Ered Luin
Also calledThe Blue Mountains, Ered Lindon
The Ered Luin, or Blue Mountains, are the long range that divides Lindon from Eriador. Home in the First Age to the dwarf-cities of Nogrod and Belegost, they were broken by the sea at the end of that Age, and in the Third Age they sheltered the exiled Durin's Folk under Thráin II and Thorin Oakenshield.
Description
The Blue Mountains run north and south along the western edge of Eriador, separating it from Lindon and the sea. In the First Age they were the eastern wall of Beleriand, and the two great dwarf-cities of Nogrod and Belegost were delved on their eastern side beneath Mount Dolmed, where the Dwarf-road crossed into Beleriand. When Beleriand was drowned the range itself was broken: the sea burst through it to form the Gulf of Lune, and the mountains north and south of the gulf were left lower and more broken than before. The old dwarf-cities were ruined, and their peoples went east to Moria or lingered in the hills.
In the Third Age the Ered Luin were a quiet range with dwarf-mines in the north and south, Elves on the western slopes, and hobbits of the Shire to the east who knew them chiefly as the source of the dwarves who passed along the Great East Road. The road from the Shire to the Havens crossed them near the head of the gulf.
History
The First Age history of the mountains belongs to the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost, the smiths who made Angrist and the Dragon-helm and who marched under Azaghâl to the Nirnaeth. Their cities were lost in the breaking of the world in F.A. 590. Old mines remained, and it was in one of these, at the northern end of the range, that King Arvedui hid in the winter of 1974 before fleeing to Forochel.
In T.A. 2802, after the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, Thráin II led the survivors of Durin's Folk west and settled in the Blue Mountains, where Thorin Oakenshield built halls and worked iron and slowly grew rich. It was on a journey from these halls to the Shire in 2941 that Thorin met Gandalf at Bree and the Quest of Erebor was conceived; Balin, Dwalin and the rest of the company came from the Blue Mountains, and dwarves of Thorin's people still lived there after the reclaiming of Erebor. In the last years of the Third Age the mountains were also the source of many of the dwarves who called at Bag End and drank at the Green Dragon with news of the East.
Geography
A long range running north-south between Lindon and Eriador, broken in the middle by the Gulf of Lune; Nogrod and Belegost lay on its eastern side in the First Age, Thorin's halls in its northern part in the Third.
Associated figures
Born in
Lord of the Glittering Caves
Gimli
LongbeardsGimli son of Glóin was the Dwarf of the Fellowship of the Ring. He walked from Rivendell to the Black Gate through Moria, Lothlórien, Helm's Deep and the Paths of the Dead, became the devoted friend of the Elf Legolas and of the Lady Galadriel, and after the war founded a Dwarf-colony in the Glittering Caves. Tradition says he sailed West with Legolas, the only Dwarf ever to do so.
Erebor; later the Glittering Caves of AglarondHeir of Thorin Oakenshield
Fíli
LongbeardsFíli, elder son of Thorin's sister Dís, was with his brother Kíli the youngest of the thirteen Dwarves on the quest of Erebor, and as Thorin's sister-son he was his uncle's heir. He fell in the Battle of Five Armies defending Thorin's body.
Blue Mountains; Erebor- Longbeards
Kíli, younger son of Dís and nephew of Thorin Oakenshield, was the youngest of the thirteen Dwarves on the quest of Erebor. Inseparable from his brother Fíli, he fell beside him in the Battle of Five Armies defending their uncle.
Blue Mountains; Erebor
Ruled
King of Durin's Folk
Thorin II Oakenshield
LongbeardsThorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin II and heir of Durin's line, spent most of his life as a king in exile after Smaug took Erebor. In T.A. 2941 he led twelve Dwarves and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins on the quest that ended the dragon and restored the Kingdom under the Mountain, and he died of his wounds in the Battle of Five Armies after reconciling with Bilbo.
