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Osgiliath (Citadel of Stars) was the first capital of Gondor built at the end of the Second Age over the mighty River Anduin between Minas Anor and Minas Ithil.

Osgiliath remained intact until Gondor’s internal war in 1437, when its legendary Dome of Stars was burned along with most of the city, followed by the Great Plague of 1636. The royal court was moved in 1640 to Minas Anor, which later was renamed Minas Tirith. In 2475, Osgiliath was sacked completely by the Uruk-hai legions from Mordor, and although these were driven back the city was now totally deserted.

In the War of the Ring, Osgiliath was briefly defended by Gondor on two occations, but soon fell to Sauron’s servants and its stone bridge was broken. After the destruction of Mordor at the end of the war, Osgiliath was regained by Gondor, but it seems it was never rebuilt during the Fourth Age.

When the First Age ended, some men of the Edain, the Dunédain, joined the Elves in the War of the Jewels against Melkor. To reward them, the Valar created an island, Númenor or Westernesse, in the western sea where they could dwell and the Valar granted them longer life and more powerful mind and body than other mortal men. The island was shaped like a star and had many fair forests and meadows and two major rivers; The Siril and the Nunduinë.

During the Second Age, the Kings of Nümenor grew vain and, helped along by Sauron, they started to long for immortality and became jealous of Elves and the Valar. They sailed with a great navy to the Undying Lands, thinking they would gain immortality by setting foot on Aman. This resulted in the destruction of Númenor, as the Valar grew angry, and is known as the Change of the World since not only Númenor was destroyed but also much of Beleriand was destroyed or changed. Furthermore, the Valar decided to remove the Undying Lands from the earthly dimension and hide it. A few of the Númenoreans called The Faithful escaped the wrath of the Valar and built kingdoms in Middle-Earth, continuing the line of the Dunédain.

As a side note, the Hobbits has an old tale of a vast Turtle-fish that Men thought was an island and the story tells that the Men settled upon its back, lighting fires and building dwellings, which made the turtle flee to the bottom of the sea, drowning the encampment. The Hobbits call this turtle Fastitocalon and it is highly likely that it is in fact the story of Númenor that is retold.

You have probably heard about Beleriand somewhere, but what is it? In short, then it is the land which, at the beginning of the Second Age, was ruined and almost completely sank into the sea.

It was located west of the Blue Mountains and it is the land where the Elves travelled through, and some stayed, during their Great Journey west to the Undying lands, when they were first summoned by the Ainur. Many Elves stayed and built kingdoms there – Doriath, Nargothrond, Gondolin, Himlad and many others. Dwarves also came over the Blue Montains and created Nogrod and Belegost. The many battles and wars against the evil of Morgoth eventually runined all the Elven kingdoms there and it resulted in the War of Wrath where the Valar succeeded in overthrowing Morgoth, but in return, Beleriand was broken and swallowed up by the sea.

A small part of the Blue Mountains still remained after the breaking of Beleriand, but it was cleft in two by the Gulf of Lune. Here, Lord Círdan set up his home with the Falathrim Elves and built the Grey Havens, the last harbour of the Elves upon Middle-Earth. The last High-King of the Eldar, Gil-galad, made the small remaining land west of the Blue Mountains called Lindon his home and the Blue Mountains were ever a homeland and refuge for several Dwarvish peoples.

I had hoped, when they launched the “Siege of Mirkwood” expansion to The Lord of the Rings Online, that they would include Erebor (the Lonely Mountain) which is located North-East/East from the Mirkwood borders. And perhaps even Esgaroth. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that lucky – but perhaps it will come in a future expansion. On a side-note, I always hoped they would make the Grey Havens and Blue Mountains as well, which hasn’t happened yet even though it’s noted on the Eriador map! In any case, I’ll tell a bit about the history of Erebor here. I hope you’ll enjoy!

The name Erebor means “The Lonely Mountain” in Sindarin and was first discovered by the Longbeard Dwarves in the First Age. The Longbeards were one of the seven houses that descented from the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves.

