Menegroth

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File:Alan Lee - Beleg Departs Menegroth.jpg

Beleg Departs Menegroth by Alan Lee.

Menegroth, the 'Thousand Caves', was the city in the land of Doriath which was home to king Thingol and queen Melian of the Sindarin people. It was there that Thingol was slain by the Dwarven craftsmen of Nogrod. It was later sacked by the sons of Fëanor in pursuit of the one of the Silmarils to have left Morgoth's iron crown prior to the War of Wrath. This description can be found in the Lay of Leithian:

…through corridors of carven dread

whose turns were lit by lanterns hung

or flames from torches that were flung

on dragons hewn in the cold stone

with jewelled eyes and teeth of bone.

Then sudden, deep beneath the earth

the silences with silver mirth

were shaken and the rocks were ringing,

the birds of Melian were singing;

and wide the ways of shadow spread

as into arched halls she led

Beren in wonder. There a light

like day immortal and like night

of stars unclouded, shone and gleamed.

A vault of topless trees it seemed,

whose trunks of carven stone there stood

like towers of an enchanted wood

in magic fast for ever bound,

bearing a roof whose branches wound

in endless tracery of green

lit by some leaf-imprisoned sheen

of moon and sun, and wrought of gems,

and each leaf hung on golden stems.

Lo! there amid immortal flowers

the nightingales in shining bowers

sang o’er the head of Melian,

while water for ever dripped and ran

from fountains in the rocky floor.

There Thingol sat. His crown he wore

of green and silver, and round his chair

a host in gleaming armor fair…

Lay of Leithian, Canto IV, lines 981-1011

This description is remarkably similar to the description of Morgoth's stronghold of Angband (Canto XII, lines 3840-3903), suggesting that in a way these were the opposites: the symbol of the forces of light and its evil counterpart of darkness.