Tarn Aeluin

In the high windswept moors of Ladros, to the east of Dorthonion, was the clear mountain lake of Tarn Aeluin. Lying among moorland of heather and whin, the lake's surface shone a pure blue by day, and by night it mirrored the stars in its darkened surface. Around this tarn grew stands of silver birch and alder, and rocks thrust up out of the moorlands like standing stones.⁴

In the distant past, before even the Elves had come to Beleriand, the Maia Melian would travel there at times, and the high tarn was said to have been hallowed by her. Its blessed waters shone uncorrupted for many thousands of years and when Men settled in Ladros long afterward, they held the pool in reverence, and none dwelt beside its shores.

Those Men were Edain, descendants of the House of Bëor, who settled in Ladros as vassals of Finrod Felagund. They held that fief until the Dagor Bragollach of I 455, when the defences of Dorthonion were overwhelmed by the forces of Morgoth. A handful of survivors, led by Barahir, hid themselves on the shores of the hallowed tarn, which lay in the southwestern heights of Ladros. Thus Aeluin became the refuge of Barahir and his outlaws as they resisted the occupiers of their former home.

For a time the outlaws dwelt in secret by the lake, but one of their number, Gorlim, was beguiled by Sauron into betraying their hiding place, and then slain. As Sauron's hunters descended on Aeluin, Barahir's son Beren was away from the camp, and Gorlim's spirit sent him a warning in a dream.⁵ Hurrying back to Tarn Aeluin, Beren found he was too late, and Melian's blessing had not been sufficient to protect Barahir and his people. Beren buried his slain companions, and then set out from Aeluin to follow his own path, which would lead him to became one of the great heroes of the histories of Beleriand.

A little more than a century later, much of Beleriand was drowned under the Great Sea as the First Age came to an end, but Aeluin and its surrounding lands seem to have survived. Following the inundation of that time, the rugged highlands of Dorthonion became a broad island known as Tol Fuin. This island contained the landscape that had held Tarn Aeluin, so the lake may have continued to exist into the later ages on the new island, far off the coasts of Lindon.