Thomas the Rhymer
Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as Thomas the Rhymer known as Thomas of Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston in the Borders. Thomas' gift of prophecy is linked to his poetic ability, it is not clear if the name Rhymer was his actual surname or a sobriquet. He is cited as the author of the English Sir Tristrem, a version of the Tristram legend, some lines in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle may be the source of this association. In literature, he appears as the protagonist in the tale about Thomas the Rhymer carried off by the "Queen of Elfland" and returned having gained the gift of prophecy, as well as the inability to tell a lie; the tale survives in a medieval verse romance in five manuscripts, as well as in the popular ballad "Thomas Rhymer". The ballad occurs as "Thomas off Ersseldoune" in the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript; the original romance ca. 1400 was condensed into ballad form ca. 1700, though there are dissenting views on this. Walter Scott expanded the ballad into three parts, adding a sequel which incorporated the prophecies ascribed to Thomas, an epilogue where Thomas is summoned back to Elfland after the appearance of a sign, in the form of the milk-white hart and hind.
Numerous prose retellings of the tale of Thomas the Rhymer have been undertaken, included in fairy tale or folk-tale anthologies. Sir Thomas was born in Erceldoune, sometime in the 13th century, has a reputation as the author of many prophetic verses. Little is known for certain of his life but two charters from 1260–80 and 1294 mention him, the latter referring to "Thomas de Ercildounson son and heir of Thome Rymour de Ercildoun". Thomas became known as "True Thomas" because he could not tell a lie. Popular lore recounts how he prophesied many great events in Scottish history, including the death of Alexander III of Scotland. Popular esteem of Thomas lived on for centuries after his death, in Scotland, overtook the reputation of all rival prophets including Merlin, whom the 16th century pamphleteer of The Complaynt of Scotland denounced as the author of the prophecy which the English used as justification for aggression against his countrymen, it became common for fabricated prophecies to be attributed to Thomas to enhance their authority, as seen in collections of prophecies which were printed, the earliest surviving being a chapbook entitled "The Whole Prophecie of Scotland, etc.".
Descriptions and paraphrases of Thomas's prophecies were given by various Scottish historians of yore, though none of them quoted directly from Thomas. "On the morrow, afore noon, shall blow the greatest wind, heard before in Scotland."This prophecy predicted the death of Alexander III in 1286. Thomas gave this prediction to the Earl of Dunbar, but when there was no change in weather patterns discernible at the ninth hour, the Earl sent for the prophet to be reproved. Thomas replied the appointed hour has not come, shortly thereafter, the news came reporting of the king's death; the earliest notice of this prophecy occurs in Bower's 15th-century Scotichronicon, written in Latin. An early English vernacular source is John Bellenden's 16th century Croniklis of Scotland, a translation of Hector Boece."Who shal rule the ile of Bretaine / From the North to the South sey?""A French wife shal beare the Son, / Shall rule all Bretaine to the sey, that of the Bruces blood shall come / As neere as the nint degree."The lines given are structured in the form of one man's questions, answered by another, who goes on to identify himself: "In Erlingstoun, I dwelle at hame/Thomas Rymour men calles me."Printed in the aforementioned chapbook The Whole Prophecie of 1603, published upon the death of Elizabeth I, the prophecy purports to have presaged Scottish rule of all of Britain.
This "became in the sequel by far the most famous of all the prophecies," but it has been argued that this is a rehash of an earlier prophecy, meant for John Stewart, Duke of Albany Words not different are given in the same printed book, under the preceding section for the prophecy of John of Bridlington, the additional date clue there "1513 & thrise three there after" facilitating the identification "Duke's son" in question as Duke of Albany, although Murray noted that the Duke's "performance of... doubty deeds" was something he "utterly failed to do". Walter Scott was familiar with rhymes purported to be the Rhymer's prophecies in the local popular tradition, published several of them. Robert Chambers printed additional collected rhyme prophecies ascribed to Thomas, in Popular Rhymes. "At Eildon Tree, if yon shall be,a brig ower Tweed yon there may see."Scott identifies the tree as that on Eildon Hill in Melrose, some five miles away from today's Earlston. Three bridges built across the river were visible from that vantage point in Scott's day."This Thorn-Tree, as lang as it stands,Earlstoun sall possess a' her lands."or "As long as the Thorn Tree stands / Ercildourne shall keep its lands".
