Great Sea of the West

The greatest inner ocean of Middle-earth, the Great Sea lay westward of Middle-earth, separating it from the lands in the distant West. In the far North, where its waters met the Encircling Sea, the Great Sea narrowed, so that in former times Middle-earth was separated from Aman by no more than a stretch of broken ice. Southward from the icy North, the ocean widened, and in the central parts of the world it became truly vast, to the extent that it was sometimes known in Middle-earth as the Shoreless.

The Great Sea was the province of the Vala Ulmo, Lord of Waters, who governed the oceans and waters of the world. Ulmo was brought news by all the rivers and streams that emptied into the Great Sea of events in Middle-earth. He possessed horns made of white shell, known as the Ulumúri, that could awaken a yearning for the Sea in the hearts of Elves and Men. In his service were the two Maiar of the Sea, Ossë and Uinen, who brought ferocious storms and calmer waters.

The Great Sea in the First Age

In the very ancient history of Arda, the Valar and their people dwelt on the island of Almaren in Middle-earth, but after a cataclysmic assault by the Dark Lord Melkor, they abandoned this island dwelling. They departed from Middle-earth altogether, passing across the Great Sea to the land of Aman in the far West. After this time, Melkor dominated Middle-earth from his fortress of Utumno, until after the awakening of the first Elves. The Valar were determined to protect those Elves, and launched an assault of their own against Melkor, an assault so devastating that it widened the Great Sea itself, and made many new gulfs in the coasts of Middle-earth.

The widest of these gulfs was the appropriately-named Great Gulf, which ran into the coasts of Middle-earth southward of its more familiar regions, and came close to the Inland Sea of Helcar at a place known as the Straits of the World. Little is known of this distant Great Gulf, but to its north were two further wide bays, the Bay of Belfalas (on which Gondor would later be founded), and farther north still the Bay of Balar, from which Beleriand took its name.

The Elves first came upon the Sea as they made their Great Journey from Cuiviénen, the Water of Awakening in the distant East. After countless leagues of travel across the lands of Middle-earth, their westward journey led them to the shores of the vast ocean. Never having seen its like, they found their first sight of the Great Sea terrifying (and indeed the Elvish words for 'sea', Quenya ëar and Sindarin gaer, have their roots in an Eldarin word for dread and awe). Thus the Sindarin name for the great Western Sea in particular, Belegaer, literally meant 'great terrifier'.

The first of the peoples of the Elves to reach the shores of the Great Sea were the Vanyar and the Noldor, while the Third Clan, the Teleri, lagged far behind. The Vala Ulmo uprooted a great island from the midst of the ocean and brought it into the Bay of Balar, where the Vanyar and the Noldor crossed onto it. Thus the first of the Elves were transported across the Great Sea, leaving the shores of Middle-earth behind and passing into the Uttermost West.

In Middle-earth, the determination of the Teleri to follow their kin was waning. One of their two lords, Elwë, had vanished, and many of the Teleri sought for him across the land. Meanwhile, the Maia Ossë had begun to teach others of this people in the ways of the Sea, and persuaded them to remain on its eastern shores. When Ulmo returned with the isle, then, not all of the Teleri set out for Valinor: some chose to remain, and others wished to leave, but would not abandon their lost lord. The island travelled once again across the Great Sea and Ulmo anchored it in the Bay of Eldamar off the coasts of Aman. For many long years the Teleri of Aman remained on that Lonely Isle of Tol Eressëa, led by Olwë the brother of Elwë.

These Teleri dwelt on their island for a long age, but eventually they departed for the shores of Aman itself, where they built themselves a harbour city. This was Alqualondë, the Haven of the Swans, named for the swan-carved prows of the many vessels of the Teleri. At this time, Melkor had long been imprisoned by the Valar, and the Teleri sailed in peace across the waves of the Bay of Eldamar on the western fringes of the Great Sea.

