Lake Evendim
Nenuial (W. "Evendim") was a tranquil lake in central Arthedain, known for brilliant optical effects accompanying sunsets on clear days. The lake was sacred to most Dúnedain , and several of Arthedain's noble houses had built their manors on its shores. Nenuial is situated on the edge of a great break in the Arthadan hill country. Emeth Gelin, to the east of the break, boasted rolling chalk hills, covered with sinblas grass and supporting trees only along watercourses. Westward, the Emyn Uial rose hundreds of feet above an esscarpment, its limestone caps anchored by granite. The granite underpinnings were particularly evident along the shores of Nenuial and the west bank of lake's tributary, the River Fornthor. The Fornthor ran along the Felemgil (S. "Crests of the Stars"; W. Star-crest) all the way from the Rammas Formen southward to the lake, providing most of its water. Nenuial itself was sixty miles long below the face of the great scarp, and twenty miles wide from that vaulting shoreline to the relatively shallow King's Bay, on the east. Here the Baranduin left Nenuial through a passage of reeds and cat-tails under the walls of ruined Annuminas. Near the western shore, the lake plunged to depths of almost a thousand feet. Most of its eastern bays were much shallower; their vast reed-beds held the larger share of the lake's life. Abundant trout, pike, salmon, and roughfish provided a steady living for the fishermen of dozens of small villages along the lake shore. Gulls and waterfowl flocked here in large numbers. During the spring and autumn migrations, Nenuial served as a collection point for the birds who summered on the Forodwaith, and during these few weeks of the year ducks, geese, plovers, and cranes swarmed the lake in flocks large and dense enough to shade the sun.
History
The beauty of Nenuial had awed travelers for thousands of years. Ents and wandering Elves had first paused on its shores at the dawn of time. Laiquendi scouts from Ossiriand had camped by its waters early in the First Age. Then, as later, the less rugged eastern shore of the lake was favored for settlement by hunters, small farmers, and fishermen; their view of the new-born sun setting over the blue waters and rugged hills of the western shore gave the lake its name: Nen-Uial, or "Lake Twilight." The Edain who arrived in the area a century or so later translated the Elvish term, and, with time, it became "Lake Evendim," the Westron name.
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