| Beleriand | |
|---|---|
| J. R. R. Tolkien'slegendarium location | |
| In-universe information | |
| Type | large region |
| Locations | Arvernien, Doriath, Falas, Nargothrond, Nevrast, Ossiriand, Taur-im-Duinath |
| Position | northwesternMiddle-earth |
| Period | Start ofYears of the Trees to end ofFirst Age |
InJ. R. R. Tolkien's fictionallegendarium,Beleriand (Sindarin pronunciation:[bɛˈlɛ.ri.and]) was a region in northwesternMiddle-earth during theFirst Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his workThe Silmarillion: It tells the story of the early Ages of Middle-earth, in a style similar to that of the epics of Nordic literature—stories pervaded by a tone of impending doom. Beleriand also appears in the worksThe Book of Lost Tales,The Children of Húrin, andThe Lays of Beleriand.
In Tolkien's early writing, he coined many prospective names for the region. Among them wereBroceliand, the name of an enchanted forest in medieval romance, andIngolondë—a play on the nameEngland—when he hoped to roota mythology for England in the region. The scholarGergely Nagy looked at the prose of theSilmarillion and found what may be evidence of the structure and syntax of Beleriand's poetry.
Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in the second half of theQuenta Silmarillion,[T 1] which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales ofNorse mythology.[2] Beleriand also appears in the worksThe Book of Lost Tales,[3]The Children of Húrin,[4] and in the epic poems ofThe Lays of Beleriand.[T 2]
The land is occupied byTeleriElves of KingThingol from the east, who founded the city ofMenegroth in theforest realm of Doriath. Other Elves, theVanyar andNoldor, cross theBelegaer sea toValinor. Some of the Noldor return to Beleriand to retrieve theSilmarils from the evilValaMorgoth, but they are resented by the Teleri. Later,Men arrive from the east.[5] Morgoth gathers an army ofOrcs,Balrogs andother monsters in his fortress ofAngband beneath theThangorodrim mountains in the north of Beleriand, and attacks the Elves repeatedly. Despite the threat, Thingol refuses to fight alongside the Noldor. One by one, the realm of Doriath as well as the Noldor kingdoms Nargothrond and Gondolin fall to assaults, assisted by betrayals and disputes among Elves, Men, andDwarves.[6] Finally, Earendil crosses the Belegaer Sea to ask the Valar to stop Morgoth. They send an army to overcome Morgoth in theWar of Wrath. This ends theFirst Age of Middle-earth: Angband is destroyed, and Morgoth is banished to the void. Beleriand's inhabitants flee, and much of Beleriand sinks into the sea.[T 3] Only a small section of the eastern edge of Beleriand survives, including part of theEred Luin (Blue Mountain) range and the land ofLindon, which became part of the far northwestern shore of Middle-earth.[T 4]
Beleriand is a region in the far northwest ofMiddle-earth, bordering the great sea,Belegaer. It is bounded to the north by the Ered Engrin, the Iron Mountains, and to the east by the Ered Luin, the Blue Mountains.[T 5]
| Place | Description |
|---|---|
| Arvernien | The southernmost region of Beleriand, bordered on the east by theMouths ofSirion. It contained thebirch forest of Nimbrethil, mentioned in the poem "Song of Eärendil", whichFrodo hears inRivendell: "Eärendil was a mariner / that tarried in Arvernien; / he built a boat of timber felled / in Nimbrethil to journey in; ..."[T 6][T 7] |
| Dor Daedeloth ("Land of the Shadow of Dread") | Far to the north, the area around Morgoth's fortress of Angband under the peaks of Thangorodrim, and the Ered Engrin, the Iron Mountains.[T 5] |
| Doriath ("Land of the fence", i.e. the Girdle ofMelian) | The realm of theSindar, the Grey Elves of KingThingol.[T 5][T 8] |
| TheFalas ("shore") | The realm ofCírdan the Shipwright and his Sindar Elves in the years of Starlight and the First Age of the Sun. They lived in two havens,Eglarest at the mouth of the River Nenning, andBrithombar at the mouth of the River Brithon. The Havens were besieged during theFirst Battle of Beleriand. When the Havens were destroyed, Círdan's people fled to the Mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar.[T 9] |
| Gondolin ("hidden rock") | A hidden city of Elves in the north of Beleriand, founded byTurgon, and hidden fromMorgoth by mountains.[T 10] |
| Hithlum ("mist-shadow") | The region north of Beleriand near the icy Helcaraxë. It contains Mithrim, where the High Kings of theNoldor had their halls, and Dor-lómin, later a fief of Men of theHouse of Hador. Hithlum was cold and rainy, but fertile.[T 5] It is bordered by mountains; to the east and south by theEred Wethrin, and to the west by theEred Lómin.[T 11] |
| Lammoth | Shoreline west of the Ered Lómin. Named fromMorgoth's great cry while fightingUngoliant, the echoes of which ever lingered there.[T 12] |
| March of Maedhros | The northeastern border region of Beleriand. A great fortress was built on the hill ofHimring, the chief stronghold ofMaedhros, from which he guarded the area.[T 5] It was the only fortress to survive theDagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame; the forces of Angband captured it in theNirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.[T 13] After the Drowning of Beleriand, the peak of Himring remained above the waves as an island.[T 14] The gap in the mountains to the south of this area was known asMaglor's Gap.[T 5] |
