Where in Middle-Earth is Beleriand?

[Room 208]

I'm in the process right now of reading The Silmarillion, but i can't find where Beleriand would be in relation to the Lord of the Rings maps. Or, was it destroyed when Numenor was sucked into the sea? Or, are the maps in the Trilogy even remotely accurate to what they ought to be?

The only parallel I could see between the two maps was the Blue Mountains, or, Ered Luin/Lindon.

And, there is so little room in between the sea and the mountains, in the lotr maps, that it appears like Morgoth in all of his grandeur, the elves in all of their grandeur, and the humans had about a 50x300 mile stretch of land to coexist(or maybe even smaller!)

So, where is Beleriand?

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by Room 208
I'm in the process right now of reading The Silmarillion, but i can't find where Beleriand would be in relation to the Lord of the Rings maps. The only parallel I could see between the two maps was the Blue Mountains, or, Ered Luin/Lindon.

It was was destroyed during the War of Wrath when the Valar attacked Morgoth. The Ered Luin are indeed the same, and Lindon is in part of what was Ossiriand in Beleriand. During the actual war the land was brocken up with mutiple fissures appearing and then it somewhat slowly settled into the ocean over a period of time following the war. The little Island off For-Lindon on some of the Middle earth maps was the hill, Himling, where Maedhros had his fortress, ENE of Doriath. Although it is never set down in Tolkien's letters and notes 100% clearly, this destruction was necessary for the defeat of Morgoth, and avoiding this was one of the reasons why the Valar hesitated to attack Morgoth. The Valar in their creation processs for the world (like Sauron making the ring) put bits of their existance and power into their creation, and can draw on that strength later. Melkor/Morrgoth a generalist creator unlike all the other Valar/Maiar who were specialists. When he creates and later strengthens his his strongholds, Uttummo (destroyed in the first war of the Valar against Melkor) and Angband he put part of his magic/self into the construction and into the land around them. Part of his extending his power is putting more of his self into altering the very planet under the areas he controls. To weaken him before assaulting his strongholds, the Valar destroy parts of the Earth that his power is concetrated in, to disperse that power and make it unavailable to him. Thus the area near Angband is chewed up and fissured when they root out his reserves of power stored in the Earth, and then what is left fall apart and slides into the ocean over time after the War of Wrath.

Edit: damn dyslexia!

 

[Room 208]

so are the maps in the lord of the rings books accurate or no?

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

Yes they are accurate, with respect to that, and most other details. Their are only some minor changes from the maps of Middle Earth in the earliest published editions, irrelevant to the story, and I can not remember what they were.
Recall the story of Maedhros at the end of the Silmarillion, where he throws himself into one of the fissures open by the War of Wrath, and the Silmaril he held is lost under Earth.