North Wind

The cold and proverbially strong wind that blew out of the frozen North across the lands and seas of the world. The wind was held at bay somewhat by mountain ranges that protected parts of the north of Middle-earth, especially the Mountains of Shadow, Ered Wethrin, that sheltered Beleriand during the First Age.

For mariners on the Great Sea, the North Wind blew their vessels southward. The Great Captain Aldarion spoke of having the sail into this wind from Númenor to reach Lindon in Middle-earth (because as well as being far westward of Middle-earth, Númenor also lay somewhat to the south of the lands of the Elves). Long after Númenor had sunk beneath the waves, it was the North Wind that blew the ship of the exiled Berúthiel, driving her southward from Gondor and past the port of Umbar into the far southern reaches of the Sea.

After Boromir's death at Parth Galen, Aragorn's funeral song for his fallen companion made references to the North Wind, speaking of it as bringing news to Boromir's people in Gondor. In fact, it did just this: the sound of his Great Horn, blown by Boromir as he engaged the Orcs that would slay him, was heard even far away in Gondor. Afterward, Boromir's brother Faramir saw Boromir's body carried in an Elven-boat by the stream of Anduin, and the broken shards of the horn that had been heard on the North Wind were recovered from the Great River.