Timeline Event
First Battle of Beleriand
Event Type: Military/Strategic
Age: Time of the Trees
Year: 1497
Description:
Table of Contents:The Combatants
The Combatants
— Attacking Forces
— Defensive Forces
The Prelude
The Battle
The Aftermath
Notes
Attacking Forces
"… the Orcs that multiplied in the darkness of the earth grew strong and fell, and their dark lord filled them with a lust of ruin and death…"
" Orcs, who were shod with iron and iron-shielded and bore great spears with broad blades..,"
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 10, Of the Sindar
Defensive Forces
"Thingol…great among the Eldar; for he alone of all the Sindar had seen with his own eyes the Trees in the day of their flowering … he was not accounted among the Moriquendi, but with the Elves of the Light, mighty upon Middle-earth."
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 5, Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië
"Denethor (the lord of Ossiriand … Denethor, friend of Thingol."
The Lost Road and Other Writings, HoME Vol 5, Part 2, Ch 6, Quenta Silmarillion, section 9
Círdan
"…the Elves came in force from Region beyond Aros and from Ossiriand… those of Ossiriand were light-armed, and no match for the Orcs…"
"…the Naugrim that issued from Mount Dolmed..."
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 10, Of the Sindar
The Prelude
"Melkor slew the Trees of the Valar with the aid of Ungoliant, and escaped, and came back to Middle-earth. … the great cry of Morgoth echoed through Beleriand, and all its people shrank for fear; for though they knew not what it foreboded, they heard then the herald of death. … Morgoth, as has before been told, returned to Angband, and built it anew."
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 10, Of the Sindar
The Battle
"Thence on a sudden a great army came into Beleriand and assailed King Thingol. … the Orcs came down upon either side of Menegroth, and from camps in the east between Celon and Gelion, and west in the plains between Sirion and Narog, they plundered far and wide; and Thingol was cut off from Círdan at Eglarest. Therefore he called upon Denethor; and the Elves came in force from Region beyond Aros and from Ossiriand... And the eastern host of the Orcs was taken between the armies of the Eldar, north of the Andram and midway between Aros and Gelion, and there they were utterly defeated..."
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 10, Of the Sindar
"… Denethor was cut off and surrounded upon the hill of Amon Ereb. There he fell and all his nearest kin about him, before the host of Thingol could come to his aid."
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 10, Of the Sindar
The Aftermath
And when Thingol came again to Menegroth he learned that the Orc-host in the west was victorious, and had driven Círdan to the rim of the sea. Therefore he withdrew all his people that his summons could reach within the fastness of Neldoreth and Region, and Melian put forth her power and fenced all that dominion round about with an unseen wail of shadow and bewilderment: the Girdle of Melian, that none thereafter could pass against her will or the will of King Thingol, unless one should come with a power greater than that of Melian the Maia. And this inner land, which was long named Eglador, was after called Doriath, the guarded kingdom, Land of the Girdle. Within it there was yet a watchful peace; but without there was peril and great fear, and the servants of Morgoth roamed at will, save in the walled havens of the Falas.
"[Denethor's] people lamented him ever after and took no king again. After the battle some returned to Ossiriand, and their tidings filled the remnant of their people with great fear, so that thereafter they came never forth in open war, but kept themselves by wariness and secrecy; and they were called the Laiquendi, the Green-elves, because of their raiment of the colour of leaves. But many went north and entered the guarded realm of Thingol, and were merged with his people."
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 10, Of the Sindar
Notes
1. Initially the Battle Under the Stars, Dagor-nuin-Giliath, was the first battle, but Tolkien later changed this, as reflected in The Silmarillion.
Contributors:
Lyllyn 13Aug03, reformatted with links 7Apr05
