"GL5" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol04)

to the South is Arvalin; and there is only a narrow strait be-
tween them and the corners of the Middle-earth, but these
straits are filled with ice.
For their further protection the Valar thrust away Middle-
earth at the centre and crowded it eastward, so that it was
bended, and the great sea of the West is very wide in the
middle, the widest of all waters of the Earth. The shape of
the Earth in the East was much like that in the West, save
for the narrowing of the Eastern Sea, and the thrusting of
the land thither. And beyond the Eastern Sea lies the East-
ern Land, of which we know little, and call it the Land of
the Sun; and it has mountains, less great than those of
Valinor, yet very great, which are the Walls of the Sun. By
reason of the falling of the land these mountains cannot be
descried, save by highflying birds, across the seas which di-
vide them from the shores of Midd1e-earth.
And the thrusting aside of the land caused also moun-
tains to appear in four ranges, two in the Northland, and
two in the Southland; and those in the North were the Blue
Mountains in the West side, and the Red Mountains in the
East side; and in the South were the Grey Mountains and
the Ye11ow. But Melko fortified the North and built there
the Northern Towers, which are also called the Iron Moun-
tains, and they look southward. And in the middle land
there were the Mountains of the Wind, for a wind blew
strongly there coming from the East before the Sun; and
Hildorien the land where Men first awoke lay between
these mountains and the Eastern Sea. But Kuivienen where
Orome found the Elves is to the North beside the waters of
Helkar.(7)

But the symmetry of the ancient Earth was changed and
broken in the first Battle of the Gods, when Valinor went
out against Utumno,(8) which was Melko's stronghold, and

Melko was chained. Then the sea of Helkar (which was the
northern lamp) became an inland sea or great lake, but the
sea of Ringil (which was the southern lamp) became a great
sea flowing north-eastward and joining by straits both the
Western and Eastern Seas.
And the Earth was again broken in the second battle,
when Melko was again overthrown, and it has changed ever
in the wearing and passing of many ages.' But the greatest.
change took place, when the First Design was destroyed,
and the Earth was rounded, and severed from Valinor. This
befell in the days of the assault of the Numenoreans upon
the land of the Gods, as is told in the Histories. And since
that time the world has forgotten the things that were be-
fore, and the names and the memory of the lands and wa-
ters of old has perished.