Lhúchir

The longest river of the Northern Waste, the mighty Lhúchir finds its glacial sources at the feet of Mount Gundabad, some five hundred miles southeast of the shores of Sheltered Bay where it surrenders its waters at last to the sea. The Lhúchir gets its name from Dîn Lhûg, the dragon-infested gap which separates the Misty Mountains from the Grey. Few worms of that region range far onto the Talath Uichel, and for this reason the Estiva Talven name for the river, the "Silverwater," bears no relation to the connotations of its Sindarin name, referring instead to its swift, glittering surface.

The cold, deep waters of the Lhúchir divide Lakeland from the Herd Tundra (though the tundra lies on both sides of it). The Lumimiehet camp and make settlement all along both sides of it (the majority on the northern bank), fishing and hunting along the river, as well as using it for transportation. In winter, the river is a mass of grinding ice and deadly, frigid water. In early autumn, before the ice and winter predators pose a serious threat, many Lumimies villages on the southern banks are abandoned, and their inhabitants remove to winter with their neighbors farther north, since it is a simpler matter for fifty villagers to drive a wolf pack away than for ten. The river forms a convenient barrier between the Lumimiehet and the Angmarrim. Even long after the fall of Angmar, the Lumimiehet still keep the practice of moving to the northern banks of the river.