Dor-lómin
Also calledThe Land of Echoes, Lordship of Dor-lómin, Dorlómin
Dor-lómin was the south-western region of Hithlum, given by Fingolfin to Hador and held by his house until the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. It was the home of Húrin and Morwen and the birthplace of Túrin, and after the great defeat it fell under the harsh rule of the Easterlings.
Description
The land
Dor-lómin lay in the south-west of Hithlum, between the Ered Lómin on the west, the Echoing Mountains from which it took its name, and the hills that separated it from Mithrim on the east. The Ered Wethrin bounded it on the south, and beyond them lay Nevrast. It was a cool, high country of meadows and hill-pastures with a river running through it, better suited to horses and cattle than to grain, and shut in on every side; Morgoth's spells lay heavy on the air of Hithlum, and its winters were long. To the west, beneath the Echoing Mountains, was the Gate of the Noldor, the tunnel-way under the hills through which the water of the mountains ran out to the firth of Drengist, and by which Tuor later escaped the land.
Elves and Men
When Fingolfin divided his realm he gave Dor-lómin to his son Fingon, who held it as part of the northern watch on Angband. After Men came into Beleriand, the people of Marach under Hador Lórindol took service with the High King, and Fingolfin granted Dor-lómin to Hador as a fief to hold under him. The House of Hador grew there into the greatest and most numerous of the three houses of the Edain, tall, golden-haired, quick to learn and quick to anger, and within two generations they had taken Sindarin as their daily speech while keeping their own tongue in their households; it was that older speech, carried to Númenor by their descendants, from which Adûnaic came.
Their lords were Hador, his son Galdor the Tall, and Galdor's son Húrin Thalion, who married Morwen Eledhwen of the House of Bëor, a refugee from the ruin of Dorthonion. Their household at Húrin's hall was the centre of the land: a lord's seat rather than a city, with the smiths and herdsmen and the small folk of the fief about it, and a body of trained fighting men out of all proportion to the region's size. Húrin's brother Huor married Rían of the same Bëorian exile, and both brothers had been carried as boys by the Eagles into hidden Gondolin and sent home again under oath of silence, a year that shaped everything they did afterwards.
History
The lordship of Hador
Hador received Dor-lómin about F.A. 423 and held it for a generation of peace at the end of the Long Peace, while the men of his house served in the garrison at Eithel Sirion under the High King's banner. In the Dagor Bragollach of 455 Hador was killed defending that fortress with his younger son Gundor, and Galdor became lord. Galdor fell in his turn at Eithel Sirion in 462, shot by an arrow, and the lordship passed to Húrin, who was then a young man.
The Nirnaeth
Húrin and Huor led the men of Dor-lómin north to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad in F.A. 472 as part of the western host. When the day was lost, they and their people stood in the Fen of Serech and held the pass so that Turgon could withdraw the host of Gondolin into the mountains. Almost every fighting man of Dor-lómin died there. Huor was killed by a venomed arrow in the eye; Húrin, fighting last of all, was taken alive at Morgoth's command and carried to Thangorodrim. Nothing of the lordship remained in the land but women, children, old men and thralls.
The Easterling occupation
Morgoth gave Hithlum to the Easterlings who had betrayed the Union, on the condition that they were shut into it and forbidden to leave, and their chieftain Lorgan held the country as Morgoth's vassal. In Dor-lómin the Easterling Brodda seized Húrin's lands and cattle, took Húrin's kinswoman Aerin to wife by force, and made serfs of the people of Hador. Children were carried off into slavery. Morwen was left alone in her house for a time, for the incomers were afraid of her and thought her a witch, but her position was hopeless, and she sent her seven-year-old son Túrin over the mountains to Thingol rather than see him sold. Nienor was born after he had gone. Rían, Huor's widow, bore Tuor in the wild that same year and died of grief on the Haudh-en-Ndengin; her son was raised by the Grey-elves of Mithrim and later taken as a thrall by Lorgan himself, escaping after three years to live as an outlaw in the caves of Androth.
The return of Túrin
Morwen eventually left for Doriath with Nienor. Túrin came back to Dor-lómin in 495, after the fall of Nargothrond, and found his mother's house empty and the land wholly changed. Aerin, in Brodda's hall, told him where Morwen had gone; Brodda and the Easterlings at the table set on him, and Túrin killed Brodda and several others and fled the country with a handful of the old servants, leaving Aerin to burn the hall with herself inside it. That was the last blow the House of Hador struck in its own land.
The end
Húrin was released from Angband in 500 after twenty-eight years in the chair on Thangorodrim, and came home to a land where the Easterlings fled from him in fear and the few surviving men of his people would not follow him. He found nothing to hold and went away south to seek Nargothrond and Brethil, and Dor-lómin passed out of the histories. It was drowned with all Beleriand in the ruin at the end of the Age, and the survivors of Hador's line reached Númenor by way of Gondolin and the Mouths of Sirion through Tuor and his son Eärendil.