| Nargothrond ("underground fortress on the river Narog") | Built by Finrod Felagund, delved into the banks of the river Narog in Beleriand.[T 15] |
| Nevrast ("hither shore", as opposed toAman) | A coastal region in the north of Beleriand; its city is Vinyamar.[T 5] It was the centre of Turgon's Elven kingdom until people left for Gondolin.[7] |
| Ossiriand ("land of seven rivers") | The most easterly region of Beleriand during theFirst Age, between the Ered Luin and the riverGelion. It is a green and forested land.[T 5] The rivers are the Gelion, and its six tributaries:Ascar,Thalos,Legolin,Brilthor,Duilwen andAdurant.[T 11] |
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Beleriand had many different names in Tolkien's early writings, includingBroceliand, the name of an enchanted forest in medieval romance,[8] Golodhinand, Noldórinan ("valley of the Noldor"), Geleriand, Bladorinand, Belaurien, Arsiriand, Lassiriand, and Ossiriand (later used for the easternmost part of Beleriand).[T 16]
One of Beleriand's early names was Ingolondë, a play on "England", part of Tolkien's long-held but ultimately unsuccessful aim to create what Shippey calls "a mighty patron for his country, a foundation-myth more far-reaching thanHengest and Horsa, one to which he could graft his own stories."[9] Tolkien's aim had been to root hismythology for England in the scraps of names and myths that had survived, and to situate it in a land in the northwest of the continent, by the sea.[9]
_-_NK1848_-_Cultural_Heritage_Agency_of_the_Netherlands_Art_Collection.jpg)
Shippey writes that theQuenta Silmarillion has a tightly-woven plot, each part leading ultimately to tragedy. There are three Hidden Elvish Kingdoms in Beleriand, founded by relatives, and they are each betrayed and destroyed. The Kingdoms are each penetrated by a mortal Man, again all related to each other; and the sense of doom, which Shippey glosses as "future disaster", hangs heavy over all of the characters in the tale.[6]
| Hidden Kingdom | Elvish Kings (all relatives) | Man who penetrates the Kingdom | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nargothrond | Finrod | Túrin | City destroyed |
| Doriath | Thingol | Beren | |
| Gondolin | Turgon | Tuor |
Shippey writes that the human race seen in Beleriand in theFirst Age did not "originate 'on stage' in Beleriand, but drifts into it, already sundered in speech, from the East [the main part of Middle-earth]. There something terrible has happened to them of which they will not speak: 'A darkness lies behind us... and we have turned our backs upon it'".[5] He comments that the reader is free to assume that the SatanicMorgoth has carried out theBiblical serpent's temptation ofAdam and Eve, and that "the incomingEdain andEasterlings are all descendants of Adam flying fromEden and subject to the curse ofBabel."[5]
The Tolkien scholarGergely Nagy, writing in 2004, notes thatThe Silmarillion does not contain explicitly embedded samples of Beleriand's poetry in its prose, as Tolkien had done with his manypoems inThe Lord of the Rings. Instead, the prose ofThe Silmarillion hints repeatedly at the structure and syntax of its "lost" poetry. Nagy notesDavid Bratman's description of the book as containing prose styles that he classifies as "the Annalistic, [the] Antique, and the Appendical". The implication of the range of styles is thatThe Silmarillion is meant to represent, inChristopher Tolkien's words, "a compilation, a compendious narrative, made long afterwards from sources of great diversity (poems, and annals, and oral tales)".[10][T 4] Nagy infers from verse-like fragments of text inThe Silmarillion that the poetry of Beleriand usedalliteration,rhyme, andrhythm including possiblyiambics.[10]
This applies to theAinulindalë, Tolkien's account of the godlikeAinur:
| Ainulindalë,[T 17] with Nagy's emphasis | Nagy's commentary |
|---|---|
and they built landsandMelkor destroyed them; | Prose adapted from poetry, with "rhetorics" and "stricter syntactic patterns";parataxis and balanced clauses "bearing a structural and thematic similarity" |
It applies, too, to the narrative of Elves and Men in the Beleriand landscape, in theQuenta Silmarillion:
| Poem-like prose[T 18] with Nagy's emphasis | Nagy's commentary |
|---|---|
But there was adeepway under the mountains | "Alliteration and rhythm are beautifully seen together" |
In a few places, it is possible to relate the adapted verse in the prose to actual verse inTolkien's legendarium. This can be done, for instance, in parts of the story ofTúrin. Here, he realizes he has just killed his friendBeleg:[10]
| "Adapted verse lines"[T 19] with Nagy's emphasis | The verseTúrin (1273–1274) | Nagy's commentary |
|---|---|---|
Then Túrinstoodstonestill andsilent,staring | stone-faced hestood standing frozen | "Nearly all the alliterating words, together with the alliteration pattern itself, doubtless derive from the poem; the imagery and to some extent the very phrasing of this very moving central scene ... [are] virtually unchanged." |
