# Surviving the Destruction of Beleriand



## Cloudhauler (Jun 20, 2018)

There are so many characters that have in their history “after the fall of Beleriand” or “after the destruction of Beleriand” they went here or they went there. But how did the Elves, Men, and Dwarves of Beleriand survive the destruction and escape into the East? Were they all warned by the Valar before the battle? I have to assume many of them died in the great catastrophe but there seems to be no record of anyone dying other than in the actual fighting of the War of Wrath.


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## Elthir (Jun 20, 2018)

The matter of Beleriand's survival is an interesting external ride in general, but very briefly here, there's a manuscript _Tale of Years_ (essentially a fair copy with fuller entries of an earlier pre-Lord of the Rings version), in which Tolkien wrote:

540 'The last free Elves and remnants of the Fathers of Men are driven out of Beleriand and take refuge in the Isle of Balar.

547 The Host of Valar comes up out of the West (...)

550-597 The last war of the Elder Days, and the Great Battle, is begun. In this war Beleriand is broken and destroyed. Morgoth is at last utterly overcome (...) and the last two Silmarils are regained.

597 Maidros and Maglor, last surviving sons of Feanor, seize the Silmarils. (...)

600 The Elves and the Fathers of Men depart from Middle-earth and pass over Sea. (...) ​
In version B however, the coming of the host of the Valar was moved to 545, and the dates of the last war of the Elder Days were changed to 545-587

Unfortunately, due to the complexities of the subsequent versions, it's hard to tell how these specific entries, if indeed abandoned, were going to read in revision. Using "what there is" however, it looks like we have 42 years with respect to the dates for the Last War.

And we also seem to have Elves and Men upon the Isle of Balar before the War.


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