Belegost was one of two Dwarven cities located in the Blue Mountains during the First Age in Middle-earth.[1]
History[]
Belegost was one of the seven great kingdoms of the Dwarves.[2] With her sister realm, Nogrod, Belegost was dug deep beneath Mount Dolmed in the Blue Mountains in the long First Age.
Amongst the Dwarves of Belegost were the finest smiths and stone-carvers in Middle-earth. In their armourer's halls they made many bright weapons and were the first people to forge chain-mail. The Dwarves of Belegost traded with the Sindar Elves of Beleriand and supplied them with weapons of incomparably tempered steel; furthermore these Dwarves carved the stone chambers of Menegroth. One of their payments for these services was Nimphelos, a great pearl.[4]
In the First Age, the Dwarves of Belegost and their lord, Azaghâl, won great fame in the War of the Jewels. In the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Dwarves alone could withstand the heat of the Dragon-fire because being a race of smiths were used to great heat and on their helms they wore masks of steel. Their axes that they forged were strong enough to hold the Dragons in check. Though Azaghâl was slain, he wounded Glaurung, the Father of Dragons and the dragon brood fled the battleground, all the way back to Angband.[5] The Dwarves of Belegost were asked by the Dwarves of Nogrod for aid in their battle in the Thousand Caves against Doriath, but were refused.[6]
At the end of the First Age, Belegost was ruined in the War of Wrath, and around the fortieth year of the Second Age, the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains began to migrate to Khazad-dûm, abandoning Nogrod and Belegost.[7]
Although a great many Dwarves did indeed emigrate across Eriador some forty years after the war to join with Durin's Folk in Khazad-dûm, the mountains and flatlands north and west of the Little Lhûn remained Dwarf country.
Additionally, one of Tolkien's earlier maps, as shown by Christopher Tolkien in The Treason of Isengard (and echoed in Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth), still shows Belegost in the Ered Luin in the time of the Third Age, indicating either a limited survival of the city, an indication of its ruins, or an error on the part of these authors.
Inhabitants[]
In the twelfth volume of The History of Middle-earth, The Peoples of Middle-earth, an essay appears entitled Of Dwarves and Men which sheds some light on the people of Belegost. Circumstantial evidence given there suggests that the Dwarves of Belegost were unrelated to Durin's Folk, the Longbeards that appear in Tolkien's better-known work, and instead belonged to a different clan, either the Firebeards or the Broadbeams. The word-order used there suggests that Belegost was founded by the Broadbeams, while nearby Nogrod was populated by the Firebeard clan.
Etymology[]
Belegost was a Sindarin word for "mighty or great fortress", from Beleg, meaning 'strong' or 'mighty', and ost, meaning 'tower', or 'fortress'. Its name in Westron was Mickleburg, and the Khuzdûl name for it was Gabilgathol.[8]
Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Amharic | በለጎስት |
| Arabic | بيليغوست |
| Armenian | Բելեգոստ |
| Assamese | বেলেগোষ্ট |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Белегоста |
| Bengali | বেলেগস্ত |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Белегост |
| Chinese (Hong Kong) | 貝磊勾斯特 |
| Danish | Belegost (Magleborg) |
| Georgian | ბელეგოსტი |
| Greek | βελεγοστ |
| Gujarati | બેલેગસ્ટ |
| Hebrew | בלגוסט |
| Hindi | बेलेगोस्त |
| Japanese | ベレゴスト |
| Kannada | ಬೆಲೆಗೊಸ್ಟ್ |
| Kazakh | Белегост (Cyrillic) Belegost (Latin) |
| Korean | 베레 고스트 |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Бэлэгост |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Белегост |
| Maithili | बेलेगोस्ट |
| Marathi | बेलेगोस्त |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Белегост |
| Nepalese | बेलेगोस्त |
| Pashto | بېلېګوست |
| Persian | بلهگوست |
| Punjabi | ਬੇਲੇਗੋਸ੍ਤ |
| Russian | Белегост |
| Sanskrit | बेलेगोस्त् |
| Sindhi | بيلگوسٽ |
| Sinhalese | බෙලෙගොස්ත් |
| Serbian | Белегост (Cyrillic) Belegost (Latin) |
| Tajik Cyrillic | Белегост |
| Tamil | பெலோகோஸ்ட் |
| Telugu | బెలెగోష్ |
| Thai | เบเลกอสต์ |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Белеґост |
| Urdu | بالیگوسٹ |
| Uzbek | Белегост (Cyrillic) Belegost (Latin) |
| Yiddish | בעלעגאָסט |
| Dwarven realms of Middle-earth throughout the Ages | |
|---|---|
| Years of the Trees and First Age: | Amon Rûdh | Belegost | Khazad-dûm | Mount Gundabad | Nogrod | Narukuthûn | Blue Mountains |
| Second Age: | Khazad-dûm | Belegost | Nogrod | Mount Gundabad | Blue Mountains | Iron Hills |
| Third Age: | Grey Mountains | Iron Hills | Khazad-dûm | Lonely Mountain | Blue Mountains | Dunland |
| Fourth Age: | Glittering Caves | Khazad-dûm | Lonely Mountain | Blue Mountains | Iron Hills |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Silmarillion (inside cover), "Map of Beleriand and the Lands to the North"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth, X: "Of Dwarves and Men"
- ↑ The Atlas of Middle-earth, Thematic Maps, "Languages"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter X: "Of the Sindar"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XX: "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XXII: "Of the Ruin of Doriath"
- ↑ The Atlas of Middle-earth, The Second Age, "Refugee Relocation"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, Index of Names