The Sea of Helcar as depicted in David Day’s An Atlas of Tolkien
The Sea of Helcar (also spelled Helkar) was a great inland sea existing during the First Age.[1]
In the beginning of Arda, the Valar created the Two Lamps. Due to Melkor's deceit these were destroyed, and where Helcar, the northern Lamp stood a great inland sea was formed, which was named the Sea of Helcar after the tower on which the northern lamp had stood.
The Awakening of the Elves was at Cuiviénen, a gulf in the Sea of Helcar, and during the Great Journey they passed to the north of it through Wilderland on their way to Beleriand.
After the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, the Sea of Helcar was drained through the Great Gulf and disappeared from existence.
Behind the scenes
Christopher Tolkien and others have speculated that the Sea of Rhûn might "...be identified with the Sea of Helcar, vastly shrunken" (The War of the Jewels, pg. 174). In The Atlas of Middle-earth, Karen Wynn Fonstad assumed that the lands of Mordor, Khand, and Rhûn lay where the Sea of Helcar had been, and that the Sea of Rhûn and Sea of Núrnen were its remnants. In The Peoples of Middle-earth there are references to the Sea of Rhûn existing in the First Age, but no indication of whether it should be equated with the Sea of Helcar.
Translations
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | See van Helkar |
| Albanian | Deti i Helkarut |
| Arabic | بحر هلكار |
| Basque | Helcar itsasoa |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Мора Hелкар |
| Bengali | হেলকার সমুদ্র |
| Bosnian | Helcarsko more |
| Breton | Mor Helcar |
| Catalan | Mar d'Helcar |
| Chinese | 赫爾卡內海 |
| Croatian | Helcarsko more |
| Czech | Helcarské moře |
| Danish | Helkarhavet |
| Esperanto | Maro de Helkar |
| Estonian | Helkari meri |
| Finnish | Helcar meri |
| Frisian | See fan Helcar |
| Galician | Mar de Helcar |
| Hebrew | הלקאר ים |
| Hindi | हेलकार का समुद्र |
| Icelandic | Helcarshaf |
| Indonesian | Laut Helcar |
| Irish Gaelic | Muir Helcar |
| Kannada | ಹೆಲ್ಕಾರ್ ಸಮುದ್ರ |
| Kazakh | Һелкар теңізі (Cyrillic) Helkar teñizi (Latin) |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Hэлкар деңизи |
| Latin | Mare Helcar |
| Latvian | Helkar jūra |
| Lithuanian | Helkaro jūros |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Море на Хелкар |
| Malaysian | Laut Helcar |
| Manx | Mooir Helkar |
| Marathi | हेलकार सागर |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Hелкар тэнгис |
| Norwegian | Helcarhavet |
| Old English | Helcar Mere |
| Polish | Morze Helkar |
| Portuguese | Mar de Helcar |
| Punjabi | ਹੈਲਕਰ ਸਮੁੰਦਰ |
| Romanian | Marea Helcar |
| Russian | Море Хэлкар |
| Scots | Sea o Helcar |
| Scottish Gaelic | Muir Helcar |
| Slovak | More Helcar |
| Slovenian | Helcareško morje |
| Somalian | Badda Helcar |
| Spanish | Mar de Helcar |
| Swahili | Bahari ya Helcar |
| Swedish | Helcarhavet |
| Tajik Cyrillic | Баҳри Ҳелкар |
| Telugu | హెల్కార్ యొక్క సముద్రం |
| Thai | ทะเลเฮลคาร์ |
| Turkish | Helcar Denizi |
| Turkmen | Helcar Deňiz |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Гелкарьке море |
| Uzbek | Ҳелкар денгизи (Cyrillic) Helkar dengizi (Latin) |
| Vietnamese | Biển Helcar |
| Welsh | Môr Helcar |
| Yiddish | ים פון העלקאַר |
| Seas of Arda |
|---|
|
Belegaer | Ekkaia | Helcar | Núrnen | Rhûn | Ringol | Shadowy Seas |
