Ered Luin
the Blue Mountains; the eastern wall of Beleriand
The Ered Luin
Name and Position
The Ered Luin — “the Blue Mountains” — is the great range that runs north-south along the eastern edge of Beleriand (in the later naming, proscribed to Lindon as the Ered Lindon): the blue peaks, the wall between Beleriand and the lands of the East, through which lie the passes (the later dwarves’ roads) and by which Ossiriand’s rivers pour down to the sea.
The Dwarf-mansions
- Nogrod and Belegost:
In the deep valleys of the Ered Luin the two great Dwarf-cities of the age were delved — Nogrod (“Dwarf-hollow”) and Belegost (“Mickleburg”) — the homes of the smiths who made the Nauglamír and the friends of Thingol; their mansions, survived into the later ages’ memory.
- The marches: The Blue Mountains also marked the border of the Green-elves’ land (Ossiriand) and the way by which Men (the Edain and the Easterlings) entered the West.
In the Tale
The mountains, in the wars, were the refuge of the eastern Dwarves and the boundary of the free lands; their passes (over which Beren and the wanderers went) are among the age’s geography. After the Drowning, the surviving east-fragment of Beleriand (Lindon) lay against the Blue Mountains, the Ered Luin remained the landmark of the later West.