Brithombar

The haven on the Brithon

Brithombar was the more northerly of the two havens of the Falas, lying at the mouth of the Brithon where that river came down from the hills south of Nevrast. Like Eglarest to the south it was a harbour town of the Falathrim, the Elves of Círdan who had never left the shores of Middle-earth and who built the ships of the Elder Days. Its position made it the first place that any enemy marching down the coast from the north would strike, and its history is chiefly a history of sieges.

Two sieges

The first came in the Years of the Trees, when Morgoth, newly returned to Angband, sent his orcs west and south through Beleriand. The Falathrim were driven off the open coast and shut inside Brithombar and Eglarest, and there they held out until the coming of the Noldor and the battle under the stars drew the orcs away. In the peace that followed the Falathrim and the Noldor together raised high walls around both towns, and Brithombar became a fortified city with a walled harbour, sharing with Eglarest the watch of the tower Barad Nimras on the cape between them. For the length of the Siege of Angband it was never attacked, and its ships carried the trade of the western coast.

The fall

The second siege came in the year after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, when Morgoth had nothing left to fear from the Noldor in the north. His host came down through Nevrast, invested Brithombar and then Eglarest, brought up engines and broke the walls. The haven was taken and sacked, and most of its people perished or were taken to Angband. Those whom Círdan could carry escaped by sea with Gil-galad to the Isle of Balar. Brithombar was never rebuilt, and its ruins sank with the coast at the end of the Age.