Barad Eithel

The mountain fortress and capital of Fingolfin, set in the eastern foothills of Ered Wethrin at the source of the River Sirion. It took its name from Eithel Sirion, the well of Sirion where it stood, and indeed the fortress is sometimes itself referred to as 'Eithel Sirion'.

During the Siege of Angband, Barad Eithel lay at the heart of the Noldor's defences, and also guarded the passes westward into Hithlum. Throughout the Siege, Elves of Fingolfin's people would patrol the green fields of Ard-galen, holding Morgoth within his fortress at Angband, close by to the north.

That changed in the Dagor Bragollach, when the plains of Ard-galen were overrun with rivers of fire and turned to scorching dust. Armies of Orcs assailed Fingolfin's city, but it held firm, though Hador and Gundor were both lost in its defence. Looking out across the burning desert in despair, Fingolfin set out from Barad Eithel to challenge Morgoth to single combat, and was lost. His son Fingon became the High King of the Noldor in his place, and took up his rule from Eithel Sirion.

Though the Siege of Angband had been broken, Barad Eithel still held, and so the passes into Hithlum remained secure. Morgoth resolved to break this defence, and sent another army seven years after the Dagor Bragollach to overcome Fingon's forces. Again they were repulsed, but Galdor was slain in the attack, where his father Hador had fallen just seven years before.

When the Elves came together for a vast new assault on Morgoth, Barad Eithel was the staging post for the western armies. It was from there that the soldiers of Fingon swept across the dusty remnant of Ard-galen, in the glorious beginning of the battle that would turn to the tragedy of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. Though the fate of Barad Eithel in that battle is never described, the fact that Fingon's realm was destroyed and Hithlum occupied must mean that the fortress at Eithel Sirion was captured or destroyed. By the last years of the First Age, if Fingolfin's mountain fortress was not in the hands of the Orcs, it would have fallen into ruin and decay.