Cameth-Brin
The chief town of the Angle sits on the point
where the Bruinen flows into the Mitheithel. In
the Second Age, the location was contested by
Eriadoran lords and Hillmen until a wall and
stone keep were finally built by Númenórean
adventurers in S.A. 2910. Fennas Drúnin was the
most prosperous town in Rhudaur until the wars
of the Sister Kingdoms began. The great wooden
bridge the Arnorian engineers built over the
Mitheithel is long since burned down. The town
has changed hands repeatedly over the years, being
ruled in turn by Rhudaur, Cardolan, Arthedain, and
by independent lords and renegade mercenaries.
It now sits high above the rivers' normal flood
stages on a mound built of the rubble from the
many times it has been sacked and sieged ruled by a council of nobles purportedly loyal to the crown once more.
The ominous shadow of Cameth Brin (Hi. "Twisted
Hill") looms above the oaks and elms of the Trollshaws
in central Rhudaur. Until the Third Age, few men dared
to come near this dreadful place; many would-be explorers
feared the presence of evil spirits, while others were
scared off by the unnatural appearance of the hill itself,
Cameth Brin rises 830 feet above the only vale in the
Trollshaws that might otherwise be called fair. Its base is
a steep yet natural hill, but from this foundation erupts a
tortured outcropping of naked black granite that leans
impossibly far over the southern face. It looks as if a errant
breeze would send the craggy top tumbling down upon
the town and the valley below. However, the great overhang
of rock has endured earthquake and glacier and many
changes in the world.
Early in the Third Age, the Dúnedain gained mastery
over Cameth Brin after a short but fierce struggle with the
Hillmen who controlled the vale around it and the spirits
who dwelt inside it. They built upon and within the rock
a mighty fortress dominating all the Trollshaws, the heart
of the land that later became the kingdom of Rhudaur.
Cameth Brin lies about eight miles east and south of a
great bend in the River Mitheithel, within sight of the
western border of the Trollshaws. Here, there are two
parallel chains of small hills running east and west, and
between them a pretty valley about a mile and a half across,
the Glin a-Creag. A little ravine runs down the middle of
the vale; the stream at the bottom of it, the Sruth Boghain,
carries but a trickle of water except in the spring and after
heavy rains. A large but gloomy village, Talugdaeri, lies
south of the stream towards the middle of the valley.
Talugdaeri, born after Cameth Brin became a fortress, is
the region's sole civilian community. Directly beneath the
Twisted Hill lies the barracks-community of Tanoth
Brin, constructed by Eldacar in T.A. 339 and perpetually
the intrigue-ridden home of corrupted Dúnadan and
Hillman soldiers, merchants, and camp-followers. To the
north of the fortress lies the Glin a-Rhua, where the
Mitheithel has cut a small valley with a few strips of good
ground and some readily available copper deposits. These
veins of metal attracted Eriadoran miners and Númenórean
explorers in the Second Age, enough of them so the Glin
a-Rhua gave the whole region of Rhudaur its name
(literally "Place of Copper" but the settlements there
were under constant threat from the Trolls and Hillmen
who liked to hunt in these valleys. They never flourished,
and most of the copper nodes ran out. Today, the Glin a-
Rhua is simply a settled place around the river ferry and
one of the roads leading into northern Rhudaur and
Angmar,
Although very pleasant country by the standards of
Rhudaur, the lands around Cameth Brin were long shunned
by the Hillmen, who feared the awesome shadow of the
bent outcropping. Even after the Dúnedain cleansed it of
its ancient evil, few Hillmen would visit the area unless
they had pressing need. At its height, the population was
composed of Dúnadan lords, their servants of Eriadoran
blood, and unfortunate Dunnish serfs who were little
more than slaves. The relatively large proportion of High
Men was the result of Cameth Brin's status as the political
center of Rhudaur. Even after the power of the Dúnedain
waned, and corrupt Hillmen became the masters, the
government and garrison at the Twisted Hill retained
some standards of Dúnadan culture, Elsewhere in central
Rhudaur, the heritage of the High men was forgotten or
discredited.
Cameth Brin lies on the north side of the modest vale
called the Glin a-Creag (Hi., Du.: "Valley of the Rock"),
a grassy trough watered by the Sruth Boghain (Hi, "Ghosts'
Stream"). Due to the valley's good soil and proximity to
the Mitheithel, it has long been one of the choicest living
sites in the Trollshaws. It was only natural for the
Dúnedain to perpetuate the tradition.
Within the Glin a-Creag, there are two spots where
settlements were erected after Eldacar's victory over Mong-
Finn in the second century of the Third Age. On one, the
Dúnedain established the village of Talugdaeri, typical of
the rest of Rhudaur's fortified towns. The other site lies
under the grim shadows of Cameth Brim itself. There
Eldacar commissioned the construction of the barrackssettlement
of Tanoth Brin (Hi. "Beneath the Hill"), a
protected home for the garrison of the Twisted Hill and
the Dagarim Rhudaur, the King's small professional
army. Overrun and all but wiped out in the Cardolani
invasion of T.A. 1217, it has been badly rebuilt and never
completely reoccupicd.
TANOTH BRIN AND THE TWISTED HILL
The barracks-settlement of Tanoth Brin was always a
much smaller village than Talugdaeri, never more than a
home for warriors. It is tucked on a rocky shelf beneath the
overhang of the Twisted Hill. A surrounding ravine was
transformed into a formidable dry moat, and the stone
causeway up from the Glin a-Creag remains the only easy
entry.
The map gives a view approaching the fortress town
across the valley to its south, from the general direction of
Talugdaeri. Respectable merchants operate their shops in
the streets nearest the guard headquarters (#3), while
taverns, brothels, and shops of lesser quality are scattered
through the town. When Cameth Brin was in its prime,
under the first few Dúnadan Kings of Rhudaur, there were
more buildings beyond the moat than inside it, and a line
of smaller villages extended all the way to Talugdaeri.
Most of these settlements were destroyed in the war with
Cardolan in T.A. 1198-1235. Both inside and outside the
wall, there are hiding places for Rhudauran deserters and
Arthadan scouts.
The buildings here fall into ruin after T.A. 1700, since
the end of the Hillman revolt leaves too few people in
Rhudaur to justify the expense of occupying the fortress.
The well-built earth and stone wail encircling the village
stands undisturbed into the Fourth Age.
1. Stone Bridge. The one-arch span crosses the dry moat
at its southwest corner. Redstone quarried from the
Pinnath Tereg is the building material for both town and
bridge.
2. Dry Moat. The ditch surrounds the hill on the west and
south sides. It varies in depth from 30 to 60 feet and is
between 25 and 120 feet wide.
3. Guard Headquarters and Armory. Patrols and onduty
guard units operate from this complex. A small
armory supports emergency needs.
4. South Square. The square serves as the principal intown
drill field.
5. South Watchpost A rock outcrop breaks the flow of
the town's reinforced earth wall. Behind it stands a 60-
foot high stone watch tower. Within the tower, a spiral
stair descends to a passage to the Ureithel.
6. Entry Road. The winding roadway/stair climbs over
200 feet of the Fuintir.
7. Main (South) Gate. Two three-story guard towers and
a covered archer's turret watch the entry way to the
Twisted Hill.
8. Tir-barad Tereg. This 210-foot watchtower was built
in the early Third Age to guard the heights, provide for
seers and stargazers, and signal Arnor's other bastions.
9. Mitheithel. The river lies some miles to the north and
west.
Maps
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Cameth-Brin Regional
Type
City
Characters in Location
Comments