Ard-galen

From Tolkien Gateway
Ard-galen
Plain
Marya Filatova - Peaceful Years - Aegnor.jpeg
"Peaceful Years - Aegnor" by Marya Filatova
General Information
Other namesLater known Anfauglith and Dor-nu-Fauglith
LocationSouth of Ered Engrin, west of Ered Luin, north-west of Lothlann, east of Ered Wethrin
TypePlain
DescriptionLarge, green grassy plain
History
DestroyedF.A. 455, Dagor Bragollach
GalleryImages of Ard-galen

Ard-galen (S. ardh "region" + calen "green"), later Anfauglith, was the wide green plain that lay north of the highlands of Dorthonion and south of Morgoth's fortress of Angband in the Iron Mountains, in the First Age.[1]

History[edit | edit source]

In the first days after the rising of the Sun, Ard-galen was a green plain with rich grass, reaching from Hithlum and the Ered Wethrin in the west to the Ered Luin in the east, and rising into highlands of Dorthonion in the south.

In the aftermath of the Dagor-nuin-Giliath, the Battle-under-Stars that was fought when the Host of Fëanor was attacked in Mithrim, the fleeing Orcs were hunted over the mountains and into the plain of Ard-galen. The Orcs were driven into the Fen of Serech and few escaped to return to Angband.[2] Thereafter Ard-galen would be the site of many battles.

The next clash that occurred upon Ard-galen was the Dagor Aglareb, the Glorious Battle in which Morgoth suddenly sent forth a host of Orcs to try the strength of the Elves. As the Orcs assaulted Dorthonion the armies of Fingolfin and Maedhros struck both their flanks. Again the Orcs were routed as the Elves pursued them across Ard-galen to the very gates of Angband, and none of the enemy’s soldiers survived.[2]

During the Siege of Angband, Glaurung assaulted Ard-galen and pushed the Noldor from Ard-galen, which he took and defiled, to Dorthonion and the Ered Wethrin. This victory was short-lived, however, and Glaurung was forced back to Angband when Fingon rode against him with a company of mounted archers.

The plain of Ard-galen was laid waste by rivers of flame and poisonous gases at the beginning of the Dagor Bragollach. Thereafter a desolate waste, it was renamed Anfauglith ("Gasping Dust").[3]

The battle of Nirnaeth Arnoediad was fought in the plain, and the dead piled up in a hill in the midst of the plain, named Haudh-en-Ndengin, the Hill of Slain, by the Elves, and Haudh-en-Nirnaeth, the Hill of Tears, and grass grew again upon the hill and nowhere else in Anfauglith.[4]

Like the other lands around it, Anfauglith sank beneath the waves after the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age.[5]

References