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]

I don't think there is anything in canon about what happened to Balar, but it's not on the Third Age maps or mentioned as one of the bits that still stick up above the waves, so it must have sunk at some point. (I did wonder whether to leave it there and assume it sank when Numenor did though)

But aha! You have very usefully pointed out a mistake in my maps in that I had shown Balar vanishing right at the beginning, which I had not intended to do. My madeup timeline had it being evacuated back to the Falas, and then later from the Falas to Thargelion / Lindon. I'll fix that. It's really confusing all this land-sinking stuff. I was trying to write about it, and kept forgetting which bits were still above water, hence the maps.

We do know that Elrond was at the breaking of Thangorodrim, because he says so in LoTR. He would only be 56 then, so very young in Elf terms, and I'm assuming that if he was there, then so was Elros and probably also Cirdan, Galadriel, Celeborn and Gil-galad. The remnants of the Edain fought in the war too, because that's why they were awarded Numenor as a prize.

So I think that the people left on Balar would be children, people looking after them, and probably old men and women (the Edain are on Balar as well at the start of the war). Plus, presumably, Cirdan's ship maintenance crew people.

The Silmarillion does give the distinct impression that the Valar stormed ashore and it was all over in about two weeks, but what later description there is actually suggests that most of the fighting was done by the Vanyar and Noldor rather than the Valar in person - presumably because if the Valar had fought in person, Beleriand would have been wrecked much faster and everyone in it would have died.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

...I'm inclined to say that Maedhros and Maglor were also at the fall of Thangorodrim, on the grounds that you'd think they would have been there if at all possible, and what else would they be doing...?

[r-blackcat.livejournal.com]

I wonder... Lots to imagine, nothing in canon to be sure of.
I've seen some wise (or at least with a better memory) people discussing that, according to Tolkien, Elrond+Elros were at Thangorodrim, Edain were at Thangorodrim... nothing is said about any beleriandic elves.

About the Valar - alas, I don't remember where I did get it, but I definitely have read somewhere in the HOME that there were NO Valar in "the host of Valar". "The host of Valar" itself was an invention of Christopher, because he was combining several textes, most of them were old and had "the host of Fionwe", but Fionwe son of Manwe was no more, and he was unsure if he can just simply replace it with Eonwe or no, and at last just has written "the host of Valar" and left it at that. As a result we have "the host of Valar" where there were no Valar at all, and nobody knows what exactly was the role of Eonwe. That's how Christopher Tolkien explaned it himself. And JRR Tolkien somewhere says that Valar couldn't go to war because, as you've said, Beleriand (and lots of other lands) would have sunk very quickly.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've seen that: no Valar in the Host of the Valar! I did not know that Christopher created the phrase though. Hurray for Christopher, heroically devoting his life to trying to force his father's muddled notes to make sense.

But from a story-telling point of view I need to explain the general impression you get from the Silmarillion, too. Otherwise the story would make sense only to people who have read HoME and can remember it all (which is not me!). So I am going to have Ulmo involved a bit. After all, Ulmo is involved all along. Ulmo does what he wants :-D.

I'm trying to stay closer to the Silmarillion, and use HoME only for background. So no burned Amrod, and Gil-galad as Fingon's son, which may be a Christopher mistake but I think makes way more sense than the more complicated family tree with Orodreth.

[r-blackcat.livejournal.com]

"Ulmo is involved all along. Ulmo does what he wants :-D." - Yeah, lol, Tolkien himself sometimes thought so!