Eriador
the wide empty land where Arnor fell
The Story
Eriador was once the body of the North-kingdom of Arnor, founded by Elendil himself when he came up out of the drowning of Númenor. For a few centuries it stood, Annúminas on the shores of Lake Evendim, Fornost on the northern downs, the white star of the kingship in the night. Then it broke into three quarrelling realms; then the Witch-king of Angmar warred them down; then there was no king at all.
By the Third Age's end Eriador is the wide silent land where the great deeds of the lost king's forefathers happened, and where now strangers ride past Weathertop in ruin without knowing what tower once stood there. The Rangers walk the empty roads keeping the peace no one knows is being kept; the kingship sleeps in Rivendell waiting for one last Strider to come south to claim it.
The Land
A wide trough between two mountain walls, the Blue Mountains on the west, the Misty Mountains on the east. The river Greyflood runs the centre to the sea.
- The Shire, small green country in the foothills of the Blue Mountains.
- Bree-land, the cluster of villages at the meeting of the East-West Road and the Greenway.
- Weathertop (Amon Sûl), the lonely hill on the East Road; ruined watchtower of Arnor at its summit.
- Rivendell (Imladris), Elrond's hidden valley at the western foot of the Misty Mountains.
- Lake Evendim (Nenuial), the lake just north of the Shire, where Annúminas once stood.
- Hollin (Eregion), the empty southlands at the western foot of the Misty Mountains; once home to the Elves who forged the Three Rings.