Dagor Aglareb
the Glorious Battle; the founding of the Siege of Angband
The Battle
Dagor Aglareb — “the Glorious Battle” (the third great battle; the first after the union of the Noldor in the north) — was fought in the early days of the Sun, when Morgoth, testing the strength of the new-risen kingdoms, sent his hosts suddenly against the passes and the plains of Ard-galen. The Quenta: — the orc-host was destroyed, for — the free peoples of the age, in a rare full success, the armies of the Enemy were broken, and the great Siege of Angband began.
The Fruits of Victory
- The victory’s meaning: Because the battle was won, the Noldor and the Edain entered on the Long Peace — for nearly four centuries the North was checked, and the hidden realms grew: “the Siege of Angband” — the Elves “surrounded” the enemy’s fortress, and the land of Beleriand “was at peace” — the age of building: Gondolin, Nargothrond, the great courts.
- The watch: From the victory flowered the constant “watchments” of the north — the leaguer and the halt of the Enemy’s armies; and the famous vow — the watch; in this age of peace the great deeds of the following age were prepared.
Significance
The Glorious Battle is the hinge of the Noldor’s high tide — the moment of victory that bought the Long Peace, the years in which the greatest Elvish beauty of the First Age (Gondolin above all) was built, and against which the later disasters (the Bragollach) are measured as the breaking.