- Eriador
Eriador (the "Lone Lands")Fact|date=August 2008 is a large region in
J. R. R. Tolkien 's fictional world ofMiddle-earth . In theSecond Age , and possibly much earlier, it was largely forested, but theDúnedain felled most of the forests to buildship s. Much of it was encompassed in the earlyThird Age by the kingdom ofArnor , which later split into the rival kingdoms ofRhudaur ,Arthedain andCardolan . The Shire occupies part of the former kingdom of Arthedain, while Bree and its neighbouring villages lie on the border with the former Cardolan. TheBarrow-wight s dwell within ancient burial mounds constructed in the First Age by theEdain as they journeyed toBeleriand Fact|date=August 2008. Other important places in Eriador areRivendell , theGrey Havens and the abandoned kingdoms ofEregion andAngmar . By the time of theWar of the Ring , Eriador was sparsely populated, save for the Shire, Bree-land, Rivendell, the Grey Havens, the Angle south of Rivendell, and villages in western Eriador. Communities of Dwarves still mined theEred Lindon , and a small population of former enemies of Númenor survived in southernMinhiriath .Its boundaries were:
* To the east, theMisty Mountains .
* To the north, the Ice-bay ofForochel , which flooded part of the lands ofMorgoth after theWar of Wrath .
* To the west, the mountains ofEred Lindon .
* To the south, the riversGlanduin andGreyflood and the land ofEnedwaith . After the War of Wrath, part of the southwestern border lies along the shores ofBelegaer .Eriador extended for some 600 miles north-south and 700 miles west-east. It was traversed by the East-West Road running from Rivendell to the Grey Havens and by the Greenway (former North-South Road connecting the kingdoms of Arnor and
Gondor ).Important rivers were the Lune (Elvish "Lhûn "), the Brandywine (Elvish "Baranduin ") and theGreyflood .Depictions
*Eriador is the setting of the initial "
Lord of the Rings Online " game.References
*ME-ref|Atlas|Eriador
*Oberhelman, David D. (2006). "Eriador", in Drout, Michael D. C.: J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge, 17-18. ISBN 0-415-96942-5
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