Círdan at the Falas), the Noldor princes, the Green-elves (Ossiriand), and the houses of the Edain (Bëor, Haleth, Hador) who crossed the mountains and settled beside them. Above all Angband and its hosts kept the northern shadow.
  • The great battles: Dagor-nuin-Giliath, Dagor Aglareb, Dagor Bragollach, Nirnaeth Arnoediad — and at the last the War of Wrath, in which — the land was rent and drowned: the greater part sank beneath the Sea at the ending of the age, leaving only the eastern fringe (Ossiriand, later Lindon) that became the western shore of Middle-earth. The old lands “Beleriand and the North” survive only in song and in the straits of the last coasts.

Significance

Beleriand is the stage of the whole legendarium proper: the “land of the Silmarils”, of the hidden cities, of the great love and grief. Its drowning at the end of the First Age is the myth of the waters closing over the age — the “broken world” that the later ages sail across, remembering only the names.

Verknüpfte Seiten

Ered LuinDoriathGondolinNargothrondHithlumOssiriandAngbandThe War of WrathMiddle-earthConcordance — A to ZThe Petty-dwarvesNaharDagor BragollachDagor AglarebNirnaeth ArnoediadDagor-nuin-GiliathThe First BattleThe Exile of the NoldorThe Doom of MandosThe Long PeaceNan DungorthebThangorodrimEred GorgorothEred WethrinHimladVinyamarBelegostMithrimThe SirionNogrodThe Fens of SerechArd-galenTol GalenEred LóminNan-tathrenThe Ford of BrithiachNivrimDorthonionBalarDimbarTalath DirnenMount RerirEstoladSarn AthradHimringTol SirionLindonGrey AnnalsThe Annals of BeleriandThe Grey AnnalsQuenta 14 — Of Beleriand and its Realms
Werke: die Quellen sind seitenübergreifend die Bücher von J.R.R. und Christopher Tolkien (Silmarillion, Hobbit, Herr der Ringe, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-earth, Nature of Middle-earth u. a.) — eigene Zusammenfassung. Siehe die Concordance und den README der Quelle für die Einzelbelege.
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