Nogrod

Nogrod was delved in the eastern side of the north-central part and of the Blue Mountains southeast of Mount Dolmed where the Dwarf-road of Beleriand crossed into Eriador, guarding one of the only passes over the Blue Mountains not far from lake Nenuial.

The city was built sometime during the Years of the Trees when the western Fathers of the Dwarves awoke from beneath the Ered Luin.

Nogrod traded throughout Beleriand and the Dwarves were employed for delvings and crafts, most famously the Nauglamir for King Thingol. Eöl the Dark Elf often went there, as did his son Maeglin.

At the end of the First Age, Nogrod was ruined in the War of Wrath, and around the fortieth year of the Second Age the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains began to migrate to Khazad-dûm, abandoning Nogrod and Belegost. However, there always remained some Dwarves on the eastern side of the Blue Mountains in days afterwards.

Nogrod is a Sindarin name; it was originally known as Novrod which means "hollow delving" aka Hollowbold, like its original Khuzdul name Tumunzahar and the Quenya translation Návarot.

Novrod was altered to Naugrod under the influence of the similar-sounding word naug ("dwarf"). Therefore while the name Hollowbold is provided as the translation of Nogrod it is not a literal translation; the new name means rather "Dwarf dwelling".

The second element of Novrod/Nogrod is Sindarin groth/grod ("delving, underground dwelling").

In the Noldorin phase of the language, it contains the element naug ("dwarf"). The second element -rod is not explained, but a note by Christopher Tolkien points to entry ROD, an etymological root meaning "cave". Relevant Noldorin words include rhond ("cave") and rhaud ("hollow, cavernous").

In the earliest version of the legendarium in The Book of Lost Tales, Nogrod was located "a very long journey southward beyond the wide forest on the borders of those great heaths nigh Umboth-muilin the Pools of Twilight, on the marches of Tasarinan".

In The Lay of the Children of Húrin the Dwarves of Nogrod were traders, bringing wine of Dor-Winion "that is bruised from the berries of the burning South" by long ways to the lands of the North, including Doriath.

On the Eastward Extension of the First 'Silmarillion' Map, the Dwarf-road crosses the Blue Mountains below Mount Dolmed, then turns to the south and continues until the edge of the map with the direction "Southward in East feet of Blue Mountans are Belegost and Nogrod". In the second version of the Earliest Annals of Beleriand and in the Later Annals of Beleriand, Nogrod was in the east of the Blue Mountains and far south of Beleriand.

The position of Belegost was later moved by J.R.R. Tolkien to the north of Mount Dolmed on a photocopy of the Second 'Silmarillion' Map. This corresponds with its position in the Quenta Silmarillion from 1937, in the revised version of the Later Quenta Silmarillion, and in the Grey Annals.

Although the locations of Nogrod and Mount Dolmed are not indicated on the General Map of Middle-earth and on the map of The West of Middle-earth at the End of the Third Age, Mount Dolmed can be identified as the westernmost mountain in the middle of the part of the Blue Mountains, which is north of the Gulf of Lune by using the position of Mount Dolmed relative to the positions of the Hill of Himring and the highland of Taur-nu-Fuin on the Map of Beleriand and the Lands to the North and determining the position of Nogrod and Mount Dolmed relative to the positions of their respective remains after the War of Wrath, the island of Himling and the island of Tol Fuin, on Christopher Tolkien's original map of The West of Middle-earth at the End of the Third Age. This location is on a similar latitude as lake Nenuial.

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 28/05/2026.