Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains, known in the Elvish tongue as Ered Luin, stand as the great western rampart of Middle-earth, a range that separates the wide lands of Eriador from the sea-coasts beyond. In the geography of the Third Age, they are the westernmost of the great mountain chains of the known world, and their name carries with it the memory of ages far older than the events of the War of the Ring. They are the ancestral home of the Dwarves, the place where that folk first awoke and where their oldest halls were delved, and they remain a constant presence on the western edge of the map of Middle-earth, a boundary and a refuge alike.

Geography and Ancient History

The Blue Mountains are the westernmost of the great mountain ranges of Middle-earth, running roughly north to south and forming the natural frontier between the region of Eriador and the lands that lie beyond toward the sea. In the ancient days of the First Age, they were far more extensive, and their roots stretched into the drowned land of Beleriand, which now lies beneath the waves. The range was once the home of the Dwarves of the far west, and it was here that the great Dwarven city of Nogrod and Belegost stood, though these were destroyed or abandoned in the cataclysms that ended the First Age. The mountains themselves survived the ruin of Beleriand, and they remained a place of Dwarven habitation long after the lands to the west had sunk beneath the sea. In the Third Age, the Blue Mountains are the westernmost of the great mountain chains of the known world, and their name carries with it the memory of ages far older than the events of the War of the Ring.

The Dwarves of the Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are above all the home of the Dwarves, and it is to these western halls that many of that folk returned after the disasters that befell their other kingdoms. When the great Dwarven realm of Khazad-dûm, or Moria, was lost to the Balrog, and when the lonely mountain of Erebor was taken by the dragon Smaug, many Dwarves fled westward to the Blue Mountains, where they dwelt in exile and in diminished numbers. It was from these western halls that Thorin Oakenshield, the heir of the line of Durin, set out on his quest to reclaim Erebor, and it was to the Blue Mountains that he and his companions returned after their adventures, before the quest that would lead them to the Lonely Mountain. The Blue Mountains thus serve as a place of refuge and of renewal for the Dwarves, a homeland to which they can retreat when their other holdings are lost, and from which they can sally forth when the time for great deeds arrives.

The Western Edge of the Hobbits' World

For the Hobbits of the Shire, the Blue Mountains mark the far western edge of their known world, a distant and little-understood boundary beyond which lie the Grey Havens and the sea. The Hobbits themselves came from the east, having crossed the Misty Mountains in ages past, and they have no memory of ever dwelling in the Blue Mountains. Yet the range is a constant presence on the western horizon of their imagination, a place associated with the Elves and with the sea, and with the departure of those who leave Middle-earth forever. When the Hobbits of the Shire speak of the West, it is the Blue Mountains that form the last great landmark before the journey to the Grey Havens, and it is beyond these mountains that the Elves and the Ring-bearers pass when they take ship and sail into the West at the end of the Third Age.

The Blue Mountains in the War of the Ring

The Blue Mountains play a largely distant and indirect role in the events of the War of the Ring, yet they remain a point of reference and a place of significance throughout the tale. When Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee find themselves lost in the Emyn Muil, they look out over the lands to the east and south, toward Mordor, and the contrast between that dark and desolate region and the far western mountains of their homeland is implicit in their despair. The Blue Mountains are also the place from which the Dwarves of the west might have come to the aid of the free peoples, and they are mentioned as a source of strength and of hope in the darkest days of the war. After the fall of Sauron, the Blue Mountains remain a place of Dwarven habitation, and they are counted among the realms that endure into the Fourth Age, a lasting monument to the endurance of the Dwarves and to the memory of the ancient world.

Significance and Legacy

The Blue Mountains stand as a symbol of endurance and of memory in the geography of Middle-earth. They are the oldest of the great mountain ranges, a remnant of a world that has otherwise passed away, and they carry within them the history of the Dwarves from their first awakening to the end of the Third Age. They are also a boundary, marking the edge of the known world and the threshold of the sea, and they serve as a reminder of the wider world that lies beyond the lands of the Hobbits and the Men of the West. In the narrative of the War of the Ring, the Blue Mountains are a distant and constant presence, a place of refuge and of origin, and a symbol of the enduring strength of the Dwarves and of the ancient peoples of Middle-earth.