The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Created I 455; destroyed by the end of the First Age
Location
A wide desert between Angband in the north and the fences of Beleriand in the south
Origins
Created by the destruction of Ard-galen in the Dagor Bragollach
Pronunciation
do'rr-noo-fow'glith ('ow' as in 'how', 'th' as in 'pith'; 'rr' emphasises that the r sound in Dor should be distinctly pronounced)
Meaning
Meaning 'Land under gasping dust'1
Other names

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 24 September 2024
  • Updates planned: 1

Dor-nu-Fauglith

The desert land north of Beleriand

"[Fingolfin] passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze..."
Quenta Silmarillion 18
Of the Ruin of Beleriand and Fall of Fingolfin

A name meaning 'land under gasping dust' or 'land under choking ash', referring to the same region as the more common name Anfauglith. This was the scorched desert land that lay between the northern fences of Beleriand and Morgoth's fortress of Angband, formed by the flames of the Dagor Bragollach. Before that ruinous Battle, it had been the wide green plain of Ard-galen, but after Morgoth unleashed his fires, nothing was left but an empty desert of ash and dust.


Notes

1

There are various translations of the word fauglith in different sources. 'Gasping dust' here derives from the common translation of the alternative name Anfauglith (literally 'great gasping dust', but usually translated simply as 'Gasping Dust'). In his index to The Silmarilliom, Christopher Tolkien prefers 'choking ash', while another interpretation from The Etymologies (in volume V of The History of Middle-earth) gives 'thirsty sand'. These variations reflect slightly different interpretations of the word's ultimate derivation, from Elvish faug, 'gape, gasp, be thirsty, be parched' and lith, 'sand, ash, dust', with the various English renderings each representing a valid alternative reading of the Elvish original.

See also...

Gasping Dust

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 24 September 2024
  • Updates planned: 1

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