This was first of several prophecies attributed to the Rhymer collected by Chambers, who identified the tree in question as one that fell in a storm in either 1814 or 1821 on the about the last remaining acre belonging to the town of Earlstoun. The prophecy was lent additional weight at the time, because as it so happened, the merchants of the town had fallen under bankruptcy by a series of "unfortunate circumstances". According to one acco
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth called Middle-earth, set in the remote past, they appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more in The Silmarillion. Tolkien had been writing about Elves; the modern English word elf derives from the Old English word ælf. Numerous types of elves appear in Germanic mythology, the West Germanic concept appears to have come to differ from the Scandinavian notion in the early Middle Ages, Anglo-Saxon concept diverged further under Celtic influence. Tolkien would make it clear in a letter that his Elves differ from those "of the better known lore", referring to Scandinavian mythology. By 1915 when Tolkien was writing his first elven poems, the words elf and gnome had many divergent and contradictory associations. Tolkien had been warned against using the term'fairy', which John Garth supposes may have been due to the word becoming used to indicate homosexuality, although despite this warning Tolkien continued to use it.
By the late 19th century, the term'fairy' had been taken up as a utopian theme, was used to critique social and religious values, a tradition which Tolkien along with T. H. White are seen to continue. One of the last of the Victorian Fairy-paintings, The Piper of Dreams by Estella Canziani, sold 250,000 copies and was well known within the trenches of World War I where Tolkien saw active service. Illustrated posters of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Land of Nod had been sent out by a philanthropist to brighten servicemen's quarters, Faery was used in other contexts as an image of "Old England" to inspire patriotism. According to Marjorie Burns, Tolkien chose the term elf over fairy, but still retained some doubts. In his 1939 essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien wrote that "English words such as elf have long been influenced by French. Traditional Victorian dancing fairies and elves appear in much of Tolkien's early poetry, have influence upon his works in part due to the influence of a production of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in Birmingham in 1910 and his familiarity with the work of Catholic mystic poet, Francis Thompson which Tolkien had acquired in 1914.
O! I hear the tiny horns Of enchanted leprechauns And the padded feet of many gnomes a-coming! As a philologist, Tolkien's interest in languages led him to invent several languages of his own as a pastime. In considering the nature of who might speak these languages, what stories they might tell, Tolkien again turned to the concept of elves. In his The Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien develops a theme that the diminutive fairy-like race of Elves had once been a great and mighty people, that as Men took over the world, these Elves had "diminished" themselves; this theme was influenced by the god-like and human-sized Ljósálfar of Norse mythology, medieval works such as Sir Orfeo, the Welsh Mabinogion, Arthurian romances and the legends of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Some of the stories Tolkien wrote as elven history have been seen to be directly influenced by Celtic mythology. For example, "Flight of The Noldoli" is based on the Tuatha Dé Danann and Lebor Gabála Érenn, their migratory nature comes from early Irish/Celtic history.
John Garth sees that with the underground enslavement of the Noldoli to Melkor, Tolkien was rewriting Irish myth regarding the Tuatha Dé Danann into a Christian eschatology. The name Inwe, given by Tolkien to the eldest of the elves and his clan, is similar to the name found in Norse mythology as that of the god Ingwi-Freyr, a god, gifted the elf world Álfheimr. Terry Gunnell claims that the relationship between beautiful ships and the Elves is reminiscent of the god Njörðr and the god Freyr's ship Skíðblaðnir, he retains the usage of the French derived term "fairy" for the same creatures. The larger Elves are inspired by Tolkien's personal Catholic theology—as representing the state of Men in Eden who have not yet "fallen", similar to humans but fairer and wiser, with greater spiritual powers, keener senses, a closer empathy with nature. Tolkien wrote of them: "They are made by man in his own likeness, they are immortal, their will is directly effective for the achievement of imagination and desire."In The Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien includes both the more serious "medieval" type of elves such as Fëanor and Turgon alongside the frivolous, Jacobean type of elves such as the Solosimpi and Tinúviel.
