The Blue Mountains

[silverfoxdmt73]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to TOR and Middle Earth and was wondering if there was much information available on the Blue Mountains, particularly in the timeline of the TOR/AiME game.

I am looking to write a campaign that sees my company travel to the Blue Mountains, in search of the dwarven settlements there, but I'm unsure as to what they will find when they arrive (in terms of canon).

I've found some info, which is repeated here:

Belegost was one of the seven great kingdoms of the Dwarves and home to the Dwarvish clan the Broadbeams.[2] With her sister realm, Nogrod, Belegost was dug deep beneath Mount Dolmed in the Blue Mountains in the Ages ofStars.
Amongst the Dwarves of Belegost were the finest smiths and stone-carvers inMiddle-earth. In their armourer's halls they made many bright weapons and were the first people to forge chain-mail. The Dwarves of Belegost traded with the Sindar Elves of Beleriand and supplied them with weapons of incomparably tempered steel; furthermore these Dwarves carved the stone chambers of Menegroth. One of their payments for these services wasNimphelos, a great pearl.[3]
In the First Age of the Sun, the Dwarves of Belegost and their lord, Azaghâl, won great fame in the War of the Jewels. In the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Dwarves alone could withstand the heat of the Dragon-fire because being a race of smiths were used to great heat and on their helms they wore masks of steel. Their axes too that they forged were strong enough to hold the Dragons in check. Though Azaghâl was slain, he wounded Glaurung, the Father of Dragons and the Dragon brood fled the battleground, all the way back to Angband.[4] The Dwarves of Belegost were asked by the Dwarves of Nogrod for aid in their war against Doriath, but were refused.[5]
Yet as valiant as the Dwarves were, neither Belegost nor Nogrod survived the First Age of the Sun. For when the War of Wrath was fought at the end of the Age, Beleriand and the Blue Mountains were broken apart in the struggle and all the land and mountains shifted and collapsed into the sea. Those Dwarves that did not perish in this ruin fled to the mansions of Khazad-dûm.[6]
Nogrod was one of two Dwarven cities in the Blue Mountains. Nogrod lay in the middle of the mountain range, near Mount Dolmed where the Dwarf-Roadof Beleriand crossed into Eriador.[1]
Nogrod was home to the great Dwarven smiths Gamil Zirak and Telchar.

The realm of Nogrod was delved and founded not long after the awakening of the Dwarves and was home to the Dwarven House known as the Firebeards.[2]They soon met the Elves of Beleriand and established a trading relationship with them. For many centuries, the trade relations grew strong and the Dwarves of Nogrod were employed by Thingol, the King of Doriath and helped in the delving of the caves of Menegroth, and creation of treasuries and weapons. The dwarves trafficked to and from the Beleriand and their sister city of Belegost on a long road that ran from Belegost to Nogrod into the Beleriand, and finally to Menegroth.[4]
Eöl, the Dark Elf often went there, as did his son Maeglin. While initially friendly to the Elves of Beleriand, the Dwarves of Nogrod killed Thingol ofDoriath in his treasury after having crafted the treasure of Nauglamir for him, and they returned to sack the city after the departure of Melian and her protective Girdle of Melian.[5]
On their way back from their sacking of the ancient Elven realm, they were hunted down by Beren Erchamion and killed by his army of Laiquendi and a group of Ents. Despite that utter defeat, the city apparently survived the rest of the First Age.[6] Along with Belegost to the north, Nogrod was utterly destroyed during the War of Wrath, when the Blue Mountains were broken and the Gulf of Lune flowed into Eriador.[7][8]

Mount Dolmed was a mountain located in the ancient Blue Mountains.
The Dwarven cities of Nogrod and Belegost were established near Mount Dolmed
Mount Dolmed loomed over the only known pass from Eriador into Beleriand. It was here that according to the Dwarves two of the Fathers of the Dwarves, the founders of the Broadbeams and the Firebeards, awoke.[2] Their descendants later established the Dwarven cities of Nogrod and Belegost.
After the War of Wrath the Blue Mountains were broken at the location of Mount Dolmed and an arm of the sea, the Gulf of Lune, broke through it. Mount Dolmed was completely destroyed together with Nogrod.

My question then, is what if any, dwarven settlements are there in the Blue Mountains that are currently (as of the core TOR timeline) inhabited?

[Finrod Felagund]

Hi Silver Fox

Our resident expert who's posted stuff on this is Otaku-sempai. If he doesn't spot this, drop him a PM.

FF

[silverfoxdmt73]

Hi Silver Fox

Our resident expert who's posted stuff on this is Otaku-sempai. If he doesn't spot this, drop him a PM.

FF

Cheers. Will do.

[Terisonen]

In Southern Blue Mountain, yes. There was always dwarf settlement here (albeit small one, as much as we guess).

[StuartJ]

Hi Silver Fox

Our resident expert who's posted stuff on this is Otaku-sempai. If he doesn't spot this, drop him a PM.

FF

Should Otaku-sempai take time to appear, check out his posts about his homebrew campaign in this area for food for thought in the meantime! They make for great reading.