The Years of the Sun

This long time of bliss came to an end with the release of Melkor from his imprisonment. Believing the Dark Lord to be reformed, Manwë granted him freedom, but Melkor rebelled once again. Destroying the Two Trees and plunging Valinor into darkness, he fled into the far North. At their northernmost points at the farthest extent of the Great Sea, the continents of Aman and Middle-earth came close together, separated only by the narrow Grinding Ice of the Helcaraxë. Thus Melkor was able to cross the Sea and return to Middle-earth.

In Valinor, the Valar saw the need to defend their realm against Melkor's possible return. In a time known as the Hiding of Valinor, the western Great Sea was filled with traps to prevent any vessel crossing to the Blessed Realm. There had been a stretch of Shadowy Seas eastward of Tol Eressëa since the coming of the Elves, but now the Shadows lay thicker than ever, and the Valar placed a chain of Enchanted Isles. Any mariner landing on these isles would caught in an endless sleep.

Of all the Valar, it was Ulmo who gave most thought to Middle-earth, even after the Darkening of Valinor. He would send messages to the people of Beleriand, and especially to Círdan the Shipwright, whose people settled on the shores of the Great Sea. Círdan was the lord of those who had been persuaded to remain in Beleriand by Ossë long beforehand. At this period in history, the Falathrim, as they were called, dwelt in two port cities on the coasts of Middle-earth, Brithombar and Eglarest, and sailed along the coasts as far south as the Isle of Balar and the Mouths of Sirion. These people were unique in their ability to build ships that could survive voyages on the Great Sea, a skill taught to them by Ossë long ago.

The centuries that followed saw the long Wars of Beleriand, in which the Elves fought against Morgoth in Angband. They were joined by the Edain, Men out of the East who had crossed into Beleriand to seek the West, but found their way barred by the vast western ocean. Thus they remained and joined themselves to the Elves in an ultimately hopeless war against the Dark Power of the North.

At first the Elves had held Morgoth back in the Siege of Angband, but after that siege was broken, the power of the Dark Lord began to spread inexorably across Beleriand. In desperation, the Eldar hoped to call on the Powers in the West, and so Turgon and Círdan constructed vessels to attempt to cross into the West and seek the aid of the Valar. These ships spent years searching for a way across the Great Sea, but all failed, and of the mariners that were sent out, only one survived. This was Voronwë, whose ship had attempted to return to Middle-earth from the dangers of the Sea, and had been wrecked within sight of its shores.

Voronwë's survival was providential; he had been protected by Ulmo so that he would encounter the Man Tuor amid the ruins of Turgon's old city of Vinyamar, and then lead Tuor to Gondolin to fulfil his fate. In Gondolin, Tuor wedded Turgon's daughter Idril. They had a son, Eärendil, who would grow to become the most renowned of all the mariners on the Great Sea.

Eärendil in time became lord of the Havens of Sirion, a refuge at the Mouths of Sirion where the few surviving free Elves and Men gathered in the later years of the First Age. With Círdan's aid, he built a ship for himself and set out across the Great Sea, seeking to make a plea for the aid of the Valar against Morgoth. At first he failed, but as he reached the point of abandoning his journey, a Silmaril came to him from across the Sea. It was carried by his wife Elwing, who had been transformed into a sea-bird by Ulmo. Eärendil bore the Jewel on his brow, and through its power he was at last able to pass all the dangers of the Great Sea and reach its far western shore.

Eärendil begged the Valar to aid Elves and Men against the Dark Lord, and the Valar answered his plea, sending an army of their own against Angband. The resulting War of Wrath saw such forces unleashed that the landscape was broken, and the Great Sea rushed in to cover most of Beleriand. The old lands were now sunk beneath ocean waters, and the waves of the Sea lapped on the coasts of Lindon, which had formerly been far inland.

The Second Age

When the Great Sea had rushed in to cover Beleriand, an arm of it broke through the Blue Mountains to form a wide gulf, the Gulf of Lhûn. It was on the shores of this gulf that the Elves founded Mithlond, the Grey Havens. This was the beginning of the Second Age, and Gil-galad would rule in Lindon on the shores of the Sea throughout that Age.

