The proto-geography of the Third Age

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Not to forget that in the first draft for the Council of Elrond, Elendil (aka Valandil/Orendil) was referred to as a Numenórean king ruling lands that had formerly been part of Beleriand; so obviously at this time Beleriand was conceived as not quite so completely sunken as it later turned out to be.

Yes- a concept taken apparently from the ending of the Fall of Numenor

"But there remains still a legend of Beleriand: for that land in the west of the old world, although changed and broken, held still in ancient days to the name it had in the days of the Gnomes. And it is said that Amroth was King of Beleriand; and he took counsel with Elrond son of Earendel, and with such of the Elves as remained in the West; and they passed the Mountains and came to inner lands far from the sea, and they assailed the fortress of Thu. And Amroth wrestled with Thu and was slain; but Thu was brought to his knees, and his servants were dispelled; and the people of Beleriand destroyed his dwellings, and drove him forth, and he fled to a dark forest, and hid himself."

So not only was Beleriand at this time, shortly before the LR was begun, considered to have survived if in altered form, but it also had a substantial population, sufficient to generate an army capable of defeating Thu/Sauron.


So at the time Tolkien decided that Nogrod and Belegost were the homes of the Firebeards and Broadbeams, rather than the Longbeards, neither of those houses can have been called Enfeng any more.

Quite so- but the time in question was 1969 or later.