 | |
| Region | |
| Nan Dungortheb | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Other names | Valley of Dreadful Death |
| Location | Beleriand, north of Doriath, south of Dorthonion |
| Type | Region |
| Description | Haunted valley of dread |
| People and History | |
| Inhabitants | Spawn of Ungoliant |
| Destroyed | F.A. 587, Destruction of Beleriand |
| Events | F.A. 464: Beren's Journey to Doriath |
| Gallery | Images of Nan Dungortheb |
Nan Dungortheb was the dreadful valley in northern Beleriand that ran west to east between the haunted mountains of the Ered Gorgoroth and the enchanted northern marches of Doriath.[1]
History
After Ungoliant fled Lammoth and the Balrogs of Morgoth she made her way to the valley below the Ered Gorgoroth. There she bred such horrors that the valley was given the name Nan Dungortheb. After she had departed the land was infested with her offspring.[2] Waters that spilled into the valley from the Ered Gorgoroth were defiled, filling the hearts of those that drank of them with madness and despair. All living things other than the spiders avoided the valley, including the Noldor who would only cross it by paths nearest to Doriath.[3]
When Aredhel, daughter of Fingolfin, attempted to ride eastward across Nan Dungortheb, her party was separated by the shadows. While she succeeded in reaching Himlad, her companions could not find her and were chased away by spiders. Returning to Gondolin, they reported her as lost to Turgon.[4]
Beren, sorely pressed by the forces of Morgoth who sought for him in Dorthonion, passed over the Ered Gorgoroth and crossed Nan Dungortheb from north to south. He never spoke of his journey through this land lest the horror of it return to his mind.[5]
Etymology
The name Nan Dungortheb is translated as "Valley of Dreadful Death",[6] containing the word nan ("valley"), and gor ("horror")[7]
Other versions of the legendarium
The Book of Lost Tales
In The Book of Lost Tales the glade that would afterward be known as Nan Dumgorthin ("the land of the dark idols") was in the northward region of Artanor (Doriath) and was a dark land, with dread wandering beneath its lowering trees no less even than in Tuarfuin (Taur-nu-Fuin).[8]:48 In The Tale of Tinúviel, it was here that Huan came upon, and rescued, Beren and Tinúviel as they were fleeing from the pursuit of Melko's Orcs after retrieving a Silmaril and Beren had his hand bitten off by Karkaras.[8]:48
The Gnomish Lexicon defined Dumgorthin as "a land of dark forests, East of Artanor, where, on a wooded mountain, were hidden idols sacrificed to by some evil tribe of renegade men". Dum meaning "secret, not to be spoken, especially of bad things" and Dungort, dumgort as "an (evil) idol".[9]:31
The Lays of Beleriand
In the Lay of the Children of Húrin, Túrin and Flinding came upon Nan Dungorthin in the dim twilight after the accidental murder of Beleg. It is described as such:[10]
Thus reached they the roots and the ruinous feet
of those hoary hills that Hithlum girdle,
the shaggy pinewoods of the Shadowy Mountains.
There the twain enfolded phantom twilight
and dim mazes dark, unholy,
in Nan Dungorthin where nameless gods
have shrouded shrines in shadows secret,
more old than Morgoth or the ancient lords
the golden Gods of the guarded West.
But the ghostly dwellers of that grey valley
hindered nor hurt them, and they held their course
with creeping flesh and quaking limb.
Yet laughter at whiles with lingering echo,
as distant mockery of demon voices
there harsh and hollow in the hushed twilight
Flinding fancied, fell, unwholesome
as that leering laughter lost and dreadful
that rang in the rocks in the ruthless hour
of Beleg’s slaughter. ‘Tis Bauglir’s voice
that dogs us darkly with deadly scorn’
In the Unwritten Cantos, similar to the Tale of Tinúviel, a consideration was for Beren and Lúthien to be "become lost and bewildered in the dreads of Nan Dungorthin", but now "hunted by phantoms, and snared at last by the great spiders." They would still be rescued by Huan, who would proceed to guide them down Sirion.[11]
See also
- Taur-nu-Fuin: another dark forest, closely located to Nan Dungortheb, which took some of the early legendarium elements from Nan Dungortheb.
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Map of Beleriand and the Lands to the North"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Flight of the Noldor"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of Beleriand and its Realms"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of Maeglin"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of Beren and Lúthien"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Index of Names"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names", entry nan(d)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, "I. The Tale of Tinúviel"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "I-Lam na-Ngoldathon: The Grammar and Lexicon of the Gnomish Tongue", in Parma Eldalamberon XI (edited by Christopher Gilson, Arden R. Smith, and Patrick H. Wynne)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lays of Beleriand, "I. The Lay of the Children of Húrin: III. Failivrin", lines 1472-1490
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lays of Beleriand, "III. The Lay of Leithian: Unwritten Cantos"