It was an important mining colony for the Dwarves for several thousand years until Durin’s Bane was awoken in Khazad-dûm in the Third Age and the remaining Dwarves of Khazad-Dûm fled to Erebor and made it the new capital of the Longbeards under King Thrain I (the King under the Mountain, he called himself). Erebor prospered during his reign and among other riches, the Arkenstone was found. After his death, his son Thorin I soon abandoned Erebor and moved the capital and most of the Dwarves to the Grey Mountains, leaving Erebor a colony again. Four hundred years later and after the Dwarves of the Grey Mountains had fought dragons continously and King Thrain II was slain by one, his heirs Thrór and Grór moved out from the Grey Mountains to Erebor and the Iron Hills respectively.

Again, Erebor prospered during the Thrór’s reign and it was once again named capital of the Longbeards and the Dwarves there became very rich and named the best craftsmen of the Dwarves anywhere. Unfortunately, the dragon Smaug heard about the riches of the Dwarves and he went there, killed the King of Dale and a large part of the Dwarves in Erebor before taking Erebor as his own. The remaining Dwarves fled mostly to the Iron Hills and Erebor was empty, save for Smaug, for two hundred years.

Later in the Third Age, Thrór’s grandson, Thorin II Oakenshield, met the Wizard Gandalf who planted the idea in Thorin’s mind to retake Erebor with the help of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. They succeeded in retaking Erebor with the help of Gandalf, the men of Dale and the Elves of Mirkwood, but at the cost of Thorin II’s life and battles against orcs and wargs. But at last the Longbeards could move back into Erebor under the rule of Dáin and they befriended the men of Dale.

During Dáin’s reign, Sauron sent an emissary to him, promising him three of the Dwarf rings of power if he would give up the location of Bilbo Baggins, since the enemy had learned from Gollum that he had the One Ring. Instead of yielding the information, Dáin sent the emissary away and sent Glóin to Rivendell instead to warn Bilbo.

Not long after, war broke out between the Easterlings and the men of Dale and even with the help of the Dwarves of Erebor, Dale was sacked and Erebor was almost overrun by the Easterlings. But then the news of Sauron’s defeat in the south reached them and the Dwarves and men of Dale were able to repell the siege and drive away the Easterlings.

After the War of the Ring, Thorin III Stonehelm became King under the Mountain and his people helped rebuild Gondor and Helm’s Deep. Part of his people even relocated to the Glittering Caves.

From the fourth or fifth centuries of the Third Age, Fornost became the capital city of the Dúnedain kingdom of Arnor (which had previously been Annúminas in Evendim), placed north of Bree. Fornost means “the north fortress” (Norbury by Men) and it was a powerful and successful city until the wars with the Witch-king resulted in defeat in 1974.

The enemy destroyed most of Fornost and the royal court and although Fornost was taken back the year after in the Battle of Fornost, the city was deserted and lay in ruins while its people were scattered. Afterwards, it was known as Deadman’s Dike by Men.

The Siege of Mirkwood expansion for LOTRO is close now and I went back into Tolkien’s books to have a look at the history of Mirwood.

Up until the year 1050 of the Third Age, Mirkwood was called Greenwood the Great and was the realm of the Silvan Wood Elves of Thranduil. In 1050 a dark power came to the forest, known as the Necromancer, and the forest started becoming dark and dreadful and many evil creatures spawned there, such as great spiders, orcs, wolves and haunted spirits.

The Elves of Thranduil were able to survive in the north of the Forest, but unable to stop the darkness that spread. In the middle of the Third Age, few people dared to travel through the forest except the few Silvan Elves, the Northmen (Woodmen) and the Beornings.

In 2850, Gandalf went to the south of Mirkwood to investigate who or what the Necromancer was and he discovered that it was in fact Sauron who had lingered there in Dol Guldur, regaining his strength and searching for the rings of power. You might remember mention of this in both The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.

During the War of the Ring, Sauron’s forces in Dol Guldur assaulted the Elves in the north (Thranduil) and in the south (Lothlórien) but failed, and the Elves eventually destroyed Sauron’s armies of Mirkwood and Dol Guldur and settled the land.