Amon Ereb

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Amon Ereb (S. amon "hill" + ereb "isolated, lonely") was the broad, shallow-sided hill that dominated the southern plains of East Beleriand.[1]

The hill was the highest point in that region and the easternmost hill of Andram, which was standing alone, it had tremendous strategic importance, because it guarded the eastern passage around the Long Wall of the Andram into the southern parts of Beleriand and the northern Taur-im-Duinath.[2]

It was here that Denethor of the Nandor met his end in the First Battle.[3] Much later, Caranthir fortified it to guard his escape into the south after the Dagor Bragollach[4] and the Feanoreans withdrew there after Nirnaeth Arnoediad.[5]

The hill was also called Ereb for short.

Fate

A small circle appears in Forlindon on Tolkien's early draft map for The Lord of the Rings[6]. Christopher Tolkien cannot explain this feature[7] and notes that in his own 1943 redrawn map, the circular area is no longer present[8]. If one does a correct collage of Beleriand and Eriador maps, however, the small circular map seems to coincide with Amon Ereb[9]. This might suggest that Amon Ereb was once thought to have survived the submersion of Beleriand, although there is no textual evidence for it.

References

  1. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of Beleriand and its Realms"
  2. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Map of Beleriand and the Lands to the North"
  3. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Sindar"
  4. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin"
  5. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Two. The Later Quenta Silmarillion: Of Beleriand its Realms (Chapter 11)"
  6. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Treason of Isengard, p. 302
  7. Ibid., p. 301.
  8. Ibid., p. 322.
  9. See notably the maps reconstructed by Charles Noad, "A Note on the Geography of the First Age" in Amon Hen no. 38, April 1979, reprinted in Mallorn no. 27, September 1990, p. 40; Ronald Kyrmse, "The Geographical Relation between Beleriand and Eriador" in Mallorn no. 26, September 1989, pp. 25–27; Didier Willis, "Du Beleriand aux confins de Rhûn (French) in Tolkien, le façonnement d'un monde (2014), vol. 2, pp. 217-212.