Encyclopedia of Arda: Inland Sea of Helcar

A large inland sea in the east of ancient Middle-earth, roughly elliptical in shape. On its eastern shoreline lay the mountains of the Orocarni, and at their feet on a small bay was the land Cuiviénen, where the first Elves awoke in Middle-earth. It was there that Oromë discovered them, and ultimately led many of them on a Great Journey around the northern end of the Sea of Helcar as they set out for Valinor in the distant west.

Notes

The only maps to show Helcar are early ones, and they tend to place it rather nearer the centre of the World than to the north. However, the text of The Silmarillion states that '...that sea stood where aforetime the roots of the mountain of Illuin had been...' (Quenta Silmarillion 3), and that Illuin was raised '...near to the north of Middle-earth' (ibid 1), so Tolkien's conception seems to have changed over time. Interestingly, though it isn't mentioned in The Silmarillion, there seems to have been a corresponding southern sea, the Sea of Ringil, which was perhaps associated with the roots of Illuin's mate Ormal.

Inland Sea of Helcar

An inland sea in the distant east of Middle-earth

Notes

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