Island · Lindon
Himling
An island off the northwest coast that was once the hill-fort of Maedhros
- Appears in
- The Silmarillion
- Region
- Lindon
Himling appears on the Middle-earth map as a bare island off the coast north of Lindon, with Tol Fuin south of it. It is not a new land but the top of an old one. In the First Age this was Himring, the cold wide hill that Maedhros son of Fëanor fortified to guard the pass into East Beleriand.
The fortress on Himring held when much else failed. It stood through the Dagor Bragollach, when Morgoth's fire broke the siege of Angband, and from it the March of Maedhros was kept. Only after the disaster of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad did the sons of Fëanor abandon the hill and go south into Ossiriand.
When the Valar broke Beleriand at the end of the age, the sea took the whole country and left the highest points as islands. Himring's crown is one of them. Nobody is recorded as living there in the Third Age; it is an empty rock that marks where a stronghold used to be.
Events at this place
-
FA 455 · The Silmarillion
Himring holds in the Dagor Bragollach
Maedhros kept his hill-fortress when Morgoth's sudden assault of flame broke the leaguer of Angband and overran the lands around it.
-
FA 587 · The Silmarillion
Beleriand drowns and Himling is left
After the War of Wrath the sea covered Beleriand. The summit of Himring remained above the water as an island.
Frequently asked questions
What is Himling on the Middle-earth map?
An island northwest of the Gulf of Lune that is the exposed top of Himring, the hill where Maedhros built his fortress in the First Age.
Why is it spelled Himling and not Himring?
Himling is the form Tolkien used for the island on his later maps of the Third Age, while Himring is the First Age name of the hill.