"J.R.R. Tolkien - The History of Middle-Earth - 00" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

West Beleriand lay beyond Sirion and included fewer forests but more highlands than East
Beleriand. The chief rivers of the region were the Narog and the Nenning, both of which were
rose from sources in the Ered Wethrin (Mountains of Shadow) in northwestern Beleriand.

The regions of Hithlum, Ard-galen, Dorthonion, and Lothlann might be said to compose North
Beleriand, but are sometimes said to be separate from Beleriand. Dorthonion was separated from
Ered Wethrin by the Sirion, and from Ered Luin by the Gelion.




-15-
Parma Endorion


Ard-galen, later named Anfauglith, was bordered by the Ered Wethrin on the west (beyond
which lay Hithlum), Dorthonion on the south, Angband (the peaks of Thangorodrim) to the
north, and Lothlann to the east.

Lothlann stretched north to the icy wastes that were a remnant of Melkor's first fortress, Utumno.
Parts of the region survived as the shores of the Ice Bay of Forochel after the First Age.

Eriador (Land Between the Mountains)
Eriador lay between two mountain ranges, the Ered Luin and the Hithaeglir (Peaks of Mist). The
southern boundary of the region consisted of the Glanduin (border river) and Gwathlo
(Greyflood) rivers.

Much of the region consisted of hills, some of which were called "downs", a type of hill which is
formed by the erosion of soft sediments, according to Karen Fonstad. The downs were long
ridges but were not (in the passages where Tolkien described them) simply exposed outcroppings
of stone. They were usually grassy and grouped fairly close together. The chief rivers of
Eriador were the Mitheithel (which formed the upper source of the Gwathlo with the Bruinen,
the river that bordered Imladris) and the Baranduin (brown river, but called Brandywine by the
hobbits).

The river Lhun, which flowed south near the Ered Luin to the Gulf of Lhun (after the First Age),
was sometimes treated as a border for Eriador, which in the Third Age was almost synonymous
with the Dunadan kingdom of Arnor.

Once thickly forested, Eriador was denuded of trees in the War of the Elves and Sauron in the
middle of the Second Age, but by the end of the Third Age (about 4700 years later) the area had
recovered in many places.

The Elves lived in Eriador for many long ages until the War of the Elves and Sauron. But in the
First Age clans of Men began to settle in the region and the Nandor pulled back before them. It
was in the Second Age that the land became split between Elves and Men about evenly, for the
Baranduin marked a boundary between their lands.

The Dunedain settled in the lands between the Lhun and Baranduin, in the Hills of Evendim near