Alongside the idea of the greater Elves, Tolkien developed the idea of children visiting Valinor, the island-homeland of the Elves in their sleep. Elves would visit children at night and comfort them if they had been chided or were upset; this theme, linking elves with children's dreams and nocturnal travelling was abandoned in Tolkien's writing. Along with Book of Lost Tales, Douglas Anderson shows that in The Hobbit, Tolkien again includes both the more serious'medieval' type of elves, such as Elrond and the Wood-elf king, frivolous elves, such as those at Rivendell. In 1937, having had his manuscript for The Silmarillion rejected by a publisher who disparaged all the "eye-splitting Celtic names" that Tolkien had given his Elves, Tolkien denied the names had a Celtic origin: Needless t
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, was an English writer, poet and academic, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion. He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, from 1945 to 1959, he was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, form a connected body of tales, fictional histories, invented languages, literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda and Middle-earth within it.
Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the larger part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre; this has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature—or, more of high fantasy. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning "dead celebrity" in 2009. Tolkien's immediate paternal ancestors were middle-class craftsmen who made and sold clocks and pianos in London and Birmingham; the Tolkien family originated in the East Prussian town Kreuzburg near Königsberg, where his first known paternal ancestor Michel Tolkien was born around 1620. Michel's son Christianus Tolkien was a wealthy miller in Kreuzburg, his son Christian Tolkien moved from Kreuzburg to nearby Danzig, his two sons Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien and Johann Benjamin Tolkien emigrated to London in the 1770s and became the ancestors of the English family.
In 1792 John Benjamin Tolkien and William Gravell took over the Erdley Norton manufacture in London, which from on sold clocks and watches under the name Gravell & Tolkien. Daniel Gottlieb obtained British citizenship in 1794, but John Benjamin never became a British citizen. Other German relatives joined the two brothers in London. Several people with the surname Tolkien or similar spelling, some of them members of the same family as J. R. R. Tolkien, live in northern Germany, but most of them are descendants of recent refugees from East Prussia who fled the Red Army invasion and subsequent ethnic cleansing. According to Ryszard Derdziński the Tolkien name is of Low Prussian origin and means "son/descendant of Tolk." Tolkien mistakenly believed his surname derived from the German word tollkühn, meaning "foolhardy", jokingly inserted himself as a "cameo" into The Notion Club Papers under the translated name Rashbold. However, Derdziński has demonstrated this to be a false etymology. While J. R. R. Tolkien was aware of the Tolkien family's German origin, his knowledge of the family's history was limited because he was "early isolated from the family of his prematurely deceased father".
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State to Arthur Reuel Tolkien, an English bank manager, his wife Mabel, née Suffield. The couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of the British bank for which he worked. Tolkien had one sibling, his younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, born on 17 February 1894; as a child, Tolkien was bitten by a large baboon spider in the garden, an event some think echoed in his stories, although he admitted no actual memory of the event and no special hatred of spiders as an adult. In another incident, a young family servant, who thought Tolkien a beautiful child, took the baby to his kraal to show him off, returning him the next morning; when he was three, he went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, died in South Africa of rheumatic fever before he could join them; this left the family without an income, so Tolkien's mother took him to live with her parents in Kings Heath, Birmingham.
