Lake Evendim

Nenuial, the Lake of Twilight, lies among the Hills of Evendim in the north-west of Eriador, north of the Shire and west of the North Downs. It is the largest lake of Eriador and the source of the Baranduin, the Brandywine, which flows out of its southern end and runs down past the Shire to the sea. The hills around it are high and quiet, and the lake's name comes from the beauty of its waters at dusk. On its southern shore Elendil built Annúminas, the capital of Arnor, so that for the first centuries of the North-kingdom the lake was the heart of the Dúnedain's realm.

According to the account in Unfinished Tales, Galadriel and Celeborn lived near Nenuial in the early Second Age, before they moved east to Eregion, and their daughter Celebrían may have been born there. The published Silmarillion does not give this detail, and the histories of Galadriel's movements in the Second Age were never fixed.

After the kings of Arnor withdrew to Fornost and Annúminas fell empty, the lake lay outside the events of the Third Age. Its shores were within Arthedain, and in T.A. 1975 the army of Gondor and Lindon met the host of Angmar on the plain between Nenuial and the North Downs and destroyed it. Afterwards the Hills of Evendim were part of the empty north watched by the Rangers. King Elessar rebuilt Annúminas beside the lake in the Fourth Age, and his northern court was held there when he came to Eriador.

A large lake in the Hills of Evendim, north of the Shire; the Brandywine flows from its southern end and Annúminas stands on its southern shore.