Places in Middle-earth
Sea of Helcar
Type: Seas, Oceans, Bays
Region: Other Middle-earth
Location: An inland sea in the far northeast of Middle-earth during the Elder days; Cuiviénen, where the Elves awoke, was a bay of Helcar.
Description:
In the changes of the world the shapes of lands and of seas have been broken and remade...; and to Cuiviénen there is no returning. But it is said among the Elves that it lay far off in the east of Middle-earth, and northward, and it was a bay in the Inland Sea of Helcar; and that sea stood where aforetime the roots of the mountain of Illuin had been before Melkor overthrew it. Many waters flowed down thither from heights in the east, and the first sound that was heard by the Elves was the sound of water flowing, and the sound of water falling over stone.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 3, Of The Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor
And on a time it chanced that Oromë rode eastward in his hunting, and he turned north by the shores of Helcar and passed under the shadows of the Orocarni, the Mountains of the East.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 3, Of The Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor
Etymology
kheliek- 'ice' in Helcar, Helcaraxë (Quenya helka 'icy, ice-cold').
The Silmarillion, Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names
Contributors: Elena Tiriel 19Nov05