Soon after, in 1896, they moved to Sarehole a Worcestershire village annexed to Birmingham. He enjoyed exploring Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog and the Clent and Malvern Hills, which would inspire scenes in his books, along with nearby towns and villages such as Bromsgrove and Alvechurch and places such as his aunt Jane's farm of Bag End, the name of which he used in his fiction. Mabel Tolkien taught her two children at home. Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil, she taught him a great deal of botany and awakened in him the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees, but his favourite lessons were those concerning languages, his mother taught him the rudiments of Latin early. Tolkien could write fluently soon afterwards, his mother allowed him to read many books. He disliked Treasure Island and The Pied Piper and thought Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was "amusing but disturbing", he liked stories about "Red Indians" and the fantasy wor
Middle-earth wars and battles
J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings include many wars and battles set in the lands of Aman, Beleriand, Númenor, Middle-earth; these are related in his various books such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and other posthumously published books edited by his son Christopher Tolkien. These are given below in an in-universe, fictional chronology: The Battle of the Powers called the War of the Powers, occurred between the god-like Valar and their former member Melkor in primeval Middle-earth. After a long titanic conflict the Valar defeated Melkor, confined in a massive chain for three ages; the battle caused massive changes to Middle-earth's original geography. The Kinslayings are the collective term for the three battles fought among the Eldar; the first battle, the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, appears in print in The Silmarillion. It involves the Noldorin Elves under their king, Fëanor, against their fellow Elves, the Teleri whose Lord was Olwë, who did not take part in the battle.
Against the will of the godlike Valar, Fëanor had induced the Noldor to leave Valinor to make war upon the Dark Lord Morgoth in revenge for the murder of his father Finwë and the theft of his Silmarilli jewels. As the easiest route to Middle-earth was by sea, Fëanor and his sons led one host of the Noldor to the city of Alqualondë and asked the seafaring Teleri of Alqualondë for their vessels; the Teleri refused to help. Bitter fighting broke out and many of Elves on both sides were slain. Though the Teleri were armed, they were able to defend themselves to some degree until a second host of the Noldor, led by Fëanor's half-nephew Fingon, arrived together with some of his father Fingolfin's people. Fingon's people assumed erroneously that the Teleri had attacked the Noldor under orders of the Valar. In the end, many of the Teleri were slain and the ships taken. Afterward, the sea destroyed many of the boats to punish the Noldor for this cruel act. Though the Teleri forgave the Noldor by the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, they still refused to fight in the War of Wrath.
All Elves that followed Fëanor and continued towards Middle-earth fell under the Doom of Mandos. This episode appears in Tolkien's earliest Middle-earth-related writings, published in The Book of Lost Tales. In the earliest surviving version, the "Noldoli" steal the ships of the "Solosimpi" without any fighting; when a concept of a battle was developed, the location was first called "Kopas Alqalunten". In a late version of the legendarium, Galadriel fought on the side of the Teleri, her mother Eärwen's people, against the Fëanorians; the second battle is the Sack of Doriath made by the Sons of Fëanor. Caranthir and Curufin died there, Celegorm dies killing the son of Beren and Luthien. Although the fëanorians won the battle, they did not manage to obtain the Silmaril; the third battle in the Kinslaying is the attack by the Sons of Fëanor on the Mouths of Sirion where Elwing was attacked. The last Kinslaying is considered the cruellest of them all because many women and children were murdered by the Fëanorians.
And still the Silmaril is not taken back. It was stated by Eönwë herald of Manwë that because of these evil deeds the remaining Sons of Fëanor had lost all right to the Silmarils, when Maedhros and Maglor retrieved them, the Silmarils burned their hands, driving Maedhros to suicide and Maglor to wander the Earth forever; the battles between the Elves of Beleriand and the forces of Morgoth are referred to as the Battles of Beleriand, but as the War of the Jewels as the Silmarilli were behind them all. The battles spanned the last several centuries of the First Age. In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, the First Battle of Beleriand was, as the name suggests, the first battle of the Wars of Beleriand, fought by the Sindarin Elves, led by Elu Thingol, King of Doriath and Lord of Beleriand, against the armies of Morgoth, the Great Enemy and original Dark Lord; the First Battle of Beleriand was fought before the Noldor arrived, was fought by the Sindar and Laiquendi Elves. The Second Battle was Dagor-nuin-Giliath, fought by the Noldor following Fëanor and his Seven Sons, in which the Noldor were victorious but Fëanor was slain by Balrogs.
