No one can say that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 emerged confidently in August after a chequered response to season 1, and does explore Beleriand to a certain extent.

Perhaps the most famous Lord of the Rings adaptations so far are the Peter Jackson trilogies The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which both have a very different map to Middle-earth maps of Beleriand. The key to these numerous discrepancies is that Middle-earth survived many ages, with its landscape shifting in response to both natural and social phenomena. Therefore, most of Beleriand only exists on some maps of Middle-earth. The maps in question are the earlier ones, since most of Beleriand had disappeared by the time of Jackson's Lord of the Rings.

Beleriand Was A Major Elf Settlement In Middle-earth

Beleriand Was Buzzing In The First Age

Beleriand was a lively region in the First Age of Middle-earth, which was a whole age before The Rings of Power, which is set in Middle-earth's Second Age. To understand Middle-earth's landscape in the First Age necessitates a brief history lesson. The Elves first awoke in Middle-earth, born fresh from their creator's Flame Imperishable in Cuiviénen. Many eventually left Middle-earth for the westernmost continent, Aman, and from there, many traveled back east to Middle-earth, settling this western shore and spreading east. A large region from the western shore eastward was known as Beleriand.

Spreading eastward, the Noldor established numerous realms of legend in Beleriand, despite their often exasperating methods.

While the Elves who never left Middle-earth became known as the Moriquendi, the Elves who journeyed west were split between the Noldor, the Vanyar, and the Teleri. Many of the Teleri never quite made it to Aman, and of those who made it to Aman, many of the Vanyar never made it back to Middle-earth. The tenacious Noldor - tenacious being, perhaps, a generous assessment - bulldozed their leadership all the way back to Losgar. Spreading eastward, the Noldor established numerous realms of legend in Beleriand, despite their often exasperating methods.

Why Beleriand No Longer Exists During The Rings Of Power's Timeline

Beleriand Was Destroyed

Unfortunately for Beleriand, the corrupt Valar Morgoth was increasingly nihilistic in his opposition to the One creator Eru Ilúvatar, Eru's loyal Valar, and the loyal children of Ilúvatar - the Elves. Morgoth's destructive campaign against Ilúvatar and all his faithful encomed many conflicts and culminated in the titanic War of Wrath. The tragedy and scope of this war may be unrivaled in fantasy literature, so cataclysmic that it broke the world, leaving it a strange, new place. Beleriand was no longer a part of this strange new place, for the most part.

Celebrated cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad published the most lore-accurate Tolkien maps since J.R.R. Tolkien himself in The Atlas of Tolkien's Middle-earth.

Sunk beneath tidal waves, Beleriand left only a chink of its former glory above water. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power alluded ever-so-briefly to the War of Wrath in its very first episode's opening sequence. Galadriel's prologue to the show provided a historical recap of the Elves' fight with Morgoth and showed corpses morbidly floating underwater. This was juxtaposed with clips of other wars, which also seemed to include the Battle of Sudden Flame and the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

What Happened To The Elves After Beleriand Fell

Elves Remained On Middle-Earth

The War of Wrath was a reflection of pioneering writer and war veteran J.R.R. Tolkien's feelings about war, so earth-shattering it ended an age for him and began a new one. With the War of Wrath marking the downfall of Beleriand and the end of the First Age, the Second Age began. The Elves who survived into the Second Age were left to populate the limited remains of Beleriand, scramble into sea-worthy vessels to sail to safety, or escape into the lands to the east. Lots of Noldor chose the western path, heading back toward Aman, with many settling its nearby island of Tol Eressëa.

A section of the Teleri, over various sociopolitical changes, had become a group of Elves known as the Sindar, or Grey-elves. This growing faction of Elves partially migrated east and ed the woodland Elves, with Thranduil a famous example, establishing the realm of Mirkwood. The region to the east of Beleriand was called Ossiriand, which came to house many refugees. Some of the other well-known Elves that survived the War of Wrath and remained in Middle-earth were Gil-galad, Círdan, Elrond, Celeborn, Galadriel, and Celebrimbor.

Lindon Is What Remains Of Beleriand In The Rings Of Power

Lindon Is A Historical Region

Lindon was the only remnant of Beleriand besides a few islands, but it was devastated by the war and renamed in accordance with its reformed landscape. The Blue Mountains ranged north to south to the east of Lindon but had been cut into by the sea during the War of Wrath, dividing Lindon in two. Gil-galad ruled North Lindon, otherwise known as Forlindon. Meanwhile, Círdan led South Lindon, also known as Harlindon. The two sides of Lindon, portrayed in The Rings of Power, were split by a gulf called the Gulf of Lhûn.

Forlindon and Harlindon survive even into the Third Age, in which Peter Jackson's movies are set.

Celebrimbor lived in Lindon for a time before moving eastward and establishing Ost-in-Edhil in Eregion, a location explored extensively in The Rings of Power. Elrond half-elven lived with Gil-galad before conflicts of the Second Age forced him to found Rivendell, which The Rings of Power story also touches. Ultimately, Lindon is a historical location and something of a "UNESCO World Heritage Site" in The Lord of the Rings , providing a glimpse into a once-great region that lives on in stories and traditions. Forlindon and Harlindon survive even into the Third Age, in which Peter Jackson's movies are set.