Formenos

Our resources for understanding the geography of Aman are meagre, and that is doubly true when it comes to the location of Formenos. It is stated to have been northward within Valinor (a fact confirmed by its name, which means 'northern fortress'), but we have little beyond that, other than a selection of references that place it near to the Halls of Mandos.

Tolkien's later work on the Silmarillion texts gives a little more geographical detail, stating that Formenos but was built 'in the hills near to the Halls of Mandos', and that another range of hills, named as the Green Hills, rose farther northward still. These comments - which are to be found in The Later Silmarillion in volume X of The History of Middle-earth - seem to be imply that Fëanor's stronghold was somewhat inland from where the Halls of Mandos, which stood on the shores of the Outer Sea.

Taken together, these comments suggest a location for Formenos that was at least relatively close to that shown on the map here, but its precise position is a matter of unavoidable conjecture.