The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Made during the second age of the Captivity of Melkor; destroyed at the end of the First Age1
Location
Running westwards out of the Blue Mountains along the course of the river Ascar, and on into the plain of East Beleriand2
Origins
Race
Divisions
Firebeards and Broadbeams
Cultures
Settlements
Ran westwards from the Dwarf-cities of Nogrod and Belegost
Note
This Dwarf-road is not to be confused with a later road, also known as the Dwarf-road, that ran west-to-east through Mirkwood and was commonly called the Old Forest Road

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About this entry:

  • Updated 24 November 2020
  • Updates planned: 1

Dwarf-road

The Dwarves’ road westward from the Blue Mountains

Map of the Dwarf-road

The road built by the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains as a trade route to the Elves of Beleriand. It ran westward along the River Ascar for many miles, and entered East Beleriand where it crossed the Gelion at the ford called Sarn Athrad.


Notes

1

Though we don't have any kind of precise dating for the road, we do know that the Dwarves first entered Beleriand about 2,400 years before the first rising of the Sun, and they seem to have made their road relatively soon afterwards. This means that the road had existed for some three thousand years at the time of Beleriand's destruction at the end of the First Age.

2

Almost all descriptions and maps of the Dwarf-road suggest that it came to an end just a few miles after crossing Gelion at Sarn Athrad. There is a single hint that it might have extended beyond this: after Marach led his people across the Blue Mountains, he '...came down the Dwarf-road, and settled in [Estolad]' (Quenta Silmarillion 17, Of the Coming of Men into the West). This does not necessarily mean that Marach followed the road for his entire journey, but if it did run as far as Estolad, then it continued for at least a hundred miles northward and westward of the ford on Gelion.

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 24 November 2020
  • Updates planned: 1

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