During this battle the Battle of Lhammoth was fought by the host of Fingolfin. The Third Battle was Dagor Aglareb. Various minor battles were fought during the Siege; the Fourth Battle was the Dagor Bragollach, in which the Siege was broken and Fingolfin was slain by Morgoth. The Fifth Battle was the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, in which the Noldor were utterly defeated and Fingon, Azaghâl and Huor are killed and Hurin captured. Years the Battle of Tumhalad, in which the elven forces under Orodreth and Túrin were defeated by Angband forces under Glaurung, led to the sack of Nargothrond, it was the last battle of the Elves of the kingdom of Nargothrond. It was fought on the plain of Tumhalad between the river Narog and its tributary, the river Ginglith. In year 510 FA the Fall of Gondolin takes place, it was fought between the Elves of Gondolin led by Turgon their king and the city's houses leaders and the hosts of Morgoth swarmed from Angband led by Gothmog. At the end the elves are defeated, the city is lost and destroyed, the king, most of the houses' leaders
Galadriel
Galadriel is a fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien, appearing in his Middle-earth legendarium, she appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales. She was a royal Elf of both the Noldor and the Teleri, being a grandchild of both King Finwë and King Olwë, was close kin of King Ingwë of the Vanyar through her grandmother Indis, she was one of the leaders in the rebellion of the Noldor and their flight from Valinor during the First Age, she was the only prominent Noldo to survive and return, at the end of the Third Age. Towards the end of her stay in Middle-earth she was co-ruler of Lothlórien with her husband, Lord Celeborn, was referred to variously as the Lady of Lórien, the Lady of the Galadhrim, the Lady of Light, or the Lady of the Golden Wood, her daughter Celebrían was the wife of Elrond and mother of Arwen and Elrohir. Tolkien describes Galadriel as "the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth" and the "greatest of elven women".
Stories of Galadriel's life prior to The Lord of the Rings appear in both The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. Galadriel was the only daughter and youngest child of Finarfin, prince of the Noldor, of Eärwen, cousin to Lúthien, her elder brothers were Finrod Felagund and Aegnor. She was born in Valinor during the Years of the Trees. Galadriel is described as having been "blessed with the ability to peer into the minds of others and she judged them so fairly, but in Fëanor, she only sees darkness". As one of the members of the royal house of Finwë and having the blood of the Vanyar from her paternal grandmother, she was called the fairest of all Elves, either in Aman or Middle-earth. According to the older account of her story, sketched by Tolkien in The Road Goes Ever On and used in The Silmarillion, Galadriel was an eager participant and leader in the rebellion of the Noldor and their flight from Valinor, she had, long since parted ways with Fëanor and his sons, did not participate in the Kinslaying at Alqualondë.
In Beleriand she lived with her brother Finrod Felagund at Nargothrond and at the court of Thingol and Melian in Doriath. In this account she met a kinsman of Thingol, in Doriath. After the War of Wrath, the Valar prohibited the leaders of the Exiles from returning to the Undying Lands, so as one of those leaders Galadriel remained an Exile in Middle-earth. At the end of the Third Age, when she refused the One Ring, she was allowed to return to Valinor. Unfinished Tales gathers many other accounts of Celeborn. One of these highlights a second version of, she lived with her mother's kindred in the Telerin port of Alqualondë and there met Celeborn, who would become her husband and co-ruler. Celeborn, by this account, was Olwë's grandson. Galadriel and Celeborn sailed from the West and came to Beleriand separately from the two main hosts of the Noldor. Galadriel was thus not directly involved in the revolt of the Noldorin princes in this version, indeed fought against them at Alqualondë during the kinslaying.
