A small island that lay off the northwestern coasts of Middle-earth, about twenty-five miles out from the shores of northern Lindon. During the First Age, this had not been an island but a hill - Himring, where Maedhros' fortress had stood. When the western lands were flooded at the end of the First Age, the plains about the hill were drowned, and it was left standing as an island.
Notes
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We have no record of any inhabitants of the island of Himling, but then we have almost no record of the island at all, so this is hardly surprising. In the First Age, when this was a hill rather an island, it was fortified and held by the Elves. In later Ages, it was within easy reach of the mariners of Lindon, who were also Elves. So, if there were any people on Himling at all, we can safely presume that they would have been Elves.
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The change of name from Himring in the First Age to Himling in later Ages is not canonically explained. In fact, the explanation seems to lie in the evolution of the texts rather than any linguistic consideration. In Tolkien's earlier works, Himling was the name for the hill even during the First Age, and this version found its way onto the maps of Middle-earth used for The Lord of the Rings. Meanwhile, in the (then unpublished) Silmarillion texts, the name changed to Himring. (So in fact Himling is the older name and Himring the newer, in terms of their invention.)
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- Updated 23 November 2020
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