Places in Middle-earth
Type: Rivers & Lakes
Other Names Lune
Location: This river originates in the far northern portion of the Ered Luin (Blue Mountains). It has two unnamed tributaries, one arising further south in the Ered Luin, one that flows west from the Hills of Evendim. The Lhûn flows south to empty into the Gulf of Lhûn and eventually into the Great Sea.
Description: '…many lands sank beneath the waters of the Great Sea. In the east, in Ossiriand, the walls of Ered Luin were broken, and a great gap was made in them towards the south, and a gulf of the sea flowed in. Into that gulf the River Lhûn fell by a new course, and it was called therefore the Gulf of Lhûn.'
The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
The river marked the border of Lindon, and was the line of defence against Sauron during the War of the Elves and Sauron:
'By that time Sauron had mastered all Eriador, save only besieged Imladris, and had reached the line of the River Lhûn. He had summoned more forces which were approaching from the south-east, and were indeed in Enedwaith at the Crossing of Tharbad, which was only lightly held. Gil-galad and the Númenóreans were holding the Lhûn in desperate defence of the Grey Havens, when in the very nick of time the great armament of Tar-Minastir came in; and Sauron's host was heavily defeated and driven back.'
Unfinished Tales, Part 2, Ch IV, The History of Galadriel and Celeborn
Although there is a brief mention of 'the Little Lune', I have been unable to find it marked on a map :
[The Little Lune was first marked on the third and last of my father's general maps of the West of Middle-earth (that on which my original map published with The Lord of the Rings was closely based), but this appears to be the first time that it has been named.]
Peoples of Middle-earth, Part 2, Ch X, Of Dwarves and Men, Note 63
Contributors: Lyllyn 7.25.03