In Beleriand she and Celeborn were lived in Doriath. When the Noldor arrived in Beleriand, Galadriel re-established contact with her brothers. In this version of the story, she is offered a pardon by the Valar, but refused it out of pride and therefore remained under the Ban. In later accounts from Unfinished Tales, written not long before Tolkien died, Galadriel was not subject to the Ban, remained in Middle-earth of her own volition. In both versions Celeborn and Galadriel play no important role in the Battles of Beleriand, as they judge the War of the Jewels to be hopeless against Morgoth's strength. Little is told of their subsequent activities in the First Age, they leave Beleriand before the War of Wrath, they travelled first to Lindon, where they ruled over a group of Elves as a fiefdom under Gil-galad, the last High King of the Noldor. According to Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn, they removed to the shores of Lake Nenuial, were accounted the Lord and Lady of all the Elves of Eriador.
Around SA 700, they moved eastward and established the realm of Eregion or Hollin. At this time they made contact with a Nandorin settlement in the valley of the Anduin, which became Lothlórien. At some point Celeborn and Galadriel settled in Lothlórien. According to some accounts, they became rulers of Lothlórien for a time during the Second Age. Early in the Second Age, the Númenórean King Tar-Aldarion presented some Mallorn seeds to Gil-galad, High-King of the Noldor in Middle-earth, ruler of the Kingdom of Lindon, the westernmost realm in Middle-earth. "Under her power" the mellyrn had sprouted in the land of Lothlórien, but "they did not reach the height or girth of the groves of Númenor."Celeborn and Galadriel had a daughter, Celebrían, who married Elrond Half-elven of Rivendell, thus making Galadriel and her husband Celeborn the grandparents of the twins Elladan and Elrohir and their younger sister Arwen Undómiel, future Queen of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor. During the Second Age, when the Rings
Misty Mountains
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, the Misty Mountains are a mountain range, one of the most important features of Middle-earth's geography; the mountain-chain is less well known by its alternative names. One of these is Hithaeglir. Other alternative names are the Towers of Mist; the range stretched continuously for some 900 miles across the continent of Middle-earth. The Misty Mountains first appeared in print in The Hobbit. A vision of the mountains is invoked in the first chapter: "Far over the misty mountains cold...". Further information about the mountains was added in Tolkien's subsequent publications; the Misty Mountains stretched continuously for some 900 miles: from Carn Dûm in the north to Dol Baran in the south, were a formidable barrier between the large Middle-earth regions of Eriador and Wilderland. The northernmost section of the Misty Mountains ran from Carn Dûm to Mount Gundabad, was known as the Mountains of Angmar. Mount Gundabad was where Durin awoke according to legend, though it was an abode of Orcs.
Mount Gram, another Orc nest, was not far away. Mount Gundabad was on the eastern side of the range, where it nearly joined the westernmost extremity of the Grey Mountains; the strategic gap was about 10 miles wide. The greatest Dwarf realm in Middle-earth, Khazad-dûm, was located at the midpoint of the Misty Mountains; the area's three massive peaks - the Mountains of Moria - were Caradhras and Fanuidhol. Under Celebdil was the main part of Khazad-dûm; the southernmost peak of the Misty Mountains was Methedras. Here the southernmost foothills of the Misty Mountains looked across the Gap of Rohan to the northernmost foothills of the White Mountains; the Misty Mountains had few passes. The most important were the Redhorn Pass. A minor pass near the source of the Hoarwell the High Pass, near Rivendell Also called the Pass of Imladris and Cirith Forn en Andrath; the Orc-stronghold of Goblin-town had an outlet onto the High Pass. There were two alternative routes in the High Pass. A minor pass at the source of the Gladden the Redhorn Pass near Moria This pass was open year-round in winter.
Farther south there were no passes. Some of Middle-earth's notable valleys and dales lay in or close to the Misty Mountains: Rivendell was hidden in the foothills near the western end of the High Pass. Further south the eastern end of the Redhorn Pass led into the great Dimrill Dale in the arms of the Mountains of Moria; this dale led down into Lothlórien: the Valley of Singing Gold. At the southern end of the Misty Mountains, Fangorn forest reached right up into the eastern foothills. Nearby lay Nan Curunír, where Isengard was built, it faced the Gap of Rohan. Rivers originating in the Misty Mountains: flowing West: Hoarwell, Sirannon and Isen. Flowing East: Langwell, Gollum's stream, Silverlode, Limlight, Entwash. Deep beneath the Misty Mountains lay a primordial underworld in perpetual darkness, it was inhabited by primitive creatures. These are reported in and near the underground lake below Goblin-town, in the underworld of Moria; the Watcher in the Water was one of the creatures from Moria's underworld.
