After Eärendil came to Valinor to beg for the aid of the Valar, they sent a mighty force into Middle-earth to do battle with Morgoth. Led by Eönwë, the herald of Manwë, the forces of the Valar, with the peoples of the Vanyar and the Noldor that had remained in Aman, sailed eastward in the ships of the Teleri.
In the great battle that followed, Morgoth's armies were almost completely destroyed, and only a few of his Balrogs, Dragons and Orcs survived. Morgoth himself was taken as prisoner and shut beyond the confines of the world, and the Silmarils were recovered from his Iron Crown. In the tumult of the war, Beleriand and the lands to the north were destroyed and sunk beneath the Sea, and the shape of Middle-earth was changed.