Northern Lands

A broad term describing lands in the north, and especially the northwest, of Middle-earth. During the First Age, it applied especially to the wide northwestern land known as Beleriand, as well as the populated lands that ran along Beleriand's northern fringe. These old Northern Lands stretched for nearly a thousand miles, extending westward from the Blue Mountains out into the Great Sea. In the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, these lands were broken and, for the most part, drowned beneath the Sea. Only the country of Lindon, with a few scattered islands beyond, survived into the Second Age.

During the Third Age, long after Beleriand had been lost, the name 'Northern Lands' gained a different meaning. During the early centuries of the Third Age, the North Road from the crossroads at Bree had led to the city of Fornost at the heart of the powerful North-kingdom of Arnor. By the end of the Age, however, this kingdom had long fallen into ruin, and the Northern Lands beyond Bree lay desolate and empty.

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These two locations (Beleriand and Lost Realm of Arnor) are the only ones for which 'Northern Lands' is used as a capitalised proper noun, but there are many more examples for 'northern lands' as a more general geographical term. In most cases, these more general terms tend to fit with the definitions here, but there are a few exceptions.

An example of one of these exceptions is seen as the Company of the Ring prepares to depart from Rivendell. Elrond warns them that Sauron's spies will be abroad in the northern lands, and here he seems to be thinking of the northern part of the Company's route (approximately within Eriador and perhaps Enedwaith, though the term does not seem to be meant in a precise way). Much earlier, the people of Gondor had dealings with the Northmen of Rhovanion, and the homelands of these Northmen, eastward of Mirkwood, were described by the Gondorians as northern lands, in this case because they were northward of Gondor.