Erebor; halls in the Blue Mountains during the exileKing of Durin's Folk
Thráin II
LongbeardsThráin II, son of Thrór and father of Thorin Oakenshield, led the Dwarves in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs and afterwards founded halls in the Blue Mountains. Lured by his Ring toward Erebor, he was captured by Sauron's servants and died in the dungeons of Dol Guldur, where Gandalf found him and received the map and key of Erebor.
Erebor in exile; halls in the Blue Mountains
Visited
King of Arthedain
Arvedui
Dúnedain of the NorthArvedui was the fifteenth and last King of Arthedain, the northern remnant of Arnor. Named Last-king at birth on a prophecy of Malbeth the Seer, he claimed the crown of Gondor in 1944 and was refused, saw his kingdom destroyed by the Witch-king of Angmar in 1974, and drowned in the Ice-bay of Forochel the following spring, taking two palantíri with him.
Arthedain
Dwelt in
Lord of Belegost
Azaghâl
BroadbeamsAzaghâl was Lord of Belegost, the great Dwarf-city of the Blue Mountains, and the only Dwarf-king recorded as fighting in the wars of Beleriand. At the Nirnaeth Arnoediad in F.A. 472 his masked Dwarves alone stood against the dragon Glaurung, and Azaghâl wounded the dragon so badly that it fled, though he died beneath it.
BelegostLord of Moria
Balin
LongbeardsBalin son of Fundin was the eldest and wisest of Thorin's companions on the quest of Erebor and the Dwarf who became closest to Bilbo. In T.A. 2989 he led an expedition to refound the kingdom of Khazad-dûm, ruled there as Lord of Moria for five years, and was killed by an Orc arrow at Mirrormere; the Fellowship found his tomb in the Chamber of Mazarbul.
Erebor; Moria from T.A. 2989- Longbeards
Dwalin, younger brother of Balin, was the first Dwarf to arrive at Bag End and one of Thorin's thirteen companions on the quest of Erebor. He lived on at the Mountain into the Fourth Age and died at the age of three hundred and forty, the longest life recorded of any Dwarf after Durin the Deathless.
Erebor - Longbeards
Glóin, brother of Óin and father of Gimli, was one of Thorin's companions on the quest of Erebor. Nearly eighty years later Dáin sent him to Rivendell, where he told the Council of Elrond of Sauron's messengers to the Mountain and saw his son chosen for the Fellowship.
Erebor Master-smith of Nogrod
Telchar
FirebeardsTelchar of Nogrod was the most renowned smith of the Dwarves in the Elder Days. He forged the knife Angrist, the sword Narsil that became Andúril, and the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin, and his fame lasted into the Fourth Age.
Nogrod
Founded
King of Durin's Folk
Thráin II
LongbeardsThráin II, son of Thrór and father of Thorin Oakenshield, led the Dwarves in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs and afterwards founded halls in the Blue Mountains. Lured by his Ring toward Erebor, he was captured by Sauron's servants and died in the dungeons of Dol Guldur, where Gandalf found him and received the map and key of Erebor.
Erebor in exile; halls in the Blue Mountains
Peoples
Timeline
- First Age
Nogrod and Belegost
The Firebeards and Broadbeams delve their cities under the Blue Mountains and trade with Beleriand.
- F.A. 590
The range broken
The drowning of Beleriand breaks the mountains and forms the Gulf of Lune; the dwarf-cities are ruined.
- T.A. 1974
Arvedui in the old mines
The last king of Arthedain hides in abandoned dwarf-mines at the northern end of the range.
- T.A. 2802
Durin's Folk settle in exile
Thráin II and Thorin establish halls in the Blue Mountains after the War of the Dwarves and Orcs.
- T.A. 2941
Thorin's company sets out
Thorin leaves the Blue Mountains for the Shire and the Quest of Erebor.
Sources
- The Silmarillion'Of the Sindar'; 'Of the Ruin of Doriath'; 'Of the Voyage of Eärendil'
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix A, I (iii) and III 'Durin's Folk'
- The Hobbitchapter 1