Contents of this entry
The end of a long containmentBroken frontiers and promises that survivePrimary referencesRelated encyclopedia entries
The end of a long containment
Before the attack, the Elven realms and their allies maintain defensive lands facing Morgoth’s stronghold. The arrangement is a siege rather than a final victory: the enemy’s continued work behind the guarded frontiers remains a danger.
Fire overruns the northern plains, and Glaurung leads the forces emerging from Angband. The attack does not affect every region identically. Some strongholds continue to resist, while other defences and communities collapse. Treating the battle as one uniform instant obscures the different histories of survival, retreat and loss that follow.
Broken frontiers and promises that survive
Barahir saves Finrod, receiving the king’s promise of aid and the ring that later identifies Beren’s claim upon that promise. The episode links a military rescue to the apparently separate quest for a Silmaril. An act within one battle creates an obligation carried into another story.
Fingolfin’s desperate ride to challenge Morgoth follows his understanding of the catastrophe. His death changes the kingship, while the surviving northern peoples face a landscape whose earlier strategic confidence has been destroyed.
The battle is the fourth of the great battles conventionally counted in the wars of Beleriand. It must be distinguished from the later Nirnaeth Arnoediad: the Bragollach breaks the siege, whereas the later battle defeats the great counter-alliance. Keeping their causes and consequences separate makes the intervening personal stories much easier to follow.
Primary references
The Silmarillion, “Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin” and “Of Beren and Lúthien”; The War of the Jewels, “The Grey Annals”.
