Yes, I am aware this is a first age map of Arda to scale on a globe instead of a flat plain as per Tolkien legend but that is not the point this post is going to make.
The main purpose is to actually explore the sheer SCALE and DISTANCE between Aman and Beleriand, and to examine the possibilities often overlooked by fans of the hardships of the Noldor during their exile beyond the obvious.
Almost every map and reference I can find displaying the geographical differences between the main cities of the Blessed Realm and Beleriand show a considerable difference between them which begs the immediate question of differing climates, foods and general living conditions.
There is a lot of problems that comes with portraying a large landmass on a ‘flat earth’ in absence of a sun especially when it comes to differing climates of which we do know from Tolkien’s writings were something to have existed. The farther north one would travel, the colder it would become. But it does not logically follow that this would even occur when there is no sun.
So in that regard we can accept there is a lot more going on in a ‘flat sans-sun plain of existence’ than what we know for this situation anyway and come away feeling much less like we have just done battle with illogical.
If there existed differing climates before the years of the sun began (such as the Helcaraxe most notably) then there is no reason why places like Tirion vs. Doriath would have extreme varying climates of which the Noldor had never seen.
Where Tirion and the major cities of Aman lie on this (globed) map places it about in the Northern most region of Brazil if we use our own world as a reference and consider the Girdle of Arda as an equator (which is fair) and the kingdom of Doriath (as a reference) at about the same level as the UK.
That is a massive change in climates, and a massive distance to walk at the very least. How do luminescent tree climates even work? Let’s ignore that for now.
The Noldor adjusting to the different climates must have been brutal at first, Feanor probably took with him as many supplies as he could, but even then dealing with completely new plants, animals (mega fauna if you like to entertain that head canon) and a lack of ALL the technology he had back in Aman was a blow that would have taken years to recuperate from. Them being immortal elves certainly helped but it still would make the pangs of homesickness all the more blatant and their drudgery the more tragic.
Fingolfin’s people having WALKED there over the span of several decades is a phenomenal feat and I am amazed there is not more fandom exploration on this topic than there is; it is an excursion if done today would be someone walking from Brazil, along the coastline up through Central America, North America, across an ice bridge of hell and then finally to the approximate location of somewhere between the UK and Norway. All with equipment that had probably LONG since been used and word to detritus, covered in furs (why do so many people illustrate them as wearing METAL and silk in the Helcaraxe????), weapons made of animal bones and probably at their extreme mental and physical limit it should have been a feat well remarked upon for AGES.
Feanor was crazy, but Fingolfin was in a whole other line of lunacy, was probably a saying heard on several occasions.
valar apologist 