Eregion
Hollin; the realm of the Elven-smiths
Name and Position
Eregion — “Hollin” (the land of the hollies, in Men’s tongues) — was the realm of the Elven-smiths in the Second Age, west of the Misty Mountains between the river and the West-gate of Moria (Khazad-dûm): a fair land of holly and stone, delved, with the friendship of the Dwarves’ mansions at its door. It was the home and workshop of Celebrimbor and his folk.
The Making of the Rings
In Eregion, under the deception of Sauron (in fair form among the smiths), Celebrimbor’s house forged the Rings of Power; the Seven and the Nine were “set in Mordor” — and the Three (Narya, Nenya, Vilya) were made in secret by Celebrimbor, hidden from the Dark.
- Galadriel and Celeborn dwelt there at first (per Unfinished Tales) before the shadow’s work estranged them.
The War and the Ruin
When Sauron, having forged the One, revealed his design, the war came on: Eregion was destroyed, Celebrimbor slain and the Ring-lore’s fruits carried to Mordor — and the realm passed from the world (its remnant Hollin, “the abandoned land”, remembered in later tales).
Significance
Eregion is the “workshop of the Rings” — the Second Age’s Forge where the mythology’s central object of power was made and its making’s price paid; its ruin (with Celebrimbor’s death) is the hinge that ties the Ring-lore to the whole later story.