Nogrod, Belegost and Lindon (was Re: Dwarves of the Blue Mountains) | White Council Forum Archive - msg 4861
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| Topic: Nogrod, Belegost and Lindon (was Re: Dwarves of the Blue Mountains) Reply to: Message 4858 |
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Posted: September 11, 1999 at 12:03:19: by Hugh Toner
[snip]! Although the cities of Nogrod and Belegost were said to have been destroyed during the convulsions of the War of Wrath I am not at all sure that they were both submerged beneath Belgaer. I refer you to two maps of Middle Earth: The first, shown in Vol.7 of HoME "The Treason of Isengard", shows clearly the city of Belegost (of which: "Very notable is the appearance of Belegost, which is marked on the 1943 map also (nb. quite late in developement), but on no subsequent one, ... Belegost being situated on the eastern side of the mountains somewhat north of Mount Dolmed..."). Also of note on this map are two islands off the coast of Lindon, Himling and Tol Fuin, of which more later; the second map to which I refer is the Silmarillion map where we can see that Nogrod is rougly 50 miles south of Belegost (distances are difficult to judge as there is no scale but, estimating from: "Ered Lindon was now near the sea (at widest 200 miles away)" and "the statement that Ered Lindon was now at no point further than 200 miles away agrees well with that map (the 1943)" we see that Lindon was about 500 miles long from North to South - Vol.7, ch.6, p.124". In addition, the two islands I mentioned earlier may be used to estimate the extent to which Beleriand was reduced by the cataclysm and so the comparative size of Lindon. If we draw a line on the Vol.7 map (ch.15, p.302) from the top Lindon, through Himling to Tol Fuin ("which must be the highest part of Taur na Fuin" - Vol.7, ch.6, footnote 18) and then extend that line southwards on the Silmarillion map following the coastline of Lindon, we may see that a substantial portion of East Beleriand stayed above the waves, from the March of Maedhros in the North, south west(ish) as far as the northern slopes of Ramdal and Amon Ereb, and then south east(ish) to Tol Galen. This would imply that the river we see on the LoTR map that cuts through Forlindon may well be the remnants of Gelion, that the Gulf of Lune penetrated up Rathloriel, that the course of the Baranduin possibly changed to flow down via Adurant, that Thargelion and Ossirand survived pretty much intact and that (romanticaly) Tol Galen stayed above water. It is thus highly doubtful that the two dwarf cities were destroyed by drowning. I would imagine instead that they were destroyed by some kind of seismic event along the lines of an earthquake. This would suggest that they may well have been at least partially rebuilt and reinhabited during the second and third ages. This is pure speculation of course but perhaps we can imagine Gandalf and Thorin discussing the quest of Erebor surrounded by the faded grandeur of first age dwarven halls. I look forward to visiting your site when it's ready, do keep us informed. |
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