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Places in Middle-earth

Tirion

Type: Cities, Towns, Settlements

Region: Aman

Meaning: Great Watch-tower

Other Names
Watchful City
the Hallowed
Kôr (HoME only; refers to both Túna and Tirion)

Location: A city of the Elves in the cleft of the Calacirya, upon the green hill of Túna.

Description:

Upon the crown of Túna the city of the Elves was built, the white walls and terraces of Tirion; and the highest of the towers of that city was the Tower of Ingwë, Mindon Eldaliéva, whose silver lamp shone far out into the mists of the sea.... In Tirion upon Túna the Vanyar and the Noldor dwelt long in fellowship. And since of all things in Valinor they loved most the White Tree, Yavanna made for them a tree like to a lesser image of Telperion...; Galathilion it was named.... This tree was planted in the courts beneath the Mindon and there flourished....

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 5, Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië

Upon the hill-top the Elves built fair abodes of shining white — of marbles and stones quarried from the Mountains of Valinor that glistened wondrously, silver and gold and a substance of great hardness and white lucency that they contrived of shells melted in the dew of Silpion, 1 and white streets there were bordered with dark trees that wound with graceful turns or climbed with flights of delicate stairs up from the plain of Valinor to topmost Kôr; 1 and all those shining houses clomb each shoulder higher than the others till the house of Inwë 1 was reached that was the upper-most, and had a slender silver tower shooting skyward like a needle, and a white lamp of piercing ray was set therein that shone upon the shadows of the bay, but every window of the city on the hill of Kôr looked out toward the sea.

Fountains there were of great beauty and frailty and roofs and pinnacles of bright glass and amber that was made by Palúrien 1 and Ulmo, and trees stood thick on the white walls and terraces, and their golden fruit shone richly.

The Book of Lost Tales 1, HoME Vol 1, Ch 5, The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr

[The] house of Finwë was in the great square beneath the Mindon....

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 7, Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor

[If the Teleri] wished they could see the light of the Trees, and could tread... the crystal stairs of Tirion....

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 5, Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië

Through the dim ravine of the Calacirya fogs drifted in from the shadowy seas and mantled [Tirion's] towers, and the lamp of the Mindon burned pale in the gloom.

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 9, Of the Flight of the Noldor

Finwë was king in Tirion and Olwë in Alqualondë; but Ingwë was ever held the High King of all the Elves.

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 5, Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië


Notes
1This text is from one of Tolkien's early drafts; the name is an earlier version of the proper name as published in The Silmarillion.

Contributors:
Lyllyn 8Sep03
Elena Tiriel 1Dec05

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