Ossiriand
the land of the Seven Rivers; the realm of the Green-elves
Name and Position
Ossiriand — “the Land of the Seven Rivers” — the easternmost country of Beleriand, between the river Gelion and the feet of the Ered Luin: land of the seven streams (the tributaries of the Gelion: the Ascar, Thalos, Legolin, Brilthor, Duilwen, Adurant, and one more — “seven” by tradition) and of deep green woods. It was the home of the Green-elves (the Nandor/Laiquendi), who, caring little for lords.
The Realm of the Green-elves
- The singers of the woods: The Laiquendi, under Denethor (before his death), dwelt “in the depths of the woods”; their singing of the forest was their fame; they “loved the rivers and the woodslaughter of the world”
- The safeguard: Though nominally outside the marches of the Noldor, the green-elves’ land became (in the last years) a refuge of the wanderers; it is where Beren, in the earliest days, first wandered; and it outlasted the age.
The Survival
- The Drowning of Beleriand: When the War of Wrath drowned — the eastern part of Ossiriand (with the lands around the Gulf of Lhûn) survived the ruin and became the haven-coast called Lindon — the westernmost remnant of Middle-earth — where Círdan’s ships were harboured in the later ages.
Significance
Ossiriand is the quiet, green, untroubled limb of the legendarium — the land of rivers and song that neither enemy nor doom quite consumed, and the physical bridge by which a remnant of Beleriand lives on in the later world (Lindon).
Related
Werke: die Quellen sind seitenübergreifend die Bücher von J.R.R. und Christopher Tolkien (Silmarillion, Hobbit, Herr der Ringe, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-earth, Nature of Middle-earth u. a.) — eigene Zusammenfassung. Siehe die Concordance und den README der Quelle für die Einzelbelege.
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