Firth of Drengist

The firth

Drengist was a long, narrow inlet of the Great Sea that broke through the Ered Lómin on the north-western coast of Middle-earth. Lammoth lay to its north and Nevrast to its south, and at its head a river came down from beneath the mountains. This was the water that flowed out of Annon-in-Gelydh, the Gate of the Noldor, the tunnel the Elves of Turgon cut from Dor-lómin to the sea. Because it was the nearest sea-approach to Hithlum, Drengist was the natural landfall for anyone coming from the West.

When Fëanor seized the white ships of the Teleri at Alqualondë and sailed east, it was into Drengist that his fleet came. He beached the ships at Losgar on its shore and, rather than send them back for the host of Fingolfin, had them burned. The glow of the fire was seen across the sea by those left behind in Araman. Fëanor then led his people inland from the firth to Lake Mithrim.

In later years Drengist saw a sortie by Morgoth in the Siege of Angband, when an orc-army marched down the western coast through Lammoth and along the firth to attack Hithlum from behind; Fingon caught it and drove it into the sea. After the fall of Hithlum, Tuor came out of the Gate of the Noldor into a ravine that led him down to the head of Drengist, and from there he turned south along the coast into Nevrast.