Neldoreth

The beech-wood

Neldoreth was the northern forest of Doriath, lying between the river Esgalduin on the south and east and Sirion on the west, with the Girdle of Melian running along its northern eaves where the land fell away toward Nan Dungortheb. It was a wood of beech-trees, tall and old, and its floor in spring was bright with flowers. The Sindar of the Hidden Kingdom loved it above all their woods, and Lúthien and Daeron walked there in the years before the Sun.

Neldoreth is remembered chiefly for the meeting of Beren and Lúthien. Beren, coming through the Girdle after his flight from Dorthonion, wandered into Neldoreth in the summer and saw Lúthien dancing on the grass beneath the trees, and he was struck dumb by the sight. He followed her through the forest through autumn and winter, unable to speak, until she came to him in the spring. From there the tale of the Silmaril unfolded. When Lúthien resolved to follow Beren into peril, Thingol had a house built high in Hírilorn, a beech with three trunks that stood in Neldoreth near Menegroth, and kept her there until she escaped by her arts. Through the same forest Túrin was later led on his way to the king, and on its northern marches Beleg kept the watch that Túrin joined when he came of age. Treebeard in the Third Age still recalled the beeches of Neldoreth in spring.