#tolkiening

cant remember the names of which battle or what or in which order they happened or who died when? me neither! here’s a guide:

#1 the first battle of beleriand (YT 1497): 

the players: the sindar of doriath and falas, the green-elves, the dwarves of mt dolmed, the forces of morgoth

results: orcs defeated in the east, the siege of the falathrim cities of eglarest and brithombar, and the creation of the girdle of melian 

deaths: denethor

#2 dagor-nuin-giliath, battle-under-stars (YT 1498): 

the players: the noldor following fëanor, the noldor following fingolfin, the forces of morgoth

results: the orcs besieging the falas move north, the orcs are defeated, balrogs curb-stomp the noldor, the forces of morgoth retreat to angband, fingolfin’s host defeats the remaining orcs in lammoth

deaths: fëanor, argon

#3 dagor aglareb, glorious battle (FA 60): 

the players: the noldor, the forces of morgoth

results: utter defeat of the invading armies of orcs, the 400 year siege of angband

deaths: probably a lot of guys, but no one named

#4 dagor bragollach, battle of sudden flame (FA 455): 

the players: the noldor, the edain, the forces of morgoth

results: morgoth gains control over most of northern beleriand, almost total destruction of the house of bëor, the sons of fëanor are scattered, fingolfin challenges morgoth to a duel

deaths: fingolfin, angrod, aegnor, bregolas of the house of bëor, hador lórindol

#5 nirnaeth arnoediad, battle of unnumbered tears (FA 472):

the players: the union of maedhros (the noldor, the sindar of mithrim, the edain, the dwarves of belegost, some falathrim, beleg and mablung), the forces of morgoth

results: the union of maedhros is betrayed by uldor, who was an agent of morgoth. turgon comes to reinforce the army, but being already outflanked, the noldor were defeated. húrin is taken captive by morgoth

deaths: fingon, huor, azaghâl of belegost, bór the faithful

#6 the war of wrath (FA 545-587):

the players: the valar, the maiar, the vanyar, the edain, eärendil, the eagles, the forces of morgoth

results: destruction of (most of) the balrogs, the death of ancalagon the black, the defeat and banishment of morgoth, beleriand laid to waste and sinks beneath the sea, númenor created and given to the edain

I used to wonder about that myself and a while ago I looked it up. The truth is, maybe unfortunately, something different, but really interesting and it involves not one but two layers of puns:

 Brandywine is actually a very loose translation of the pun. The Hobbits first named the river Branda-nîn, which means border water, because it is, in fact, a border marker, and it sounds like the Sindarin name, Baranduin. But then later they started calling it the Bralda-hîn, which means “heady ale.”

So from there we have Tolkien “translate” it to Brandywine, to preserve the pun being based on a very Hobbit-like alcoholic drink and the sound similarity to the Baranduin, even if it did miss one of the linguistic layers.