Before the ruin of Beleriand at the end of the First Age, the sea was narrow and ice-filled in the north, forming the strait of Helcaraxë, the Grinding Ice.
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The Quenya name of Belegaer, never used in published writing, is Alatairë.
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Before the Second Age, Belegaer stretched from the Gap of Ilmen in the far north, where a bridge made of ice known as the Helcaraxë connected Middle-earth and Aman, to the far south, where it also connected with Ilmen and froze.
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The name is Sindarin, and has the elements beleg ("might") and aer or eär ("sea"), the latter also present in the name Eärendil ("sea-lover").
Belegaer |
To the west and south it had a long shore with the Great Sea Belegaer, to the north were the highland regions of Hithlum, Dorthonion and the hills of Himring, to the east the Ered Luin reached nearly to the sea.