Hithaeglir (Misty Mountains)

The primary purpose of this topic is to post some topographic info on the northeastern part of Eriador, but as topics have a tendency to take unexpected directions, it might end up to cover other areas, too.



According to various other maps, not all details in the above map are quite correct - additional info will be given in supplementary post, when needed in other topics.

Questions are welcome.

Names of the northeastern part of Eriador, from North to South:


Coldfells:


Mount Gram:


Trollfells, aka Ettenmoors:

Ettendales, incl. Hoardale

Trollshaws:


The Great East Road, aka The Old Dwarf Road:

[Bree] > The Last Bridge > the Ford of Bruinen > [The High Pass]

The High Pass: Cirith Forn en Andrath "The High-climbing Pass of the North" over the Misty Mountains east of Rivendell. Called 'the High Pass' and 'the Pass of Imladris'.

The Angle:

Edited by Námo, 18 March 2011 - 04:59 PM.

From a SEE forum:

... Coldfells is to the north of the Ettenmoors.

Im looking at my maps here Namo, and Im not seeing any that have the coldfells north of ettenmoors. on each Ive seen the coldfells are southeast of the ettenmoors north of rivendell in Rhuadaur. Its a small matter, and its really not important whos right or wrong.

In fact nobody is right or wrong, it's a matter of interpretation.


Tolkien did only mention Coldfells once, in the appendix to LotR. It might have been on his "working map", but according to Christopher a lot of names on that became unintelligent by the years. However, in the texts there are many more names than he has plotted to his map.

Anyway, placing Coldfells north of Ettenmoors is my personal interpretation, and the reasoning behind that choice is as follows:

• Another name for Ettenmoors is Trollfells. The forested area to the south is called Trollshaws. We know from the lore, that the Trollshaws and the Trollfells were adjacent areas.
  
• If Coldfells was indicating the same area as Ettenmoors, that area would have three different names. This is of course possible, but although Tolkien frequently altered names as the stories unfolded (or to be more precise, as his linguistics developed together with the stories), in this case that seems unlikely. Apart from that, not very practical either.
  
• The possibility exist, that the Coldfells is a part of Ettenmoors/(Trollfells), or the Ettenmoors/(Trollfells) is a part of Coldfells; the arguments above apply in this case too.
  
• If Coldfells and Trollfells then refers to different areas, it would be logical if the climate of the former were indeed the colder, which indicates either to the north, or to the (north)east but somehow up in the lower parts of the mountain-range. Placing the Coldfells to the southeast of the Ettenmoors/(Trollfells) would locate it not far north of Rivendell, which wasn't characterized by a particularly cold climate, so in my opinion this conflicts with the etymology of the name (and the border between the two would be rather diffuse).

Of the two most likely locations of the Coldfells, either north or east of the Ettenmoors/(Trollfells), I personally prefer the location to the north, for the following reasons:

• It would make a logical flow of distinct areas to the west of the Misty Mountains, from south to north: Trollshaws > Ettenmoors/(Trollfells) > Coldfells
  
• It would cover a greater area than the other possibilities, and in fact 'complete' the naming of the areas of western Misty Mountains. If the Coldfells are interpreted as the areas around Mt. Gram including the 'fells' to the northeast of this, the both the distant Mt. Gundabad and even Carn Dûm are connected to the more southern areas of the Misty mountains.
  
• It would certainly correspond to the etymology of the name.

But, as said, this is just my interpretation.

It's an intesresting topic , as I've found myself a bit lost with those two areas . I think Coldfells is just north of the Ettenmoors (also called Ettendales ) , since in it's in Coldfells Arador was captured and killed by Hill Trolls . It might be just a synonym for Ettenmoors , but I do believe it's further north than Ettenmoors .
But I've found in this website (not real a reference ) that Coldfells will be rather south to Ettenmoors :
http://www.nationmas...pedia/Coldfells

Edited by ElessartheHigh, 29 October 2011 - 09:29 AM.

I've found in this website (not real a reference ) that Coldfells will be rather south to Ettenmoors :
http://www.nationmas...pedia/Coldfells

If the northern branch of river Bruinen was the border between the Ettenmoors and the Coldfells, then Rivendell would be situated in the Coldfells! ... which in my opinion would be extremely unlikely.

I guess the info given in that site just shows, that the location of Coldfells is a matter of interpretation, and with rather wide margins.