Falls and Gates of Sirion

[Rhiannon]

In this season, Finrod and Turgon visit the Falls and Gates of Sirion after they have their dreams sent by Ulmo. While there likely will not ever be much action here, the falls and gates will be beautiful and impressive locations and, in my opinion, important to include in our "Of Beleriand and Its Realms" season.

The Silmarillion says, "But some twenty leagues east of the gorge of Nargothrond Sirion fell from the north in a mighty fall below the Meres, and then he plunged suddenly underground into great tunnels that the weight of his falling waters delved; and he issued again three leagues southward with great noise and smoke through rocky arches at the foot of the hills which were called the Gates of Sirion."

Here is what they look like on the map.

 

[Haerangil]

Maybe like this?

 

[Rhiannon]

For the falls of Sirion, I imagine it more as a single tall waterfall than a wide array of falls, maybe something more like these:

Angel Falls in Venezuela

Haifoss in Iceland

Skogafoss in Iceland

Yosemite Falls in California

 

[Rhiannon]

Here are a few rivers emerging from natural tunnels, although I could not find anything that seemed to do so "with great noise and smoke."

Etowah River in Georgia, USA

Rakov Škocjan Valley in Slovenia

There are some tunnels that might work a little better. With careful camera angles and some editing, they could be made to look like the river was emerging from underground.

Middle Fork of the American River in California, USA

Longmen Waterfall in China

Of course, it would also be possible to create the Gates of Sirion as a model or with CGI or some combination of both. Here is some fanart I found that depicts the Gates.

 

[Nicholas Palazzo]

Here are a few rivers emerging from natural tunnels, although I could not find anything that seemed to do so "with great noise and smoke."

Etowah River in Georgia, USA

Rakov Škocjan Valley in Slovenia

There are some tunnels that might work a little better. With careful camera angles and some editing, they could be made to look like the river was emerging from underground.

Middle Fork of the American River in California, USA

Longmen Waterfall in China

Of course, it would also be possible to create the Gates of Sirion as a model or with CGI or some combination of both. Here is some fanart I found that depicts the Gates.

The first of the last three looks like a Nasmith, no?

 

[Nicholas Palazzo]

And there's his website in the upper right. Hehe.

 

[MithLuin]

The Canadian Rockies provide some good scenery for this.

Marble Canyon, British Columbia

Johnston Canyon, Banff, Alberta

 

[Kathrin]

I watched the latest silmfilm episode and in reviewing the falls and gates of sirion the hosts had a lot of doubt for the location. I just wanted to drop this picture of the trümmelbachfalls here that I took on a hike this october. there are dozens of extremely narrow gorges in the alps where from most angles you can't see it the river isnt plunging straight from inside the mountain. And even if, the gap only measures a meter or two. that would be pretty easy to cgi, if you only have to cgi a couple of meters square of cliffface. What do you guys think? this is not a very high fall and not that much water, but the general idea?

 

[MithLuin]

How did we miss this?! There is a waterfall in Iceland that emerges from the rocks in this lavafield, very similarly to how Tolkien describes the Gates of Sirion.
Hraunfossar Falls, Iceland