Belegost

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Belegost
Mark Fisher - Belegost.gif
General information
Other namesGabilgathol, Mickleburg[1]
LocationBlue Mountains, north-east of Mount Dolmed
People
PopulationDwarves of Belegost
LanguageKhuzdul, Sindarin
GovernanceLord of Belegost
History
FoundedBetween Y.T. 1050 and Y.T. 1250[2][3]
DestroyedF.A. 587
AbandonedS.A. 40

Belegost was one of two great Dwarven cities in the Ered Luin.

Description

Belegost lay in the north central part of the Ered Luin, north of Nogrod and northeast of Mount Dolmed,[4] guarding one of the only passes through the mountain range.[5]

History

Belegost was home to the Dwarves of Belegost. During the mid First Age its king until Nirnaeth Arnoediad was Azaghâl.[6]

Belegost was probably founded sometime between Y.T. 1050 and Y.T. 1250.[7][8]

At the end of the First Age, Belegost was ruined in the War of Wrath,[9] and around the fortieth year of the Second Age the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains began to migrate to Khazad-dûm, abandoning Nogrod and Belegost.[10] However, there always remained some Dwarves on the eastern side of the Blue Mountains in days afterwards.[11]

Additionally, one of Tolkien's earlier maps, as shown by Christopher Tolkien in The Treason of Isengard (and also echoed in Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth) still shows Belegost in the Ered Luin in the time of the Third Age, indicating that Belegost may have survived the upheavals of the Second and early Third Ages, or that at least a more recognizable mansion had persisted therein than at Nogrod.

Etymology

Belegost (beleg + ost) was a Sindarin translation of the original Dwarvish name Gabilgathol and both mean "Great City". Unlike other names of the Silmarillion, the text also gives us an English rendering, which was possibly from Westron: Mickleburg.[1] Mickle is a root meaning "big"; see also Michel Delving.

The city's Khuzdul name Gabilgathol contains the elements gabil "great" and gathol "fortress".

Túrosto was the name in Quenya for Belegost.[12]

In adaptations

In The Atlas of Middle-earth the fortress is incorrectly called Gabilgathod.[13]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Sindar"
  2. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Sindar"
  3. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals and Related Writings — Part Two" (edited by Patrick H. Wynne), in Vinyar Tengwar, Number 48, December 2005, p. 24 ("...which had certainly been founded long ago ... before the coming of the exiled Noldor, probably before the Eldar of the Great Journey ever reached Beleriand")
  4. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Map of Beleriand and the Lands to the North"
  5. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals and Related Writings — Part Two" (edited by Patrick H. Wynne), in Vinyar Tengwar, Number 48, December 2005, p. 24 ("But the Dwarves had built some great Mansions in those mountains [the Ered Luin] (commanding the only passes)")
  6. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad"
  7. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Sindar"
  8. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals and Related Writings — Part Two" (edited by Patrick H. Wynne), in Vinyar Tengwar, Number 48, December 2005, p. 24 ("...which had certainly been founded long ago ... before the coming of the exiled Noldor, probably before the Eldar of the Great Journey ever reached Beleriand")
  9. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, "Durin's Folk"
  10. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Second Age"
  11. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn", "Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn" p. 235
  12. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Four. Quendi and Eldar: Appendix B. Elvish names for the Dwarves", p. 389
  13. Karen Wynn Fonstad, The Atlas of Middle-earth, Beleriand and the Lands to the North, Map