Dagor Bragollach
the Battle of Sudden Flame; the breaking of the Siege
The Battle
Dagor Bragollach — “the Battle of Sudden Flame” — is the disaster that broke the Long Peace and the Siege of Angband: in the year 455 of the Sun, after ages of false security, fire burst from Thangorodrim — “the great eruption” — and Glaurung, “the first and greatest of the dragons”, came forth; rivers of flame ran down the plains, the passes were taken in a night, and the armies of the North were engulfed. — the Quenta:
The Devastation
- The collapse: The armies and realms of the Noldor were overwhelmed — the sons of Finarfin fell (Angrod and Aegnor in Dorthonion); the vale fell — the plain of Ard-galen was burned to desert (Anfauglith, “the Gasping Dust”); the marches fell; the hidden realms (Gondolin, Nargothrond) were cut off and alone survived in isolation.
- The outlaws: In the ruin of Dorthonion, Barahir and his men held the moors for a time, the seed of the tale of Beren.
- The king’s gesture: In the aftermath, Fingolfin, in grief and fury, rode alone to the gates of Angband and challenged Morgoth — the duel that crippled the Dark Lord and cost the High King his life — the war’s most famous single deed, told on its own page (see Fingolfin).
Consequences
The age turned irretrievably: the Noldor’s power was broken; the “hidden” realms alone endured; the militant hope of the Long Peace gave way to the long campaigns of attrition (leading to the Nirnaeth) — and the Doom began at last to bite fully.
Significance
The Bragollach is the falling of the “high noon” — the sudden destruction of the seemingly eternal peace by the Enemy’s hidden flame; with the Nirnaeth it forms the second half of the age’s tragedy, and it is the physical breaking that makes the later narratives (Túrin, Tuor, Beren) possible.