The Misty Mountains were raised by Melkor in a primeval epoch of the First Age, no than the War of the Powers. He hoped to impede Oromë, a god who rode across Middle-earth hunting; the Mountains had a more dreaded appearance. However Oromë established the High Pass, he did this to assist the Eldar to cross the mountains on their Great Journey to the West. So, the Misty Mountains were still viewed as too formidable by a large number of the Elves; this was a major sundering of the Elves. Dwarves began to use the High Pass in the First Age, they connected their roads with this pass, which reinforced it as the major gateway between Eriador and the regions to the east. The great Dwarf realm of Khazad-dûm had been established beneath the Misty Mountains earlier in the First Age, flourished for thousands of years, until the unearthing of the Balrog in T. A. 1980. The Dwarves deserted Khazad-dûm, which became known as Moria, it came to be occupied by Orcs and other creatures. In the year 3434 of the Second Age, the High Pass was used by the army of Gil-galad and Elendil when they marched east to Mordor in the War of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.
After this war, Isildur was slain by Orcs watching the way back towards the pass. Halflings had begun to migrate west across the Mountains by the year 1050 of the Third Age. T
Eregion
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Eregion or Hollin was a realm of the Noldorin Elves in eastern Eriador during the Second Age, located near the West Gate of Moria under the shadow of the Hithaeglir, its capital was Ost-in-Edhil. This city was established by the Noldor in the year 750 of the Second Age, located where the Sirannon met the Glanduin; the elves built the Elven-way, to connect Ost-in-Edhil to the West Gate of Moria. It was famous for its holly trees, hence the name in both Sindarin. Eregion was populated by Noldor, for a while ruled by Galadriel and Celeborn, until they left for Lothlórien on the other side of the Misty Mountains; the Elves of Eregion lived in harmony with a Dwarf civilization, namely the kingdom of Khazad-dûm, or Hadhodrond in the Elven tongue. There was great trade between the two realms, facilitated by the Elven-way. After Galadriel and Celeborn had left, Eregion was ruled by grandson of Fëanor. Under his rule the Elves of Eregion became friends with Annatar, Lord of Gifts, created the Rings of Power.
When Annatar was revealed as the Dark Lord Sauron, the Elves of Eregion tried to keep the Rings from falling in Sauron's hands. Outraged, Sauron invaded Eregion in SA 1695 with a large force, two years it was utterly destroyed and many of its people, including Celebrimbor, killed. Sauron took most of the rings for himself, but the Elves managed to rescue Vilya and Nenya. After Eregion's destruction its survivors fled to Lindon, Lothlórien, the refuge of Imladris. In the Third Age, Eregion was a pleasant but unpopulated land, contained many ruins of the Elven civilization that once thrived there. On their way to the Redhorn Gate the Company of the Ring travelled through Hollin. By day they had to hide from flocks of Crebain. After being turned back by Caradhras they were attacked that night by a host of Wargs, their defeat by the mountain, the spying crows during the day and wild wolves by night sealed the Fellowship's decision to journey through Moria. Eregion was added alongside Moria and Lothlórien to The Lord of the Rings Online as an in-game region for the 2008 Mines of Moria expansion pack.
In this expansion, Eregion is depicted as a rugged landscape of holly trees and grasslands, being explored by Dunlendings sent by Isengard looking for remnants of lost ring-lore, as well as men out of Angmar. The landscape is dotted with several Elven ruins from the Second Age, some of which are hubs where the player can receive quests from Elves sent from Rivendell. Several important Epic story-line quests take place in Eregion from Volumes I, II, III. Eregion is depicted in the non-canonical 2004 video game The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. In that game, Eregion is the first area of the game; this version of Eregion includes elven ruins and borders Moria. Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
