Dor-lómin
the land of shadows; the home of the House of Hador
Name and Position
Dor-lómin — “the land of shadows” — the southern part of Hithlum, given by the High Kings to the great House of Hador: the most famous home of the Third House of the Edain. It was a land of hills and hollows, “the fairest of the countries of the north” — with its deep dells and its watch-towers, home of Húrin, Morwen and their children.
The House of Hador
Under Hador
(and Galdor) the land was held as the shield of the Noldor’s north-west; it bred the finest of the Edain’s warriors, “the Men of the North” — Húrin’s and Huor’s land.
- The children’s home: the story of Morwen, Túrin, Lalaith and Nienor in Dor-lómin’s halls (and of the woodsman Sador) — the Narn’s opening scenes; the “great house” the — Húrin’s manor and Morwen’s dignity.
The Fall
When the Nirnaeth was lost, the Easterlings to whom Morgoth gave the north seized Dor-lómin, and the remnant of the House of Hador were “enslaved or fled”: Morwen’s long proud endurance under their lordship, Túrin’s sending, and the tale’s wanderings all flow from this loss — Dor-lómin passes into the power of the Swarthy Men (the folk of the house of Ulfang). In the ruin of the age (the War of Wrath), the land of shadows, with all the north, drowned beneath the sea.
Significance
Dor-lómin is the intimate, beloved “home” of the tragedy — the hearth of the Children of Húrin, whose loss sets the doom in train; the emblem of the good life of Men of the Edain, choked by the shadow — the starting-place of the mythology’s most sorrowful tale.