Far westward across the Great Sea, the Valar created a new island as a reward for those Men who had fought beside the Eldar in the Wars of Beleriand. This was the beginning of Númenor, the land in the west, and the Elves carried their allies to their new home aboard their ships, following the Star of Eärendil far across the ocean into the west. Thus began the Dúnedain, the Edain of the west.

With the first Dúnedain established in their new home, the Eldar sailed back to Middle-earth, leaving the Men with few vessels of their own. The Dúnedain had among them, however, skilled shipwrights, and they gradually learned the art of seamanship. This was a long and slow process, but eventually, in the year II 600, the mariner Vëantur became the first to make the journey back across the Great Sea to Middle-earth, landing at the Grey Havens.

Vëantur was the first to make the voyage back to Middle-earth, but he was followed by many others. Vëantur's grandson and protégé Aldarion, in particular, made many such sea journeys, becoming known as the Great Captain and founding Númenor's Guild of Venturers. After Aldarion's time, Númenor's naval capabilities expanded, so that by the time of the War of the Elves and Sauron, their fleet had become powerful enough to be instrumental in the defeat of the Dark Lord.

Aldarion had already begun the building of a Númenórean outpost in Middle-earth at the place that would later become known as Lond Daer, and as the centuries passed, more and more Númenórean ships carried Dúnedain across the Great Sea. No longer explorers, these Men now came to carry off resources, especially the timber of the great forests. Where the lands westward of the Misty Mountains had once been densely forested, the Númenóreans left it an empty plain.

In the year II 2350, the Númenóreans expanded their presence in Middle-earth by building a harbour town, Pelargir, on the wide river Anduin, beneath the inflow of its tributary Sirith. Meanwhile in Númenor the Kings had become greedier for wealth, and had begun to persecute those who still trafficked with the Eldar. Many of these Faithful fled the isle in the west, and settled at the new township in Middle-earth.

At this time Sauron was rising to power in the East, causing some of the Elves to abandon Middle-earth, setting out from their havens to sail beyond Númenor to Aman in the Uttermost West. One of these havens, Edhellond, lay westward along the coast from Pelargir, and had been founded long beforehand by Elves fleeing Morgoth's expanding power during the First Age. Now, it was used by those escaping the rise of Morgoth's servant Sauron as a new Dark Power eastward of the Sea.

In Númenor, King Ar-Pharazôn the Golden was aware of the growing power of the Dark Lord, and saw Sauron as a challenge to his authority. Assembling a vast fleet, the King sailed across the Great Sea to Middle-earth and landed at Umbar. Marching inland to Mordor, he demanded that Sauron surrender himself, and Sauron did so. The Dark Lord was thus carried back across the Sea as a hostage of the King. In Númenor, he began to influence the King and his counsellors, turning Ar-Pharazôn to the worship of Morgoth and against the Valar. Eventually he persuaded the Númenóreans to launch an invasion of the Blessed Realm itself, falsely claiming that they might thereby gain unending life in the Undying Lands.

So Ar-Pharazôn assembled a Great Armament, a fleet of a size never seen before or since on the Great Sea, and set out into the West. This situation had been engineered by Sauron, who foresaw destruction for the King and his followers, but even he had not reckoned with the scale of destruction that followed. Not only the King and his fleet were destroyed, but the isle of Númenor itself. A vast rift opened in the ocean floor, and a towering wave rushed out of the West, and Númenor was consumed. Some said that all that remained of that great nation of Men was a single small island, the Isle of Meneltarma, that had been the summit of the central mountain of the land.

To those in Middle-earth, the high green wave came on a sudden and violent storm out of the far West, a storm so ferocious that the shapes of coasts were broken and remade. Out of the destruction of Númenor came nine ships, carrying Elendil the Lord of Andúnië and his sons Isildur and Anárion. By the foresight of Elendil's father Amandil, they had survived the Downfall of Númenor, and were now driven across the Sea to Middle-earth. For the most part, the Númenóreans in Middle-earth were of the Faithful faction, and Elendil was the chief of this party. Thus the surviving Dúnedain were able to form two new kingdoms in Middle-earth: Arnor in the North and Gondor in the South.

