Minor Places in Middle-earth - L

L

Lake Evendim

(S. Nenuial) Lake in Eriador. Lake Evendim was in the Hills of Evendim north of the Shire. The lake was the source of the Baranduin or Brandywine River.

In the early part of the Second Age, Galadriel and Celeborn may have dwelled in the area around Lake Evendim with many Elves in their following before they moved to Eregion around the year S.A. 700. Men also lived around Lake Evendim in the early part of the Second Age. When the North-kingdom of Arnor was established in S.A. 3320, the High King Elendil had his seat at Annúminas on the shore of Lake Evendim near the mouth of the Baranduin or Brandywine River. One of the palantíri was kept there.

After Arnor was divided into three kingdoms in 861 of the Third Age, the capital was moved to Fornost. Annúminas began to fall into ruin and was eventually abandoned. In the Fourth Age, Annúminas was re-established as the northern capital by Aragorn, King Elessar. In the year 15 of the Fourth Age, the King, and Queen Arwen, came north to dwell by the shores of Lake Evendim for a time.

Evendim means "evening twilight." The Sindarin name was Nenuial meaning "lake of twilight" from "nen" meaning "lake" and "uial" meaning "twilight."

Last Bridge

The crossing point of the river Mitheithel by the Great East Road. The stone bridge of three arches, the river's lowest crossing below its upper reaches in the Ettenmoors, served as an important landmark on the road from Bree to Rivendell, as it was just over halfway between these two points and at least a week's journey east of Bree.

Bilbo Baggins, the dwarves, and Gandalf crossed this bridge in The Hobbit, though it is not specifically mentioned, and their encounter with the trolls occurred in the Trollshaws nearby. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn finds a beryl on the bridge that was left by Glorfindel as a warning that the Nazgûl were searching the Great East Road for the One Ring. Glorfindel mentions waging battle with the Nazgûl upon the bridge, as to make it safe for the Hobbits and Aragorn to reach Rivendell.

Lithlad

(S. 'ash-plain') A region of Mordor to the south of Ered Lithui, upon the outskirts of which the Tower of Barad-dûr stood.

Lond Daer Enedh

This place under the original name Vinyalondë, or 'New Haven', was founded by Númenor's crown prince Aldarion on the estuary of the river Gwathló in the early Second Age. It was the first permanent settlement of the Númenóreans in Middle-earth. From here Aldarion's "Guild Of Venturers" began harvesting the local timber for the shipbuilding industry of Númenor.

Within a few centuries, the deforestation of the outlying regions Enedwaith and Minhiriath became cataclysmic, angering the local native population (ancestors of the Dunlendings), and they began to fight back with increasing ferocity, destroying the haven several times, and frequently burning the great wood-stores in hit-and-run attacks.

By the time of the War of the Elves and Sauron in the middle of the Second Age, this 'New Haven' had become very well established, and its name had shifted over the intervening one thousand years to 'Lond Daer', the Great Haven. As such, it was one of the two beachheads of the Númenórean forces in Eriador that were used to support the Elves around S.A. 1700.

Lond Daer's shipyards were starved of timber following the war, as the forces of Sauron had burnt almost all of what remained in Enedwaith and Minhiriath. Once its shipbuilding yards were no longer practicable, Lond Daer declined in importance, and the Númenórean hunger for ever more wealth shifted focus to the establishment of newer havens to the south, Pelargir and Umbar. Following this, Lond Daer was once again renamed, being now one of several major ports in Middle-earth, and was known as Lond Daer Enedh, or 'Great Middle Haven'. Despite this, Númenor still maintained traffic on the Gwathló as far as the city of Tharbad.

After the Downfall of Númenor, Elendil founded the realm of Arnor in the lands north of Lond Daer, but the haven was now redundant, and fell into ruin. Instead, control over the region was maintained from Tharbad. The ancient ruins of Lond Daer were still visible as late as the end of the Third Age, however, and still featured on maps from that time.

Long Lake

A lake situated at the confluence of the Forest River and the northern reaches of the Celduin south of the Lonely Mountain. The lake gets its name from being longer north-south than it was wide east-west (standing on the west shore where the Forest River emptied into the lake the east could barely be seen, but the north and south could not). The lake emptied out over waterfalls on the southern edge into the River Running that led all the way to the great Sea of Rhûn. The town of Esgaroth was built entirely upon the lake itself, which thus formed a natural moat. It was built very near to the Forest River outlet, but protected from the stream by a promontory of rock. The water in the Lake itself was calm.