Gasping Dust

The Gasping Dust of Anfauglith (somewhat conjectural)

Northward of Beleriand, beyond the mountains and hills that marked its northern extent, lay a wide plain that ran for leagues to the walls of the Iron Mountains and the peaks of Thangorodrim above Angband. When the Sun first rose into the sky, green things sprouted on this plain, and it became a wide grassland stretching across the northwestern parts of Middle-earth. The Elves named it Ard-galen, which simply meant the 'green region' that separated them from the perils of Morgoth in the distant North.

At its western extent, the plain ran up against the mountains of Ered Wethrin, and here the High Kings of the Noldor ruled from their fortress of Barad Eithel. Along its southern edge lay the highlands of Dorthonion, and from these the Elves of Angrod and Aegnor watched for the Orcs of the Enemy. There were several early battles and skirmishes on this green plain, but after the Dagor Aglareb, the Glorious Battle of I 60, the Eldar set the Siege of Angband that would hold Morgoth for nearly four hundred years.

In the winter of the year I 455, Morgoth launched a devastating and unforeseen assault on his besiegers. Rivers of fire ran out across the plain of Ard-galen, breaking the defences of Elves and Men, and bringing the long Siege of Angband to an end. There followed a relentless months-long assault from the North that turned the Wars of Beleriand decisively to the favour of Morgoth. The wide grassland of Ard-galen was reduced to a parched wasteland in that Battle of Sudden Flame, so that it was no longer green Ard-galen, but Anfauglith, the desert plain of Gasping Dust.¹

The new desert land, also called Dor-nu-Fauglith ('land of choking dust'), saw the green earth of Ard-galen turned to lifeless dunes of ash and shifting, steaming sand. Though it was now empty of life, it could be crossed, and often was. Among the first to do so was High King Fingolfin immediately after the assault of the Dagor Bragollach, who rode across the new desert to challenge Morgoth to single combat, and was slain.

Seventeen years after it was created in the Dagor Bragollach, the Gasping Dust was the site of another battle, the greatest battle of Beleriand to that time. The combined armies of the Eldar and Edain formed together to challenge Morgoth, and a days-long conflict took place on the burning sands of Anfauglith. Early in the battle of Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the forces of Elves and Men seemed close to victory, but through treachery Morgoth was able to turn the tide and win an ultimate victory. His Orcs gathered together their slain foes into a Great Mound, the Hill of Slain in the midst of the desert plain. There plants began to take root, and on that Hill of Tears was the only green to be found anywhere amid the wide Gasping Dust.

An even greater battle took place long afterward, as the Valar sent their own unstoppable force against Morgoth. The armies of the Dark Lord emerged from Angband, and those armies had grown so great that it was said that even the burned plain of Anfauglith could not hold them all. Despite their vast numbers, Morgoth's Orcs could not hope to stand against the forces of the West, and they were utterly defeated. That War of Wrath saw the land broken, and the Great Sea rushed in, so the desert of the Gasping Dust became the new seafloor in the Ages that followed.