Ered Luin
The Ered Luin (the Blue Mountains), also known as the Ered Lindon, is a mountain range in the west of Eriador. It is home to the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, part of the Kingdom of the Longbeards.
Summary
In the Elder Days, The Ered Luin was one continous mountain range, raised by the Valar in the early days of Arda. It was home to the Broadbeams and Firebeards in their two great cities cities, Nogrod and Belegost. During the calamitous War of Wrath at the close of the First Age, the Ered Luin was split asunder as Beleriand sank beneath the sea, and the Gulf of Lhun formed between the two halves of the mountains. Nogrod and Belegost were ruined and abandoned, most of its folk leaving for Khazad-dum.
Small Dwarven settlements remained, but the Blue Mountains were only recolonised in force after the Sack of Erebor. These new arrivals founded a number of new halls, the greatest of which being Thorin's Halls.
Climate and ecology
The Blue Mountains contain the following ecological zones:
A4 - Scandinavian open vegetation of crustose and foliose lichens
A5 - Scattered vegetation of cushion plants and lichens in the Alps and Pyrenees
B41 - Scandinavian middle alpine complex of windswept heaths, grass heaths and scree vegetation
B44 - Alpine grasslands in the Alps with herbs and lichens on carbonate rocks
C9 - Scandinavian moist birch forests
C16 - Anglo-Irish birch forests
D8 - Scandinavian-east European spruce forests