Places in Middle-earth
Firienfeld
Type: Forests, Fields, Plains
Region: Rohan
Meaning: mountain-field
Location: A grassy meadow high above the Harrowdale valley in the White Mountains; contains the hold of Dunharrow; surrounded by the three peaks of Starkhorn, Írensaga, and Dwimorberg.
Description:
At last the king's company came to a sharp brink, and the climbing road passed into a cutting between walls of rock, and so went up a short slope and out on to a wide upland. The Firienfeld men called it, a green mountain-field of grass and heath, high above the deep-delved courses of the Snowbourn, laid upon the lap of the great mountains behind: the Starkhorn southwards, and northwards the saw-toothed mass of Írensaga, between which there faced the riders, the grim black wall of the Dwimorberg.... Dividing the upland into two there marched a double line of unshaped standing stones that dwindled into the dusk and vanished in the trees. Those who dared to follow that road came soon to the black Dimholt under Dwimorberg....
Merry stared at the lines of marching stones: they were worn and black; some were leaning, some were fallen, some cracked or broken; they looked like rows of old and hungry teeth. He wondered what they could be, and he hoped that the king was not going to follow them into the darkness beyond. Then he saw that there were clusters of tents and booths on either side of the stony way; but these were not set near the trees, and seemed rather to huddle away from them towards the brink of the cliff. The greater number were on the right, where the Firienfeld was wider....
The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 3, The Muster of Rohan
Etymology
[Halifirien] is a modernized spelling for Anglo-Saxon hálig-firgen; similarly Firien-dale for firgen-dæl, Firien Wood for firgen-wudu. [Author's note.] — The g in the Anglo-Saxon word firgen "mountain" came to be pronounced as a modern y.
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: Notes, Note 33
Contributors: Elena Tiriel 22Dec04, 25Jan05
