War of Wrath III : the Mappening

[bunn]

I had difficulty visualising how I thought the Downfall of Beleriand might have happened, so I borrowed some maps and mangled them horribly to show the progress of events and particularly the change in the coast.
(The first and last two dates are from  The War of the Jewels, HoME Vol 11: I made the rest up. )


545 : the Host of the Valar arrive in Middle Earth.  Noldor land at Mouths of Sirion, Vanyar land at Eglarest.

559: attack from the east on Bay of Balar, counterattack takes out lower Gelion

563: Balrog attacks from Nevrast repulsed

565: giant flood magic on River Sirion

577 Ulmo takes action on dragon infestation in Doriath & Brethil

583 Ered Luin, Nogrod, Belegost, attacked by fleeing Balrog.  Gulf of Lune created

587 : Victory in Middle Earth

590 : Melkor thrust through the Doors of Night into the Everlasting Darkness, Angband area collapses.

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The Silmarillion says :" For so great was the fury of those adversaries that the northern regions of the western world were rent asunder, and the sea roared in through many chasms... and rivers perished or found new paths, and the valleys were upheaved and the hills trod down." (and very little else!)

So I'm assuming that a lot of the land was magically sunk, that the sinking was done in a number of battles, rather than all at once (because the war took 43 years, but quite a few people did survive it) and that places where there are big mountains before might now be fathoms deep.

Thangorodrim, which is the big triple volcano thing at the top, got broken right at the end of the war, when a giant dragon fell on it, CRUNCH :-D

I suppose I could have put the maps up locked to just me : I wanted to shove them all into a post because it's a handy way of having them all on one big scrollable page where I can quickly find them on any machine. Still, if you liked them, maybe leaving them public was the thing!