Blue Mountains

File:Ered Luin.mp3
	File:Ered Luin.mp3
	By Ardamir. (Media help)

The Blue Mountains (Ered Luin in Sindarin), also known as the Ered Lindon, was the mountain range at the far west of Eriador.

In the Beginning

During the creation of Arda, the Blue Mountains were meant to line up directly with the Grey Mountains of the southlands, forming the western wall of Arda. They lay parallel to the Red Mountains and Yellow Mountains that formed the eastern wall. The Blue Mountains were originally connected with the Red Mountains by the Iron Mountains which stretched across the entire north. The symmetry of Arda was broken during the wars between the Valar and Melkor in the ages before the Years of the Lamps.

Before and During the First Age

In the First Age, the Blue Mountains were an unbroken line separating Eriador from Beleriand. Seven rivers flowed from its western side, and the land these rivers flowed through was known as Ossiriand. Later, when the Green Elves settled there, the land was called Lindon, and the mountains sometimes referred to as the Ered Lindon.

Two Dwarven clans, the Firebeards and Broadbeams, built their great cities in the Blue Mountains. They were Nogrod and Belegost, respectively.

After the First Age

The Blue Mountains were ruined during the War of Wrath, and at the middle of the range the sea broke through. The River Lhûn now flowed through the mountains to the Gulf of Lhûn. On the west side of the Blue Mountains a small section of Lindon remained, and here the retreating Elves built the Kingdom of Lindon, ruled by Ereinion Gil-galad, last High King of the Noldor. Its most important city was the Grey Havens, from where departing Elves left Middle-earth for Valinor.

The Dwarven cities of Nogrod and Belegost were also ruined when the Blue Mountains were broken. Nogrod in the North was completely destroyed and Belegost in the South was ruined beyond repair. Many surviving Dwarves fled east to Khazad-dûm. Some, however, remained in the Blue Mountains, working the lesser iron mines that survived the destruction, unable to rebuild their great ancestral homes.