Belegaer

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Belegaer, the Great Sea or the Sundering Seas, is the sea of Arda that is west of Middle-earth.

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Before the Second Age, Belegaer stretched from the Gap of Ilmen in the far north, where a bridge made of ice known as the Helcarax? connected Middle-earth and Aman, to the far south, where it also connected with Ilmen and froze, although no strait was formed there. Belegaer was narrower in the north than in the south, with its widest part near the equator of Arda.

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The full extent of Belegaer after the Akallab?th is never made clear, but it reaches far enough to the north to be ice-covered, and far to the south. Belegaer corresponds with (and is intended to be) the Atlantic Ocean.

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The name is Sindarin, and has the elements Beleg or Might and Aer or E?r, an element meaning Sea which is also present in the name E?rendil (sea-lover).

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The Quenya name of Belegaer, never used in published writing, is Alatair?.

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Before the end of the Second Age, the continent of Aman, home of the Valar, formed the western edge of Belegaer. Before the ruin of Beleriand at the end of the First Age, the sea was narrow and ice-filled in the north, forming the strait of Helcarax?, the Grinding Ice. It was thus possible to cross from Aman to Middle-earth on foot, though with difficulty, as did Fingolfin and his people of the ?oldor when fleeing Valinor.

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After the War of Wrath Belegaer was widened by the drowning of a large part of Middle-earth, and possibly parts of Aman. The bridge of ice in the north was removed, removing land access to the western continent. During the Akalleb?th in the Second Age, the seas were bent and the world was made round. Aman was removed from the world, Belegaer washed "new lands", and only the chosen could find the "Straight Road" to Valinor. The new western end of Belegaer is never described in the narrative, although there are indications that N?men?rean refugees reached them in search for Valinor.

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Belegaer has and had several islands and island chains:

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• Tol Eress?a, the Lonely Isle close to the shore of Aman
• the Twilit Isles or Enchanted Isles seaward of Tol Eress?a
• N?menor (Second Age only)
• the Western Isles (after the First Age)
• Tol Morwen
• Tol Fuin
• Himling
• Balar, in the Bay of Balar (First Age only)
• Tolfalas, in the Bay of Belfalas

Other features of Belegaer:

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• Bay of Eldamar
• Bay of Balar (First Age only)
• the Great Gulf (First Age only)
• Firth of Drengist (First Age only)
• Ice Bay of Forochel (after First Age)
• Gulf of Lune (after First Age)
• Bay of Belfalas (after First Age)

J. R. R. Tolkien: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) is the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings....

Arda: :This article is about the fictional setting. For other uses see Arda (disambiguation)....

Middle-earth: Middle-earth is the name used for the inhabitable parts of J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional Arda (ancient Earth) where the (canonical) stories in his legendarium take place. "Middle-earth" is a literal translation of the Old English term middangeard, referring to this world, the habitable lands of men. T...