The Falas

The shore-country

The Falas was the coast of Beleriand south of Nevrast, a land of cliffs, coves and river-mouths facing the open Sea. Two rivers came down to it from the west of Beleriand: the Brithon in the north, at whose mouth stood Brithombar, and the Nenning further south, at whose mouth stood Eglarest. Between them a cape ran out into the water on which Finrod later raised the tower of Barad Nimras to watch the western Sea, though from that quarter no attack ever came. Inland the Falas gave way to the woods and downs that ran up toward the Narog and Nargothrond.

The Falathrim

The people of the coast were the Falathrim, those Teleri who had come to the shore during the Great Journey and, when Ulmo drew the island of Tol Eressëa away to Aman, were persuaded by Ossë to stay behind for love of the Sea. Their lord was Círdan, kinsman of Thingol, and under him they became the first shipbuilders and mariners of Middle-earth. They acknowledged Thingol's overlordship but lived apart, and their trade in pearls and their ships made them the link between the inland realms and the coast; it was Círdan's fleet that carried the pearls to Doriath and, much later, Turgon's messengers out on the Sea. In the First Battle, when Morgoth's orcs first entered Beleriand, the Falathrim were driven inside their havens and besieged, and were saved only by the coming of the Noldor, whose victory at the Dagor-nuin-Giliath drew the enemy away. After that the Noldor and the Falathrim rebuilt the havens with high walls, and the Falas stood unassailed through the long years of the Siege of Angband.

Under the Siege

Through the Siege the Falas was a quiet border of the Noldorin world. Finrod, ruling from Nargothrond, took the coast under his protection and helped Círdan fortify Brithombar and Eglarest into strong cities; Barad Nimras was built on the cape between them. Círdan kept friendship with every kindred, with Finrod, with Turgon whose warnings from Ulmo he passed on, and with the Sindar of Doriath, and his mariners knew the whole coast from Drengist to the Bay of Balar.

After the Bragollach

When the Siege was broken, Fingon sent his young son Gil-galad to the Havens for safety, and Círdan became his guardian. In the same years Turgon sent shipwrights and mariners to Círdan, and with his help ships were built and sent west to seek the pardon of the Valar; none returned but the one that bore Voronwë. Morgoth meanwhile pressed the west. Orcs raided the coast, and Círdan's people fought to hold the line of the Nenning.

The fall of the Havens

After the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Morgoth was free to turn his whole strength on the west. In the year 473 a great army came down through the lands of the Falas, besieged Brithombar and Eglarest, and broke their walls with engines and fire. The havens were destroyed and most of the Falathrim were slain or enslaved. Círdan and Gil-galad escaped by ship with those they could carry and made a new haven on the Isle of Balar and at the Mouths of Sirion. The Falas was left empty, its towers cast down, and though ships from Balar still watched the shore, the coast was never resettled. At the end of the Age it went under the sea with the rest of Beleriand, and the Falathrim carried the memory of their lost havens to the Grey Havens of Lindon.

The Falas occupied the western coast of Beleriand from the southern edge of Nevrast down to the Bay of Balar. Brithombar stood at the mouth of the Brithon and Eglarest at the mouth of the Nenning; Barad Nimras stood on the cape between them; and the Narog and Nargothrond lay to the east across the woodland. The only overland approach for an army was from the north through Nevrast and the vale of the Brithon, which was the way the host of Morgoth came in 473.