Arvernien
Also calledThe coast of Arvernien
Arvernien was the coastal country west of the Mouths of Sirion, the last free land of the Elves and Edain in Beleriand and the home of Eärendil and Elwing, from which the mariner set sail to seek the West.
Description
The last shore
Arvernien was the strip of coast along the southern edge of Beleriand, running from the delta of Sirion westward to the cape that reached out toward the Isle of Balar. It was a mild land of beaches, sea-wind and rough grass with the willow-country of Nan-tathren at its back, and for most of the First Age it lay empty of settled people, visited only by the shipwrights of Círdan. When Morgoth had overrun the north it became the refuge of all who were left. The survivors of Doriath came there under Elwing, and the survivors of Gondolin under Tuor and Idril; they were joined by Elves of the Falas and by such Men of the three houses as had escaped the wreck of the north. They built the Havens at the Mouths of Sirion, and Arvernien is the land that the later songs remember when they tell how Eärendil dwelt there and built his ship.
Eärendil's country
Eärendil became lord of the people of Arvernien after his parents sailed into the West, and he married Elwing, who kept the Silmaril of Beren and Lúthien. With Círdan's help he built Vingilot, the finest ship of the tales, at the Havens, and from Arvernien he made his voyages, searching for his parents and for the shores of Aman and finding neither. The shadow of the Silmaril fell on the land. The sons of Fëanor demanded the jewel, and while Eärendil was at sea they attacked the Havens and destroyed the last community of the free Elves in Beleriand. Elwing carried the Silmaril to her husband across the water, and it was the light of that jewel that at last brought Eärendil through the enchanted seas to Valinor. Arvernien, left in ruin, was covered by the sea at the end of the Age, and it survives only in the songs that the Elves and their friends still sang at the end of the Third Age.
Places within1
- Region
The Mouths of Sirion were the marshy delta where the great river met the Bay of Balar. There the Havens of Sirion rose as the final refuge of the Elves and Edain of Beleriand, home to Eärendil and Elwing, until the sons of Fëanor destroyed them in the Third Kinslaying.
Associated figures
Ruled
Lord of Arvernien
Eärendil
Half-elvenEärendil, son of Tuor and Idril of Gondolin and husband of Elwing, was the mariner who, bearing a Silmaril on his brow, crossed the Shadowy Seas that no ship had passed, stood before the Valar in Valinor, and won the aid of the West against Morgoth. He never came back to mortal shores: his ship Vingilot was raised into the sky, and the light of the jewel he carries is the Evening Star.
Arvernien and the Havens of Sirion; afterwards the heavens
Born in
Lord of Rivendell
Elrond
Half-elvenElrond Half-elven, son of Eärendil and Elwing, chose the fate of the Elves and lived through three Ages of the world: fostered by Maglor, herald to Gil-galad at the Last Alliance, founder and master of Rivendell, keeper of the Ring Vilya, foster-father of Aragorn and father of Arwen. His house was the great refuge and library of the North, and at its Council the fate of the One Ring was decided.
Rivendell (Imladris)First King of Númenor
Elros
Half-elvenElros, twin brother of Elrond and son of Eärendil and Elwing, chose under the Choice of the Peredhil to be counted among Men. He led the Edain over the sea to the new land of Númenor and reigned there for four hundred and ten years as Tar-Minyatur, the first of a line of kings that ended with Elendil's heirs on the thrones of Gondor and Arnor.
Númenor
Dwelt in
Lord of the House of Hador
Tuor
House of HadorTuor son of Huor, born after his father's death at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, was raised by Grey-elves in Mithrim, enslaved by Easterlings, and chosen by Ulmo to carry his warning to the hidden city of Gondolin. There he married Turgon's daughter Idril, fathered Eärendil, and led the survivors out of the city's fall. At the end of his life he sailed into the West, and alone of Men he is said to have been numbered among the Elves.
Hithlum; Gondolin; the Havens of SirionLady of the Havens of Sirion
Elwing
Half-elvenElwing, daughter of Dior and Nimloth and granddaughter of Beren and Lúthien, carried the Silmaril out of the ruin of Doriath and refused to yield it to the sons of Fëanor. When they sacked the Havens of Sirion she cast herself into the sea with the jewel and was borne up as a white bird to her husband Eärendil, with whom she reached Valinor. She chose the fate of the Elves and dwells on the shore of Aman.
Doriath, then the Havens of Sirion; afterwards a tower on the shores of Aman
Timeline
- F.A. 506
Refugees of Doriath arrive
Elwing and the survivors of the second Kinslaying come down Sirion to the coast.
- F.A. 511
The Gondolindrim reach the coast
Tuor and Idril bring the survivors of Gondolin to the Havens in Arvernien.
- F.A. 525
Eärendil becomes lord
Tuor and Idril sail west; Eärendil weds Elwing and rules the people of the coast.
- F.A. 538
The Third Kinslaying
The sons of Fëanor sack the Havens; Elwing escapes over the sea with the Silmaril.
- F.A. 587
Arvernien drowned
The coast goes beneath the sea in the breaking of Beleriand.
Sources
- The SilmarillionQuenta Silmarillion, chapters 23 and 24
- The Fellowship of the RingBook II, chapter 1, Bilbo's song of Eärendil
See also
Part of
Elsewhere in Beleriand
- Ossiriandregion
- The Falasregion
- East Beleriandregion
- Isle of Balarisland
- March of Maedhrosregion
- Aelin-uiallake
- Nan-tathrenregion