A quick look in the Palantir suggests...

• The Halls of the Dwarves (in the Blue Mountains)
• Western Eriador: Southern Blue Mountains
• Thorin's Halls as an Embassy of Erebor

[Otaku-sempai]

As Terisonen notes, JRRT wrote in LotR Appendix A that Dwarves occupied the southern Blue Mountains continuously from the First Age to at least into the Fourth. The text also suggests that other settlements persisted in the northern range where Thrain II established the colony of Durin's Folk where Thorin Oakenshield had his halls.

The upcoming Journeys & Maps shows a settlement called the Halls of the Dwarves in the northern Blue Mountains, at or near the source of the Lesser Lune. It is not clear whether or not this is where Thorin's Halls were located. Comparing the maps for The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, the ruins of Belegost should be about 25 miles south of the Halls of the Dwarves, and the remains of Nogrod another twenty miles further south. Mount Dolmed should be the mountain on the western side of the range opposite from Belegost and Nogrod, just north of the large patch of forest. Some ninety miles north of Dolmed should be the site of Mount Rerir where the HIgh Elf Caranthir constructed a fortress in the First Age. The fortress was taken in the aftermath of Dagor Bragollach, the fourth of the great battles of the Wars of Beleriand; however, the chances are that not much of the fortress survived the fall of Morgoth. It is entirely possible that Wondrous Artefacts and Famous Weapons and Armour from the First Age might be found in any of those ruins of the Elves or Dwarves. One such suggestion: the great, white pearl Nimphelos, given to the Lord of the Dwarves of Belegost by Thingol for the delving of Menegroth, might still by lying in some ancient vault.

I have conceived of a Dwarf-city called Hargrod in the southern Blue Mountains on the south side of the line of hills that stretch to the east. I've written about it in my post on the Southern Blue Mountains in the House Rules forum: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=4501. One change I have considered is that Hargrod might have been founded as early as in the First Age. I also came of with a name for that extension of hills: the Emyn Romen (Hills of the Sunrise).

Tolkien never provided a name for the river in Forlindon that stretches from the northern Blue Mountains to the Gulf of Lune. I've called it the Linduin (Singing River), but it could also be named Gelion. in honor of the similar watercourse that existed in the First Age, or alternately Vingelion (New Gelion) or even just the River Forlindon. Between the Gulf of Lune and the Ice Bay of Forochel lies the Bay of Thargelion (named by me) which once had a lighthouse, built by the High Elves, at its northern point.

[silverfoxdmt73]

Thanks for the replies. I will be looking in detail at the links provided.

Thanks to Otaku-sempai for all the work you've put in so far. Much appreciated and will likely be used.

[Otaku-sempai]

One thing I've never been completely certain of is the northern border of Forlindon. Does it end at the site of Mount Rerir, where Maglor's Gap would have been in the First Age? Or does it continue along the northernmost arm of the Blue Mountains almost to the Ice Bay of Forochel? The answer might affect the climate of that last strip of land west of the mountains. It might also affect my location for the lair of the Ice-drake that I placed in the northern Blue Mountains. She would probably not have laired in the ruin of a High Elf fortress if Noldor still inhabited the region.

[Finrod Felagund]

One thing I've never been completely certain of is the northern border of Forlindon. Does it end at the site of Mount Rerir, where Maglor's Gap would have been in the First Age? Or does it continue along the northernmost arm of the Blue Mountains almost to the Ice Bay of Forochel? The answer might affect the climate of that last strip of land west of the mountains. It might also affect my location for the lair of the Ice-drake that I placed in the northern Blue Mountains. She would probably not have laired in the ruin of a High Elf fortress if Noldor still inhabited the region.

To my knowledge there's nothing official, but in reality it probably ends pretty much at Rerir. By TA2950 There would have been Elves in the 3 main settlements (mainly descendants of the Falathrim presumably) and I believe that Unfinished Tales mentioned that men living in Eryn Vorn could hear singing in Harlindon which I take to mean the remnants of the Laiquendi or Silvan Elves who arrived later. Maybe a population of 5000 Elves in total? I suspect that any population in Forlindon would either be wandering companies from Forlond or Silvan Elves and that the area as a whole was pretty uninhabited.

However the evidence is thin and I might be wrong so LMs have room to invent their own stuff - as you know from stuff I've privately sent you. I am actually pretty sceptical about a Dragon living in the Blue Mountains, but who cares as they're fun!

[Otaku-sempai]

However the evidence is thin and I might be wrong so LMs have room to invent their own stuff - as you know from stuff I've privately sent you. I am actually pretty sceptical about a Dragon living in the Blue Mountains, but who cares as they're fun!

I don't really see much of an objection of a dragon, possibly injured, fleeing from the destruction of Angband and sheltering in the northern Blue Mountains, though possibly closer to the Ice Bay of Forochel and further from the ruin of Caranthir's fortress--though the stronghold had been taken by Orcs during the battle of Dagor Bragollach, making it a more likely lair than it might have been otherwise. The Ice-drake could be far enough north to not present a strong danger to the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, especially if it has taken a long time for her to rebuild her strength.