Geography
Dor-lómin occupied the south-western quarter of Hithlum, walled by the Ered Lómin on the west and the Ered Wethrin on the south, with the highlands of Mithrim to the east and the lake of Mithrim beyond them. Its rivers drained west and north; the Gate of the Noldor carried water under the Echoing Mountains to the long sea-firth of Drengist, and that tunnel was the road by which the host of Fëanor had first entered Beleriand and by which Tuor left it. The pass south over the Ered Wethrin gave on the springs of Glithui and the road toward Brethil and the Crossings of Teiglin; the road east ran to Eithel Sirion, the fortress at the source of Sirion, where the men of Dor-lómin did their service.
Associated figures
Born in
Lord of Dor-lómin
Húrin
House of HadorHúrin Thalion, lord of Dor-lómin, was the greatest warrior of the Edain. He held the Fen of Serech alone at the end of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, was taken alive to Morgoth, defied him and was cursed with his whole house, and sat bound on Thangorodrim for twenty-eight years watching the ruin of his children Túrin and Nienor.
Dor-lóminLord of Dor-lómin
Túrin
House of HadorTúrin, son of Húrin and Morwen, was the greatest and most ill-fated warrior of the Edain. Cursed by Morgoth through his father, he wandered from Doriath to outlawry, to Nargothrond and to Brethil, killed his friend Beleg by mischance and unknowingly married his own sister, and slew the dragon Glaurung before taking his own life.
Dor-lómin; Doriath; Nargothrond; Brethil- House of Hador
Huor, younger son of Galdor of Dor-lómin, was carried with his brother Húrin to Gondolin as a boy and fell beside him holding the Fen of Serech in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. Before he died he foretold to Turgon that a new star would rise from their two houses; his son, born after his death, was Tuor, father of Eärendil.
Dor-lómin - House of Hador
Nienor, daughter of Húrin and Morwen, was born after her father's capture and never knew her brother Túrin. Robbed of her memory by Glaurung, she was found by the woodmen of Brethil, named Níniel, and married Túrin unknowing. When the dying dragon restored her memory she threw herself into the Teiglin.
Dor-lómin; Doriath; Brethil Lord of Dor-lómin
Galdor
House of HadorGaldor the Tall, elder son of Hador, was lord of Dor-lómin for seven years after the Dagor Bragollach. He married Hareth of the Haladin and was the father of Húrin and Huor. He was slain by an arrow at Eithel Sirion in F.A. 462.
Dor-lómin- House of Hador
Urwen, called Lalaith, was the second child of Húrin and Morwen and the beloved little sister of Túrin. She died at three years old in the plague that came out of Angband, the first sorrow of Túrin's life.
Dor-lómin
Ruled
Lord of Dor-lómin
Húrin
House of HadorHúrin Thalion, lord of Dor-lómin, was the greatest warrior of the Edain. He held the Fen of Serech alone at the end of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, was taken alive to Morgoth, defied him and was cursed with his whole house, and sat bound on Thangorodrim for twenty-eight years watching the ruin of his children Túrin and Nienor.
Dor-lóminHigh King of the Noldor
Fingon
NoldorFingon the Valiant, eldest son of Fingolfin, rescued Maedhros from Thangorodrim and so healed the breach in the Noldor, drove Glaurung back at his first appearance, and succeeded his father as High King. He was slain by Gothmog at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the battle he had helped to plan.
HithlumLord of Dor-lómin
Hador
House of HadorHador Lórindol, Goldenhead, was the beloved of Fingolfin who received the lordship of Dor-lómin in F.A. 416 and gathered the people of Marach there. The Third House of the Edain took his name. He fell with his younger son Gundor defending Eithel Sirion in the Dagor Bragollach.
Dor-lóminLord of Dor-lómin
Galdor
House of HadorGaldor the Tall, elder son of Hador, was lord of Dor-lómin for seven years after the Dagor Bragollach. He married Hareth of the Haladin and was the father of Húrin and Huor. He was slain by an arrow at Eithel Sirion in F.A. 462.
Dor-lóminChieftain of the Easterlings in Dor-lómin
Brodda
EasterlingsBrodda was an Easterling chieftain who took Húrin's lands, cattle and people in Dor-lómin after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and forced Húrin's kinswoman Aerin to marry him. He was killed in his own hall by Túrin in F.A. 495.
Dor-lómin
Imprisoned 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 Sirion
Dwelt in
Lady of Dor-lómin
Morwen
House of BëorMorwen Eledhwen, daughter of Baragund of the House of Bëor, was the wife of Húrin and the mother of Túrin and Nienor. Proud, beautiful and unbending, she held her house in Dor-lómin under the Easterlings for more than twenty years and died at the grave of her children beside the Teiglin.
