Region

The southern wood

Region was the larger and thicker of the two great forests of Doriath, lying south of the Esgalduin and stretching down to the river Aros, which formed the southern and eastern boundary of the Hidden Kingdom. Where Neldoreth was a wood of beeches and open glades, Region was a close, dark forest of many kinds of tree, in which a stranger could quickly lose his way even without the confusion of the Girdle of Melian. Menegroth was delved into the rock on its northern margin, above the river, so that Region lay at the king's back.

The forest was named for the holly that grew thickly there, the same word that later gave Eregion its name. Through Region the roads from Menegroth ran south to the fords of Aros and the lands beyond, and east across the river toward the Dwarf-road by which the smiths of Nogrod and Belegost came to serve Thingol. It was through Region that the Dwarf-army of Nogrod approached Menegroth after Thingol's death, and through it that the survivors of the sons of Fëanor's assault fled south toward Sirion. Beren and Lúthien, returning from the dead, did not live in Region but in Tol Galen far to the east; the forest was left to the Elves alone until it was drowned.