Dolmed

From Tolkien Gateway
"Who told you, and who sent you?" — Gandalf
This article or section needs more/new/more-detailed sources to conform to a higher standard and to provide proof for claims made.
"I shan't call it the end, till we've cleared up the mess." — Sam
This article or section needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality.
Mount Dolmed
Mountain
Peter Xavier Price - Mount Dolmed.jpg
"Mount Dolmed" by Peter Xavier Price
General Information
LocationIn the central parts of the Blue Mountains
TypeMountain
InhabitantsFirebeards
Broadbeams
GalleryImages of Mount Dolmed

Mount Dolmed was a mountain in the Ered Luin.

History[edit | edit source]

Mount Dolmed loomed over the only known pass from Eriador into Beleriand. According to the Dwarves, it was here that the founders of the Broadbeams and the Firebeards established the Dwarven cities of Nogrod and Belegost.

The two cities were established on the Eastern side of the mountain. A little to the North-east of Dolmed was Belegost, and a little to the South-east was Nogrod.

In Y.T. 1497, the First Battle of Beleriand was fought between the Elves and the forces of Morgoth. In the end, the Elves had the victory and the surviving Orcs fled east toward the Ered Luin. They were, however, met by the Dwarves and were annihilated.

Almost five hundred years later, a battle occurred between the Elves of Doriath and the Dwarves of Nogrod. In F.A. 503, after returning from their victory in Menegroth, the Dwarves were ambushed at Sarn Athrad and slaughtered. The survivors were climbing the slopes of Mount Dolmed when they were waylaid and slain by Ents.

Fate[edit | edit source]

Some Tolkienists such as Robert Foster and Karen Fonstad speculate that after the War of Wrath Dolmed was destroyed when the Ered Luin were broken and the Gulf of Lune broke through it.[1][2]

However, Ronald E. Kyrmse[3] and later Didier Willis[4] independently noted a prominent unidentified mountain exactly on the location of Dolmed in the map of Beleriand as well as Mount Rerir to the north. This, coupled with a reinterpretation of Tolkien's maps, shows that Dolmed at least partially survived the devastation.

Etymology[edit | edit source]

The name means "wet head" in Sindarin, from dol and med. The word for head is used often in Sindarin to refer to hills.

References

  1. Robert Foster, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, page 89
  2. Karen Wynn Fonstad, The Atlas of Middle-earth, p. 37
  3. Ronald Kyrmse, "The Geographical Relation between Beleriand and Eriador" in Mallorn no. 26, September 1989, pp. 25–27
  4. Didier Willis, Bulletin de géographie Hiswelóce, special issue no. 1, Winter 1994 (French); Mystères géographiques n°1 : Mont Dolmed & cités naines (c. 2000), Hiwelokë, accessed March 23rd, 2011 (French); revised and augmented in "Du Beleriand aux confins de Rhûn" in Tolkien, le façonnement d'un monde, vol. 2, 2014, pp. 197-230.