Dor-lóminLady of the House of Bëor
Emeldir
House of BëorEmeldir the Man-hearted was the wife of Barahir and the mother of Beren. After the Dagor Bragollach she led the women and children of the House of Bëor out of Dorthonion over the mountains to safety, among them Morwen and Rían.
Dorthonion; later Brethil and Dor-lómin- House of Bëor
Rían, daughter of Belegund of the House of Bëor, married Huor two months before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and bore his son Tuor after his death. Leaving the child with the Elves of Mithrim, she went to the Hill of the Slain and died there.
Dor-lómin - House of Hador
Aerin, a kinswoman of Húrin, was taken by force as a wife by the Easterling Brodda after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. From his house she secretly sent food and help to Morwen, and when Túrin killed Brodda she burned the hall and chose to die there rather than flee into the wild.
Dor-lómin Woodwright of Húrin's household
Sador
House of HadorSador, called Labadal, was a lame woodwright in the household of Húrin in Dor-lómin and the childhood friend of Túrin, who gave him an Elf-made knife. Grown old under Easterling rule, he was mortally wounded in the fight in Brodda's hall when Túrin returned to Dor-lómin.
Dor-lómin
Died in
- House of Hador
Aerin, a kinswoman of Húrin, was taken by force as a wife by the Easterling Brodda after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. From his house she secretly sent food and help to Morwen, and when Túrin killed Brodda she burned the hall and chose to die there rather than flee into the wild.
Dor-lómin Chieftain of the Easterlings in Dor-lómin
Brodda
EasterlingsBrodda was an Easterling chieftain who took Húrin's lands, cattle and people in Dor-lómin after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and forced Húrin's kinswoman Aerin to marry him. He was killed in his own hall by Túrin in F.A. 495.
Dor-lómin- House of Hador
Urwen, called Lalaith, was the second child of Húrin and Morwen and the beloved little sister of Túrin. She died at three years old in the plague that came out of Angband, the first sorrow of Túrin's life.
Dor-lómin Woodwright of Húrin's household
Sador
House of HadorSador, called Labadal, was a lame woodwright in the household of Húrin in Dor-lómin and the childhood friend of Túrin, who gave him an Elf-made knife. Grown old under Easterling rule, he was mortally wounded in the fight in Brodda's hall when Túrin returned to Dor-lómin.
Dor-lómin
Peoples
Timeline
- F.A. 1
Held by Fingon
Fingolfin assigns Dor-lómin to his son Fingon as part of the northern realm of the Noldor.
- F.A. 423
Granted to Hador
The House of Hador settles Dor-lómin as vassals of the High King and takes the Grey-elven speech.
- F.A. 455
Death of Hador
Hador falls at Eithel Sirion in the Dagor Bragollach; Galdor becomes lord of Dor-lómin.
- F.A. 462
Death of Galdor
Galdor is killed by an arrow at Eithel Sirion and the young Húrin succeeds to the lordship.
- F.A. 464
Birth of Túrin
Túrin, son of Húrin and Morwen, is born in Dor-lómin.
- F.A. 472
The men of Dor-lómin die at the Nirnaeth
Húrin and Huor hold the Fen of Serech to cover Turgon's retreat; Huor is killed, Húrin taken alive, and the fighting strength of the land is destroyed.
- F.A. 472
The Easterlings take the land
Morgoth grants Hithlum to Lorgan's Easterlings; Brodda seizes Húrin's house and lands and the people of Hador are made serfs.
- F.A. 473
Túrin sent to Doriath; Tuor born
Morwen sends her son over the mountains to Thingol and bears Nienor after he has gone; Rían bears Tuor in the wild and dies, and the boy is raised by the Elves of Mithrim.
- F.A. 488
Tuor escapes the thraldom
After three years as Lorgan's slave Tuor breaks free and lives as an outlaw in the caves of Androth, later leaving Dor-lómin by the Gate of the Noldor.
- F.A. 495
Túrin slays Brodda
Returning after the fall of Nargothrond, Túrin kills the Easterling in his own hall, learns that Morwen has gone to Doriath, and flees the land.
- F.A. 500
Húrin's homecoming
Released by Morgoth after twenty-eight years, Húrin finds his land ruined and his people unwilling to follow him, and departs for good.
- F.A. 587
Drowned
Dor-lómin goes under the sea with the rest of Beleriand in the ruin of the War of Wrath.
Sources
- The SilmarillionQuenta Silmarillion, chapters 13, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23
- The Children of Húrinchapters 1 to 4 and 'The Return of Túrin to Dor-lómin'
- Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earthOf Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin; the only source for Lorgan and Tuor's thraldom in detail