Helcar
The Inland Sea in the northeast of Middle-earth, where once stood the mountain of the lamp of Illuin; the mere of Cuiviénen where the first Elves awoke is described as a bay in this sea. 48, 54
The Inland Sea in the northeast of Middle-earth, where once stood the mountain of the lamp of Illuin; the mere of Cuiviénen where the first Elves awoke is described as a bay in this sea.
An inland sea in the distant east of Middle-earth.
The inland sea in the east of ancient Middle-earth, on the eastern shores of which lay Cuiviénen. Oromë led the Elves of the Great Journey around the northern end of this sea as they set out for Valinor.
The only maps to show Helcar are early ones, and they tend to place it rather nearer the centre of the World than to the north. However, the text of The Silmarillion states that '... that sea stood where aforetime the roots of the mountain of Illuin had been...' (Quenta Silmarillion 3), and that Illuin was raised '... near to the north of Middle-earth' ibid 1), so Tolkien's conception seems to have changed over time. Interestingly, though it isn't mentioned in The Silmarillion, there seems to have been a corresponding southern sea, the Sea of Ringil, which was perhaps associated with the roots of Illuin's mate Ormal.