Timeline Event
Fell Winter — First Age
Event Type: Environment/Disease
Age: 1st Age
Dates: November 1, 0495 ~ March 30, 0496
Description:
The long, cold winter in Beleriand beginning in the year 495 First Age, after the fall of Nargothrond:
Winter of 495-6 is the Fell Winter with ice and snow from November to March (5 months).
The War of the Jewels, HoME Vol 11, Part 3, Ch 1, The Wanderings of Húrin
495....
§ 277. Therefore Túrin sped now back to Nargothrond.... And the leaves fell from the trees in a great wind as they went, for the autumn was passing to a dire winter. And one, Ornil, said: 'Even so fall the people of Nargothrond, but for them there shall come no Spring.'
The War of the Jewels, HoME Vol 11, Part 1, The Grey Annals
And Túrin hastened along the ways to the north, through the lands now desolate between Narog and Teiglin, and the Fell Winter came down to meet him; for in that year snow fell ere autumn was passed, and spring came late and cold....
At last worn by haste and the long road... he came with the first ice of winter to the pools of Ivrin.... But they were now but a frozen mire, and he could drink there no more.
Thus he came hardly by the passes of Dor-lómin, through bitter snows from the north, and found again the land of his childhood. Bare and bleak it was....
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 21, Of Túrin Turambar
[Túrin] fled out into the winter, a hunted man; but he was aided by some that remained of Hador's people and knew the ways of the wild, and with them he escaped through the falling snow....
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 21, Of Túrin Turambar
But when that ship returning at last out of the deep ocean foundered in the great storm..., Ulmo... cast [Voronwë] onto the land near Vinyamar; and learning of the command laid upon Tuor by the Lord of Waters Voronwë... did not refuse him his guidance to the hidden door of Gondolin. Therefore they set out together from that place, and as the Fell Winter of that year came down upon them out of the north they went warily eastward under the eaves of the Mountains of Shadow.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 23, Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin
[The] outlaws were long inured to the hard life of hunters and gatherers, and they brought with them such food as they could, though the Fell Winter had much diminished their store.
The War of the Jewels, HoME Vol 11, Part 3, Ch 1, The Wanderings of Húrin
Now new tidings came to Doriath concerning Nargothrond, for some that had escaped from the defeat and the sack, and had survived the Fell Winter in the wild, came at last to Thingol seeking refuge....
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 21, Of Túrin Turambar
Notes
Note that there is another Fell Winter in Eriador during the Third Age.
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 18Sep08, 21Sep08
