Hithlum

The land of mist

Hithlum was the great northern country enclosed on the east and south by the Ered Wethrin, the Mountains of Shadow, and on the west by the Ered Lómin, the Echoing Mountains. Beyond it to the north lay the cold that came off the Iron Mountains. Its Sindarin name, the Land of Mist, came from the sea-fogs and cold vapours that Morgoth sent over it when the Noldor first camped there. It was a chill country, but fertile enough in its valleys, and the Noldor found it good pasture for their horses.

Hithlum was divided into several regions. Mithrim, about the great lake of that name, lay in the east, and here the Noldor first settled. Dor-lómin lay to the south-west, beneath the Ered Lómin, and became the land of the House of Hador. To the south, beyond the mountains, lay Nevrast, which was reckoned part of Hithlum before Turgon departed from it. The chief stronghold of the realm was Barad Eithel, the fortress at Eithel Sirion, the source of Sirion on the eastern face of the Ered Wethrin, from which the High King commanded the passes toward Ard-galen.

Peoples and rulers

Sindar had lived in Hithlum before the return of the Noldor, and after the coming of Fingolfin the two peoples mingled, so that the Grey-elven tongue became common there. Fingolfin ruled as High King of the Noldor from Hithlum, with Fingon holding Dor-lómin as his lieutenant until it was given to the Edain. After Fingolfin's death Fingon became king in turn. Hador received Dor-lómin as a fief, and his descendants Galdor, Húrin and Huor were the greatest of the Edain who fought beside the Elves.

Fingolfin's realm

The host of Fëanor first camped on the northern shore of Lake Mithrim after the landing at Losgar, and there fought the Dagor-nuin-Giliath. When Fingolfin's host came over the Helcaraxë and reached the lake, the two halves of the Noldor camped on opposite shores in bitter estrangement, until Fingon's rescue of Maedhros and Maedhros's renunciation of the kingship reconciled them. The sons of Fëanor then removed to the east, and Fingolfin's house held Hithlum as the north-western bastion of the Siege of Angband.

Through the long peace Hithlum flourished. Its horsemen rode out onto Ard-galen and drove back Glaurung on his first appearance. About the year 420 Hador's people came to Dor-lómin, and the Edain and Elves of Hithlum stood together thereafter.

The Bragollach and the Nirnaeth

When Morgoth broke the Siege, the Ered Wethrin held; Fingon threw back the attack on Eithel Sirion, and Hithlum alone of the northern realms was not overrun. But Fingolfin, believing all lost, rode to Angband and died. Hador was killed defending Eithel Sirion in the same war, and his son Galdor a few years later. Sauron took Tol Sirion and cut Hithlum off from the south.

Fingon then joined the Union of Maedhros, and the host of Hithlum with the men of Dor-lómin and Brethil formed the western wing at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. There Fingon was slain by Gothmog, Huor died in the rearguard that let Turgon escape, and Húrin was taken captive. Morgoth gave Hithlum to the Easterlings who had betrayed the Union, penning them there and denying them the richer lands they had been promised. The remaining Elves of Hithlum were enslaved or fled into the mountains, and the women and children of the Edain were oppressed by the incomers. Húrin's wife Morwen sent her son Túrin away to Doriath, and later fled herself with her daughter Nienor. Tuor was raised in the hills by Grey-elves and afterward escaped the land through the Gate of the Noldor.

End

Húrin, released by Morgoth after twenty-eight years, returned to Dor-lómin and found only a broken people under the Easterling Brodda, whom he slew. Hithlum passed under the sea with the rest of Beleriand in the War of Wrath.

Hithlum was bounded by mountains on three sides and cut off from the rest of Beleriand except through a few passes: the way down from Eithel Sirion to the pass of Sirion, the Gate of the Noldor beneath the Ered Lómin leading to the firth of Drengist, and the road south from Dor-lómin into Nevrast. Lake Mithrim, fed by streams from the Ered Wethrin, dominated its centre. Ivrin, where the river Narog rose, lay on the southern side of the Ered Wethrin, just outside the realm.