Lune

The River Lune (called Lhûn in the Elvish tongue) flows through the far northwest of Middle-earth, descending from the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin) and emptying into the great Gulf of Lune on the western coast. Its course defines the eastern edge of Lindon, the last remaining Elvish kingdom in Middle-earth, and forms the western boundary of the Shire beyond the Far Downs. The river is not merely a geographical feature but a threshold between two worlds: east of it lies the mortal land of the Hobbits and the dwindling realms of Men; west of it, the Grey Havens (Mithlond) stand at the river's mouth, where Círdan the Shipwright builds and launches the white ships that carry the Eldar into the Uttermost West.

Geography and Course

The Lune rises in the southern reaches of the Blue Mountains, a range that had been the home of Dwarves since the Elder Days. It runs south-westward through a green and quiet country where no Men dwelt, as the Red Book records, and where the Elves of Lindon still lingered in the Third Age. The river's lower valley widens into the long firth of Lune, a deep sea-inlet that provides sheltered harbourage for the Elven ships. At the head of this firth, on the southern shore, lies the Grey Havens, the chief haven of the Eldar in Middle-earth. The river's total length is not given in any surviving map or chronicle, but it is described as a substantial watercourse, navigable by the small craft that ply between the Havens and the upland regions.

The Grey Havens and the Elven Ships

The mouth of the Lune is the site of Mithlond, the Grey Havens, the principal port from which the Elves of Middle-earth take ship for Valinor. Círdan the Shipwright, lord of the Havens, dwelt there throughout the Third Age, and it was from this harbour that the Last Riding of the Keepers of the Rings departed at the end of the Age, bearing Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel into the West. The Havens had two main quays: the Harlond on the south side and the Forlond on the north, both capable of receiving the great ships of the Númenóreans when King Eärnur brought a fleet from Gondor to overthrow the Witch-king of Angmar in 1975 of the Third Age. The river's estuary thus served as the stage for the final departure of the High Elves from Middle-earth.

The Tower Hills and the Palantír

On the southern side of the Lune, beyond the western marches of the Shire, rise the Tower Hills (Emyn Beraid). Upon the highest of these hills stood a white tower that housed one of the seven Palantíri, the Seeing-stones of Númenor. This stone was unlike the others: it looked only westward across the Sea, and Elendil set it there so that he might gaze upon Eressëa, the lost island of the Eldar, though the bent seas below concealed Númenor forever. The tower was guarded by the Elves, and the stone remained there until Círdan placed it aboard Elrond's ship at the end of the Third Age. The Hobbits of the Westfarthing said that from the top of that tower one could see the Sea, though no Hobbit had ever climbed it; indeed, few Hobbits had ever seen or sailed upon the Sea, and most regarded even rivers and small boats with deep misgivings.

The Boundary of the Shire

The Lune forms the western limit of the Shire's expansion. In the year 1452 of Shire-reckoning, King Elessar granted the Westmarch—the land from the Far Downs to the Tower Hills—to the Hobbits, extending their territory to the very banks of the Lune. The Fairbairns of the Towers, descendants of Samwise Gamgee's daughter Elanor, became the Wardens of the Westmarch and dwelt at Undertowers on the Tower Hills, keeping watch over the border between the Shire and the Elven country. The river thus became the final frontier of the Hobbit realm, a quiet boundary beyond which lay the green and silent land of Lindon, where no Men went and where the Elves still sang of the Elder Days before the fading of the world.