The Third Age

The Second Age came to an end with War of the Last Alliance, in which Sauron was defeated by the combined forces of Elves and Men. The Elves at this time had already begun to leave Middle-earth, sailing across the Sea by a way that Men could not follow. The Eldar were still able to follow the Straight Road to reach Aman in the West, but Men could not. After the invasion of the Númenóreans, the lands in the West had now been taken out of the world, so they could no longer be reached by mortal mariners. Those who sought to reach them now traversed a round world and found their way back to the place where they had started.

With the fall of Númenor, the time when Men widely explored the Great Sea had come to an end, but the Men of Gondor still sailed its waters. They maintained a navy, with its chief port still at the old city of Pelargir, and that navy was greatly expanded in the time of the four Ship-kings, Tarannon Falastur and his successors, who reigned from III 830 to III 1015. Eärnil I, second of these Ship-kings, succeeded in capturing the port of Umbar for Gondor, and Umbar remained an important harbour in the control of the South-kingdom for several centuries.

Gondor held Umbar until the time of the Kin-strife, in which the Captain of Ships, Castamir, usurped the throne from the rightful King Eldacar. In time Eldacar regained his throne and defeated the Usurper, but Castamir's followers fled to Pelargir and then sailed southward to Umbar, where they established themselves as the first Corsairs. These Corsairs of Umbar would remain a threat to Gondor even to the time of the War of the Ring, some 1,500 years later.

Gondor suffered at the hands of the Corsairs (indeed one occasion they succeeded in slaying the reigning King, Minardil) and continued to maintain a significant fleet to defend against their raids. When Arthedain, the last surviving kingdom of the Northern Dúnedain, was threatened, King Eärnil II sent his fleet northward along the coasts of Middle-earth. Arriving too late to save the North-kingdom, this force was nonetheless large enough to drive off the enemy, and put an end to the Witch-kingdom of Angmar.

Eärnil's victory in the North was in III 1975, a thousand years and more before the War of the Ring. Over the centuries that followed, Gondor's sea-power waned, but the Corsairs continued to harry its coasts. In the War of the Ring itself, the Corsairs sent a fleet to fight for Sauron at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, but that fleet was captured by Aragorn and his followers, and carried them on to victory in the battle.

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While the navies of Men were sailing the Great Sea close to the shores of Middle-earth, the Elves were taking a different course. Setting out from their havens on the coasts, notably the Grey Havens of Lindon, they made the journey away from Middle-earth and along the Straight Road into the West. One such departure would bring tragedy: that of Amroth and Nimrodel, just a few years after Eärnil's ships had journeyed into the North. The emergence of Durin's Bane in Khazad-dûm caused many of the Elves to flee for the Sea, setting out not for Lindon but Edhellond on the shores of the Bay of Belfalas. Nimrodel became lost on the southward journey, and as Amroth's vessel set out, the despairing Elf-lord leapt from it into the Sea and was lost.

The Elves continued to sail away throughout the Third Age until, by the Age's end, few indeed remained in Middle-earth. Among the last to leave were the Ring-bearers, among them the Hobbits Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. As mortals, Hobbits would not usually have been able to travel the Straight Way into the West, but the two who had carried the Ring were given special leave to make the journey.

The ship bearing the Ring-bearers was not the last to pass across the Great Sea. Eventually other members of the Fellowship of the Ring also made their own ways along the Straight Road, including Samwise Gamgee and Legolas. When Legolas sailed, it is said, Gimli the Dwarf accompanied him, the first of his kind to make the journey. Finally, Círdan the Shipwright, keeper of the Grey Havens, boarded the Last Ship and departed from Middle-earth, last of the Eldar to make the voyage.