Nargothrond
the Caverns of the Narog; the cave-court of Finrod
Name and Position
Nargothrond — “the Caverns of the Narog” — is the underground realm of Finrod in the west of Beleriand, delved beside the great river Narog: — a city of halls and storerooms cut into the rock at the falls of the river, the most fashionably hidden of the Noldor’s First Age realms after Gondolin. It was his residence and court, “the fairest havens in the west of the land”.
The Kingdoms of the Cave
The realm was walled by the courses — the Narog’s valleys; its people the Noldor of Finarfin’s house, proud and fair; “the most hidden of the hiding places of the Noldor”.
- On Finrod’s death (Tol-in-Gaurhoth), his nephew Orodreth was king.
The Counsel and the Doom
- Túrin’s counsel: In the last years of the realm, the mortal Túrin (as Mormegil, the Black Sword) came to Nargothrond and counselled open war, the abandonment of secrecy, and the building of a great bridge over the Narog against the king’s wiser council — “the bridges of the still-hidden” — the counsel of despair.
- The dragon: When Glaurung came down the river, the fatal bridge made the crossing easy; the dragon’s host broke in, and Nargothrond was sacked and its people slain or enslaved, Orodreth dying at its gates; “and the Caverns… were taken… and the… dragon slept among the hoard”. Only the survivors’ wander in the tale of the Children of Húrin.
Significance
Nargothrond is the “second fortress” of the age — the hidden strength that pride (and the doom of the sword Túrin carried) unmade; its fall is bound to the Silmaril — no; it is bound to the curse of Húrin’s line and the foolish counsel by which Valour brought ruin — a parable native to the long defeat.